swooping toward Jeff. The fool held out his arms, as though he were about to receive an embrace.
“Come to me! I’m ready!” he cried.
“I wouldn’t watch...we are very hungry tonight,” Murdock’s voice murmured in her ear. She felt his hand, ice cold, stroke the length of her arm. As Jeff’s tortured scream rose into the night sky, his body beginning to convulse as more shadows descended upon him, cocooning his body in red-tinged darkness, Mia somehow found it within her to run.
She heard Murdock’s surprised snarl as she broke away, springing back through the fire with a grace and speed she had felt the night she’d chased Jeff into the woods. Adrenaline surged, snapping her out of the horrible lethargy she’d been afflicted with. She barely felt her feet hitting the ground as she ran, and a terrible hope filled her. Maybe she could get away. Maybe the wolves were close enough to save her. Maybe...
A massive shadow swooped down from the sky, heading straight for her. Mia threw up her hands, poor protection at best, her body going rigid in anticipation of the strike. Incredibly, the shadow stopped short, drifting just out of reach. Now that it was closer, she could see the hint of red eyes, and they were narrowed, all its attention focused on the wolf. Her wolf.
“Jenner.” She knew it was him, even though she’d only seen him in this form once before, and briefly. Her heart knew it was him. And the knowledge brought with it such relief that it nearly took her down. All that had happened, all she’d been through, faded away in the face of the only things she knew to be true: Jenner was alive. He was here.
Out of the corner of her eye, Mia saw another wolf, sleek and red, streak out of the forest like a phantom and round the edge of the circle. Looking to flank Murdock, Mia thought. But she had a terrible feeling that even lacking full substance in this world, Murdock would be no easy prey. The Shadowkin warrior looked furious.
“Wolf! Shadow hunter! You’re too late!”
As the one shadow drifted back, Jenner coiled around her legs to face Murdock. He didn’t look at her, didn’t make a sound. But the warm security of his touch was more than enough reassurance for now. She was no longer on her own. Despite everything, Jenner had come for her. Mia wanted to throw her arms around him so badly it hurt.
“You,” Murdock snarled. “You came for her abductor, yes? We’ve already taken care of him, I’m afraid. There’s none left for you. I suggest you run back to your fellow wolves and tell them to hide. We’ll enjoy the game. See how you like being hunted. At least it will be a challenge, unlike this one.”
He jerked his head at where Jeff lay on the ground. Mia sucked in a breath at the sight of him as the Shadowkin that had targeted him swooped into the air and headed back into the swarm of its brethren. Jeff was sheet-white, and appeared to have been completely drained of blood. Mia pressed a hand against her mouth as nausea rolled through her. A man she had just seen walking and talking was now a dried-up corpse. She managed to dredge up a small, very small, amount of pity. He’d been so broken.
Murdock held out his hand to her, even as the shadow he had sent to fetch her continued to hang back in the face of Jenner’s furious growling.
“Come to me, Mia. Make this easy. He’s going to die. They’re all going to. You can live forever.”
“I would rather die with them, then!” she cried, her fear replaced with a sudden fury.
Murdock’s face contorted as he bared sharp, jagged teeth. “You should be honored! We share the Unseelie blood, you and I! I was favored by our queen once, long ago, before she cast me out! We are the same!”
“We are nothing alike!” she spat. Jenner’s presence seemed to have returned her fully to herself, giving her a strength she wouldn’t have felt otherwise. Her blood heated in her veins. She would have to be careful, Mia realized. So careful not to let it get the better of her. The moon was nearly full, and she sensed the increasingly frantic stirrings of the beast now within her. She couldn’t let her anger goad her into making the change and turning feral forever. Not when Jenner had come back to her,