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I feel her pain in my heart, heightened by our hive mind. The only reason we are indestructible is because we have already been destroyed.

We may be able to withstand horrible physical pain, and even death, but the screams and terror and whimpers of the beings we need to avenge will live forever in our memories, haunting us.

My sisters’ voices sound within my mind, a soft, mournful statement. There is no peace for us.

If only I could give them peace.

If only I could find a home for them, and me, where there were no wrongs to right.

I inhale a deep breath and pull myself back to the problem at hand. “A serpent shifter named Vanguard stands at the right hand of this entity.”

“Yes, that is true,” says Sable, a dark light entering her eyes that matches the blackness of her hair. “While we have been unable to target the entity himself, we have certainly not hesitated to deal with his followers as fully as we can.”

“The serpent shifter has evaded us,” Rose grumbles. “He has proven to be as slippery as his animal’s nature.”

“What does he look like? How will I identify him?”

They describe to me a man with dark brown hair and a scar running down the left side of his face. They also tell me that he carries a katana sword similar to Hunter’s.

“A Valkyrie General’s sword?” I ask warily since I’m aware that Hunter’s sword was passed down from her ancestor, a Valkyrie warrior by the name of General Glass.

My sisters quickly shake their heads.

“We heard whispers that he cheated it out of the possession of one of the dragon masters in Japan,” Gilder says. “It is a dangerous and ancient sword, but it did not originate from the Valkyrie.”

“Dragon masters?” I ask, since this is the first I’ve heard of them. Which is not surprising, since many supernatural populations exist in secrecy, and it’s only since joining my sisters that I’ve learned of the existence of some of them.

“The dragon masters are the only other dragon shifter population we’re aware of,” Gilder says, her golden hair catching the firelight, gleaming as I imagine golden dragon scales would. “Other than the dragon shifters in Philadelphia.”

Another supernatural race nearing extinction.

I haven’t had dealings with a dragon shifter, but they are inherently strong and brutal. But then, so are the monsters at the Academy…

Again, I shake myself.

“What of the woman I met in the park?” I ask. “Do you know anything about her?”

Now, my sisters close off, but I immediately recognize it as a protective reaction rather than a secretive one.

“We have felt her pain before,” Gilder says quietly. “But we don’t know what has caused it.”

“And we don’t know what kind of supernatural she is,” says Rose. “Somehow, she can mask her true nature from us.”

“She is most certainly something ancient,” Sable adds.

They all hang their heads, and I’m not sure why until Gilder whispers. “We have learned to block out her pain.”

Even though their heads are bowed, and I can’t see their faces, I sense that their eyes are closed.

“That’s why you slept through it?” I ask gently.

They all nod.

“We first felt her pain eighteen years ago,” Gilder whispers, her hair cascading over her face. “A terrible grief. We raced out to find her—many times we did so—but she evaded us each time.”

“We cannot help her,” Sable says. “She does not want our help.”

I take a deep breath before I pull my knees closer to my chest, a sense of foreboding settling within my mind. “She didn’t evade me. She asked me to act.”

My sisters raise their heads, their focus flickering to each other, but their thoughts are so closed off that I can’t read them.

I should probably be alarmed to be shut out, but they have had hundreds of years to bond, and I am new. I have to accept that there are experiences they have shared that are not my business to know.

“We woke up in time tonight to hear her speak of Typhon’s bone,” Sable says, tucking her black hair behind her ear. “We heard her warning that there are more bones. Perhaps she somehow believes the bones will help her seek revenge against Vanguard.”

“The bones can control monsters,” I say. “They have to be destroyed.”

“Found and destroyed,” Rose says firmly, while Gilder and Sable nod.

I shake my head with frustration. “For the last eight months, I’ve lived under the illusion that there was only one bone. To find out now, after all these months, that there are more…”

My sisters’ eyes are wide as they nod.

“It is frightening,” they say in perfect unison. “Even for us.”

“Where might the bones be?” I ask.

“Well…” Sable chews her lip. “As Furies, we are built to be drawn to the bones.”

“Not to be controlled by them,” Rose quickly adds. “Rather, it is our purpose to ensure they are contained, and therefore, we are inherently attuned to their magic.”

Now, my sisters speak quickly in turn, each one’s voice melding with the others.

“Lady Tirelli must have been keeping the bones fully contained, most likely within one of her personal realms.”

“Which is why we didn’t sense the White Wand when it resurfaced.”

“Only briefly, when it was in transit between whatever hiding place she kept it and the Academy’s Realm. We sensed it then, but it was the merest flicker, and we didn’t locate it before the flicker of magic stopped.”

“It was as if someone briefly opened the box it was contained in and then closed it again before entering the Academy’s Realm.”

It’s possible the only altruistic thing Lady Tirelli ever did was to keep those bones contained.

Although, if I think about it, it was to her benefit.

She wouldn’t want other creatures to use the bones’ power in ways that worked against her.

When she died, Hadrix tried to take control of her organization, working with Oliver Draven in an attempt to shore up control.

Hadrix and his family seized many of Lady Tirelli’s possessions, but it’s unclear if they took control of the other bones, too.

“We haven’t sensed the other bones,” my sisters continue, their voices completely in sync.

I jump in. “Which should mean they’re contained.”

“For now,” my sisters reply.

Possibly in a box, or even multiple boxes, like the one that Vulture carried the White Wand in.

“We must be alert for even the briefest hint of Typhon’s power,” my sisters say.

I remember the power radiating out from the White Wand the first time I saw it. Its energy was foreign to me at the time, but I immediately recognized its nature as raw and feral. A wild animal that refused to be tamed.

It had reminded me of Striker.

His unlimited fury and brutality, which he used with full force to protect the other students—even if that meant beating them senseless when they were about to have a flicker fit, stopping the fit in its tracks.

A flicker fit meant death.

His violence saved the other students so many times that violence became Striker’s norm. A survival mechanism. A necessary brutality.

I shake myself again, trying to dislodge these memories that connect me to the person I once was.

A person who can no longer exist.

I must have closed my eyes because when I open them, I find my sisters studying me.

I try to find the words to ask the question I need answered, choosing now to speak within our hive mind.

Is it possible , I ask, for me to remember the person I used to be? To feel her emotions again?

They are quiet for a long moment and then, in unison, they say, Anything is possible, but as for this… It has never happened before.

Without another word, they huddle in closer, wrapping their arms around me.

No matter what, you are strong , they say into my mind. You are whole.

I drag a firm breath into my chest.

I reply, I am Fury .

Shaking off my questions, I make a promise to myself and my sisters, speaking within our hive mind.

We will find these bones and destroy them. If Vanguard deserves death for his crimes, then he, too, will die.