I stared at the glittering fairy in front of me, my heart racing out of control. Here in the Temple of Light, in the realm of the Warlocks, I was faced with a choice no one should ever have to make. To save my best friend. Or to free the father of my blood.

“Is he in mortal danger?” I asked softly.

“No. But he believes that Eric means you harm.”

I blinked again. “Eric?”

“The one who waits for you on the third level,” she said. “He will steal not only Rose’s power, but yours, too.” She dipped and then flowed so she was in front of me. “We share blood, you and me. It is why I was willing to help. We would like to see one of our own here in the Temple of Light once more.”

I put my fingers to the sides of my head, thinking fast. This was not the time to be indecisive. This was the time to make things happen if I was going to save Rose.

I looked at the fairy. “What is your name?”

“Ella.”

I nodded. “Ella, take me to my father. As fast as we can go.”

She spun and flew away from me and I bolted after her, my purple cloak swirling out behind me in a thick wave.

Ella led me to a blank spot on the wall and tapped against it. The wall opened and revealed a set of stairs that went straight down. “The catacombs.”

“Of course,” I muttered, but I didn’t slow. Time was of the essence. I knew I was putting a great deal of faith in the fairy I’d just met but I had no reason to distrust her words.

At the bottom of the stairs, Ella flew ahead, so fast I nearly lost her. I didn’t complain, just kept running as fast as I could, grateful for the workout routine that kept me in moderately good shape.

My breath came in gulps by the time she’d slowed and I estimated we’d been running flat out for a solid ten minutes. She slowed and spun to face me. “Here, he’s in the pit.”

She floated out over a grate in the floor, the metal glinting from the light cascading off her tiny body.

“Gavin?” I called out.

“Who is there?”

His voice was a raspy rumble, as if he’d been without food or water for a long time. “My name is Dominique. I’m here to get you out. Corbin and Sterling are here, too.”

“Ah, my men.” He gave a heavy groan. “There is no saving me. Get yourself out of her, girl. Before she comes back and finds you here.”

I looked to Ella as she flitted here and there. Saw the sorrow in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said.

The tickle of premonition was the only warning I had and acted on it, spinning and dropping as a blast of violent magic burst over my head. A swirl of vibrating red that heated my skin as it passed. I lay on my belly, staring at Auralee as she stalked toward me. “I knew you couldn’t resist coming to your father.”

“You want to kill me?” I moved slowly to unhook the cloak from my back.

“If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it when I cut your skin with my filet knife.” She grinned down at me. “But even that didn’t make your magic spill upward. You are blocked, and blocked mages must give over their magic and their life to further the protection of the rest of the world.”

“Why didn’t you just do it then?” I didn’t move from where I was.

“I promised your father I would do all I could to help you raise your power so we could use it properly. We thought you would be the strong one, but we were wrong.”

I snorted. “You mean giving me pills to mask my abilities? To push them further away from me?” The anger in me was building, and with it, I could feel something that was not unlike the feeling of when I tangled with the bindings.

Power. My own power rising on the wings of righteous anger for the harm this woman had caused.

“The pills kept you from doing anything stupid that would alert the humans to your abilities. They should have kept the Cabal from your dreams as well, they were long lasting well past when you last took them. But they were determined to get to you. Fools that they are, it will cost them now.” She smirked.

I would not be afraid of the power in me, because I knew it would be my only chance to survive. Auralee was only a few feet from me and I launched myself at her, hands outstretched. Her eyes widened as I grappled with her.

Her magic flowed from her as we fell to the floor and I reached up and. . .grabbed it. I wrapped my fingers around her magic. The world around us froze, even though I could hear Gavin yelling for me to run. I stared at Auralee, my hands around her red roped magic that slithered and moved like a snake.

Snake . . .leopard, why was I seeing a leopard in my head? I let out a slow breath and my own power spilled upward into a form that could tackle hers. A deep purple and white leopard leapt to life, tangling with the red snake as its head rose. My body didn’t move but my magic fought for me, the cat’s claws swiping though the snake’s body, over and over.

The snake reared back and shot forward, fangs extended as it slammed them into the leopard’s shoulder. I felt the hit as if it were on me and I looked at Auralee then away from the fight. Wounds bled from her middle . . .where the leopard had gotten the snake.

“Auralee, don’t make me finish this,” I said. “I don’t want to kill you.”

