“I haven’t broken my oath.” I gestured to the boundary line. “You’re free to go anytime. I don’t intend to harm you. In fact, if I were you, I’d leave now. Once your former coven regains access to their magic, they might react differently to what you’ve put them through.”

  Cohen’s eyes widened a bit as he glanced back at the hexerei ringing the circle around us. He looked from them to me, and I didn’t miss the uncertainty before his mask of rage covered it all.

  “You can’t do this,” he said.

  “I already did. Now, step aside. I have a ritual to perform.”

  Cohen roared. He sprinted away, and I let him go, fully expecting him to take off for the woods and escape while he could. Instead, he shoved through the circle of hexerei and grabbed at someone just on the other side where our pack pressed in to keep the coven from venturing too far inside our borders.

  A woman cried out, and my heart twisted as I realized too late what Cohen had done.

  He dragged my mother into the circle. His men closed around them, and when I saw Idrissa shoving her way toward them, I shook my head. If she broke the circle of hexerei, the ritual would be ruined.

  She stopped short of the circle’s boundary, glaring murderously at Cohen’s back. I looked away from her, focusing only on the man who now had his hands on my mom.

  “Give it back to me,” Cohen snarled. “My mark. Return it now or she dies.” He slid his dagger out and pressed it to my mother’s throat.

  Across the space, my mother’s eyes widened, and she whimpered, going otherwise still underneath his brutal grip. Fear and guilt twisted in my stomach. And every single inch of progress I thought I’d made at not caring what happened to her went out the window.

  I loved her, dammit.

  Despite everything she’d done, I could not—would not—let her die.

  And he knew that. The bastard fucking knew. Judging from the smug smirk he shot me, he’d never doubted it.

  “Let her go,” I said in a voice way too unsteady to be obeyed.

  Inside me, the magic roiled to life. Every barrier my mother’s spell work had created, every inch of control I’d gained, snapped.

  Cohen would die.

  Consequences be damned.

  “Ash, easy,” Kai warned. “Remember your oath. He has to live.”

  “Kai, destroy the guns,” I said.

  From the edge of the circle, Kai cursed, hesitating.

  “Kai, go now,” I said.

  Kai raced back to the weapons and set to work on melting them with the torch we’d brought. I refocused on Cohen.

  “I won’t tell you again,” I warned him.

  But Cohen’s eyes glittered with the promise of follow-through.

  Power sparked.

  The ground shifted underneath my feet, and thunder boomed above my head.

  Someone else pushed their way into the circle. The only other person who could’ve breached its borders without ruining everything.

  “Ash, stop.” Silas grabbed my hand, and all of the magic I’d been gathering to use against Cohen winked out.

  “Let go,” I hissed.

  I tried pulling away, but Silas’ grip only tightened.

  “You’re supposed to hold Merle,” I said. “This isn’t the plan.”

  “You can’t use your magic on him,” he said in a low voice that showed zero interest in being talked out of his decision. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “He’ll kill her,” I said, still struggling.

  Cohen watched our exchange with confusion, but I didn’t care what he figured out about Silas’ abilities. I only cared that the knifepoint had dug itself far enough into my mother’s skin to draw blood.

  I had to act.

  “Silas,” I pleaded. “You have to trust me. I know what kind of alpha I want to be.”

  His grip loosened just enough, and I ripped my wrist free.

  “Cohen,” I screamed. “What you want, it’s still inside me. Come and get it.” I glanced at Silas. “Follow the plan. And hold on.”

  Silas nodded and sprinted for where Merle stood close enough to Cohen that I had no doubt the two of them meant to take this as far as it would go.

  Silas slammed into Merle, and the two went tumbling.

  Cohen looked up from where my mother twisted in his grip. Our eyes met, and I could see his indecision: let her go and come get me—or finish it.

  I pressed my hands to my own chest, and the magic inside me exploded.

  Earth tore itself apart around me.

