“I love the boot knives!” she yelled over the racket of blades and screams.

Bodies piled up on the ground, falling one after the other. These were all poorly-trained weaklings, and they had no chance against them.

“Back inside,” Eirikr yelled, his voice carrying in the blood-clogged air.

He took Chloe’s hand and leaped over the fire with her.

Rather than question his judgement again, Mikar followed, Diana by his side.

Once they were safe inside of Oldcrest, Eirikr said, “Someone called for reinforcements. They’re coming this way.”

“We could have taken them,” Chloe stated, matter-of-fact.

Eirikr grinned proudly at her. “Yes, daughter. Or we could take whoever’s left on the south border now.”

He wasn’t just good at strategy; Eirikr was good at keeping people alive. They attacked their enemies in small isolated groups, thinning the herd without using up too much strength. Mikar wasn’t sneaky enough to have thought of any of these moves: the fire, the territory hopping games. He wasn’t keeping count, but they must have dispatched hundreds, if not thousands of enemies in just a few minutes.

The last time they jumped over the flames, everyone turned to Eirikr, but he remained where he stood, wiping his blade on his stained sweats.

“What now?”

He tilted his chin toward the main road—the only road—leading out of Oldcrest. “They’re done waiting. They’ll come at us from here, and through the woods.” Probably because the rest of the territory was on fire. “The wolves will slow them down.”

Mikar looked into Diana’s dark eyes. He remembered foolishly thinking he’d lock his mate up somewhere, like Rapunzel’s witch. This was so much better. Someone who could be here with him. Even if this was the end.

He extended his hand, and silently, she took it.

The wall crumbled in shimmery specks of golden magic that faded in the wind. With a battle cry, thousands and thousands of vampires raced toward their small gathering.

In the distance, thunder growled. Magic wrapped all around them, electrifying the air.

Then, the first wave hit.

Mikar’s blows were mindless, aimless. He hacked up flesh, anything in front of him, acting on pure instinct. He could hardly see anything. All around, there was chaos.

The one thing he remained conscious of was Diana. She never got too far, still protecting his blind spots, like he guarded hers.

Mikar’s first wound hurt, but after a while, he stopped feeling them. Cuts on his arms, legs, stabbings, and teeth grazing his limbs were just proof he was still alive. Wave after wave of vampires came at them, their sheer numbers making it impossible to take the slightest moment of rest. He heard a tormenting cry and saw Chloe’s attacker shove a serrated blade inside her flank. The man was dead before he hit the ground, cut in two. In the blur, Mikar didn’t know whether it had been Levi or Eirikr eliminating the threat. Maybe both. He didn’t have the time to pay attention. The hit wasn’t fatal, that was all that mattered.

“We’re disposing of the rabble!” Eirikr yelled over the ring of blades and screams. “We need to find Aveka!”

But there was no leaving this place, no escaping the incessant stream of vampires charging at them from all fronts. The largest bolt of lightning Mikar had ever seen parted the sky and struck the mass of bodies rushing at them, allowing for a split second of respite as charred vampires flew back and hit the ground. Though he was nowhere to be seen, that was clearly Seth's doing.

Eirikr bit down on his arm and handed it to Chloe, who drank from him without hesitation. "The hill," he said. “There are spells brewing. I feel it. She’ll be there. Go."

She looked at the line of enemies, stepping over their dead brethren to reach them.

Eirikr repeated, "Go. Now." She nodded and ran north, fast as a shadow.

Mikar inspected Diana's wounds, most shallow, save for a nasty bite to the shoulder. "Can you move your arm?"

She rolled her shoulder. "Hurts like a bitch, but it's healing. I'm good. You?"

He couldn't even feel pain, his adrenaline clouding anything that would impede his chances of survival. Mikar just had time to nod before the battle resumed.

The Queen’s Spell

Chloe had never questioned Eirikr, and since the very beginning, he’d never led her astray. For all that, each step propelling her further and further from her mate, her friends, her family, felt wrong. But if he was right, if his daughter was on the hill, she could end this, once and for all.

There was no wondering why he hadn’t gone himself. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—bring himself to kill Aveka. Nor should he have to. That was Chloe’s job.

“Bill!”

The troll was lying on the ground, immobile. Several arrows poked out of his chest, and thick green blood trailed down the open wounds.

Chloe didn’t have time to stop, not for anyone. She did anyway. She moved to the gentle giant, who’d been so very kind and welcoming to her, tears in her eyes. Her fingers brushed his wrinkled forehead.