“You could never kill me. I am the oracle!” She screamed the words and then choked on the last one. I didn’t have to look to know that the leopard had the snake in its mouth and was bearing down. It was like having two TV screens playing behind my eyes at the same time. My actions and the leopards were tied. I could see through her eyes while she fought the snake.

I swayed where I stood and looked to my right shoulder where two puncture marks stared back at me. There was venom in the snake, and it was flowing through me now, through my magic, and I slumped to my knees. But I knew instinctually that I needed to stay awake so the magic in me could finish what was started.

Auralee gurgled and tried to scream around the pressure on her neck. I put my hands on the stone and kept my focus on finishing her off. Not that it would stop the venom, but at least, she would be gone and my four men would no longer have to worry about her.

From the pit, Gavin yelled up. “You have more power than her, Dominique! Call on it, now!”

His words were like a lash and I bore down on the sensation of pulling the magic through me, up through the stones of the floor, out through my body and into the leopard.

My eyes flickered open in time to see Auralee bucking hard against the bonds that held her around her throat, her feet kicking and scrambling, moving slower and slower, until there was nothing but the occasional twitch, and then she was still.

I slumped where I was and released the death grip I had on the floor. I’d broken several fingernails and found myself staring at chunks of stone that I’d ripped up in my efforts.

The poison made me sluggish as I pushed to my feet. I turned to see Ella, the fairy who’d duped me, working at the lock on the pit. It sprang open as I took a step and Gavin pushed his way out.

Blond like me, blue eyes like me, but that was where the similarities ended. His face was lined and drawn, his body gaunt but there was a fierceness I recognized as one that I, too, carried.

I managed to speak around the growing pull to lie down. “Are you really my father?”

“I am.”

“Then help me save Rose,” I said.

He shook his head. “No, she cannot be saved.”

I took a step back, then another and another. “Then you are dead to me.”

His eyes widened as I turned and began to make my way back the way I’d come. Too long, this had taken too long and yet . . .I knew I never would have found that extra connection to my power without Gavin’s command. I never would have found the anger to deal with Auralee.

I had my hand on the wall of the catacombs and used it to guide me along through the darkness.

“Dominique, wait!” Ella called and then she was there in front of me illuminating the path. “You will get lost down here.”

“Help me get to the third level,” I whispered. “I freed him. That was what you wanted. Right?”

She nodded. I pointed a single finger at her.

“Then you owe me.”

“He’s your father.” She frowned and I shook my head.

“No, my father would fight by my side to save Rose. Gavin is not my father.”

Oh, those words should not have cut so deeply, but they did. Here I was, a thirty-five-year-old woman still wanting a father that doted on her. But to be fair, I had that. The man who’d raised me had loved and protected me even though I was not of his blood. My back straightened. “I have a father. He might not be alive. But he would’ve helped me if I asked him.”

Ella’s shoulders and wings drooped, and then she nodded. “Follow me.”

I couldn’t move at the speed that I’d come in with, but I did everything I could to keep going at a good clip. My limbs were sluggish from the venom, and my vision kept blurring and doubling, but I didn’t slow.

“The venom will ease,” Ella said softly. “It would have only killed you if your magic had not been stronger.”

I frowned. “You mean the leopard?”

Ella spun. “What leopard?”

Was I the only one to see the forms the magic took? I shook my head. Right now, that didn’t matter. What mattered was getting to . . .there, where the stairs led upward. I grabbed the railing and pulled myself up step by step. A part of me had thought Gavin would come after me, that he would say he would help me. That he hadn’t said it all.

I sighed, finally at the top and pushed the door open. No one was in the main hall that I could see. Ella flitted out ahead of me and then motioned with the tip of her head to follow her

I stumbled along, slowly feeling the sensation come back to my limbs. Each step I took was a little stronger, a little surer. When we reached the first set of stairs, I took them quickly, running up them. The second set of stairs I took two at a time.

“Here, this is the place.” Elle floated in front of a simple door. There wasn’t a single piece of artwork or ornamental design to say what might lay on the other side.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I can go no farther.”

“Thank you.” I stepped past her and put my hands on the door. This was it. Rose was on the other side and I needed to save her.

I bit my lower lip and thought about the leopard. I put a hand out and called the magic up around me until the leopard came into existence once more. There was no drain on my body, just a sense of wellbeing. As if I had been waiting for this moment my whole life.

The leopard tipped its head at me, blinking large green eyes.

I pushed the door open to my future—however long or short it might be.