My feet sank into the marshy earth. Raphael had offered to carry me again, but oddly, I was actually liking the feel of the mud and moss beneath my feet, like it connected me to the Earth. Since I’d kissed both Balthazar and Sebastos, a certain wildness had begun to roil deep within my mind. I watched the two of them walking just ahead of me—the beauty-loving warrior and the feral professor.

By my side, Raphael studied me as he walked. “You’re beginning to remember things.”

I nodded, my eyes sweeping over the sharp, savage tattoos marking his muscled arms. My gaze trailed up to his face again, taking in the sensual curve of his mouth and lips that promised insane, torturous seduction. I suddenly had an overwhelming desire to remember more, but I also wanted to press on, to find Holly as soon as we could.

I tore my eyes from Raphael, forcing myself to stay focused. It was like a force greater than myself wanted me to throw myself at these men.

In the next moment, snarling at my back had the hairs on my arms standing on end. I swallowed hard, my throat tightening. Were the wolves on this side of the wall as well? My heart beat a wild rhythm in my chest.

“Raphael,” I hissed, grabbing for his arm. “Do you hear that?”

At the same time, Balthazar whipped around, his dark eyes narrowed to slits. “Do you smell that?”

“Is this some kind of bloody quiz?” Raphael asked.

“More wolves,” Sebastos said, confirming my assumption, sending a shiver dancing up my spine. “Just keep moving.” He nodded at the dark expanse of forest ahead of us.

“We’re no longer downwind,” said Balthazar. “The rain might have masked our scent, but it’s slowing to a trickle now.”

“I know how this works, Balthazar,” Sebastos interrupted. He tried to sound dismissive, but I caught a glint of worry in his hazel gaze.

A low growling rumbled through the forest. Adrenalin began to surge through my nerves again, and when twigs snapped nearby, my stomach lurched.

“They’ve clocked us,” Raphael whispered.

For whatever reason, we all looked to Balthazar for a plan. His nostrils flared as he looked at the three of us, and then beyond us.

“Fucking run,” was all he said.

Good enough. We broke into a sprint. My feet slammed over the wet, marshy earth, and Raphael gripped my arm, pulling me along as though he could force me to run faster.

I sucked in breaths of thick, humid air and the scent of wet earth, listening only to the sounds of our feet thumping, the beating of my heart. I felt as if I were moving at speeds I’d never known before, the air rushing over my skin. Around these men, power seemed to flow through me. Still, when a deep howl pierced the air nearby, that power didn’t stop my blood from turning to ice.

From the shadows, the wolves lunged in a blur of fur, a flash of teeth. Sebastos growled a curse, jumping in front of me to shield me. I just about had time to pull in a deep breath before the beasts leapt into the air. Sebastos slammed his powerful fist into a wolf’s jaw, cracking the bone. I clenched my fists, desperately wishing I had that sword from my vision.

Within moments, a hurricane of snapping and growling roared around me.

Balthazar lunged in front of me too, and I stared as he grabbed a wolf by the throat. “Get away from here, Dawn.” With stunning speed and strength, he threw his full weight at the wolf, pinning it to the ground.

I took a step back from the melee, but maybe I could help, even without a sword. I sucked in a deep breath, trying to summon that light I’d projected before—that feeling of warmth that had built in my ribs.

I was coming up empty.

“Dawn!” Raphael roared.

I ducked sharply as four huge paws soared over me. The second the beast landed, it turned and snapped its jaws at me.

Sebastos’s powerful body slammed into it from the side and he rolled with the wolf, tumbling down a slope. Tangled together, they crashed and snapped over branches until they disappeared from sight.

I pushed myself up, my breathing becoming harder, more ragged and desperate. Fog curled through the humid air, coiling around me and making it hard for me to see. Someone barked at me to run—a deep, guttural voice, a Scottish accent. Balthazar.

For once, I decided to listen. I broke into a sprint, pumping my arms hard, my feet sinking into the marshy earth with each footfall. As I ran, a heavy mist thickened in the air, whirling around me.

Distantly, I heard one of the guys roar with pain. Raphael? Sebastos? I ground to a halt again. A twinge of guilt pierced my chest.

No, this was wrong. I couldn’t just run from them. We were supposed to fight together. Gasping for breath, I backed up against a tree, my legs trembling. Once again, I raised my hands, desperately searching for that warmth, that burst of light that had knocked out the man in the street. I tried to force the magic into my hands again.

