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“There’s no time for that. Come on. We have to get to Adriel!”

The earthquake could not touch them under such an acute protection spell, and the destruction left a trail of obstacles for them to climb. They were making progress until everything stilled. Not just the area she protected, but the ground beyond her spell.

“It stopped. Why did it stop?”

In the eerie stillness, the woods whispered secrets of their own, as if mourning the violence that had shattered their tranquility there. It wasn’t just destruction. Death lingered in the air.

Holes and dens were buried. Nests had plummeted to the earth. And worst of all, Juniper knew he was far from finished.

“It’s the calm before the storm.”

Dane looked at the cliff above. “You have to send me up there. It’s the only way!”

“Are you crazy?”

“He has Adriel! One of us needs to stop him before he goes too far.”

“Fine!” She panicked. “But what if you can’t?” She glanced at his injured arm as it hung limp at his side. “You’re hurt?—”

“Do it. And as soon as I’m up there, you climbas fast as possible. I’ll do whatever I can to slow him down.”

It was an insane plan but the best option. “Fuck!” She raked her hands through her soaked hair.

“Now, Juniper! We can’t wait any longer!”

With unsteady hands, she pushed him upward. Moonlight illuminated the landscape but once Dane disappeared over the bluff, she was blind and alone, clueless to what they faced above.

Breath punched out of her as she climbed over the upturned roots and navigated the ransacked woods in the pitch dark. Sinkholes pocked the soil, leaving it soft and unstable. She had to constantly keep her grip on the trees as she moved.

She tripped and fell into a tree, scraping her face on a branch. But a potent spark flooded her arm when her hand pressed into the bark. She gasped, reminded of the extreme power trapped in nature.

Her fear made sense, but her apprehension did not. Nature was a witch’s most sacred place. This was her turf. She didn’t understand where this crippling anxiety came from.

Then she realized. “He’s fucking with me.” She scowled upward, unsure how he was doing it.

“You motherfucker.” Clamping her hands on the tree trunk, she siphoned all the power her body could hold and sent a jolt of don’t-fuck-with-me energy outward. The force of the transfer, nearly ripped her open, but she was done being bullied by ancient blood-sucking fucks.

She gritted her teeth and pushed back when she felt resistance, refusing to let him win. “Get out of my head, you bastard!”

Like a dog shaking off an infestation of fleas, sharp resistance bit into her, but she somehow broke free of his hold. The moment she pushed him out of her head, her anxiety calmed, and she could think clearly again.

Her brain was bathed in a rush of solutions she couldn’t see seconds ago, and she ran for the top of the gorge. Drawing analgizrune in the air for protection, she whispered an incantation that called forth the magick of her ancestors and used it to the power of the minerals throughout the land underfoot. She found balance above the earth and her breath calmed as the energy of the water moved her, each hasty step guided by the wisdom of the trees.

Her need to get to Adriel drove her like the moon pulled the tides. The moment she hauled herself over the ledge, landing flat on her belly, she scented blood.

A dark shadow speared her with fear. “Dane!” She scrambled to his side, panic once again knifing through her as he lay unmoving, his eyes closed. She shook him roughly. “Dane, wake up.”

He groaned and rolled to his back, his bloody face twisting in pain. “Save Ade.”

Sucking back a sob, she traced the shape ofthealgizrune on his brow and ran toward the trees. A horrific scream cleaved through the air, sharp enough to cut the night in two.

Juniper scented her blood but couldn’t find her. “Adriel?”

“Juniper, run!”

She spun and her blood turned to ice. Cerberus’s claws were embedded in Adriel’s body as he jerked her about like a ragdoll and she screamed in pain, her claws scraping down his face as she tried to wrestle him off.

Red filled his eyes, and his fangs were not that of a normal immortal’s. They were long and curved, resembling the bite of a python.