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“No weapons, only my natural form,” she promised.

A cold gust of wind blew through the clearing, bringing with it a flurry of snow. The icy drops hit my face and bare hands, and an enormous shiver passed through me. As it had been blown out like a candle, the flame in my hand flickered and died. I tried to flex my fingers and found them stiff and throbbing with cold.

Fuck.

I still hated this idea, but now it seemed I had no choice. If I was lucky, she was trained similarly to Scion. He was deadly with magic, but even he would admit he had never properly learned to use a sword. Maybe Cassinda would be like that. Too dependent on magic to realize how poor she was at fighting.

“Fine,” I replied quickly. “No magic.”

She smiled widely at me like she’d already won the crown. “It’s a bargain.”

I reached again for my knife and held it out in front of me. Only then, I looked directly into Cassinda’s face. Her smile seemed to be growing wider. Her mouth stretched her teeth multiplying and her face elongated faster and faster.

I stumbled back, my heart pounding out of control. Oh shit.

Right in front of me Cassinda disappeared and in her place stood an enormous, shaggy, brown bear.

30

LONNIE

THE FOREST, NEVERMORE

Ishadow walked.

I didn't care at all that it was breaking the rules, or about the bargain I’d just made. I was staring into the angry eyes of a two-thousand pound monster, and I wasn’t going to just stand there and let her eat me.

She charged forward toward me, but I was already falling backwards into the shadows. The last thing I saw of her was her huge jaws opening wide, before I spun through darkness and reemerged on the road where Ambrose and I had first seen Cassinda.

I fell to the ground, panting.

What the fuck was that?

I wracked my brain, trying to remember if anyone had mentioned that Cassinda could turn into a giant fucking bear. I was sure they hadn’t, and that seemed like the kind of thing I might remember. So what was going on? Was it simply part of her illusion ability?

Somehow, I didn’t think it was.

Cassinda had said something about her “true form” and foolishly I hadn’t thought to read into it.

This, too, explained why she made me think of Bael. She had an animal lurking behind her eyes, clawing at her to be let out.

I shivered, and this time it was only half due to the cold.

Getting to my feet again, I looked around. Behind me was more dark forest, and beyond that was the beach where the sirens were undoubtedly waiting to lure me into the ocean. To either side the road stretched out of sight, but right in front of me was a smooth hill, covered in snow.

I bolted toward it.

The snow was deep, and for once I was glad of it. My boots sank in up to the ankles, then as I walked further I sank to my knees, then my thighs. My body began to shiver so violently, I could barely move my feet. Still, I kept going.

I reached the bottom of the hill, where it began to slope sharply upward, and stopped. In front of me was a wall of white.

I put my hands out and was unsurprised to find that I was unable to conjure any flames. Gritting my teeth, I rubbed my hands together vigorously, trying to get some blood flow back into the tips of my fingers.

It hurt, and I bit back a pathetic sob as I continued to shake out my frozen hands, jumping up and down for all the good it might do.

Finally, I felt my hands begin to thaw.

I conjured a small burst of dancing orange flames, and thrust my hands out in front of me toward the wall of snow.