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But now I pictured love. Wholeness. Completion. I pictured my vryscral healthy and running towards me, rubbing her big, green, scaly head against my side and trilling happily.

A pleasant feeling flooded my veins, and soon a warm, white light began to glow from the palms of my hands. I concentrated on moving that light into my Wasabi, imagining it stopping the bleeding and healing the damage the silver arrow had made internally.

Wasabi’s skin began to slowly knit itself together beneath my touch, and her breathing deepened.

“It’s working,” I whispered, my voice raspy. “Archer… look!”

He kissed me on the cheek. “I can see. You’re magnificent,Marlowe.”

“The best,” Nolan confirmed.

I didn’t have a second to spare as a guttural scream erupted from the direction of the front gate.

Marlowe! He released those rabid alphas!

“Cam!” I gasped. Not only was he no match for the Berserkers, but if he was busy dealing with them, that meant Ezra was on his own against the king. I had to hurry over there, but there were dozens of soldiers blocking the path.

Archer took the bloody rag from my hands. “Go, Marlowe, I’ve got Wasabi. Kian, Nolan—clear her way!”

The vampyr and the shifter looked at each other and then back to Archer, followed by Kian’s cheeky smile and sarcastic salute. “Yes, alpha!”

Nolan helped me to my feet and then shifted with a snarl, leaping over Wasabi and through the shield that still protected me, tearing down the closest fae by his neck.

Kian ran ahead, using his darkened wisps like a mass of writhing tentacles, grabbing and strangling any and all oncoming threats.

Meanwhile I ran. Thank God for adrenaline, because for the first time in my life, I had the energy I needed to propel my legs to move and my lungs to breathe without collapsing into a gasping mess.

Maybe Archer had been right about me going jogging more often, but it was too late for “coulda, woulda, shouldas.”

I jumped over debris, side stepped bodies, and bounded straight for the gate. By the sound of snarls and screams, it didn’t sound like things were going our way, and I dreaded the scene I would arrive onto.

My mind flooded with images of Cam torn to bits, of Ezra’s body bent to unnatural angles…

Focus!I screamed internally. I couldn’t think about that now, I just needed to hurry.

Thighs pumping, lungs heaving, I continued to sprint my way through the haven, ignoring the moans of the guards and shifters alike who lay on the ground. I couldn’t stop for anything.

I’m coming, just hold on!

I screamed as a guard leapt at me from behind a small shed, but Nolan’s jaws wrapped around his bicep, tearing him down before he could even touch me.

Hurry, hurry, hurry.

A whole row of soldiers descended upon us, until the ground shook and a wave of alpha shifters stormed through the line, cutting down foe after foe, fae after fae. Nolan joined the fray, and with a wave of his arm, Kian placed another shield around me, making sure an errant shifter couldn’t knock me off course.

“We’ll cover you from this side!” he yelled.

I didn’t even have time to acknowledge him as I skidded through, my blood freezing as I took in the scene in front of me.

Cam was managing to hold his own for the moment despite the deep cuts along his chest, while Ezra writhed on the ground, his face contorted in pain. Blood trickled from his eyes, ears, and mouth as Alaroth stood over him, his hands outstretched.

“What use do I have for an insubordinate dog?” he sneered, sending another wave of torment through him. His body, laying prone on the ground, stilled.

“Stop!” I yelled, my fists balled and shaking at my sides. My chest heaved from the exertion it had taken to get here, but my gaze was deadly calm.

The king stilled, turning around slowly to face me. “Ah, my beloved. Come to watch me destroy your brother? I’ll move on to your alphas next, if the Berserkers don’t take care of them first.”

Before I could form another bow and arrow, he appeared right in front of me, his hand snapping out and grabbing me around the neck.