  Every single hexerei fell including Cohen. He and my mother landed in a tangled heap, and I willed her to be quick enough to get clear. On shaky hands and knees, I crawled toward them as the ground continued to rip itself in two. Black smoke curled from the dirt underneath my hands. Still, I kept going, determined to end this.

  I meant what I’d told Silas.

  I knew exactly what kind of alpha I wanted to be.

  The kind willing to die for her people. The kind who didn’t run from her own mistakes.

  But I hadn’t counted on my mother doing the very thing I’d always wished for her. Instead of running to safety, my mother dove for the knife.

  “Mom, no,” I screamed. “Run!”

  She gripped the knife, and I felt the entire world slip into slow motion as Cohen wrestled the blade from her hands. He knocked her onto her back and lifted the blade high into the air.

  “No!” I lunged forward too late as Cohen plunged the blade into my mother’s stomach.

  My mother gasped, her body jerking in pain. She clutched at the knife, but Cohen kept his hand firmly wrapped around the hilt, refusing to let her pull it free. He watched her face with something like enjoyment, and my stomach churned.

  The last of my control snapped.

  Except this time, it wasn’t the all-consuming magic taking me over.

  My wolf surged, and I felt my bones crack and lengthen as my body began to shift of its own volition.

  Half-wolf, half-human, I punched Cohen with a furry fist that left claw marks against his shoulder as the impact sent him tumbling away. Instead of pursuing him, I dropped to the ground beside my mother. She stared up at me with glassy eyes, shock and pain both evident in her pale face.

  “Ash,” she began.

  Blood trickled from her mouth.

  “Shut up,” I said, assessing the wound. On her other side, Silas dropped down across from me. I looked for Kai and spotted him already fully shifted and stalking toward Cohen.

  “Kai, the circle,” Silas began.

  “I don’t give a damn about the circle,” Kai roared.

  No one argued as he broke through the few hexerei still standing and strode toward Cohen. I looked away, focusing on my mother. Everything that came next would be about survival—and justice. Whatever happened to the monster now, he deserved it.

  I could hear Idrissa calling orders to the security teams. Some of the hexerei had fled the circle, but I couldn’t bother with any of that now.

  “Help me,” I said to Silas. “When I say go, pull the knife out. Don’t touch me, whatever you do.”

  He nodded, pausing with his hands hovering over the hilt.

  I pressed my palms to my mother’s chest and took a deep, steadying breath that did absolute fuck-all to calm my terrified nerves.

  “Okay,” I told Silas. “Now.”

  He reached out and yanked the knife out of my mother’s stomach. It slid free with a sickening sound. My mother’s back arched, and she screamed. Blood poured from the exposed wound. Her skin had never looked so pale as it did now.

  I held her down with my hands, gritting my teeth and willing my magic to save her. If it were ever going to listen to me, I needed it to be now.

  “Ash,” Silas said, but I ignored him, focusing all my concentration on my mother and the magic I was calling forth to save her.

  A sheen of sweat coated her skin, and still, the wound bled, but I refused to give up.

  “Ash.” Another voice this time. Kel. “Ash, you can’t let Kai kill him. Ash, the vow.”

  “Kel’s right,” Silas said.

  “Back up,” I snapped. “If you touch me, you’ll ruin everything.”

  Behind me, a growl sounded, and someone—a male voice—cried out in pain. It barely registered as I stared at my mother’s blood, willing it to stop leaking from her torn body.

  “Kai, behind you.” Silas jumped to his feet and ran off.

  A second later, I heard a grunt, and Kai dropped down beside me, human again. His eyes were brilliantly focused, a predator who’d already cornered its prey.

  “What do you need?” he asked.

  Behind me, I caught another grunt. The sounds of fighting.

  “Shit,” Kel said and then got up and ran off.

  “Help me,” I said. “Like with Baron. Do you remember?”

  He nodded. “Let’s do it.”

  He placed his hands on mine, and I held my breath.

  Memories of Baron on Kai’s floor assaulted me. I welcomed it. Part of me would rather think of that than look at this; my magic had worked then, and it hadn’t been my own mother slowly bleeding out underneath my hands.

