“What’s your choice?” he asked, the blue light dancing in his hand growing just a little bit stronger.

  “First, tell your friend to join us,” the hunter said, turning toward me.

  She wore a velvet hood that covered up much of her face, but from the side, she looked young and pretty. When she turned her face toward me, though, I recoiled at the other half of her face, rotting with her cheekbone and half her forehead showing through the decaying skin.

  “Show yourself,” she said, pointing a long, skeletal finger directly toward where I hid behind the debris of another ship.

  Damn. So much for the element of surprise.

  I lifted my hands into the air in surrender and slowly stepped into view.

  Jackson’s shoulders dropped at the sight of me, whether from relief to see me alive or fear that I was caught, I couldn’t be sure.

  “Why do you cower in the shadows?” she asked. A long tendril of dark hair striped with silver cascaded down her shoulders, but she had no weapon that I could see. “You did not escape from the conclave. Where do you come from?”

  The conclave? So, there were survivors here. The fact that she used the word escape didn’t bode well for their safety, though.

  Had hunters taken over this entire continent? The only marking I could see on this one’s robes was some kind of symbol I hadn’t seen before, embroidered onto the back of the robe in a silver, shimmering thread.

  A rune maybe?

  “We don’t mean any harm to anyone,” I said, keeping my hands raised and the flow of my power just beneath the surface. “We crashed our ship, and I just woke up over there down the beach. I was looking for my brother, that’s all.”

  The hunter narrowed her eyes at me, glancing back and forth between Jackson and myself, her eyes lingering on the bright blue light Jackson still carried in his palm.

  “How is it that you carry a flame in this place?” she asked. ““No demon can cast such powerful magic here. Not for centuries.”

  My mouth grew dry at the thought. No casting for centuries?

  I drew an unsteady breath. Something terrible had happened here.

  Was that the purpose of this storm? To dampen the magic of the demons who lived here?

  And if so, how could Jackson and I still use our power?

  The thought of it nearly took my breath away. Some part of me understood it, but I wasn’t ready to admit it yet. I needed to know the truth.

  “We do not wish to fight with you,” I said, lifting my bloodied chin as if I were royalty on this foreign soil. “We simply need time to repair our ship so we can go home.”

  The hunter turned full toward me then, flashing a sinister smile.

  “I do not know who you are or how you are able to wield such power in this place, but I can assure you this,” she said, inching closer to me. “In all my years of service to the goddess, no one has ever left this storm, and you, young one, will not be the first. Not on this day of all days.”

  With that, she lifted one hand into the air and screamed.

  A stream of lightning reached down from the dark and swirling clouds, as if she had commanded it from inside the storm itself. In fear, I backed away, breathless as she turned, holding a bolt of pure lightning in her hand like a spear.

  Asleep My Entire Life

  Jackson

  Any relief I’d felt at seeing Aerden alive and standing upright was destroyed in an instant when the hunter who’d obviously been put in charge of this group literally called down a lightning bolt from the storm to use as her personal weapon.

  What the hell were we dealing with here?

  I’d fought a lot of hunters in my time, but I’d never once seen one do something like this.

  And apparently she wasn’t the only one with that capability.

  Several of the others standing in a circle screamed and drew down their own lightning spears, which meant Aerden and I didn’t have much time to figure out how exactly we were going to defend ourselves against this madness.

  It was obvious this storm was doing something to our powers. Just standing here, I could feel some of the strength draining from me, but healing my arm or holding the light in my palm made it seem like this place was siphoning the power directly from my body.

  How much longer could I keep this up before all of my power was gone?

  And once it was gone, would I ever be able to get it back?

  The hunter had said no one had cast magic here in centuries.

  I almost didn’t want to think about the implications of that statement. Did that mean there were demons here in this continent? Survivors of whatever had taken place here?

  Demons who no longer had access to any of their own power?

  The idea of it brought prickles of fear along my skin.

  We needed to survive this attack if only so we could figure out what was going on in this place. Otherwise, I had a feeling the tragedy of this entire kingdom might be what the Order of Shadows had in store for our own kingdoms.

  I knew what it was like to have my power stripped away, only to have those above me dictate my every move.

  I would never let something like that happen again.

  Not to me, and not to the demons and witches I had sworn to defend.

  So, basically, we needed to put an end to this group of hunters as quickly as possible and then pray we could either find some of these possible survivors or a way back through that storm.

  The silver-haired hunter reared back and threw the bolt of lightning toward Aerden, but before the shock of white-hot energy could reach him, he shifted to shadow, quickly flying around to the back of the circle.

  How had he managed to shift? I’d thought that part of our power was lost to us, but I realized suddenly that my own ability to shift was back, too. I could feel it pulsing there in my core.

  I followed his lead, shifting and flying between two hunters to catch up with my brother.

  “Nice of you to come rescue me,” I said.

