Page 68 of Shark 2

“How can I help with that? Can you use some of my power? Can I give you energy or something?”

Roman started to move closer, but Theo sent a wall of wind that pushed him back and sliced into his cheek, making him hiss in pain.

“He’s so strong, Kass,” she whispered and her lip trembled.

I slapped her across the face hard, making her face swing to the side from the impact.

Roman blinked in disbelief and lowered his hands, stopping the attack he had been about to use.

Theo blinked tears out of her eyes and her lips trembled as she looked at me.

“Stop whining and acting afraid! You’re one hundred times the witch he is. You were one of the most terrifying witches of the Hunters Association. You defeated dozens, probably hundreds, of beings. You faced years of ridicule when you came out as transgender, but you did it with a smile on your face, as you were able to finally live your life as the person you always knew you were. What’s scarier? This douche nozzle or the night you told your parents you had changed not just your name, but also your pronouns?”

Her lips stopped trembling and curved upwards in a smile. She threw her head back and laughed. As her head dropped back down, she wrapped her arms around me. “I love you, Kass.”

I patted her back. “I love you, too. Now, tell me what to do so we can kill this mother fucker.”

Releasing me, she faced Roman and said, “Time to end this.”

Behind Theo, I saw the hunter I’d called and another man in a matching cloak running towards us. “The hunters arrived,” I whispered.

“Tell them to loop around and attack from the rear. I’m going to send a barrage of attacks at him. If we can keep those three witches Silver and the troll sisters are fighting busy, we have a good chance of taking him down. The hunters just need to wait for an opening.”

“You got it, boss.” I winked at her and ran to relay the plan to the hunters.

32

The hunters stopped when they saw me approaching and waited for me to meet them.

“What’s the situation?” the hunter I recognized asked.

“What’s your name?” I asked. “I can’t call you ‘hunter’ since there are two of you.”

“Antoine,” he answered. He pointed to the one next to him. “Phil.”

“Okay, Antoine and Phil. I’m Kass. Those people over there are mostly my family and friends, but the three witches and the crazy man Roman are our enemies. They blew a hole in the wall of the restaurant and they’re trying to kill Theo. She said that you can sneak around so that you can attack from behind to try to catch him off guard. I think we need to come at him from multiple directions at once.”

“We heard from our Director and they’re sending more people, but they won’t be here for about an hour,” Antoine said as he looked beyond me at the fight going on.

I needed to get back to help, to ensure Theo didn’t lose.

“Do you have any potions?” I asked.

Phil pulled out a small bottle from his pocket and held it out. “Stamina,” he said in a deep, stony voice.

“Thanks,” I chirped, spun and ran towards Theo.

She noticed me coming and created a shield to keep Roman’s attacks from hitting me. “What are you doing, crazy?” she hissed.

Opening the bottle, I shoved it between her lips. “Drink.”

She tilted her head back and swallowed the liquid. Immediately, her eyes widened and the darkness beneath her eyes lessened. “Whoa,” she whispered. “That was a potent stamina potion.”

“You can thank Phil the hunter,” I explained. “How is it going?”

I looked over at Roman who was glaring at us and trying to hit us with ice shards, but they disintegrated on impact of her shield.

“We’re at a stalemate,” she muttered. “I can’t get past his defenses and he can’t get past mine. We’re pretty much going to continue until one of us runs out of stamina or magic.”

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