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“A vision of whatever the hell you want,” she snaps.

“I don’t know any vision spells. I can only remember a few spells that my mother implanted in my brain,” I remind her. “But none of them have anything to do with visions.”

“You’re a spell caster,” she says. “You don’t have to remember spells. You create them.”

She’d explained it to me; spells can be used by other people, but they can only be created by spell casters. Like me. Supposedly. Personally, I’m beginning to doubt it. Maybe not everything my mother implanted in my mind was true.

“Show me how it’s done,” I suggest. “Show me a vision.”

For a minute I don’t think she’s going to do it—and she saysI’mnot trying—but then she shrugs and closes her eyes for a moment, then speaks softly, like a chant:

“Selene’s temple, sacred, divine, in your light let it shine.”

The air between us shimmers and wavers, and I can see the temple of Selene. I gasp. It’s not as I remember, the statue no longer stands tall and proud but has been toppled and lies in broken pieces in front of the altar. And men are camping all around it. Men with dark hair and tribal tattoos. The place has been desecrated, and anger builds inside me.

Then the vision fades. Tears spill from Hecate’s eyes, and she dashes them away with her hand. I’m sorry I asked now.

She takes a deep breath. “Your turn. Open your mind and the words will come.”

“Okay. I’ll try.”

I close my eyes—because that’s what Hecate did—then I think about what I want to know, which is just about everything. Then I try and open my mind. But I’m really not sure how that works. Finally, I let it go blank, and I concentrate on my breathing. In and out and the words float up from the nothingness of my brain.

“By the light of moon and star, show me things both near and far.”

I open my eyes and see the familiar shimmer of magic. For a moment I almost squeal with glee. I fucking did it. Then the haze clears, and I see Zayne. Dread wells up inside me. He’s fighting back-to-back with Thanouq. Both are bloodied and they’re surrounded by shadowguard and men in armor. Bodies lie around them. But there are so many…

Khaosti jumps to his feet and comes to stand beside me. “Why don’t they shift?” he murmurs.

He’s right. They could just shift and fly away. Why don’t they?

“Dark magic,” Hecate says, and I can hear the sadness in her voice.

“Come on, we have to go help,” I say. “They can’t be that far away. They only left an hour ago.” And it looks like they must have been fighting for a while. There’s a chance we can reach them. “Find Therion, get a patrol out there,” I say to Hecate.

“You can’t go,” she says. “You’re too important. You cannot risk your life for them.”

I glare at her. “Want to bet?”

I turn to look at Khaosti. I half expect him to try and stop me. But he just says, “Let’s go.”

And we head out at a run. Hecate shouts behind us, “Amber, no.”

We both ignore her. And as soon as we are out of the building, we both shift. I stay on the ground because I don’t want to leave Khaosti behind, but we are moving so fast that the world around us is a blur. Luckily, everyone gets out of our way and within minutes, we are racing beneath the main gate and out of the city. A sense of urgency pushes me on. All I can see is Zayne’s blood-stained face. He’s so young, he can’t die. And I brought him into this. If I hadn’t been in his life, he’d still be on Earth, up to no good and having fun. I kill everyone I care for.

I won’t let it happen.

The track down the mountain will take too long and without thought, I spread my wings and leap into the air. I hear Khaosti howl behind me, but urgency keeps me going. I know where they were heading this morning, and I fly due east into the sun. I see them within minutes. Black specks on the green grass only a couple of miles from the city. I swoop down.

Some of the fear leaves me as I spot them both still on their feet and fighting hard. But they must sense me. As Zayne glances up, distracted, a sword slices into his thigh, and he goes down on one knee. I scream with rage as I plunge to the ground. I hit hard and skid to a halt.

Then some force takes hold of me, I toss my head and scream but it’s too strong to fight, and suddenly I’m back in my human body and unarmed in the middle of a battle with no sword and no armor.

“Shit.”

I try to shift back, but nothing happens. I have a brief memory of Hecate mentioning dark magic, but it’s too late to do me any good. I’m under its spell.

The air is filled with the stench of blood and the clamor of swords. On the ground, I can’t see Thanouq or Zayne—they’re completely surrounded. I glance around, find a fallen warrior,and pry the sword from his dead hand before heading toward the middle of the fight. They’re turning to face me.