  This had to work. It had to.

  Slowly, so slow that it felt like it might never work, my skin began to glow. Then Kai’s. Then hers.

  I didn’t stop.

  There was no sense of control, only my desperate need for this to work.

  I felt the tingles first, then the pain in my stomach, and finally, the dark liquid pouring from my hands, leaving puddles beneath me until I was bathed in its viscous waters.

  I knew then—this was more than just healing my mother. This was everything. The power and energy and life force itself that had chosen me when that necklace had broken was on its way out. I hadn’t uttered the words to will it. It wasn’t up to me anymore even if I had.

  The magic had decided to give itself back.

  Like a dam breaking, it all snapped.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Sweat coated my skin. Power surged up and out. The ground shook, but instead of breaking in two, I watched as the fissures in the ground stitched back together again. Kai yelled my name, and our eyes met. Around us, rain fell, and the hexerei screamed as the power that left me slammed into them. My body tensed as the magic was yanked out of me and then—

  It was done.

  The wind died, and the silence became its own chaos.

  My shoulders sagged underneath the weight of exhaustion. Kai’s hand reached for my shoulders, propping me up.

  “It’s gone,” I whispered.

  “Did you… do the spell?”

  “No. I… The magic just decided it was time, I guess.” I tried not to think about what that meant for us. What came next.

  The grief was too much. The failure—

  “It’s okay, Ash.” My mother’s hand shook as it wrapped around my wrist. My eyes flew to hers. She smiled up at me weakly, but color was already beginning to return to her sickly green skin. “I’m okay. You did it. Both of you. Life over death. A demon and a wolf have chosen each other. By healing me, you sent the magic back and… you broke the curse, honey.”

  “Mom.” I choked out the word, and her smile widened.

  I threw myself onto her, hugging her and crying all the tears I’d refused to let her see before.

  “Ash.”

  Kai’s voice held a note of insistence.

  I sat up again and found dozens of hexerei all staring down at me and Kai. No fighting. No screaming. No terrified fleeing. And no attacks. In a far corner, Presley had Merle in his tight grip. Beside him, Silas had Cohen.

  My gaze landed on Idrissa in the center of it all.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  But it was Kel who answered. She was weak, leaning on another hexerei for support. But she looked a little impressed as she said, “I think we’re all trying to understand how the hell a lupin just did magic.”

  I realized with a start they weren’t just looking at me. They were looking at Kai.

  He leaned over and brushed his fingers over my cheek. When he drew away again, I watched as the last of the glow faded from his skin. And mine.

  “I don’t know,” I told Kel honestly. “Maybe you can tell me.”

  “Mates,” my mother said, her voice strong and steady. “True mates forge a connection, mind, body, spirit. That means you make each other stronger in every sense.” She smiled but it was tinged with sadness. “Your father showed me that.”

  I looked at Kai, my heart expanding.

  Mates.

  Maybe now, finally, we could just be mates. No more war.

  Murmurs from the others broke the silence.

  “Thank you,” Kel said to me, and a few hexerei nodded in agreement. “For returning our magic.”

  “I am the kind of alpha who keeps her promises,” I said.

  Kai squeezed my hand. “Hell yeah, you are.”

  “What about him?” Silas nodded down at where he still held onto Cohen. The former coven leader was covered in dirt and blood.

  For a moment, I thought he was dead. But then I saw the rise and fall of his chest. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed. Kai had stopped himself from killing Cohen; a fact that mattered so much more than I’d been aware of while my mother’s life hung in the balance.

  “Merle.” Cohen’s voice was weak and full of pain. “Help me.”

  At the sound of his name, Merle sat up, struggling against Presley’s hold. I watched as Merle’s skin turned frosty and white, tiny crystals forming over the surface. Presley’s breath puffed out, and he shivered at the sudden cold. Fitting that his magic involved summoning the cold. The man’s heart was a frozen wasteland too.

  “You swore not to harm,” Merle snarled. “You broke the oath.”

