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“No one touches our mate,” I say quietly in his ear, and I absolutely mean it. I will kill anyone who puts their hands on her without her permission. Past, present, or future.

I draw the blade across his throat, splitting it open for blood to spray out. His rapidly beating heart is allowing the blood to flow quicker from his open neck. I bend him forward so that the blood starts to turn the water red. I want to bring the creature to the surface so we can see him take Bertolf under.

I sense a disturbance in the water, just as I see a shadow come up from the bottom. He smells the blood in the water. Just before he reaches the surface, I shove Bertolf forward into the water. He starts thrashing but is quickly dragged under when the creature gets a hold of him. We don’t know much about the creature, but he comes in handy to get rid of people who are deserving of death. We feed him the evil, and he remains unnoticed at the bottom of the lake. I’d like to think that he understands that we will continue feeding him the evil that we want to rid the world of. Zypher and Morwen should be in this lake right now, but it would have caused problems if they disappeared. It is only a matter of time before they become a problem again.

Chapter Ten

Lilith

Wepullintothedriveway, and I jump out of the car. I am excited to get back to the library. Leli seems just as excited when she gets out. Kael grabs her bags and sets them inside before we walk to the library.

“Has anyone ever taught you how to shift?” she asks.

“Ah, yes. Someone I grew up with was supposed to teach me but never got the chance,” I say.

“Witches can shift into foxes,” she says to Kael, and he laughs.

“You shut up,” I laugh at Kael. “This started with Kael being a dick. I was trying not to out myself, so they kept telling me to shift if I was a fox shifter. I really could have all along?”

“Oh yeah. That’s how witches have blended so well. You were in an orphanage, so it makes sense why you were never taught,” she says. “If you are going to be in the public eye, you need to be able to shift.”

“You are going to be a very small fox,” Kael says.

“Is that a short joke?” I ask with a deadpan expression.

“He’s right, though. Female foxes average five foot four. You are what… Five even?”

“Four foot ten,” I laugh. “The guys are around six foot seven.”

“It’s a good thing you’re a witch,” she laughs.

“They’ve had fox shifter maidens,” I remind her.

“Yeah, but I highly doubt they’ve fucked any of them shifted,” she says.

“We haven’t,” Kael says as we walk through the dark. “But we will.”

“You think,” I laugh. It’s dark as hell out here.

“I could light the woods up with a nice red glow,” Kael says with a grin. I shake my head at him and extend my arms with my palms up.

“Lumina,” I say. A ball of light starts to form, and I roll it in my hands to brighten it while forming it.

“That’s so cool,” Kael remarks.

“That’s a decently high-level spell. Especially to do it flawlessly like that.”

“That rose that the little boy gave me, by the time we got to the car, it looked like it was just picked,” I say.

“It wasn’t like that when he gave it to you. It was wilted,” Kael says.

“I know. I think it was something with my magia. I’m not sure. I didn’t do anything to it,” I say.

“You are just coming into more power. You are a high witch,” she says. “What else can you do?”

“I’m really good at healing myself,” I say.

“She’s good at electrocuting people,” Kael says.