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The light spilling from the open castle doors got brighter and brighter the closer I got.Just a few more yards. Almost there!

Vicious snarls sounded behind me, claws scraping against the stones frighteningly close.

Please, let me make it!

I hurled myself over the last few steps across the perimeter I’d made, then frantically scrambled for the sage braid beneath the rock. They were getting closer. Any second, they’d reach me.

“Flamare!” I screamed at the end of the sage gripped in my hand.

It caught fire in a blaze of flames, and at this point, I didn’t care if the whole thing incinerated because its smoke was all I needed.

I waved it in front of me, the thick, dark gray cloud it emitted blocking out the charging figures of the wolves only a few feet from me.

“Parum nir alte tunak!” I cried.

The final section of the ward snapped into place, a pulse of energy radiating outward and blowing my hair back as the ephemeral wall flashed with every color of the rainbow for an instant before vanishing from sight.

The next second, the wolves leapt right at me, making me trip backward and fall hard on my ass. But they smacked into the invisible barrier with pained yelps, crumpling to the ground only inches from my feet.

The larger one rose back on its haunches, shaking its head and snarling at me.

“What is this?” Jax’s voice, though much deeper and more grisly.

“A ward,” I said shakily, staring at him with wide, horrified eyes. “I-it will only permit those I invite to cross it.”

The smaller wolf cocked its head at me as it stood up, narrowing its eyes at me as if I’d physically wounded it.

“Why would you do that?” Tannin asked in a wolfish whimper.

I hesitantly climbed to my feet, and though my legs wobbled with the exertion of my sprint, I stood tall and held my head high.

“I heard you both this morning,” I declared. “You’ve been lying to me ever since the moment we met.”

Tannin’s ears folded downward guiltily as he turned his head away.

Jax growled in frustration. “Then you know what’s coming. Our pack will soon be here, and we’re the only ones who can protect you from them.”

I shook my head firmly. “The ward will protect me from them. Let your pack have my village, but they will never have my castle.”

“That ward will not protect you for long,” he insisted. “They’ll find a way in eventually. Please, let us fucking help you!”

“Aliya, listen to us,” Tannin pleaded. “We swear on our mate bond, on everything we are, that we won’t let them hurt you. We’ll reason with them. But you must cooperate. They will view this barrier as a declaration of war, and we won’t be able to protect you from their wrath once that happens.”

Their words had doubt festering inside me. Could their pack really break the ward? Were Jax and Tannin being sincere, and even if they were, would their pack listen to them?

Seeing the desperation in their eyes tugged on my heart, the bond urging me to let them in, to hold them and reassure them that everything was okay.

But I’d made my decision, and I refused to go back on it now.

A raspy snarl rattled behind me, and my breathing halted as a shiver of deepest dread ran up my spine.

Slowly, I looked over my shoulder.

Not one buttwohideous, ash-gray monsters were prowling slowly toward me from the ballroom.

Cusith.

“Aliya!” Jax roared as one of them charged at me.