“Do it now.” His eyes flashed fire as a flurry of slamming doors sounded from the floor above us, before the beat of running footsteps. “They’re coming. It’s only a matter of time before they’re here.”

My hands shook as I combined the three spells that I thought might crack the glowing blue cuffs. My breathing was no longer controlled, and my heart was racing like a beast. No time. I had no time to do this.

Calling upon the magic deep inside me, I summoned it. An ocean of power responded, and I began whispering two spells, then interwove them with a third. I tugged at my magic more, knowing that I would need all of it to break through the cuffs.

My power sizzled and grew, rising inside me as I coaxed it from every fiber of my being. That’s it. More. More. A little more.

The cuffs began to dissolve. They sizzled and thinned, and I called upon my magic again. I needed just a little bit more.

“Tala! Help me, please, help me!” My sister’s cry cut through my concentration, just as she let out a scream.

Tessa! My eyes whipped up, panic firing through me, and then a hammer of foreign heat and intense magic slammed into me so hard that I flew back.

Fuck! My head cracked against the wall—thankfully not the one on fire—as my magic swirled down inside me, like water draining from a tub. And then, it was gone.

I groaned as any control I’d had dissolved as the hunter’s foreign power pummeled into me again and again.

“Not this again.” The Fire Wolf bowed over, a strained expression twisting his features.

I staggered back up. Fuck a duck. Yep, I’d just pulled on his magic.

Breathe. Calm down. Stop pulling his power.

I forced myself to close my eyes and take deep breaths. Calm. I needed calm.

“Are you okay?” the hunter rasped.

“Just super,” I whispered hoarsely as I crawled back to his side, even though his magic was still hitting me, slamming into me in unrelenting waves. Fuuuuuuuuck, the dude was powerful, and since I was struggling for that calmness that I’d had when I’d been battling the others, it was hitting me at full onslaught.

“Leave me here,” he bit out, a grimace twisting his face. “Get your sister and go.”

My stomach dropped as anger fired through me. “Not happening.”

The sound of running feet reached my ears again, except this time it sounded down the hall, near the stairwell. They were getting closer.

“Tala! Go!”

“No!” I snarled. I closed my eyes and again called upon that place deep inside me, the place I retreated to when I needed to think and exist with nothing and no one interfering with my magic. Inhale in, exhale out. One. Two. Inhale in, exhale out.

Slowly, so slowly, the pulsing magic ripping through me from the Fire Wolf slowed.

“I’ll try again.” I panted. “Just hold still.”

Thankfully, my new power had stopped draining him and filling me. He gave a curt nod, his chest rising as unsteadily as mine, then gave me his back and the cuffs.

I was about to try breaking the cuffs again when the sorcerer who’d escaped suddenly appeared at the doorway with a dozen other supernaturals behind him.

My lips parted in fear.

Escaping was no longer an option.

The Fire Wolf surged to his feet, his entire body blocking me just as the group advanced. Spells came at us so fast that I thought for certain we were dead, but in the next moment, I realized that none of them were hitting us.

My eyes widened when I sensed the shield spell the Fire Wolf had woven around us. His jaw clenched, his muscles straining, and I could only imagine the amount of power it was taking to keep the group from descending on us with those half-dissolved cuffs wrapped around him.

“Break. The. Cuffs. Now.” He panted between each word as the black flames along the wall began to grow again.

Too much. Too much was happening, and we were losing control.

“Can’t,” he rasped heavily. “Cuff’s still draining my magic. Can’t hold them. And control burn.” Veins popped in his neck.

Shit. Even though I’d weakened the cuffs, they were still draining him too much. Break them, Tala. Break them now! I crouched down just as a crack appeared in his shield. A spell shot through it.

The Fire Wolf roared, his entire body rippling as spells, fangs, daggers, and swords came at us from every angle as the group did their best to hack down the hunter’s defenses.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

And that was when I knew.

We were out of time.

And only one thing could set us free.

An avalanche of despair hit me and buried me at once. I had no choice.

I’m sorry, Mom.

Another curse shot by as one of the sorcerers put a second hole in the hunter’s shield spell, and a fireball lobbed by a half-demon shot inside it, setting the carpet ablaze.

The hunter lurched back as my forbidden magic swirled to life inside me. I concentrated on my breathing, knowing I needed to maintain control since I had one shot, and one shot only at this.

“Get ready!” I yelled to him as another spell tore through his shield. “I’m going to strengthen your power and you’ll need to act immediately!” Before he could reply, I gathered the unique magic trapped inside me, calling upon those coiling strands of power and light. My whole body vibrated and warmed, as though expanding and heating to accommodate the awesome power.

It hummed and swelled, flowing down my arms to my wrists as I directed all of it at my hunter.

Now.

My magic shot into him as the lid on the well to my forbidden power burst wide open like a geyser. My power flooded his body, multiplying his power a thousand-fold until he became a conduit for death and darkness.

The Fire Wolf’s head whipped back as black flames shot across his skin, and with a snap of his wrists, the glowing blue bindings shattered as if they’d been as thin as brittle glass.

I flew backward, putting as much distance between me and the Fire Wolf as I could. Sweat poured down my face as I struggled to keep my forbidden magic flowing into him, but he didn’t waste any time.

In a flurry of movements too fast for me to see, the blazing Fire Wolf became a literal hurricane. He obliterated the supernaturals surrounding us, turning into a whirling blur of vengeance and snarls, heat and fire—a living being of destruction and cataclysmic power.

My head grew fuzzy just as my magic began to fizzle out. Ragged breaths made my chest rise and fall as the well of my magic began to run dry.

I blinked, then blinked again as I surveyed our surroundings.

The Fire Wolf stood in the center of the room, his huge frame covered in flames. A dark light filled his eyes, and a twisted smile curved his lips. Around him was a sea of blood and flesh, hair and robes.

Everyone was dead.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you enjoyed that,” I said weakly.

Somehow, I managed to drag myself to my feet, but in a flash, the hunter was there, hooking my arm around his shoulders and half-carrying me out.

We flew out the door and down the hall as the room we’d been in exploded into black flames.

A large steel door barred our way at the end of the hall, but my forbidden magic hadn’t fully worn off yet from the hunter, and he slammed a fist straight through it before twisting and yanking it off its hinges.

“Impressive,” I managed to say as the fog in my head grew.

His worried-looking eyes shot to mine just before we raced through the door. I was completely limp now, fully dependent on him carrying me. My vision grew in and out of focus, but I managed to assess the cages along the walls with prowling supernaturals locked behind their thick bars. Seven. There were at least seven supernaturals locked in this room.