Page 6

“Can you?”

“Can I what?”

“Save yourself. I watched him take down several immortal men twice your size. You’re small and hurt?—”

“You know nothing of the atrocities I’vesurvived or the horrors I’ve escaped. Size means little when one is cunning and determined.”

“Exactly! So why would you dismiss me when I’m offering you help?”

“Because you’ll only slow me down?—”

As she dropped to a crouch, Adriel’s words cut off with a gasp. A blast shook the forest floor, rattling the trees and propelling sleeping birds to flight.

“What is that?” Juniper gripped the trunk of a tree for balance as the earth quaked and roots rattled free of the soil, tipping trees into each other and sending creatures scurrying for shelter.

He was shaking her out. “Thatis what you claim you can protect me from.” More trees fell as another boom shook the forest floor.

Adriel had no guarantee she could outrun Cerberus or even cause him to flinch in combat, but she was certain such an enemy was well beyond the plebe’s abilities. The girl might be a witch, but she was young and untrained, still in the infancy of her shadow work. And while Adriel had never killed a living thing in her life, some primal part of her knew she would kill Cerberus if it came down to her survival or his.

“You will die if you stay with me,” Adriel shouted over the quaking rumble.

“You will die if I leave!”

Trees crashed to the soil as branches rained like meteors. Adriel clung to a vibrating trunk astremors rolled like waves under the earth’s mantle.

“Juniper—that is your name, yes?” Adriel shouted, and the witch nodded. “It is not a matter of want. Do you see how powerful he is? No one can help me now. You must leave this place?—”

They fell to their knees and gasped as another earthquake tore through the trees. A chasm ripped across the forest floor, loosening soil and sending them crawling for shelter, but nothing was stable.

Juniper grabbed Adriel’s shoulders and instinctively pulled her closer for protection. Adriel flashed her fangs as the invisible threat roared closer.

Juniper screamed as another blast rolled through the black woods, making it impossible to rise from their knees. Soil danced at the earth’s surface, then the ground cracked, and they scurried back from the opening.

Beetles rushed up from the coniferous debris. Branches whooshed and heavy trees collapsed into the earth forming a cage around them, the gnarled roots turning skyward as the force of the thunderous rattle left them clutching for unsteady balance.

Then everything stilled. No, not everything. Just the earth beneath them and the air around them, as if they were in a bubble of safety protecting them from the cataclysmic chaos assaulting the forest.

Breathless whispers hissed from Juniper’slips. The foreign incantation seemed to still the ground at their feet while the world shook violently around them. The witch held her palms outward as her eyes stayed shut, and she cast some sort of protection spell that formed an invisible forcefield around them.

Adriel screamed when another tree fell, coming directly toward them. The trunk crashed into the invisible shelter overhead, deflecting the heavy branches and protecting them. Her shocked stare darted back to the witch.

“That is a great power, indeed.”

The witch kept whispering words but met her gaze as if to say she was aware.

Adriel rose to her full height on unsteady legs, her knees locking and her footing solid as the forest shook around them. She bolted forward only to fall to her knees when she left the witch’s proximity. Looking back, she found Juniper standing at her full height, balance perfectly intact despite the chaos ripping through the forest.

The witch’s chin lifted, still bruised from where she’d worn the metal muzzle for so long. A smug grin curved her lips, the quakes no longer impacting her balance. “The protection spell stays with me.” Her isolated tranquility displayed incredible influence over the elements. “As I said, I have powers that can protect you.”

CHAPTER 2

The witch offered the only shelter that could protect Adriel at the moment. Weak from injuries and the effort of blocking her mind from Cerberus, she frantically tried to reason her way past this nightmare, but there was no escaping his powers or the opportunity for escape in front of her.

Desperation mingled with panic as she looked at Juniper. “Can I trust you?” It was a foolish question that would only broker a false sense of security.

“Let’s not start on a lie. You don’t trust anyone.”

Directness was as close to honesty as they would come in a rush. A hurricane raged around them, lifting debris and whipping through the trees. The witch closed the distance, sheltering Adriel in the protection of her spell.