Page 28

The scream tears from my throat as Xeran launches himself at Declan with inhuman speed, shifting in midair so his massive paws land on his uncle’s shoulders, spinning him around and sending him over the side of the cliff.

But before Declan can fall, before he can tumble to his death, he makes sure to grab Nora, pulling her out and over the edge so she starts to drop, a scream ripping from her mouth just like it has from mine.

“Nora!”

Declan and Xeran are silhouetted against the fire-stained sky for just a moment before gravity takes hold, and they follow after Nora, falling straight down like something out of a cartoon.

“Nora!” I scream again, and this time, there’s nothing stopping me from running forward, falling to my knees on the rocky ground. It should be painful, but I feel nothing, even as the warmth of blood rushes forward.

It doesn’t matter.

Nora fell. I know this ridge—I know how far down it goes. I remember looking past my friends years ago, seeing the steep drop, thinking that one of us was going to go over it in the chaos.

My entire world is gone, over the side of this cliff. Silverville.

This can’t be real.

I crawl on my hands and knees, screaming and crying, almost unable to see through the black dots crowding my vision. My skin scrapes painfully along the rock, ripping away and leaving raw, bloody flesh behind, but I don’t care.

I don’t care.

When I reach the edge where the rocky, grassy earth drops away into darkness, I peer over it, tasting blood and the very start of clawing, suffocating grief. There’s the sound of shouting, of claws on stone, but I can’t see anything through the smoke and shadows.

Futilely, I scream into the void, more a curse than a hope, “ Nora !”

Then somehow, a voice returns to me, small and desperate. Reaching.

“Mom!”

It’s a spark in my chest, like the first time I felt magic inside my body. I can hear the Sorels fighting behind me—Kalen and Dallas, Farris and Soren—but I don’t have time or energy to think about it.

Because I see her.

Nora hangs in the air five feet below me, suspended by shimmering threads of magic that I can see—either from the smoke or from the intensity of the energy. It dances around her like living light, like the glowing algae I’ve seen in videos.

As though the gods themselves decided to reach down and save my daughter from this fate, from falling down the side of the cliff.

I anchor myself on the edge of it and reach for her, calling her name again and again, even though she’s looking at me and reaching for me, too. Her face is pale, and I realize with a start that the magic isn’t coming from the gods.

It’s coming from my daughter.

Her small hands glow with power. A power I didn’t know she had. Through her sheer force of will, she defies gravity. But I can see that her power is fading, the magic beginning to flicker and fade.

Nora is only ten years old, and she’s doing magic I never could have dreamed of at that age. She’s a product of Xeran and me, and I should have known to expect this. Strong genes and stronger willpower.

“Reach for me!” I scream, tears leaking from my face as I strive toward her, feeling at any moment like I could tumble right off this cliff. There’s no magic left within me, but if I need it, I will find it.

I’ll reach right into my soul and take the energy from that.

I may not save myself, but I am going to save my daughter.

When her power wanes and she starts to sink down, I throw myself forward, grabbing her wrist as her power gives out.

The sudden weight threatens to pull me over the edge, but Felix and Lachlan appear at my sides, grabbing me and hauling Nora and me up over the ledge.

She’s okay. She’s alive. I hold her to me and bury my nose in her hair, sucking in the scent of her—now stronger and smelling of her father, too.

“I’m sorry,” she sobs in a rare moment of sounding her age. She clings to me, and I hug her back hard.

“Don’t apologize, baby,” I say, pressing my lips to the top of her head. I don’t know what she’s saying sorry for—whether it’s for using magic or for the fight we had before she was taken—but none of that matters now. All that matters is that she’s safe. That I have her.

As I catch my breath, scooting away from the edge with my daughter in my arms, I hear growling, the heavy sound of bodies against the ground. Soren and Kalen are shifted and crouched, snarling at Dallas, Farris, and Tanner’s wolves.

With Nora and me safe, Lachlan and Felix turn back, shifting the balance of the fight, putting the Sorel boys at a disadvantage.

And, seeming to realize their position, they slowly begin to back toward the trees. Cowards.

Now that their uncle has gone over the edge, they’re tucking tail and running.

Their uncle, and their brother .

Fear races through my heart again, and I’m pushing Nora down, telling her to stay put.

In all the chaos, I haven’t been able to fully process everything. Xeran and Declan went over the side of the ridge—and it would make sense to assume them dead.

But I heard scraping when I was reaching for Nora, the sound of something clinging to the cliff face.

