23. Elara

"No!" Elara whispers the words, her heart a painful throb in her chest. Kade can't die. She was never supposed to fulfill this prophecy without him.

Stepping away from Kira and Laith, she says it again. With force.

With promise.

"No."

Her hands form claws as they rise, bringing the power of the earth beneath her feet with it. Vines shoot from the ground, thickening and sprouting lush leaves. They whip around Chad's back legs, coiling impossibly fast up and around his torso. They reach his neck and squeeze.

Chad roars when he realizes he's been captured by an impossibility, becoming a writhing, thrashing mass. A twitch of her wrist and Devil's yanked off Kade. He lies on the ground, bloody but breathing.

Chad twists, then shifts back to human. He slips down as the vines lose their hold, a much smaller body now tangled in their thick coils. He throws Elara a glare full of promise, communicating his deadly intent.

She's next.

Elara's vaguely conscious that the wolves and shifters have stopped fighting, but she doesn't allow it to break her concentration. She clamps one hand into a fist.

The vines constrict around Chad's lower half.

Then tightens her other hand.

The vines become a noose around Chad's waist, torso, then throat.

Power flows through Elara and she lifts her arms, raising Chad a foot higher. His struggles are becoming weaker. His shout is cut off as oxygen no longer reaches his lungs. His face goes from florid red to ghostly white.

There's a shout and then the sounds of feet and hooves and wings. The shifters are retreating. They know their leader is seconds away from death. Or maybe because they just realized what Arthurian powers can do.

"No!"

The denial is a hoarse scream. Ebony, her skin blackened and cracked, leaps toward her brother. Her hand grabs hold of his foot then clamps around it.

And they both disappear.

Elara blinks, trying to understand what just happened. She watched Ebony die. Chad was about to follow her.

And now they're both gone. And still very much alive.

She turns to look at the others, hoping they'll be able to make sense of the sudden turn of events. Instead of answers, she finds faces full of confusion and horror.

Kade runs to her, grabs her, and presses a fierce kiss against her forehead. She clutches his biceps, feeling his strength. Cherishing his heat.

He draws back, his lips now in a thin line. "Do you know what you've done?" he whispers fiercely.

She draws in a sharp breath, the frowns. "You mean saved your life?" And possibly everyone else's. Chad wouldn't have stopped at her and Kade.

Kade doesn't need to answer. The shocked silence, a stark contrast to the sound of battle only moments ago, does it for him. Elara turns slowly, once more registering the wide eyes and uneasy glances.

Denzel warned her the Shadowgrace pack wouldn't accept her if they knew the truth.

And she just displayed her power in all its glory. She shifted at will. She wielded magic.

She's far more than any of them are.

"You"re like that witch they had?" one of the pack members says, pointing at her with a trembling finger. "You"re a proper witch, not a wolf. More shifter than were."

Hisses and growls ripple through the pack. Denzel crosses his arms, his face inscrutable.

Kade steps forward protectively. "She"s the same as me."

As if not to be outdone, Laith joins them too. "You came here to save me. I"m the same too."

It should serve to make the pack feel less wary, instead, the tenseness multiplies. Everyone's uneasy, and Denzel's staring intently at Elara specifically. No one warned the wolves about this. It wasn't part of the plan.

Denzel spins, pinning his fury on Kade. "You"re the one at fault," he accuses loudly. "If you hadn"t experimented on yourself, the shifters never would have gone to this extent. You started this by turning Elara."

Kade lifts his chin. "It was fated," he says, his voice strong and sure. "The wolves never would've stood a chance against the shifters. Not unless we made ourselves stronger."

Denzel snarls, his wolf dangerously close to the surface. A cold feeling crawls up Elara's spine. They just avoided a war, yet a battle is still festering. And she's caught in the middle. She's part of Shadowgrace.

She's undeniably connected to Kade.

There's a rustle of leaves, and Dinah strides into the clearing. She glances at Kade, then Denzel, and rolls her eyes. "We don't have time for this, boys." She points to the center. "Noticed anything missing?"

Elara had completely forgotten what brought her here in the first place. She glances over, registering the Excalibur replica is gone. "The sword," she gasps.

The shifters must have taken it.

"The shifters have it," Dinah confirms. "Chad is going to use it to resurrect Samara."

"Except it's a replica," Elara points out. "It won't work."

The shadow that passes over Dinah's face has Elara's stomach clenching. "I performed a tracking spell. And discovered they had a backup plan." She circles around the area that was almost a bloodbath.

Elara shifts her weight, not liking the sound of that.

"Ebony"s got a hold of a new power source, a talisman that belonged to an ancient goddess named Hecate."

"Goddess?" Elara suppresses the urge to rub her temples. Wasn"t she just wondering whether every supernatural being she's heard of in stories must be real? Which one is going to come for her next?

"Yes," Dinah confirms. "Without Laith, they'll use it to rip open the dimension between us and Purgatory. It'll allow Samara to escape, along with every spirit that's immediately around the nexus of ley lines that run below the city."

Denzel draws in a sharp breath. The wolves of Shadowgrace growl uneasily. Kade moves closer to Elara. It's only then that she registers he's naked. Warmth infuses her veins. Warmth she shouldn't be feeling right now.

"Exactly," Dinah says flatly, even though no one spoke. "We do not want every spirit from the other side pouring into this world."

Elara wraps her arms around herself. Who knows what kind of things are on the other side, waiting. A chill still runs down her spine. The shifters would have an army of undead monsters.

"I don't believe you," Denzel spits, glaring at Dinah. "The shifters have a replica of Excalibur. There's nothing they can do." He takes a step back. "We will not be part of this war you're orchestrating so your mother can be resurrected."

Dinah bares her teeth. "My mother is evil. I will never align with her again."

"You expect us to believe that?" Denzel demands. He turns away, his pack obediently following him. "We will not be part of your disgusting plan. We will not aid the shifters in resurrecting Samara."

He shifts into the strong, dark wolf he is and the rest of Shadowgrace follow suit. With a ripple of growls, they run from the clearing.

This time, it's a shudder that rips through Elara. They just lost any show of strength they had. Kade's arm slips around her shoulders and she instinctively leans into him. His bare skin is the comfort she needs right now. The reminder that hope exists.

That they can win this, somehow.

"What do we do?" she whispers.

"We stop them," Kade says grimly.