When I was a little girl, I used to have nightmares about my parents dying. I used to dream of dark caskets being lowered deep into the ground. I couldn’t see them, but I knew it was them.

“Don’t cry,” Daddy used to say as he held me. “It was only a dream.”

Until it wasn’t.

I blink my eyes against my bleak surroundings, staring at the pull ropes and heavy curtains for what seems like too long. What happened to my parents was a nightmare that came true, all because long ago, when the world first began, Evil and Good decided to battle it out, and Good determined we would stand among its warriors.

I turn in the direction of the stage, my lightning cracking against my fingers as my balled hands open wide. Too many times I’ve wished for my daddy to hold me again, to wrap me in his protection and love, to assure me that all the bad was just a dream and only good awaited now.

Except this isn’t a nightmare. It’s my fucking reality where I have to choose between a young man’s life and children yet to be born.

It should be an easy choice. I’ve known Johnny a handful of weeks. These are my children I’m speaking of, our children, mine, Shayna’s, Emme’s, and Celia’s. Celia who is already carrying the fate of the future in her womb—

Fate.

There’s a word.

No, there’s a person.

God help me. No matter how easy this choice should be, it’s not.

I step on stage. Johnny’s fans are so mesmerized by his melodious voice, they don’t notice me. They don’t even notice the call of wolves, surrounding the arena. From every side a wolf is howling, alerting their kind it’s time to fight.

Something is wrong. Gemini called it.

And it’s up to me to make it right.

“T!” Shayna yells from the other side of stage, the swords she holds in each hand elongating. “Shifters and neophytes are invading the arena, we have to get Johnny out of here . . .”

I stop noticing her, my focus completely on Johnny as my lightning charges and the spark within me surges like a wicked storm. One strike, that’s all it will take given the gamut of electrical energy crackling the air and readying to unleash.

But while Johnny’s fans don’t see me, he does.

His face is turned in my direction, his features sullen as thick tears soak my skin.

“The devil comes out to play,” he sings.

The peacock tat on his belly comes to life, much to the “oo’s” and “ah’s” of Johnny’s audience.

“Sometimes he needs to stay,” Johnny sings.

The peacock looks at me and spreads its wings. What appear to be rocks roll from the eyes of the feathers as it shakes them out.

“To hear my will and help me be.”

They stop at my feet. I see them. I do. But I see my target more.

Johnny finishes the melody, drawing out the last two words. “And to give your lives to protect me.”

The rocks at my feet tip from side to side, tilting up, revealing empty eye sockets and missing teeth.

Skulls.

Just like in my damn visions.

Fuck you, Johnny Fate.

They clatter across the stage as more fall away from the tail feathers. They could be bombs, or something more. It doesn’t matter, they won’t be enough to stop me.

Bottom line, our babies are the ones who need to stay. Fate, his ass needs to go.

“This is how it’s going to be?” Johnny asks, his betrayed tone resonating across the arena. Ironic, seeing he’s the one betraying us.

“This is how it has to be,” I reply. My stare falls to his chest as the tat of the serpent circling the heart comes alive. It constricts the heart, holding it in place when it quivers and opening its maw wide.

Long fangs pierce the center, puncturing deep and making it bleed.

I fall backward, clenching my head when Destiny screams.

My hands slip through my hair and smack against the floor when the truth hits me at once. Destiny is the heart. Fate is the serpent.

I get it now, and does that shit ever make me move fast.

I scramble to my feet as the rafters shake above us, matching the increasing clamor from the skulls. I kick the skulls out of my way as a man dressed in black robes leaps on stage. I presume he’s a neophyte. I also presume he needs to die.

The strobe of light he carries expands in his hand, bleaching his wrinkled face and dark eyes as he spits out a curse. Shayna leaps in front of him, just missing the charge of lightning I send sailing, and slices his head off with her sword.

The strobe crashes against the stadium floor, exploding in a flood of power that flings her across the stage and tosses me against the far wall.

I don’t stop moving, my lightning shooting toward Johnny. I scream when it collides against the fans who throw themselves in its path.

Johnny is using his magic to seduce and lure his fans. Everyone in the audience is clamoring up on stage to shield him, climbing all over each other in their desperation to protect him.

I lose him in the crowd overtaking the stage, calling my fire when bodies in black armor form and rise beneath the skulls.

Shayna rushes to my side, ramming her sword into the eye socket of the warrior who lunges.

