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VANESSA

I t was a knockout, drag-out, ultimate fight between shifters, the world’s most powerful witch, and little ol’ me. We didn’t have the best chance, but when Leo pulled out of my arms and stood to his full height, shoulders squared, I truly believed we would win.

Because we had something Katarina would never have.

Unity.

“You heard her, Katarina. This is your last chance. Stand down or die,” Leo said in that booming voice of his that never failed to give me goosebumps. Did I have an authority kink? Potentially. Something to explore later. Because we were most definitely going to have a later. I was certain of that.

“You think your ragtag pack of mongrels can bring me down? The gods chose me and blessed me with their power. You are nothing to me. You may as well be ants!”

“I guess that answers that question.”

Leo shifted, launching himself forward in a blur of steam, and fur, and teeth. He didn’t make it all the way to the witch. None of us expected him to. If there was one thing I had learned about fighting magical people it was that you had to wear them out enough until they were distracted, then take advantage of that distraction as quickly as possible. It was a game of attrition, with one side having unchecked power and the other side having impressive healing capabilities. It really was the epitome of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

Except for me.

I was the spanner in the works, and I fully intended to use my skills to the maximum of my ability.

Starting with trying to bind the witch with vines.

I called forth the longest, thorniest vines wrapped around the outer branches of the tree and sent them all toward the witch’s back. They were thick, green, luscious things, full of a malevolent energy that went far beyond the plants I’d interacted with before. I figured it was a side effect of the strange pocket area we’d followed Leo into, but I still braced myself to make sure they didn’t contaminate me.

As lively and virulent as those vines were, they withered and crumbled as soon as they got within a foot of Katarina.

Her gaze flicked to me. Shit, I didn’t have the same element of surprise I had with her sons. None of them had known I was a dryad. Frederick had been the only one who’d come even close to realizing it. But Katarina knew. She’d told me what I was.

“Let’s get you out of the way, shall we?” she hissed, raising both of her hands.

I ran for it. I wanted to fight, but I would have to evade whenever I could. As she went to throw a spell at me, three different wolves charged her, all leaping for her limbs. She released the blast before she could get her aim, and I managed to dive safely behind a marble statue of… Actually, I had no idea what it was. It was one of those abstract art pieces people with too much money put in their too-large sitting rooms to show off to guests who also had too much money.

The witch rebuffed the three attackers with a shimmering force field that blasted out from her core. They were thrown far, one of them sailing out of an opening, but I was confident they’d be able to catch a tree branch before hitting the ground far below.

Five other shifters charged her. An eagle shifter swooped down at her head, trying to claw at her eyes, while a coyote shifter leaped for her throat. Two bear shifters were charging her at full speed while Leo went for her back.

For a moment, I thought we really had her, but then giant, slate rocks shot up from the flooring all around her, forming a barrier, and she flew up into the air, hovering ten feet above our heads. That was certainly going to complicate things.

I needed to think differently, because the vines wouldn’t be enough. I reached out into the considerable amount of foliage all around us and latched on to the branch that I’d used to descend from the balcony. Had standing up there been a touch dramatic? Absolutely. But I figured I deserved a little flare of drama considering we were in for the fight of our lives.

Filling the branch with the sizzling energy within me, I besieged it to call upon a sibling. A moment later, another branch grew through the floor, moving around like it was water instead of a solid object. I was still pretty hazy on all the rules of my new ability, but it worked better when I didn’t question anything.

I placed my hands over my heart, letting the branches feel the steady beat of it and become part of me. As I crouched behind that stupid marble statue, I had one of them swing at the witch.

I must have caught her off guard, because the branches came down on her head with a sickening crack. Again, I thought I’d done it, that maybe cracking her skull would be enough of a distraction for everyone to surge in and finish her off.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The crack I heard was the branch breaking in two, the top part falling to the ground below.

Nevertheless, I persisted. I tried to wallop her with the second branch. She was wise to my scheme, though, and all it took was a glare from her for the branch to burst into flames.

