Page 141 of Junk Magic

I didn’t hear them hit down; I didn’t know that there was enough left to hit down.

But I heard something else.

“We have another problem,” Sophie said, not even commenting on my new form in her panic. “It’s why we came up here to get you.”

“I know.”

A look through the ruined window showed that things in the banquet hall were falling apart. I didn’t know where Danny had put the potion he’d been saving up, but it had reached a lot of people. Maybe the wine—it didn’t matter.

What did matter was that people were Changing all over the expansive ballroom, and not into Weres.

New Relics were being born everywhere, bursting out of their finery to tower over the crowd, screaming their birth pangs at the skies. And then immediately attacking everyone in the vicinity, who were Changing, too, as the extent of the danger became clear. But it didn’t matter; a regular Were couldn’t stand against these things, as I’d just found out.

Which was why I felt a scream building in my throat when Whirlwind Changed, his already altered form bulging and twisting as something even more ferocious was born—

And immediately leapt straight at the hunched body of Cyrus.

I heard the girls’ scream beside me, felt my body go cold, saw my paw slam against the glass, seeing shards cascade down into the ballroom like falling jewels—

And then I let it out, putting everything I had into it, giving off all my terror, all my desperation, all my hopes in one, long, earsplitting howl.

It was loud enough to have the girls covering their ears in pain, to have more glass shiver out of its panes and fall to the floor, to have me feeling like I’d coughed up part of my soul as it echoed and echoed and echoed . . .

And did nothing else. Except to cause a lot of the assembled Weres to fall back into human form, dazed and in some cases stunned, while their attackers remained untouched. My gift hadn’t worked before because it didn’t work on Relics, I realized, and then Cyrus went flying at the wall.

He hit hard enough to break every bone in his body, and to leave me choking on the end of my cry. But his bones didn’t break. I knew that because, at the same second, he Changed.

And what came off of the wall wasn’t Cyrus.

Instead, the biggest, most terrible Relic of them all hit the floor and caught the creature that had been Whirlwind halfway through a leap. And bit down—but only once. Because once was all it took.

Whirlwind’s altered form fell to the ground in two pieces and Cyrus, or what had been Cyrus, stood up to his full, towering height and roared at the room. And if I’d thought my puny shout was anything, I was now learning how wrong that had been. His call was loud enough to shatter glasses like miniature fireworks popping all over the room, to send cracks running up the newly painted walls, and to break the remaining panes in the pyramid and send them pelting down like golden rain.

It also caught the attention of every Relic in the room, all of whom paused their own fights to look at him, expressions of surprise and then of something else on their features.

One by one they moved away from their victims and toward the summons. Because that was what it had been, I realized, as each took a knee in front of him. The mass of Relics had found their captain and were awaiting instructions.

That would have been wonderful, only this wasn’t Cyrus anymore. I didn’t know who this was, and in all likelihood, neither did he. Because Jenkins had said that his potion should allow a person to think through it, at least in a basic way, but I hadn’t had too much success with that.

Neither had Colin.

And now the alpha of alphas had manifested, and was about to send his troops to rip everyone else apart.

And there was only one thing left to do about it.

“Wait! What are you doing?” Sophie yelled, because she knew what my suddenly bunched muscles meant.

I didn’t have time to reply. I jumped through the now open roof, fell three stories, and landed right at Cyrus’s feet. And looked up, searching desperately for some sign that my lover was still in there, just in another guise.

I didn’t find one.

The room had gone silent, except for the heavy breathing of the Relics. Nobody spoke; nobody moved. Including Cyrus, who was completely unrecognizable, and yet who hadn’t immediately gone for my throat.

That could have been surprise, at someone being foolish enough to deliberately put themselves in harm’s way. Or it could be something else, some sliver of memory, or maybe only a sliver of scent, because he had never seen me in this form. But I knew how powerful scent was to Weres.

So, I took a chance. And instead of backing up or attempting to talk, or doing anything human, I did what my wolf had done when first meeting his. She’d been coy and cute, and played around for a while, but then she’d gotten down to business, winding her body around his, letting her scent fill his nose, letting him feel her warmth and strength and softness as she brushed against him.

I did the same, first looking into those horrible, yellowish eyes, and then not looking into them. Because I didn’t need to keep an eye on him. I wasn’t an enemy; I was his mate. And he would remember that, he would smell me, feel me, know me, if he would ever know anyone at all.

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