Page 107 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal

“Her master has been dead for over six months.”

The chill bumps covering my arms crept inside my body.“That can’t be right.”

“Get away from her, Kennedy!”he ordered.

I moved toward the coven.

“Kennedy?”

“Are you sure?”I asked.The burned lines of the pentagon began to glow, as if the salt and fire that had scarred them were sparking back to life.

“We captured one of the wolves who attacked at your apartment.We’re sure.”It sounded like he was talking with his teeth clenched.His eyes were probably full gold.He was in protector mode, but I couldn’t just walk away.I had to give Canyon the nulled token at dawn.

Ifthe spell worked.If it didn’t… Well, if Blake was right, I needed to be close enough to grab it before Melissa had a chance.

Frowning, I eased closer to the circle.If Melissa was a villain, she could have stolen the token in the car.Had Garion’s curse deterred her?Was she after something else?

My questions would have to be answered later.Each member of the coven held out their right hands, thirteen vials of witch glass centered on their palms like an offering.The liquid inside, my blood and Astrid’s plus whatever else the spell required, brightened with the same orange and red glow as the scorched earth pentagon.

When I was a few short steps away from the coven’s circle, I whispered into my phone.“We’re about a mile northwest of the end of Harper Creek Road.I’ll call you when I’m away.”

I hung up before Blake had a chance to ask questions or make more demands.The coven was too focused on their magic to have heard my words.Melissa?I didn’t know if she’d picked them up, but I felt her watching me watching the token.

Less than a minute until midnight.My body went taut, waiting for a surge of powerful magic.I counted the seconds, not knowing exactly how many were left.The magic grew, humming through the air and reaching for the token and the coven.

As one, the coven closed their fists around the glass.

The first eruption came from Astrid—bright blue sparks jetting from between her fingers.Camille was next.Then the man who stood beside her.One by one, the magic flared and leaped from witch to witch, faster with each link, until it completed the circle and slammed back into Astrid.

Blue flames roared into the sky.Twisted and beautiful, they split like lightning, arching through the night until they collided over the pentagon.A thick, single bolt of lightning rocketed down.It hit the token.Then it lashed outward, warping the atmosphere as it split into thirteen too-bright tendrils that struck each witch in the chest.

They flew backward.

The tendrils disconnected, then re-formed into one.That single bolt spiraled around the former circle, faster and faster until it found an outlet.

Until it found me.

Pain rent through my body, white-hot and absolute.My blood became fire.My knees buckled.My world tilted, and then it just… switched off.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Theworldcamebackin pieces—damp grass beneath my cheek, the smell of scorched copper in my lungs, a dark light swirling behind my eyes.Voices drifted to me, low and urgent, but the words slid through my fogged brain before I could catch them.

Something important was happening.Something I needed to understand.I pushed one palm against the ground, testing my strength.My arm trembled but held.

I put my other hand down.Opened my eyes.

My stomach lurched at the blurred bodies sprawled across the clearing.Panic hooked its claws into my chest, and the scene wavered, overlaid by another.I wasn’t in a field with Astrid’s coven.I was with Lehr, with his pack, and we were surrounded by Shelli’s slaughtered coven.I could feel the knife in my hand, could see Shelli’s hatred-filled eyes.I could hear her singsongI know something you don’t know.

No.

I blinked hard, then forced myself to look closer, to anchor myself here.There were no slashed-open bodies.No blood.

I focused on the closest witch, saw his chest rise and fall.Alive.

My next breath came easier.The magic had blasted through all of us, knocking us off our feet.Knocking us unconscious.

Not all of us,a voice reminded me.