I fully planned to beat her with that burning branch, but when I swung it down again, it disintegrated into ash that rained down onto the floor. Okay, so witch fire was different than regular fire. Good to know.

Katarina focused on me, but then my companions swarmed her again and she had to fend them off. I appreciated their protection, but their cries of pain whenever her spell hit made my stomach heave.

I decided to leave the offensive for a bit and do a round of triage, running to the various bodies lying around—thankfully, none of them were in human form yet.

I was armed with both a messenger bag and two fanny packs, one high on my waist and the other on my hips. It wasn’t exactly glamorous battle armor, but what mattered was that it was chock-full of things that would help with healing, and a few offensive vials I’d whipped up last minute after doing some research online. I had no clue whether any of it would work.

Luckily, that first one had packed quite a punch. It was dill, salt, holy water, and some of the ash from where my home had burned. I had been surprised it had worked at all seeing as witches weren’t vampires, and as far as I knew only vampires had a reaction to holy water. It had definitely sent a message, though.

The offensive potions could wait, though, because I reached my first pack member and knelt down to help them. I did everything at a rapid pace. When I finished pouring different concoctions over their wounds, I placed my hands on their flank and did my best to channel my energy through them.

My relatively new power sizzled a bit, as if in confusion, before trickling into the body beneath my palms. The hesitation must have been because I was helping a wolf and not a plant, which was where the majority of my power came from. I had a hunch that my ability could be turned toward healing as well. Not just because of myths, but because of how quickly the shifters had healed in my care when I had only a basic understanding of their anatomy and no understanding of magic. I figured it had been a subconscious thing, so I hoped I could tap into it more directly.

It seemed like nothing was happening, but then I felt something almost click within the wolf, and their own natural healing ability surged up to meet me halfway.

Perfect.

“Get yourself to safety for a few minutes before rejoining,” I said, already on my feet to the next person who needed my help. “We can do this.”

As I ran to one of the bear shifters pinned under a pillar of rock, my legs were yanked out from under me, and I was suddenly in the air. It reminded me of how Alric, the metal-controlling brother, had snatched me up, and my body reacted before my mind could. Hundreds of vines shot up from between cracks on the floor that hadn’t been there before, wrapping around my legs to my waist and trying to pull me back to safety.

“There you are,” Katarina said, floating over the chaos of battle until she was a few feet from me. “You know, I really was looking forward to one of your kind being able to run around these parts. Maybe restore the balance a little. But you had to go and waste it, didn’t you?”

“Did you really think I would sit back and let you kill our alpha?”

“I had hoped you would, yes.” She drew in a deep breath, then gestured at the wild battle all around us. There were whirlwinds spinning this way and that, sending shifters flying. Lightning cracked down from the ceiling and through the openings between the branches. There were more stone golems spawning out of nowhere, and occasionally, long tentacles of fire randomly appeared out of the walls to slash down at the closest shifters.

It was an insane display of power, and if I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it came from one woman. No wonder the combined powers of her sons couldn’t take her down. It seemed she had all their abilities, but she’d had centuries to hone them. While I was still determined to beat her, I couldn’t help but wonder if I would make it through the fight.

If I didn’t, at least I could say I’d gone down swinging, and that was what mattered to me.

“Thanks to you, all your friends are going to die. It’s a pity, isn’t it? Revenge always begets more revenge.”

“This isn’t revenge! Not on our part. We’re protecting the man we love and admire. Our leader. We’re saving him! You’re the one trying to avenge the justice that your raping, murdering sons got served to them!”

I almost expected a witty repartee, as Katarina seemed quite unruffled by many of the things we did. Instead, I saw pure anger flash across her face, and she raised one hand, curling her fingers as if she was choking someone. Almost instantly, my air supply cut off, and my lungs desperately tried to draw in breath.

