57
Savannah
Fear and rage poured through me. Dragan’s evil delight, his arrogant confidence, the way he’d toyed and tormented me for weeks on end—I’d had enough.
“Fuck you,” I growled as I tried to push myself up. My left arm exploded with pain, and I crumpled while the bastard laughed.
Let me take part of that load, Wolfie said. Suddenly, some of the agony drained away, and my thoughts cleared.
Thank you.
Just make this count,she whined, and I could hear the suffering in her voice. She’d taken on my pain.
Shakily, I rose and pressed my right hand against the wall. I felt the toxic strength of Dragan’s magic, and it made my skin crawl.
The flames around him lowered as the runes across the roof took on a brighter glow. “The Dark God commanded that I perform a ritual for him, and he promised he would deliver the sacrifice. Well, here you are. I will offer him you and your pet alpha, and all the archmages and prisoners in this place!”
He raised his arms and voice to the sky. “I have prepared your altar, great one! A sacrifice unlike any before.”
Altar? I looked around at the rune-inscribed top of the prison. Oh, shit, the whole damn thing was going to be his altar.
Horror chilled my veins. The Order’s top people were entering the prison now, and I was pretty sure the place was about to go up like a nuclear bomb.
Do something, Savy!
I summoned my Soul Knife and pressed the point against the invisible wall, hoping that somehow, we could break through. I felt my wolf’s power pour into me like heat and ice, but my blade didn’t budge.
I could feel Dragan pushing back with his mind, repelling my own power. He laughed, a low, thunderous sound coming from the body of the Crusher. “You think you have the strength to stop me? My cultists have charged me with the power of their souls. You are nothing.”
He raised his arms, and the runes that had formed over the top of the building leapt into pillars of green fire. A green glow formed in the sky above, and a radiant, twisting funnel cloud began to rapidly form.
My blood grew ice cold. A sorcery-infused tornado was about to drill down into the prison and rip it and its occupants apart. Hundreds of inmates, as well as the agents and archmages, all sacrificed on the altar of the Dark God.
Jaxson.
My will surged, and I screamed and threw myself into the wall. Dragan’s vile magic lanced through me, and it felt like pushing through the barrier would rip apart my soul.
And then it did.
Pain beyond imagination cascaded through me, and I staggered back as the shadow of a wolf leapt from my chest and through the barrier. My wolf.
How was that even possible?
She hurtled forward, dodged the blazing runes like land mines, and tore into Dragan.
My shadow wolf was as fast as the wind. She struck and was gone, leaving red trails across his pale white skin.
He bellowed in rage as she tore into his calf. He swung his massive fist, but like a stream of smoke, she vanished and reappeared, then brutally attacked again.
The invisible barrier in front of me flickered, and I felt its magic weaken as his concentration broke.
I charged forward and rammed my blade into the wall, pushing all my magic into it.
Black shadows streamed off me, and frost formed on my skin, but a green crack split the air in front of me. With a concussion I felt more than heard, Dragan’s magic shattered.
I was through the barrier in an instant and charging across the minefield of runes.
The twister above us had formed to a point, like a glowing green dagger plunging toward the roof.
Dragan had lost control of his form as well as the barrier, and his arms and head and chest shifted at random, from man to wolf to man again. The giant brute stumbled and twisted as he tried to incinerate my wolf with bursts of green flame.
I lunged forward, but he spun at the last second. His backhand slammed into me like a steam shovel and flipped me into the air.
I crashed down onto the roof, and my knife ricocheted from my hand and vanished into smoke. Unable to hold in the pain, I gasped and arched my spine.
And then Dragan was on top of me.