into a mating you didn’t want. So we can’t shy away from this. Look in your heart. Your soul. You know I’m right. You know this is what we were meant for.”
The wall behind Archer started to shimmer. It happened in an instant. Archer threw me behind him, shifting in a split second. His wolf crouched low, growling at the threat.
For a moment, the light blinded me. Then, my fire rose up.
J.C. towered over the both of us. His magic expanded, making him seem like a giant.
“Time’s up,” he said. “You had your little fun with Krall. Did you think I wouldn’t come back to remind you who you work for?”
“I work for the Ring,” I said, putting a hand on Archer’s head. I felt his bloodlust pouring through him. It clouded my vision. I struggled to keep my cloaking magic in place. Every defensive spell I knew pushed against it.
Danger. Threat. Attack.
“You. Work. For. Me!” J.C. said. “I found you. I made you. I gave you the wolf. I can take him away.”
Archer’s heartbeat fluttered. J.C. threw a spell at him I didn’t recognize. It came from something otherworldly. Not earth, wind, water or fire. The tendrils of it squeezed Archer’s heart. His eyes bulged. His magic went haywire. J.C. had him suspended between wolf and man. Agony tore through Archer.
“Stop!” I screamed. “Stop it. You’ll kill him.”
“Yes!” J.C. shouted. “I’ll kill him. I’ve always had the power to kill him. Don’t you ever forget it.”
Archer let out a strangled howl that tore my heart in two. J.C. strengthened his grip on Archer’s heart.
My fire burst out of me. Without it, Archer would die. As J.C. focused his energy on torturing Archer, I let loose a blast of the strongest magic I had.
My fire caught J.C. in the chest, throwing him back against the wall. Archer collapsed beside me, J.C.’s grip broken. Fire and lightning poured out of J.C.’s mouth and eyes.
He threw his own bolt of magic back at me. I flew backward and hit the table behind me, shattering it.
“Witch!” J.C. screamed. “Your fire!”
He knew. My God. Of course he knew now. I struggled to my feet, ready to send another column of flame right into his eyes.
I didn’t see Archer move. As J.C. gathered his strength, Archer’s wolf arced high above him. His teeth bared, he landed on J.C.’s chest. It was a split second. A one-in-a-million shot. Alpha wolf versus fae magic. J.C. didn’t have a chance to counter before Archer sank his teeth into his neck and ripped him apart.
In the throes of death, J.C. sent a bolt of lightning out from his fingertips. It went wild, crackling against the ceiling. Then, J.C.’s light started to go out.
I got to my feet and yanked Archer off J.C.
“He can still kill,” I gasped. Sure enough, J.C.’s body was wracked with spasms. Heat and light poured out of him.
I don’t know what made me do it, but I grabbed him by the shoulders. As his light faded, I felt my chances to hurt the Ring dwindling too.
He locked eyes with me. J.C.’s lips were moving. He was trying to tell me something. He pulled me down, pressing his lips to my ear.
“Phaedra!” Archer growled. He’d come back into himself.
J.C.’s words scraped across my brain like sandpaper. I heard them with my heart.
No. God. No. As J.C. told me his dying secret, the flash drive we’d stolen became meaningless. J.C. used his last words to hurt Archer a final time. I knew the truth might kill him.
17
Archer
“We have to get you out of here,” I said. Phaedra leaned over J.C.’s body. He was dead. I’d nearly bitten his head clean off. For as lithe as they are, it turns out fae, even half-fae, bleed more than you’d think. It spread out beneath him in a crimson pool. It had that same glittery substance he’d put in the syringes he pumped into spellheads.
“Phaedra,” I said. “Let’s go. Krall and Moren are gonna figure out what happened here. We can’t stay. I’m sorry.”
I went to her. She felt ice cold as I pulled her away from J.C. His body distorted, flickering like an old television set with bad reception.
“He’s... going,” she said. She reached for him one last time, but he wasn’t exactly corporeal anymore.
“I don’t care,” I said. And I didn’t. To hell with wherever fae go when they die. As long as they go.
“Archer,” she said, her voice ragged.
“No time,” he said. “They’re coming. I can feel