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“You know the answer to that too. You know what I want.”

“The magic,” she said. “But you should know that you’re not getting it. I won’t let you.”

As if on cue, Cohen broke through the line of trees. His wolf’s hair was raised around his neck, his growl low and dangerous. If her father didn’t care about killing, then Cohen didn’t care what he had to do to defend and protect Alana and the town.

“You think you can stop me?” her father chuckled dryly.

“Of course, I can beat you. You’re not as powerful as me, remember? You want my powers because I am so damn powerful. Well, guess what. These powers are not yours to take. Do you hear me? The magic and I belong to Half Moon Key.”

Acting on pure instinct, Alana knelt on the forest floor and dug her fingers into the ground, dirt pushing its way under her nails. She didn’t have a spell for this. All she had was her desire to protect her town, her man, and herself. She wanted to protect the future she longed to have with Cohen.

Apparently, that hope was powerful enough.

The ground began to shake again, but this time, the massive boulders quivered. The glow seeped out of her father’s face and back through the thick stony fissures. Seeing this, Alana struck again, this time asking the wind to help her.

It snapped by, nearly flattening her along with the force of the gale, but she was ready for it. Her father, however, was not. He stumbled forward and lost his footing, nosediving off the rock formation. Alana screamed in surprise, scared she had accidentally killed her father. He might not be a man she had ever met, but she didn’t want to be a killer.

Thankfully, she didn’t have much more time to think. Cohen leaped into her line of sight and jumped onto her father, pinning the man to the ground. The wolf’s flight broke the stranger’s fall, but there was still the terrible sound of something heavy landing with force. The air turned colder, and there was a sickening sound as the wolf’s jowls closed around the pinned man’s arm. The stranger shouted and tried to remove himself from the animal’s proximity, but Cohen was much stronger.

“Call off your dog,” the man screamed.

“He isn’t my dog. He’s my boyfriend. And do you really think he is going to let you go after what you’ve done?”

“I haven’t done shit,” the man argued. “What have I had the time to do? Make a dent in your town’s powers?”

“Why did you even come here? You must have known that I would defend my powers with everything I have. You had to know it wouldn’t be that easy.”

The man snickered. “I never would’ve come for the magic if the spell wasn’t so weak. I thought I might as well try my hand at defeating you.”

Alana narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Call. Him. Off.” Blood gushed from the bite, and the man shouted in pain.

With a sigh, Alana nodded to Cohen. The wolf immediately eased back, but Cohen snapped his teeth at the thief in silent warning. It was only when her father thought he was free that Alana struck. She whispered under her breath, and the air around them obeyed, pushing him into the rocks, imprisoning him. His resulting smirk was bone-chilling.

“Cohen, you need to make sure he was alone. I don’t like that look he is giving me. I think he has something up his sleeve. He wouldn’t have taken this shot if he didn’t have a backup.”

Cohen’s wolf inclined his head, and he was soon gone through the forest. His speed was impressive, and Alana hoped that meant he wouldn’t be gone too long.

“Well, at least you’re not as dumb as I thought you would be.” Her father laughed through winces of pain.

Alana snickered. “You don’t know me. You never met me, so how dare you call medumb?”

“Because your mother was easy to fool. Having a child with a witch from the Wixx line was entirely too easy.”

“Sure, having the child was easy, but keeping her was a bit harder, wasn’t it? Because I am a grown woman, and I never laid eyes on you before. That tells me a couple things.”

“Enlighten me.”

“You’re not as good as you think you are,” she answered. “That’s the first thing. The second?” Alana laughed because she couldn’t help but feel giddy that she could fight for her town, for her future.

“You think you can control people because you can easily scare people. That’s all smoke and mirrors. It’s not real magic. Makes me wonder if you have any kind of power at all.”

Her estranged father’s face turned beet red, trying to stand straight and hold out his hands toward her despite the fact that one of his arms was clearly injured. Blood gushed out from the wounds inflicted by Cohen’s sharp teeth. He yelled incantation after incantation at her, but none worked. Whatever magic he tried sputtered out before it could cause harm.

Alana was just about to cast magic of her own when the very loud roar of an animal ripped through the air, sending birds scampering up into the clouds. There was a terrible commotion, and she blinked a few times as she tried to focus on what she was seeing.

It didn’t make sense.