  Standing next to him, I realized he was the source of my demon power returning to me. I couldn’t explain why or how I knew, but we were stronger together, and I was grateful he was here.

  “Here,” Aerden said, lifting something from the sand and throwing it toward me.

  His original axe.

  How had he even known it was here? And where was the other one?

  I didn’t have time to question him, because another bolt of lightning flashed in the semi-darkness of the stormy beach.

  Aerden and I locked eyes in that second, and something inside me ignited.

  Hope.

  Power that had long been dormant, as if some part of me had been asleep my entire life.

  We both had access to something neither one of us really understood or fully knew how to use, but one thing was obvious.

  We were in this together, and together, we could do anything.

  He nodded, and I smiled, lifting my hand and summoning a bright blue wall of energy like a massive shield around us. Aerden had created something similar to surround us as we passed through the giant barrier of storms around this continent, and I had a feeling that energy shield was the only reason we were standing here alive and still able to use our powers.

  Three blinding flashes of lightning hit the barrier I’d created, bringing it down. But the moment the light disappeared, I could feel it being pulled from me, as though the magic itself was attached to the core of my power with a tight string.

  A teardrop-sized remnant of the blue light zipped through the air toward the silver-streaked hunter, and her eyes widened with greed and hunger as the light disappeared into a large, round diamond amulet hanging around her neck.

  I hadn’t noticed it before, but now that it had consumed some piece of my magical power, the diamond glowed from within.

  The hunters standing all moved toward us, their expression ravenous.

  “What the hell just happened?” Aerden asked.

  “I think that diamond around her neck just ate my power,” I said.

  It had awakened something in that leading hunter, too, because her jaw dropped open and she hissed at the other hunters like a feral cat. She raised her arms in the air, spreading her robe out like black wings against the dark and stormy sky.

  The other, lesser hunters lowered their heads and backed away as she flew around them in the center of the circle, hissing and screeching at them.

  “They’re mine,” she said, finally turning her eyes on us. She seemed to grow about six inches taller in the process of claiming us.

  “Well, this should be fun,” Aerden mumbled. “Maybe give me that axe back.”

  I actually loved the heft of this axe, and the confidence it seemed to strike within me, but Aerden was right. He could wield this mighty, double-headed axe with one hand, while I needed two just to control it.

  Until we could figure out where the second axe was, it was more dangerous in his hands than mine.

  I handed it over and focused my mind on the ocean water steps away, conjuring a frozen spear from the waves and drawing it into my hand.

  The hunter called down another bolt of lightning and threw it toward us.

  With no time to cast a barrier, Aerden and I both shifted and split up, moving around the hunter until we were on opposite sides of the beach. Luckily, none of the other hunters around the perimeter stepped in to attack.

  I didn’t fully understand the hierarchy here, but at the moment, it seemed to be working in our favor that this particular hunter wanted us all to herself.

  Her lightning struck the spot where we’d been standing, the energy still sizzling and sparkling across the black grains of sand as I rushed toward her with my icy spear. I aimed for her neck, but she moved a lot faster than I expected, twisting around to the side, knocking me off balance.

  Aerden caught my eye, and I could practically hear him chastising me. This was exactly what he’d been teaching me not to do all those days on the ship.

  As if to show me up, he teased the hunter with a dim glow of amber light dancing across his fingertips. She took the bait, her eyes ravenous as they caught the light of his power.

  She wanted it so badly, she was willing to do anything to get it, like a starved animal.

  Calling down another lightning bolt, she lunged forward, unleashing it toward Aerden. But he was ready for her, already anticipating her movements before she’d decided to make them.

  She only leaned forward for a second, but he used it to his full advantage, flying around her left side and slicing his axe across the now-exposed side of her body. The hunter screamed as blood poured from her side like black acid, her voice reverberating inside my head and making me involuntarily have to cover my ears.

  But not Aerden.

  He was graceful and swift, never missing a beat as the hunter turned on him, gathering her own magic in her hands this time with raw fury in her dark eyes.

  Just before she unleashed a spell that seemed to be made of some thick tar-like substance, Aerden met my eyes for a brief moment and flicked them toward her back. We had practiced this move on the ship, but I’d never actually used it in combat before.

  But he trusted me, and I was not going to let my brother down.

  It all happened in an instant, but Aerden and I moved as one.

  The hunter flung her tar-like spell toward him, and he shifted easily, dodging the mass and throwing the hunter off-balance by flying close to her again. She tried to turn, scared now of the axe he wielded in his left hand and completely oblivious to the fact that I’d now positioned myself and a newly-conjured frozen spear behind her.

  I aimed for her heart and buried the tip of the spear in her back, putting so much force behind the motion that it pierced straight through her. Her scream of surprise was cut off instantly as Aerden reformed and sliced through her neck with a single motion.

  The hunter’s head fell onto the sand, her face still screwed up in a grimace of horror and shock.

  Aerden and I instantly moved back-to-back, ready to deflect further attacks from whatever hunter decided they wanted our power next.