“All these lectures! I have tried to be kind. I have shown the lot of you mercy, and yet you still dare to speak to me this way. I am a superior life form. Your kind only exist because I deem it so! And now, I will enjoy watching you suffocate in front of me while your little friends are helpless to stop it. I’ll laugh as your face turns burgundy, as all those little blood vessels in your eyes pop with desperation, and then as you piss yourself like the filthy animal you are. Goodbye, little dryad. What a waste.”

The squeezing sensation around my throat grew tighter and tighter. I tried to pull my arms down to claw at my neck, but Katarina’s magic held them fast above my head. I tried to call for help, but I couldn’t make any sound. I hoped someone would jump in with a sudden distraction, but no. Everyone was occupied with their own battles. I didn’t know if any of them even realized what was happening with me.

Help me, Leo! Please!

I scanned the area for him, but my vision grew too fuzzy and the battle too hectic. Then I remembered I had no interest in being the damsel, so I desperately tried to think of a way to buy myself time. I knew Leo would come for me. I knew it.

What could I do? I couldn’t move. I couldn’t run. Katarina’s hold on me kept yanking me up while the plants I’d conjured were desperately trying to pull me down. I supposed the only reason the witch didn’t incinerate them outright was that between holding me, choking me, and keeping up everything else she had in the room, she didn’t have the attention to divide. Really, I only needed a second or so of slack to get free, or even draw a breath.

My thoughts grew sluggish, taking on that unreal quality that came after waking up from a long, intense dream. I had a few moments left at best. People didn’t realize that usually it took a really long time to actually choke a person into unconsciousness, but that was when magic wasn’t involved.

The plants around me began to writhe, their little leaves rattling almost as if they were trying to ask me questions. They could tell I was in crisis, but they didn’t know what to do. They weren’t advanced enough for that kind of high-level thought. Besides, it wasn’t like they would understand what strangulation was. As long as their leaves and vines were exposed to air, they had thousands of different places they could bring in carbon dioxide.

Wait a minute.

Actually, I didn’t have a minute, so all I could do was wait a second before trying something so insanely stupid that there was no way it could work, but I did it anyway. I sent all the magic I could fizzing down into the plants covering me. There wasn’t a lot of physical contact considering my clothing, but some of those vines and leaves were wrapped around my belly or had gripped my ankle and calf. I focused on my connection in those places and ordered them to breathe.

The first tiny little bit of oxygen that hit my lungs was hardly more than a sip. I was so shocked, I nearly laughed. Except I couldn’t, because the witch still had a stranglehold on my throat.

But the next rush of oxygen was like a full gasp, and my panic receded. It was an insanely strange sensation not to breathe through my nose or feel the air go down my throat, but I wasn’t about to complain.

I played dead.

I made a good show of it. I gasped and concentrated on trying to make my face red. I crossed my eyes. I struggled. The key was not to succumb too soon because I didn’t want her to catch on to the fact that I was faking.

When it came time for the big finale, I couldn’t bring myself to pee down my leg, but I did let out some horrendous choking sounds and dribbled spit all down my chin. Gross but effective, because the magical stranglehold released me, and Katarina cackled.

“Do you see, Leo? The futility of trying to fight what must be. Your precious mate is dead now, and soon the rest of you will all join her.”

The howl that issued from my lover was so pained, I felt guilty. I hoped he could sense I was alive, but he was obviously too far away for that.

I did, however, hear a host of other shifters answer his mournful cry, and those that were free all rounded on the witch.

I cracked a single eye open from where I was slumped over in my little plant cocoon. Katarina’s back was completely exposed to me. Leo had somehow managed to get a mouthful of her dress. It was the first significant physical contact any of them made. Leo had come through for me, just like I knew he would. I couldn’t do it without him.

“Do you have any idea how old this is? The designer is dead !” Katarina cried, her hands raised, no doubt ready to cast some sort of awfulness at the people I loved.

The bitch really should have made sure I was dead.