I make it to the edge before the others, and when a great gust of wind moves through, pushing away some of the black smoke, and I see him.

There, hanging from a twisted pine tree just two feet down from the edge, is Xeran, his powerful frame cutting a strong image against the cliff face. He saved my daughter. Our daughter. Somehow, Xeran knew exactly what she would do.

Looking at him now, even with the magical strain and the panic of the moment, I realize something.

I’m in love with him—everything about him. And it doesn’t matter to me that I’m not his mate. I’ll fight any other woman who dares to try and take him from me.

“Xeran.” I waste no time in lying on my stomach, reaching my hand out toward him. When he looks up at me, his dark eyes finding mine, it sends a feeling both warm and searing through me. It’s ridiculous in this context, but I want him. “ Xeran , take my hand—”

Not reaching for me, he asks, “Is Nora—?”

“She’s fine,” I say, scooting toward the edge again, stretching my shaking hand out to him. “Please, Xeran, take my—”

“Watch out.” Lachlan and Soren are at my sides, kneeling down. Felix tries to pull me back, and when I turn my head, I see Kalen with my daughter, a hand on her back.

“We’ll get him, Seraphina,” Soren says to me, and I relent as he pushes me back from the ledge, his hands firm but gentle, like he’s herding a scared cat. Soren and Lachlan reach down, but before Xeran can grab their outstretched hands, another voice cuts through the air, high-pitched. Terrified.

Just below his nephew, Declan clings to a narrow outcropping, his fingers white with the strain of holding onto the rock. There’s blood smeared on his face, and I feel some satisfaction in knowing Xeran got a good shot at him.

Normally, I’m a forgiving person. But that man tried to throw my daughter over a cliff—he deserves to hang here until he eventually plummets to his death, a victim of his own weakness.

“Help me!” Declan’s voice is desperate, strangled, all sense of bravado gone. “Declan—I’m going to—I’m slipping !”

I stare down at this man who has disregarded so many lives in starting these fires. And yet, now that it’s his life on the line, his body slipping toward death, he’s aware of the consequences.

He’s daring to ask for help .

“Please,” he adds when Xeran doesn’t move from his spot, looking down at his uncle with disdain. “ Please ,” Declan says. “Help me, and I’ll give you whatever you want. All those acres—yours. The alpha supreme position. I’ll give it all up. Please! Just don’t let me fall!”

“Xeran, man,” Soren urges. “Grab my hand. Leave him.”

“Come on,” Lachlan says, pushing out forward. All Xeran has to do is swing one of his hands up, and he’ll be safe. But for a long moment, he doesn’t move, just hangs there and stares at his uncle as Declan starts to slip.

The older man starts to whimper as he slips and scrabbled, readjusting and trying to regain his hold on the rocks.

This man threatened my daughter. Participated in kidnapping me. Offered me up like a piece of property. Terrorized us and sold our town out for profit. Took any number of lives with the fires he intentionally started.

He deserves whatever waits for him in the darkness below.

But, just like I knew he would, Xeran moves, taking one of his hands off the tree and shifting his body to offer it to Declan.

“Take it,” Xeran orders, his voice carrying the authority of an alpha. “Swear on your life that you’ll step down. Peacefully.”

“I swear,” Declan practically sobs, reaching up, his fingers closing around Xeran’s wrist. “On my own blood. On the pack bond.”

Xeran hauls Declan up, his grip never wavering as he helps him get a grip on the tree. Kalen and Felix reach down, hauling Xeran up, but when they move to grab Declan, Xeran shakes his head.

“Just me,” he says, getting down on his stomach and reaching for his uncle, who reaches up and takes Xeran’s arm, letting his nephew pull him up over the side.

I retreat as he does, moving back to my daughter, who lets out a low whine when she sees Declan crumple to the ground, pushing with his heels to get away from the edge.

“Seraphina,” Xeran says, walking toward me, and when I look up at him, I decide I don’t mind the sound of him using my full name. His dark eyes are leveled on me, his concern evident. It makes something in my heart spark, something in my stomach turn over. “Are you hurt?”

“We’re fine,” I say, running a hand over Nora’s head, then putting a hand on my knee and shakily getting to my feet. “Are you—”

But I don’t finish my sentence because at that moment, something comes hurtling at Xeran from behind, hitting him with full force.

I scream his name, but it’s too late.

Declan has shifted into his shining black wolf, and he’s pinning his exhausted, human nephew to the rocky ground, his teeth bared just over his throat.