  But instead of attacking us, the hunters fled in horror, their screams growing distant until they were eventually drowned out by the sound of the storm and the crashing waves at our feet.

  “What are the chances they’re gone for good?” I asked.

  “Slim to none,” Aerden said, wiping the blade of his axe across the dark robes of the fallen hunter. “Most likely they’re going for help, and we need to be gone when they come back.”

  “Then let’s find as much of our stuff as we can and get the hell out of here,” I said, wanting to shift to shadow and look around the beach for our bags and other supplies, but at the same time understanding that the more we used our power, the faster it would be taken from us.

  We searched the wreckage there on the beach as quickly as we could, but we’d only found a single backpack, a couple bottles of water, and a handful of Aerden’s books, now soaked through and ruined.

  I loaded the water and any other supplies I could find into the backpack. As I passed by the decaying body of the dead hunter, I reached down and ripped a piece of fabric from the hem of her robe.

  “What are you doing?” Aerden asked.

  I nodded toward the diamond amulet lying abandoned in the sand. It might come in handy later. Besides, some of my power was now trapped inside that diamond, and I wanted to see if I could find a way to get it out.

  I wrapped the fabric around the amulet and secured it into the front pocket of the backpack just as the sound of hunters’ screams echoed in the wind.

  “We gotta move,” I said, glancing up at Aerden to see that he was practically frozen in place, his eyes locked on the single source of light we could see on the continent.

  He seemed to be mesmerized by it, and if I was being honest, something about it called out to me, too. Whatever was over there, it was incredibly powerful.

  No, not just powerful.

  It was familiar.

  I secured the straps of the bag across my shoulders and immediately conjured a fresh weapon made of ice from the waves.

  “What is it?” Aerden asked, nodding toward the light in the distance.

  “I’m not sure,” I said, wincing as another set of screams sounded on the wind. “But we need to get off this beach. Come on, let’s go see if we can figure out what happened on this continent and how the hell we’re going to get home.”

  Rule Me Or Ruin Me

  Harper

  As the familiar trees and forested areas around Brighton Lake came into view, my heartbeat settled slightly.

  We were almost home, and everything was going to be okay. It had been a very long day, and I was looking forward to gathering everyone together and talking through our next steps. I needed my community around me, so we could figure this out together.

  While I was definitely interested in knowing more about Sabine and even talking to her if I had the opportunity, I had basically talked myself out of confronting her alone.

  I was angry, but I wasn’t dumb enough to walk into the Swamp of Nightmares by myself.

  “Hey, Sabine, I know this is your domain of terror and you could kill me in the blink of an eye, but are you the High Priestess? Just wondering.”

  That definitely wasn’t going to work.

  Part of me was hoping that I’d get home to find Jackson and Aerden had gotten in touch with Angela since I’d been out of contact, saying they were fine and on their way home. Maybe I was freaking out for nothing.

  I descended to the tops of the trees and then slowly navigated deeper into the forest, flying one pass around Brighton Lake, just to make sure everything looked good and safe. I also wanted to be sure we hadn’t been followed.

  I didn’t notice anything alarming from above.

  They had obviously gotten Franki’s message to increase security, because there were at least twice the normal number of guards stationed around the command center and in the woods surrounding the lake.

  Cormac stood just outside the command center building, giving orders to a few soldiers who seemed to have just come through the rose portal.

  “Magda, are you ready to land?” I asked, unsure if she was even still awake.

  “Yes, thank goodness,” she said, her voice tense and nervous.

  “Here we go.”

  Relieved, I descended quickly, landing just outside the stone wall that circled the roses.

  As soon as I took human form, several of the guards started walking our way while another called out to Cormac. He waved and motioned for the soldiers to stay put.

  I helped Magda get steady on her feet. I knew from experience how disorienting it could be to travel such a long distance in a form that felt so unnatural to you. The first time I’d had to do that was after the Halloween Ball when I’d attacked Lydia Ashworth right there in front of everyone. Jackson left everything behind to take me away that night, and I could still remember just how strange it felt to be back on solid ground after he’d carried me across the country in shadow form.

  “Not so bad, right?” I said.

  Magda looked a bit green, to be honest, and she kept one hand on my shoulder. “Oh, Harper, please let’s not do that again for a very long time, dear, I—”

  An explosion rocked the forest, knocking us both back at least fifteen feet. My body slammed against a tree, and I screamed in pain.

  I struggled to draw a breath, and my vision blurred from the power of the blast, but I didn’t have the luxury of recovery time. We were under attack again, and it was most likely my fault for being stupid enough to come back here.

  I gritted my teeth against a sharp pain in my shoulder and pulled myself to a low crouch behind the narrow pines. The entire command center area around the rose portal was in chaos.

  Smoke rose from some kind of bomb or spell that had gone off near the main command center. It seemed to have taken out part of the wall, and a witch lay motionless on the ground near where the gate had been.