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There was a bear in the clearing. A very large, very angry bear.

There were two terrible things about this. One, there were no brown bears in Half Moon Key. Only grizzlies. And the second? The bear was in a violent battle with a wolf.Herwolf. Her head snapped toward her father, aiming her fingers at him in a silent threat of magic. “Call that bear off. Now.”

Her father ... Matthew, she suddenly recalled, thanks to the help of her magic ... shook his head. “I don’t think so. This levels the playing field a little bit. Now that your wolf is in trouble stop siphoning away the magic.” He held out his hand to her, wiggling his fingers expectantly. “Give me the magic. You’re gonna let me take it all, and then you will let me leave with it.”

“Not. Happening,” she said through gritted teeth.

Alana took a deep breath to settle herself, but she didn’t want to close her eyes, refusing to give Matthew the upper hand. It was never a good idea to close your eyes when facing another witch. That was basically turning your back to an armed murderer, daring them to destroy you.

The ground under her feet started to quiver, and the green glow became so bright that Alana could barely see the bear and wolf fighting. Through the cloudy green haze of the magic lifting from the rocks and hovering all around the clearing, she saw Cohen jab at the bear with his front paws over and over again.

It was obvious that both shifters were skilled fighters, and though it would have been easy to assume that the bear had the upper hand because he was bigger, that would have been a serious miscalculation because Cohen had speed. The bear was not swift enough, slowed by his massive size.

“I don’t know,” Alana said through gritted teeth. As she spoke to her father, she chanted a protective spell in her head. It was difficult to do, but she held fast. Alana kept her breath steady and calm through the searing pain that began at the base of her skull.

Doing this kind of magic and not being completely focused wasn’t advisable, but this was a fight for Half Moon Key. Alana would do what she needed.

Taking her father completely by surprise, she uttered another protective spell in her mind. He blew backward, crashing against the rocks. He cried out in pain when his body landed on the ground. He didn’t move for a little while, and when he did, it was obvious that the tumble wasn’t the only thing hurting him.

The protective spell she was weaving into the town was working. It was affecting Matthew, and judging by the bear’s pained roars, it was affecting Cohen’s opponent too. Alana couldn’t see her man anymore, but she could sense what he was up to. He was using jowls and paws and every other part of his body as part of his arsenal.

Alana took another deep breath and held it.Mom, Nana, come to me now. Tell me the spell. Speak the incantation, and help me save Half Moon Key and Cohen from Matthew.

The ground shook again, but this time, it continuously rumbled. Trees fell in the woods, sending the wildlife farther into the hills. The rocks ... the fissures still glowing green ... glowed brighter than ever. The green flashed with blue and red mixing in. Alana had never seen such a shade before, but she knew why it was happening.

The magic was working. She was siphoning her magic back into the spell, but there was more going into it now.

The blue hues were no doubt the ghosts of her mother and grandmother, and the red was very much the manifestation of love. Not just the love Alana had for her family and for the town she called home but also the love she had for Cohen.

The love Cohen had for her too.

She let the love settle in her heart, and through the haze, she locked eyes with Cohen, who had pinned a now unconscious bear to the forest ground. Her wolf inclined his head once, and she returned the gesture.

“Matthew, you are no father of mine. You are banished from Half Moon Key. Forever.” She shouted the last word, aiming her hands up to the sky.

The early morning sky was no longer cloudless and blue.

It was stormy and so full of clouds, so heavy with gray and black, that it could have easily been late evening. Alana continued to repeat the banishment, weaving it with the spell that would lock her Wixx magic into the very fabric of the town.

“You’ll pay for this,” Matthew shouted. He continued to throw verbal abuse her way, but she didn’t hear any of it.

The magic spat Matthew and his bear out of Half Moon Key just as the cracks in the stone vanished as if they had never been there.

Alana collapsed into the long grass, laughing to herself. “I did it, Mom. I did it.” She closed her eyes and let the magic of the town ... her magic ... wrap itself around her.

“Alana?” Cohen knelt beside her, naked as the day he was born. “Are you okay?”

She blinked at him, her laughter dying down. She launched herself into his arms, and he held her tightly. “You’re naked and covered in blood, and I’m not even sure if it’s yours or the bear’s.”

“It doesn’t matter, love. It doesn’t even matter. I’ll be healed in no time.”

She buried her nose against his skin and held on tightly. “Cohen, thanks for fighting by my side.”

“I’d love to take credit for this, but I can’t. All I did was make sure the bear couldn’t hurt you on your father’s command.”

“Don’t pretend you only had a supporting role in this fight. It was a whole lot more than that.”

He kissed the top of her head before tipping her head to his to steal a few quick kisses. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” he admitted. “But I wasn’t the one doing magic.”