Once again, nothing happened, and in the thickening mist, I could no longer see what was going on.

“Sebastos?” I called out. I took a tentative step forward, my feet crunching on the leaves.

No response.

A gust of wind whooshed through the leaves above me, sending the last clinging droplets of rain showering onto my head. I bit my lip and pushed the wet hair from my face, trying to get my bearings. I was no longer exactly sure from which way I’d come, or which way I’d be going.

All I had was the astrolabe. At least that could get me where I needed to go. With any luck, the guys would make it there too. They’d seemed like they could take on the wolves, anyway.

I pulled the astrolabe from my cleavage, closing my eyes as visions of stars, shadows, and a grassy landscape flooded my mind. I pivoted, now clear on which way I should go.

But something stopped me. I couldn’t quite bring myself to leave without the guys, without knowing if they were hurt.

If I turned back in the opposite direction—

A branch snapped behind me, and I whirled around. “Raph—”

I froze. Penetrating the fog were the dipped head and flashing eyes of a huge gray wolf. It took another step forward, paw splaying on the marshy earth.

I stood frozen, too stunned to move.

A funny thing happens when you are faced with something that absolutely might kill you; everything else around you falls away. It was just me and the wolf’s eyes, burning brightly in the darkness.

The creature tensed its back legs and sprang. As he bowled me over, his sharp claws pierced my shoulders.

As the beast’s teeth sank into my flesh, I unleashed a wild, agonized scream. Fueled by adrenaline, I reached up, tangling my fists in the long, shaggy fur of the wolf’s neck. A hot surge of ferocity ripped through my body. I wanted blood. With all my strength, I pulled its face from mine, keeping its teeth from my throat.

At that moment, energy rippled and pulsed from my core, blasting through my hands. White-hot and burning, scorching—yet, somehow, I remained unscathed.

The wolf yelped, rearing back. It would have fled into the trees, but my fingers had locked, and I couldn’t release them. The light continued to flow through me, arching my back, seizing up my muscles.

My blood pounded through the fresh gash in my shoulder, but every surge of pain only strengthened me.

“Dawn!” Balthazar screamed my name, panic lacing his voice. “Dawn, where are you?”

His voice grounded me long enough for me to unclench my hands. The animal fled, whimpering, into the trees.

I sucked in a ragged breath as all the light left my body. Suddenly the pain in my shoulder dialed up sharply, and the smell of burning fur filled my nostrils so intensely that I had to roll over, coughing hard.

Balthazar rushed to me, getting down on his hands and knees to examine the damage. The wolves had torn his shirt, and blood streaked his collar, but apart from that, he seemed unharmed. He touched my shoulder gently, his eyes glinting with concern. “Dawn. You’re hurt.” His musky scent wrapped around me, soothing the wild hammering of my heart.

I swallowed hard. “I’m fine.”

He slid his arms under my shoulder, glaring at the wound as if it had personally wronged him. “No you’re not.” He lifted me to my feet gently. “How bad is it?”

The teeth marks throbbed, blood flowing from the wounds. Still, I didn’t think the wolf had nicked an artery or anything.

I sucked in a breath of damp air. “It’s not life-threatening. Where are the others?” My voice was hoarse.

“They’ll be fine. We got separated, but they know which way to go.”

“Even through this fog?”

For just a moment, amusement danced in his eyes. “Believe me, Dawn. They’ve lived through much worse than fog and some fucking dogs.”

Ah, sweet Balthazar. Reassuring as always.

He took off purposefully, and I rushed to catch up with him, the cool mud coating my bare feet. As I walked, I stared down at my palms.

Balthazar’s gaze flicked to me for a moment. “Why are you looking at your hands like that?”

Oh, you know, I just shot white-hot magic out of my palms. They shook as I stared at them. “I just don’t understand what happened.”

“The wolves? They protect these grounds.”

“No,” I said quietly. “Me. What am I? How am I making this heat come out of my body?”

The look he shot me was positively smoldering. “Dawn. As I think I showed you, there is only one way to remember your past.”

A flicker of movement overhead caught my attention. Through the misty sky, I could have sworn I glimpsed dark figures circled between the clouds, wings outstretched. Fear gripped my spine, and I closed my eyes tightly. When I reopened them, the creatures had disappeared, as if they’d never been there at all.