Her sword smokes and the skull splits in half. She yanks out the blade, gasping as the magic eats away at the metal. “What are they?” she asks, pushing her power into the blade so it mends and sharpens.

“Whatever Johnny wants them to be.” My lightning strikes, taking out the next few warriors who advance, as well as another human rushing to fight for Johnny.

“Damn it!” I yell.

“T, we can’t attack, not without killing the humans,” Shayna pleads. “They’ll die for him.”

“We don’t have a choice,” I say, tears dribbling down my cheeks. “Johnny has been draining Destiny’s power.” I lash out, jolting another warrior who charges and stunning a woman with long black hair. My lightning electrifies the piercings along her bottom lip, burning her mouth. I sob as she falls to the floor screaming.

“T, I can’t,” Shayna says, watching the woman clutching her face writhe in agony.

“Shayna, we have to.” I take a breath, trying to keep it together as I send more lightning soaring across the tightening expanse. “Destiny says if Johnny doesn’t die, our kids will meet their fate with death.”

Her face goes white. “Our kids?”

“Our babies, Shayna,” I rasp. “Just like we’ve stood by Celia, our children will stand with hers.”

She hesitates for just a moment before slashing her sword across the shoulders of three more warriors. Their bodies slump, their heads rolling away from them, and still more come.

I scan the arena, watching helplessly as Johnny’s fans lead him further away and Koda’s howl reverberates in the distance. “Where are the wolves?”

“With the shifters, T. There’s at least two and a whole army of neophytes.” She brings down her sword on the head of another warrior. The skull cracks and the body slumps, but these things are everywhere and drawing closer.

“We need to take out Johnny!” I holler over the growing chaos.

He’s almost to the door and all we’re doing is backing further away from him.

She slices the limbs off the warrior, trying to grab her. “We also need to get these people out of here.”

My lightning explodes two more skulls, their remains falling against a small man with a long beard. She’s right. We have to get the humans out. I just don’t know how.

The doors leading to the food court bust free from their metal frames when an elephant-sized grizzly bear demolishes its way through. Pack wolves cling to it, trying to bring it down. I know it’s a shifter, its immense size and the way it mows through the fans continuing to rush toward Johnny, proclaim it loud and clear.

The weres fighting it are not alone. Emme races in behind Bren’s large wolf form. Even from this distance she sees us, and her eyes lock on me. It’s the only warning I receive before she lifts me and Shayna with her force and hurls us at the arena floor.

Shayna howls, her high-pitched battle cry and the light reflecting from her spinning swords alerting everyone in the vicinity that she’s coming, she’s ready, and to get the hell out of her way unless they’re prepared to die.

From the moment my feet leave the floor, I’m screaming my mother-fucking head off.

Emme has bad aim. Horrible aim. Dear God, I’m going to die.

The floor packed with people comes at me at full speed. I crash into a beefy guy with way too many piercings, but just enough bulge to keep me from landing spread eagle with a splat.

Shayna descends doing some sort of flippy thing, housing her swords the minute her feet connect with the concrete, and reaching for her toothpicks.

I peel myself off the pleasantly plump guy, jerking my foot when he snags my ankle. “Don’t hurt Johnny!” he yells at me.

“Fuck off,” I yell at him.

I zap him with a jolt of lightning and crawl away, hurrying to my feet and taking point behind Shayna as those rising to protect Johnny close in.

Shayna converts the toothpicks into needles. They leave her hands faster than I can blink, clearing a path through the crowd herding Johnny closer toward the exit. Men and women rush by me, clutching their faces and trying to pull them out. I whirl out of their way, not wanting any part of them. It’s a disturbing sight and damn effective, the pain Shayna inflicts just enough to distract them from their quest and break Johnny’s spell.

I try to reduce the amount of lightning I release, but it’s damn hard to concentrate on lessening my power amidst the escalating chaos surrounding us. 

Bellows erupt and bits of ceiling rain down when the weres slam the giant grizzly into the base of the stage. They’re trying to keep the shifter away from the humans. Except the humans are everywhere.

And so are the neophytes.

Black smoke appears in swirl and a woman in dark robes materializes, her long staff aimed at Shayna.

I light her up with a siphon of flames, the intensity so strong sparks spray against the mob clustered around Johnny. It doesn’t do much damage, just enough to snag their attention and snap them free of Johnny’s hold.

