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“What the fuck?” Kierse asked Graves.

He pulled her toward him. His first instinct was always to protect her.

It was then that she realized that she needed protection—she had no idea how to use her new magic.

She was a creature of stealth, and while her Fae abilities still made her physically strong and fast, without her wisp magic, she was at a severe disadvantage. She hated it.

Graves unholstered a gun from within his suit and clicked the safety off. A second later, he slid it into her hand. Well, that certainly helped.

Terror was a living, breathing thing on the rooftop as the trolls kept coming, forming a perimeter around the partygoers, blocking them in.

Dreadlords shifted on the spot, surrounding their guests defensively and snarling their anger at the intrusion.

Only Nate remained on two feet, holding his wife behind him.

The trolls pushed in, finally forcing Nate to shift to his wolf form and jump at the first troll who came after Maura.

In the interruption, the second troll got his hands on Maura, lifting her effortlessly in his arms.

“Maura!” someone screamed from the front row.

Kierse held the gun loose at her side, prepared for whatever came next. Had they all become complacent? So used to the way things had changed since the Monster Treaty, they hadn’t expected an attack? What could the trolls even be after, interrupting a wedding? Or…who was controlling them?

“Men of Valor,” Graves said.

Kierse noticed a small woman with black hair cropped at her chin step out onto the roof. The Dreadlords snarled as one at her entrance. She smirked, a wolf’s grin if Kierse had ever seen one. A cadre of monsters of every kind lined up behind her.

Kierse lifted the gun and leveled it at the woman’s head. She wanted to pull the trigger, but if she did, chaos would surely erupt. A troll had Maura. They were surrounded. Fuck.

“Who the fuck is that?” she asked.

“Nova Lee,” Graves said.

“Nate’s opponent for the convocation?”

“Yes.”

“What’s she doing here? Can I just shoot her?”

“We’re about to find out,” he said through gritted teeth. “If she makes another move, put a bullet between her eyes.”

Gen was shaking in front of her, but Kierse could already see her magic gathering at her fingertips. Ethan was doing the same—there was enough plant life on this terrace for him to be beyond formidable.

A Dreadlord rushed at Nova. In the blink of an eye, she shifted into a small, sandy wolf. Despite her stature, she was ferocious and went straight for the throat, ripping it out of the wolf who’d attacked her.

Kierse pulled the trigger. The gun went off with a ferocious blast, but the wolf was too nimble for that, dodging the bullet with a spectacular dive.

“Damn it,” Kierse spat.

A minute later, she was back in her human form, blood dripping from her chin and down onto her white shirt. “I liked this shirt,” she grumbled. “Oh well…” Her eyes lifted to Nate’s. “You chose the wrong side.”

The room erupted into chaos. Every wolf rushed the trolls. Ethan called to the plants at his command, ripping them down toward the monsters in attendance. Gen knocked out anyone who stepped close.

“We need to know what she wants,” Graves said.

“Who cares? She attacked us .”

He pursed his lips and lifted his hands. A golden glow filled the space in between his palms, stretching like taffy. He grunted as he lifted and spread the magic into a soft, shimmering golden dome.

“It’s big magic,” he got out through his teeth. “Not really supposed to be used for this.”

“Save the innocents. We’ll take out the rest,” Kierse said, directing him toward the human, non-magical partygoers, who were currently huddled in fear as monsters ripped each other apart.

Kierse lifted her gun again and trained it on Nova. The woman hadn’t moved. Her trolls and the monsters were doing the work for her as she observed. She’d missed the first shot. Kierse would take another one.

But Nova’s hearing must have been too advanced.

She shifted fast enough to avoid the bullet, then back again just as quickly.

Her gaze snapped to Kierse, and she smiled.

She held up two fingers and pointed them first at her own eyes, then at Kierse, just as another scream went up from the front of the room.

Kierse whipped around to the source of the noise. Maura was being hauled away from Nate and toward the exit by a troll. It looked like they were going to kidnap his new bride. Not a chance.

“We have to get Maura.”

Graves finished off the dome, snapping it into place over the unarmed guests. “That won’t hold long.”

“Then let’s stop them.”

Kierse took off with Graves and her friends at her back. The chaos was endless, but she had only one quarry. She didn’t know what they were going to do with Maura, but she didn’t want to wait to find out.

Graves cleared their path, pushing combatants out of the way.

Ethan’s magic snapped out, and a bunch of ivy wrapped itself around the troll’s trunk-like neck.

Gen’s magic pierced through the troll’s thick skin, wounding it.

It struggled against Ethan and Gen’s power.

All Kierse would have needed to do was amplify them and they could have subdued the nearly mindless beast.

That would have been the ethical decision. But Kierse still couldn’t control her new powers, and Nova had shown her hand. Kierse didn’t think anyone was going to get out of here alive if she had it her way.

So Kierse lifted the gun, aimed, and fired twice into the troll’s skull.

The giant monster teetered like a seesaw for a few seconds before toppling sideways. Graves’s magic cocooned Maura as Ethan’s vines whipped around her. Together they caught her before she could hit the ground or be crushed by the troll’s body.

Nate’s massive wolf was right behind them, rushing for Maura. But as he got there, Nova’s sandy wolf descended on him. Nate pivoted to engage her as Nova unleashed on him. Nate was almost twice her size. This should have been an easy fight, no contest.

Then Nova sank her teeth into Nate’s throat.

Kierse instinctively pushed herself into slow motion and felt for a second like it was going to work. Her magic was going to let her move into that space where she could stop time long enough to save her friend. But it sparked on her fingertips for a heartbeat before fizzling and dying.

Time didn’t stand still.

Nova ripped sideways, taking Nate’s throat with her.

“No!” Kierse yelled.

Maura screamed. Kierse’s knees buckled. She sank to the ground in horror as she watched Nate’s throat give way. He shifted back to his human form as he lay bleeding, the light flickering out of his eyes.

Maura crawled toward her husband, slipping in his blood as she reached for him. “No, Nate! Nate!” she wailed. “You can’t go. You can’t go!”

“Gen,” Kierse gasped as she watched one of her oldest friends bleed out. Her voice broke as she asked, “Please.”

“I can’t.” A soft sob escaped her throat. “I…I can’t heal something that severe.”

Nate went limp in Maura’s arms. “Our baby! Nate, you have to be here for our baby! You can’t leave me.” The rest of her words were lost to her hysterical tears.

“Oh God,” Kierse gasped. Graves fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around Kierse, holding her as she cried and the world went blurry at the edges.

Nova laughed as she shifted once more. “This is your warning,” she declared to the room. “Go up against the Men of Valor again, and you’re all dead.”

She turned and strode from the room, taking the trolls with her.

The screams turned to moans of fear and pain and terror.

Ronan held Gen to his chest as he stared in horror at his alpha, dead on the concrete floor.

Corey found Ethan and held him as he cried into his boyfriend’s shoulder.

Kierse was numb as she watched Maura mourn.

The pain was somewhere down deep, a place she had to keep hidden to survive this moment.

Because she couldn’t imagine a world without Nathaniel O’Connor’s quick smile and jaunty personality in it. She couldn’t imagine life without him.

A worse realization settled over her. This was just the beginning.

A second monster war was rising.