I swallowed hard, a twinge of panic piercing me, and I swayed on my feet.

“Dawn?”

I shook my head, not entirely sure if I’d imagined the vision, if I was hallucinating the same shadow angels my mother had always seen. “I’m just not sure what’s real and what isn’t.”

Exhaustion burned through my body. I just wanted to find Holly and get home as soon as possible. I wanted to start a new life—though I wasn’t sure it would be possible to get back to normal. Not with this new knowledge of magical light powers and reincarnation.

Balthazar frowned at my shoulder, his fingers gently encircling my arm. “It’s the blood loss. We need to stanch the bleeding.” I felt the weight of his gaze on my collarbone. “Sebastos isn’t here, so I’ll have to do.”

He reached down, tearing a strip from the bottom of his white shirt. Then, with surprising tenderness, he carefully tied it under my arm, securing it with a tight knot over my shoulder.

The wound throbbed underneath it, but the pressure of the makeshift bandage soothed it a bit. I tested the range of motion in my shoulder and found that, despite the blinding pain of wound against fabric, I was still able to raise my arm.

“Good.” His lip quirked “You’re stronger than you look.” It was just a statement; it didn’t even seem particularly like a compliment, just an observation of fact. We started moving again through the mud, the cool mist pooling around us.

“Not feeling particularly strong right now,” I said.

“And yet you defeated a wolf by yourself.”

True. Somehow the light from my hands had defeated the wolf, though I had no idea what it was or where it came from.

I took a deep breath, walking so close to Balthazar that I could feel the heat radiating from his body. Now that the last vestiges of adrenaline had seeped out of my bloodstream, I wanted to stay close to him. He might be an arrogant, vulgar jerk half the time, but all I knew was that with Balthazar, as with the others, I felt safe. Warmer, somehow.

He infuriated me, but I couldn’t deny the way my core hummed when he was near me, and I’d never forget the searing heat of that kiss, or the way his hands had gripped my backside. I couldn’t deny the thrill that had shot up and down my spine when he’d touched my skin, or the way he’d made me want to tear off my dress, show my naked body to him, and fu—

My fists tightened and I tried to shove that thought deep under the surface. Get a hold of yourself, Dawn.

“I can hear your heart speeding up,” he said in his low rumble. He turned, searching my face again with a look of such intensity that tingles ran up my spine.

Remembering our kiss, an ache built inside me. I knew I should focus on moving forward, on getting to Holly, but a bone-deep need compelled me to move closer to him. Maybe it was some kind of magic at work, but I needed him like a parched woman needed water.

As I closed the distance between us, an ancient, primal power rippled over my skin, sending my pulse racing. I felt the Earth’s energy race up from the wet soil under my bare feet, and I felt strangely compelled to drop into the soil with him, to get on my hands and knees. My breasts seemed to swell, straining against the damp leather of my dress. It was practically choking my body.

“What if I want to remember more?” I whispered.

I took another step closer to Balthazar, until my breasts were brushing against his powerful chest. His seductive, carnal gaze warmed me from the inside out. He grabbed me by the back of my neck possessively, one hand around my waist. Molten heat slid through my body.

He leaned in, pressing his lips hard against mine. It was a desperate kiss, as if he’d been waiting centuries for it, as if he thought he’d find redemption through my lips.

I arched my back, melting into him, skin blazing with electricity. He tugged up the hem of my dress, hands gripping my backside, thrusting into my panties, and I moaned. My nipples hardened against my wet dress.

Balthazar lifted me, and I wrapped my legs around him, my dress hiking all the way up.

The more I kissed him, the more powerful I felt, my body blazing with strength—

Just then, a crack filled my ears, and I was tugged away—but I knew I hadn’t moved in space. It was more like I’d fallen through layers of reality, whipping through the fabric that made up time and space like wind through a billowing net curtain.

A tug at the center of my body pulled me back to the forest, and I stared into Balthazar’s dark eyes. My legs were still locked tightly around his body, my hips pressed into him, and I heaved in deep breaths.

“What did you see?” he asked, his voice a deep rumble.

“I was supposed to kill Sebastos.”

Balthazar nodded, and his breath warmed my neck. “Do you know why?”

The vision had been so vivid. I remembered it all. “Because if I didn’t, the world would end.”

He brushed his thumb over my cheek. “Ah, my shining one. Now you’re remembering.”