She sighed, relief flooding through her like a drug. She could feel a breath, shallow and slow. He wasn’t dead, just drugged and out for the count, by the looks of it.

Like a flash, she was gone, rushing uphill. On her flight, she noticed figures standing around almost each of the houses—the Stormhales’, the Helsings’, Levi’s. Eirikr had been spot on again: they were up to something. She would have liked to drag Bill to safety first, but every moment she dwelled was a moment during which her friends could die.

As she reached the open gates of Skyhall, her race slowed to a stop.

In the marble entry hall, between both of the grand staircases, Aveka stood.

And she wasn’t alone.

Diana took a punch to the nose with a wince, to grab the dickhead’s arm and rip it off. She was beyond niceties, beyond civilization. Covered in blood, sweat, grime, and by the smell of it, piss, she’d given control over to her beast. The beast each vampire, each supernatural creature, had buried deep inside them. A creature made of simple wants and needs. Survival. Food.

And him.

Her beast was aware of each of her friends, seeing them as part of her clan. That awareness extended into a protective streak. She’d help them if she could; her own safety was a priority. Not the first priority, though.

No, that was Mikar. Not her brother, not her friends. Him. Her beast was entirely consumed by a simple need: Mikar’s safety. Because if he was gone, then she would be too.

Oh, hell.

She’d deal with the implications later. She had bodies to dismember.

A kick at the back of her head made her vision blur, and her fangs bite through her lower lips, piercing them. For a split second, she lost balance, lost control. A loss that meant death, during a battle. Feeling a threat close in on her, ready to claim her life, she closed her eyes.

Maybe there wouldn’t be a later.

A howl rang in the distance, followed by a deep, low growl. She felt a motion above her as she fell forward.

Rolling onto her back, Diana saw a blur of fur and fangs rush above her, colliding with the approaching redheaded vampire and taking her down. The wolf’s massive mouth closed in around the redhead’s throat and ripped it out. She knew Avani and Alexius in their wolf forms. The large black beast with yellow eyes was neither of them.

As she got to her feet, dozens of wolves rushed from the woods into the open plain, joining the fight.

She breathed out.

This unexpected help was far from evening the numbers out, but they were just as fast and as ruthless as any of their people. The outsiders could only enter through a small gap at the border; the rest of the territory’s fire had extended for miles, engulfing most of Oldcrest. Which was a problem for another time. The wolves divided their attention. Diana was stunned as her analytic mind took over.

They had a chance. They could truly hope to win—or at least, survive until dawn. The shadows were growing shorter, the light of the moon decreasing over the lake.

They just had to survive a little longer.

She resumed her position at Mikar’s back.

They had this.

Chloe wanted to scream. She wanted to kneel over and beg. She wanted to lunge at the monster standing in her home, but she did none of that.

Aveka stool, lovely as always, surrounded by four vampires. She only knew one: treacherous Anika Beaufort, beautiful as always, in fighting gear. Two, a man and a woman, felt like ancients, but there was a boy seated at her feet, who looked like he couldn’t be much older than fifteen. While he didn’t have the presence of an old powerful vampire, he felt wilder, and his silver eyes were hollow, empty, dead.

Chloe ignored them all. All she could see was Ruby. Ruby, her dirty gray-white dress stained red, and open in two across her midriff. She’d been slashed, and someone had carved out her insides. She was dead. Long past dead. The smell of her corpse was making Chloe feel sick.

Almost as sick as the sight of Greer at their enemy’s mercy.

Chloe walked into the hall, her eyes purposely fixed on Aveka Primerius. Not on Greer, lying on the floor, passed out. And certainly not on Ruby. What was left of Ruby.

Aveka’s hands were stained red up to the elbows. She must have mutilated Ruby herself, rather than letting her minions do the dirty work.

She must have liked it.

She couldn’t see how, outmanned and outnumbered, but Chloe was going to destroy her, if it was the last thing she did.

“Don’t look at me like that. I take no pleasure in digging around a corpse, trust me,” Aveka said pleasantly. “It was necessary for the spell.”

Which spell? But Aveka wanted her to ask, so Chloe didn’t. “Did you have to make a mess on the floor?” she asked, blithely. “Think about the poor cleaning crew.”

Aveka chuckled like a delighted child. “You’re funny. I knew you’d be funny, Chloe. Why, otherwise, would you even think you can stand against me?”

Aveka was the picture of confidence and arrogance. And she was right to be. She had millions of followers ready to die for her.