CHAPTER 111 Rachel~ My heart hammers, hearing the echo of his call. I need to get to him. I feel around frantically, looking for some way to him. I focus on his call, on the direction I feel him in, and I find something there. A rope, a thread. I follow it out. I shove through and sit straight up, my eyes blink rapidly from the blinding lights. My hand, it’s held by something disgusting, repulsive. Sean. He turns his gaze on me as I take in the rest of the scene before me. Cold lab tables. An unconscious girl by me. A fire demon bouncing and pushing against some force. Sean chanting something I can’t understand. My insides feel like they’re pulling, something is pulling at me. In two directions. Sean and - the fire creature? I look at the fire and I know. It hits me like a bullet to the chest. “Jake!” I yell. I know it’s him. I can feel him. Can feel something between us. He’s pushing through the barrier but it’s not giving. “Let go of me!” I yell at Sean and yank a

CHAPTER 113 Ally~ Right when I thought this had all been for nothing, we heard a commotion coming from above. “Is it them? Are they here?” Kyle asks me, more panicked than I’d ever seen him. “No, not yet,” I say, registering the warmth of my amulet. It’s not white hot yet, the danger is still on its way. “But they’re close.” The heat keeps rising. Thundering weight shuffles around outside and upstairs. I smile. We’ve done it, they’re getting ready for the attack. Almost twenty minutes go by, and then my amulet scalds me with heat. “It’s them. They’re here now,” I tell Kyle who has been pacing his cell. “Ugh!” he rushes up to the bars between us. “Can’t they let us out? We can help!” I know. I feel the same way. I think about all those in need of some witchy powers. I try not to think about Nick. He’s got to be around here soon. What if he needs me and I’m not there? “Hurry!” we hear from down the way. The person gets closer and I realize it’s Mitchell. He has a

CHAPTER 115 Rachel~ I should have been more afraid when we leapt over rocks and scaled a cliff. But I was so confident in my mate’s abilities, it didn’t even occur to me. His fire cradled me and supported my torso when the movements went wild. We continued to run through forest after forest, and something in me could tell we were getting close. I didn’t have time to question it. His flames cradled my back as we jumped around. I saw the smoke and smelled it soon after, a small gasp escaping my throat as I thought about all those in danger at this moment. We sailed past a wolf. Large, but about half the size of mine, and soon we changed direction slightly. The area here was wooded but much clearer in certain areas, and without having to weave around obstacles, we gained momentum quickly. I could see a huge house, nearly a mansion, up ahead, and it seemed that we were going that way. To my right I could see booms of fire and lightning, hooded figures, and wolves. Dust and sm

CHAPTER 117 Rachel~ This place is crazy. My life is crazy. The aftermath of this battle is crazy. “Rach, are you okay?” Ally asks me, the question lifting me from my spinning mind. “Ah, yeah, I just - ” I look up between her and Kyle. “Does this stuff get any easier?” They look over at what I had been looking at. A makeshift hospital inside the cafeteria space. Groaning men and women scattered around on tables, two doctors and several helpers running around assisting them. “I hope not,” Kyle says. It makes me turn to look at him. “I’ve never seen anything like that out there, and I hope I never have to again,” he says, still looking out there. “If this,” he took a shaky breath, “got easier, I think it would mean losing part of my soul.” We stayed quiet for a long moment. The sounds of doctors’ orders and clinking medical equipment took over the space. “Rach?” I know it’s him before he even speaks. Somehow I do. I turn to look at Jake. He’s exhausted, with an un

CHAPTER 119 Rachel~ So it came to the point that I needed to go home. The thought was surreal. How could I go anywhere else after all of this? How could I go back to my ‘normal’ life after all I had learned? After everything I’d witnessed? It was getting late and while I’d gotten a text from Ally saying she and Kyle had made it home safe, I didn’t know how I was going to get back. Jake had been gone for over half an hour now. I’d been left in one of his rooms, some sort of mini living room deal. Maybe this was once some inner office or receiving room from back in the day. Now it was a room with sparse offerings. Desk, laptop, TV, a couch, one bookcase with some pretty serious sounding historical anthologies, and a big huge window. Outside from here I could see the moon now fully high up, and when movement caught my eyes after so much tranquility, I couldn’t help but pull my knees in and watch intently like it was the finals in some big game. It was Nick and Evan. That I cou