My insides crawl with the need to act, to fight, to do something, even as my mind counsels me to hold still and not lash out, because there is no out now, not unless they give it to us.

“Ursula.” Conah’s tone draws upon their friendship. “It isn’t what you think. She was dormant. Something woke her, violently.”

“I’m sorry, Conah,” Ursula says. “But you know the law.”

She flicks her wrist, and Fee is gone, and in the next instant, so are the Magiguard.

I exhale sharply. “Con, what the fuck are we going to do? They’ll hand her to the Loups, and if that happens, execution will be a mercy.”

Conah takes a deep breath. “Then we give her the best chance we can. We give her to Grayson.”

Fee

Don’t think. Don’t think.

It’s cold here. It’s so cold. My body shakes with it.

“Never seen anything like it,” a male voice says. “The Loups are going to have a field day.” Boot falls recede, but the woman is still here. Watching me. Waiting.

I won’t move. Won’t speak. If I stay really still, then it won’t have happened. It will all go away. Lucas’s face fills my mind, not as he was but as I left him, with half his face missing. The other half is inside me. Bile climbs my throat, and I swallow it. Swallow him. Digest him.

Oh, God.

“I’m sorry,” the woman says softly. “I’m sorry for what’s to come.”

She leaves, taking her rose scent with her, and the beast inside me unfurls its huge body, filling my mind with its presence.

Oh, God. Go away. Please, go away.

No, Fee. No more sleep. It’s time to wake up. We’re going to have so much fun.

To be continued …