Drawing in a deep breath, I grabbed all the magic I possibly could within me, reaching deeper and further than I ever had before. I poured it out into the air around me. I let it flow like the very waterfall I’d passed on my climb up the tree, spilling over anything and everything it touched.

A host of sensations I couldn’t really understand flooded my every sense with its bubbling, popping, fizzing nature. But then I finally felt a connection. Something slow and ancient but resolute. Something eternal.

I had tapped into the tree’s life force.

I couldn’t quite describe how it felt to be connected to the wellspring of knowledge and power that resided inside the living wood around us. It had seen things. Terrible things. It had absorbed blood, magic, and tears. It wasn’t evil by nature, but it loathed what it had been turned into. It wanted peace.

A peace it could never get while Katarina Morgana was inside of it.

Letting my plants drop me down to the floor, I placed my palms on it and pressed my power through the marble. It was as if the tree and I were both inhabiting my body. Me, the one sentient enough to understand battle, and it being the one with the power to end the witch.

Focusing my mind’s eye, I watched as the marble floor cracked in two below the witch, and she dropped down into the hole. She let out a sharp shout of surprise, but before she could fly out of it, the opening sealed shut around her. I could feel her magic crackling against it, but the tree absorbed it, drinking it down like it had consumed so much of her poison throughout the years.

“What is this? What the hell have you done?”

She tried to pull one arm out, but the floor sucked her farther down, sealing her entire body until only her shoulders and head remained. I knew it was squeezing her and squeezing her, and by the time I reached her, she seemed to know she was beaten.

“You think you can end me so easily?” she asked, her eyes flashing malevolently. Her hair was mussed, her face was covered with a thin sheen of sweat, and a thin line of blood trickled down her forehead. It was the messiest I’d ever seen her, and I took no pride in it. What I was about to do would be violent. Merciless. But it needed to be done. Mercy was a luxury, and with people like Katarina Morgana, it wasn’t something we could afford.

The hatred in her expression only blazed more as the shifters behind me skidded to a stop.

“ Disperge animas vestras o ? —”

I knew a curse when I heard one, and yet again, I reacted before I could think. The vines burst back to life, shooting forward and around the witch before shoving their way into her mouth. It was an awful sight as more and more of them continued to push down. And down. And down. Katarina let out an awful, muffled scream before her face went gray and she stilled completely.

Had we done it? Had we really done it? Or was she playing dead?

Our answer came when her skin began to crack. It was like a fine spiderweb that spread out all across her face and neck until she crumbled into dust. The moment she did, magic surged out from where she had been, and although I didn’t know what changed, I could feel that something had.

“Vanessa!”

Suddenly, I was swept up in a crushing embrace, but I didn’t panic as my nose was filled with Leo’s familiar scent. He hugged me tightly before kissing me for all he was worth.

We were both breathless and filthy, but I didn’t give a damn. Finally, finally, we would have true peace.

Katarina’s entire bloodline was gone.

We were free.

“I thought you were dead,” Leo whispered before kissing me again. I melted into it, craving the affection I thought I’d never have again. “How did you even find me?”

I reached into what remained of his tattered pants and removed a thick seed I’d slid into it after Katarina’s offer, when I’d gotten a sense that he was going to play the noble hero. “Thousand-year squash seeds. I got them from a native preservation group. They’re unique enough that I was sure I’d be able to track it even through her magic. When I got lost, I asked the trees for directions.”

“Since when could you do that?”

I shrugged. Explaining how my powers worked was a bit like explaining breathing. “Since I decided I could.”

Leo shook his head, then laughed and kissed me again. God, I loved kissing him. Once we parted, I shoved his chest.

“You are never going to do anything like this again, do you understand me?”

He was clearly surprised at first, but then he grinned. “You got it.”

“Damn right, I do.”

Then we were kissing again. Cheers erupted from all around us as our friends and allies shifted into their human forms.

It was time to go home. We were going to throw one hell of a party.

And this time, there would be no witch to interrupt it.