Page 109 of Touched By Moonlight

Every instinct told me to flee. But there was Nicolas, dear, sweet Nicolas, now shifting into a wolf, snarling. My brother could take him down with a lightning bolt before Nicolas could leap off theporch.

“Sienna.” Kallan smiled the same type of smile he’d given me three years ago when he told me I would be free to leave if I surrendered my magick to all of mypeople.

“Little sister. Did you miss me? Your only family? You never wrote. Never texted or called.” Kallan laughed. “All these years spent running from me. You gave me acomplex.”

I managed to find my voice. “Good. I hope you die fromit.”

Kallan shook his head. “Sienna, you annoyed me when that wolf lover of yours at the lake. It took me a while to track you here, but I amdetermined.”

He smacked his lips. “I have a craving for wolfmagick.”

My chest constricted with fear and dread. Facing Kallan alone would have been difficult enough, but with my lovers here at myside…

My brave, stubborn wolf lovers determined to protect me, even from evil they could never contemplate. Three years ago when I faced Kallan, my weakness was a desperate hope that my father did love me and would never hurt me. Then it bled into a slim hope that maybe Kallan would change his mind and I’d still have family left, for any family to a Fae is better than walkingalone.

Now I realized my true weakness – I had three of them. Grayson, Nicolas and Stephan. I had no fears before meeting Grayson and his people, only the fear that I would release my magick and harminnocents.

My brother would use this against me as a soft point in my armor. I was not frightened formyself.

I was terrified for my boys, strong as theywere.

Grayson and Stephan arrived on their bikes, zoomed up to the porch and leapt off the motorcycles. Grayson growled. “Sienna, youok?”

“Get back,” I told him, shaking inside. “You have no defenses against his magick. He wants to drain all of your powers and use them againstyou.”

Yet Kallan made no moveforward.

Instead he began tosing.

The chant of a Fionn Fae using ancient energy to create the weather. I braced myself, waiting to see if hail, a tornado or another weather disaster would rain down uponus.

My heart raced with terror as fresh mist drifted over the land and from those gray droplets rose not the events I dreaded, but something moreterrible.

Forms began to take shape, become more corporeal. Ancient shapes I recognized from the texts I’d studied as a child. The old Fae, longdead.

Nowghosts.

Ghosts rippling with power. Nicolas leapt off the porch to tackleone.

“No, Nick, don’t,” Iscreamed.

My brave Nick, thinking he could bring down a spirit. Growling, he sank his teeth into the leg of the nearest ghostFae.

His jaws snapped together at nothing. The ghost laughed, and my brother pointed a finger. The grayish specter collapsed, its energy hurling towardKallan.

My brother was absorbing the ancient Fae spirits and energy, empowering himself. Grayson had siphoned only a little of the Fae energy in these lands and used it for good. He did not have the capability to do more. The evil was not withinhim.

But it was withinKallan.

Laughing, Kallan flicked his fingers and white-hot lightning streamed from them, heading straight at Nicolas.No!

I yanked on powers that I’d refused to use, channeled everything I had and diverted the fire toward a tree. The trunk explodedoutward.

Still snarling, my brave Nicolas snapped at Kallan. Refusing to back down, standing as my wolfguardian.

The ghost army of ancient Fae spirits advanced, ready for thekill.

Still Kallan waited. And then my brother stretched out his hands, and breathedin.