He raised his hand toward us, tattoos bursting brightly.
A wave of magic bowled over us in a great storm, rocking us off our feet. We landed roughly on the ground as it continued to push against us. It tore at our skin. Jessie tried to pick herself up but was thrown back toward Tanner and Chris.
Ox gritted his teeth as he pushed himself up, fighting against the rising winds. Joe rose behind him, pressing against his back, pushing them both forward. Mark curled around Gordo to keep him from flying back.
Rico held on to my leg as I dug my fingers into the earth.
Livingstone reached down and grabbed Carter by the hair again, pulling him up as if he weighed nothing. Carter was too weak to fight him off. Kelly struck at Livingstone’s legs, but it did nothing.
Above the raging winds, I heard Livingstone say, “I am sorry for this, child. But this is the price you must pay for all that your family has done to mine. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten.”
The markings on his arm began to move, and Carter screamed, body jerking as if electrified. The tattoos crawled up Livingstone’s arm, and they were dark, the magic black and wicked.
Elizabeth cried out for her son as the tattoos hit Livingstone’s hand and moved toward Carter’s open mouth.
Something shot past me, quicker than I could follow.
Carter fell to the ground as the storm ceased.
I blinked slowly.
Livingstone kicked as he was raised into the air, a large hand covering his face, claws cutting into his skin.
A man stood before him, the white and gray and brown hair of a timber wolf receding from his neck and shoulders as he shifted toward human. He was almost as tall as Kelly, his dark hair long and ragged as it fell on his shoulders. The thin muscles in his arms and legs quivered. His face was twisted in fury. It took me a moment to realize what—who—this was. He looked like the man he held writhing in his grasp, like the witch lying on the ground next to me, albeit a younger version.
Gavin snarled, “Don’t. Touch. Him.”
And then he threw his father as hard as he could. Livingstone flew backward, and the moment before he struck the remains of a smoldering house behind him, I saw the look on his face.
Betrayal.
He hit the house, sparks and flames rising up as the house collapsed.
Impossibly, ridiculously, Carter whispered through a mouthful of blood, “Oh shit. I think I’m bisexual.”
Before anyone could react to that, or this new wolf-turned-human who had saved us all, the remains of the house Livingstone had crashed through exploded, debris whipping out around us.
Gavin fell on top of Carter and Kelly, shielding them from the blast.
Livingstone rose from the fire.
“You’ve taken them from me,” he said, stepping back out onto the ground. “Gordo. Robbie. Gavin. All now with the Bennetts. Everything that was mine, you’ve taken from me!” He raised his hands toward us, the storm beginning to build again.
I looked to Kelly, wanting the last thing I saw in this world to be his face.
lovelovelove, he whispered to me, my heartsong.
Livingstone took a lurching step forward as a wolf reared up behind him, claws digging into his neck and back, eyes burning red.
Michelle Hughes.
She opened her mouth wide, and then her jaws closed over his shoulder.
The bite of an Alpha.
To a witch.
She jerked her head side to side.