  Kai helped me up, and Cherise and Oscar came forward, helping my mother to her feet and leading her back to safety.

  “I promised not to kill, and we haven’t,” I said.

  “Nothing has been broken,” Kai told him. “But it will if you don’t take your people and go. Now.”

  Kai nodded at Presley.

  “Let him go.”

  “You sure?” Presley asked.

  “He’s no threat.”

  “Okay.” Presley released Merle, and the man jumped to his feet, glaring at Kai with fisted hands.

  “You are a disgrace to the supernatural law,” Merle said, his words dripping with hate. “All lupin belong in a cage.”

  I tensed, ready to yank my mate back if he gave in to his rage. Merle was baiting us, and I wasn’t going to let it work. Not when we were so close to ending this. But Kai didn’t even bother with a reply. Instead, he deliberately looked away and began calling orders, moving past Merle as he spoke.

  “The ritual is complete. Make way, and let the hexerei leave peacefully. Lone Wolves honor our bargains.”

  The moment Kai was within reach, Merle made his move. The hexerei drew a short blade from his belt and closed the distance.

  “Kai,” I screamed a warning, but the attack never came.

  Not against Kai.

  Merle grunted as a rock struck him hard on the temple. His eyes slid back, and he crumpled in the dirt.

  A bruised Kel strode forward, her expression completely devoid of any regret over dropping one of her own. She knelt beside Merle and pressed her fingers to his throat.

  “There’s a pulse,” she announced in a voice that suggested she didn’t care either way—and then to her people, “We’ll bring him back across the line, and he’ll be held and tried for his crimes. Cohen too. Someone find Chloe.”

  “I’m here.” A blonde pushed her way through the crowd and dropped down beside Cohen. She pulled out a poultice and pressed it to his already swelling head. Cohen groaned against her touch.

  “You will pay for this,” he said, and I honestly had no idea if he was talking to me or Kel. “As long as I live, I will keep coming for you. Lupin are an abomination, and I will not rest until every last one of you has been wiped from this earth. And then, Kel, I’ll come for you.”

  That cleared it up.

  Kel strode to where Cohen lay in the dirt. She stared down at him, her lips curling. “You are hereby detained on charges of abuse, torture, attempted murder, murder, and just generally being a piece of shit. You will stand trial for your crimes, and you will be sentenced for them accordingly. It’s more than you deserve, but it’s what you’ll get.”

  “You bitch.” Wrenching away from Silas, Cohen grabbed Kel’s ankle, and magic sparked from their touch. His eyes widened as he’d realized he hadn’t been left out after all.

  Chloe, the hexerei girl who’d tended him, jumped out of the way.

  With a roar, Cohen flung his other hand toward Kel. Sparks sizzled as they shot from his skin.

  Of course, the asshole could shoot fire.

  His attention turned to me, and flames shot from his hand, slamming into my chest. I screamed as my skin burned. My fingers met with burning flesh as I swiped at the gunshot wound. My hand came away bloodied and gripping something small and black.

  “What the hell?” I stared down at it in confusion.

  “A GPS.” Cohen’s voice twisted with enjoyment.

  I looked back at him, finally understanding what shooting me had really been about. “This is how you knew we were here today.”

  He opened his mouth—to answer, to gloat, to just be Cohen. But he never got the chance to do any of it. Power hit him square in the chest, and Cohen went limp. He clutched his chest, moaning in pain as smoke curled from his singed shirt.

  I stared at Silas, who shrugged. “I borrowed it.”

  Then he bent down and grabbed Cohen, once again muting his magic. It took the crowd about three seconds longer to realize he’d been the one to zap Cohen. With Cohen’s own magic.

  “Care to explain that?” Kel asked.

  But I didn’t answer. It wasn’t my explanation to give.

  “It’s over,” I said instead.

  Dropping the GPS at my feet, I ground it into pieces with my boot. Then I bent down and helped my mother stand. The hexerei eyed her like she was an artifact on display. I didn’t miss the whispers or the looks of disbelief they gave her. Anger too, but I couldn’t blame them for that.