of the coming day. Their hands worked together, the movements urgent.
That was when he felt it—danger, deep and intense. It thrummed through him, a warning he couldn’t possibly ignore.
He straightened up quickly, careful not to rouse Charity beside him. Dillon, who lay on his other side, snapped his eyes open and lifted his head to see what was wrong, quickly noticing the dual-mages at the front of the cave.
After pushing to his feet and stepping over the furry bodies of his pack members, who woke up one by one, Devon stopped at the mouth of the cave beside the dual-mages. His bones practically rattled with the pulse of warning just outside.
“The wards have been tripped,” Penny said quietly, her hands still moving. “We’re trying to invert our magic so a magical person can’t see or feel it. I think what we’re doing is going to work.”
“It’ll work,” Emery said, barely loud enough for even Devon to hear.
“What creature, do you know?” Devon asked as the pack roused.
Penny shook her head. “Being that there are a lot of magical creatures in this neck, and I don’t know the feel of any of them, I couldn’t build any sort of identifier into the spell.”
“This far into the wilds, it could be a handful of creatures, most of them not looking for trouble,” Emery said.
“I sense danger.” Devon peered out into the thick trees and brush directly in front of them before trying to see to the sides. The small, overgrown path they’d used to get to the cave curved off to the left. If someone was on it, they were excellent at stealth, because even with improved shifter senses, Devon couldn’t hear or smell anything out of the ordinary.
“How do you feel?” Penny asked.
Devon took stock of himself. His feet ached and sleep dragged at his eyes, but he wasn’t as tired as before. This was manageable. Although he wasn’t in his wolf form, he was healing up at his usual rapid rate.
Which meant…
He dashed to Charity’s side and pressed two fingers to her neck. Her pulse thumped like a jackrabbit. He felt her forehead and sucked in a breath. She was burning up.
“She’s cutting me off, somehow,” Devon whispered. “I don’t feel the gush of her magic.”
“I can’t…” Penny sounded frustrated. “I have to finish this before I can help.”
“Yasmine, change,” Devon commanded softly, knowing Yasmine’s mom worked as a nurse in the Brink.
Yasmine met Devon at Charity’s side. Her eyes widened as she pressed a hand to Charity’s forehead.
“Did we bring any ibuprofen?” she asked. Devon shook his head. Shifters never needed it—he hadn’t thought Charity might. “Bring her some water. She needs to stay hydrated. If we have a cold compress, that would help, too.”
“Go,” Emery said to Penny. “I can finish this.”
A twig snapped outside of the cave. Everyone froze, turning that way.
A soft rustle, so quiet that Devon wondered if his ears were playing tricks, sounded to the right. After a brief pause, he heard it again. Adrenaline coursed through his body. Magic drifted around him, everything in him saying he needed to change. Danger was right outside. But if he did that, he couldn’t communicate with Charity or the mages.
Charity moaned and thrashed her head to the side. Devon grimaced and gently shook her awake. She moaned again and rolled her head the other way. Her eyes fluttered.
He shook a little harder. Her eyes fluttered again, but she didn’t rouse.
Fear punched him.
“Penny,” he said, barely able to keep his voice low.
“I’m here.” Penny wove through the furry shifters. All of them were standing now, their hackles rising. She lowered to her knees beside Charity and closed her eyes. A crease formed between her eyebrows. “It feels like…” She hesitated.
Emery’s hands continued to weave through invisible air as he held his position near the cave mouth. A footfall, closer, ran a tingle up Devon’s spine.
“It feels like a bomb.” Penny’s eyes blinked open, and her worried gaze churned Devon’s stomach. “It feels like her magic is getting ready to explode.”
“Fix that energy-sharing link,” Devon said.
“Shhhh!” Emery pushed his hands outward, then acted like he was smearing butter across the cave opening. “That should help deaden our sound, but something’s out there.”
Devon didn’t waste time looking over his shoulder. He stared hard at Penny. “Fix the link,” he whispered, the sound barely riding his breath.
The lack of volume didn’t matter one bit. She felt his alpha magic and jerked back as if slapped. She bent immediately, her hands