I race around the burning witch, fighting against the panicked and shrieking people now trying to escape. Something hard hits me in the back of the head, knocking me down. I cut my hand on something sharp. Blood drips from my palm as I try to push up on my knees.

My nose is bleeding, too. I’m not sure why. Something doesn’t feel right and I can’t see well, my vision is fading in and out.

A foot connects with my face, the impact tossing me back to the floor. Blood pours out of my mouth and nose. I try to rise and put one foot under me when something else bangs into my shoulder.

People are everywhere. They ram me, kicking and trampling me. I curl inward, cocooning myself in my fire. It’s just enough to keep people off me and gives me a moment to gather my senses. I’m hurt and my stomach churns with nausea.

Except I can’t just fucking lay here.

I force myself to my feet, my stomach lurching when I push forward. Shayna is battling it out with another neophyte, dodging her curses as she reaches for her dagger. She flings her blade, puncturing the neophyte’s skull. I’m almost to them when the witch I set on fire grabs me, her eyes fierce and her skin only partially burned.

She yanks me to her, her fingers digging into my throat. “We will kill you,” she spits out, ignoring the swirls of my blue and white flames crisscrossing like ribbons across her face. “All of you.”

My fire has no effect on me and it’s only barely touching her. The protection wards around her body are strong and her hands are killing me. I gasp, choking as she clamps down.

Oh, and Sparky doesn’t like that one bit.

My right hand shoots out, snatching her by the throat and lifting her off the ground. I feel her neck crunch beneath my grasp as my fire builds and anger consumes me. She trembles, releasing me to smack at my hand. As I watch, the protection wards she built around herself break down. Her skin sizzles, crackling off in pieces.

“Burn, bitch,” I tell her. “Burn.”

Like a missal ignited in blue and white flames, my arm launches her. She soars into the second tier, the impact splitting the first few rows and caving in the second level.

Yet it’s Johnny who screams.

I stagger, the dizziness and pain I feel making it hard to keep my feet. Someone runs into me, then another someone, the collection of howls, shrieks, and sounds of destruction across the arena disorienting me further.

“Taran!”

I fall into Gemini’s arms. He cradles me and moves fast. I shiver as cold air strikes my face, the agony stabbing through my veins dulling and confusing my thoughts.

Behind us, something wails in torment and vicious growls erupt. Flesh tears and death fills the night. I think a wolf is dead, but then Gemini yells, “Take him down, now.”

I want to ask him what’s happening, but I struggle to form words. My body grows colder as my pain tucks the rest of the world away from me. I make out some words and sounds. Except I can’t see anything, my vision completely blurred.

“We have to kill Johnny,” I manage. “And Misha has to stay away.”

I try to tell him that Johnny is the one who’ll hurt our babies, that he’s sacrificing his fans to save himself, and plans to sacrifice Misha. It’s why Johnny wanted the weres to guard him, their magic makes them heartier tributes, and why he requested Misha to retrieve him. As the strongest vampire, Misha was the ultimate prize Johnny needed.

I think I tell Gemini. My lips move, but I can’t be sure I actually speak.

He seems to understand. So does Emme.

Her light streams across my cooling skin, easing the pain and sharpening my vision back into focus. My shoulders jerk when something in my face snaps and my ribs fasten into place. Based on what seeps out, my nose was bashed in. I swipe at it irritably as Gemini wrenches me to my feet.

Like me, he’s covered with blood. All the wolves are, their dense fur coated in crimson. The shifter is dead. I catch sight of his naked human body lying across the field, beside a were who didn’t make it.

We’re far from the arena. I can see it from the edge of the forest where we stand. Blue and white flames eat through the roof and the left side is partially collapsed.

“What happened?” I say, stunned by how quickly my fire has overtaken the building.

“Your arm’s magic and Johnny’s clashed when you obliterated that witch.” Gemini swallows hard. “I think it knew you were dying and reacted in turn, destroying part of the building and attempting to kill him.”

“And did I?” I ask, thinking back to the way Johnny screamed.

“No. He’s more powerful than we ever gave him credit for.”

After robbing Destiny of her magic and life, of course he is.

I glance around. The humans are gone, but even from where we stand, I hear them sobbing. Somewhere along the highway, a shit-ton of paramedics and firetrucks blast their horns.

People are hurt, many of them dead. Not that we’re better off.

Another enormous shifter stalks forward, this one a panther, licking her blood-soaked chops as she trails an army of neophytes and Johnny’s skull warriors.