Page 22 of A Dagger of Twisted Starlight

He’s trying to distract him.

Blake listened to me this time. He stopped his attack, keeping in his wolf form and baring his teeth, his entire body poised to leap into action. The tiger was razor-focused on me ashe prowled toward me, those shoulder blades rising and falling with every slow step. He didn’t seem to care about Blake.

I pulled at the energy inside me and formed a dagger made of sand, the blade sharp as diamond. An arrow between the eyes would have been easier, but I had to make do.

My legs hit the vice president’s desk. More shouts rang from the hallway, piercing, howling shouts for help. This had to end.

I took the offensive, rushing forward before the tiger shifter could gain another advantage. I tossed a cloud of sand from my free hand. The tiger cried out as the sand blasted its face. It gave me an opening.

I slashed out with my blade. The tiger let loose a blood-chilling roar, a streak of blood cutting across its orange-and-black face. Fury fueled it as the shifter ran at me. It lunged, but I was ready for it. I rolled back over the desk and ducked. The tiger flew through the air and slammed into the wall beside me, its chest wide open to a strike.

I gripped the hilt tight and took the hit. The sand dagger found its mark, cutting straight into its heart just as a searing pain shot through my arm. The tiger shifter went limp. Its claws retracted from my arm, blood immediately seeping through my torn shirt.

More shouting. More people needing help.

I got up from the floor. Blake shifted back into human form and rushed to my side. “Fuck, you’re hurt. Here.” Without wasting a beat, Blake snatched off his tie and began to wrap it around the deep puncture wounds.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. We need to get you out of here.”

“You need to stop bleeding is what needs to happen. Why didn’t you rewind time just now?”

“I can’t do it in frequent succession”—I winced as Blake wrapped the tie around me—“and I don’t want to risk needing it. I can handle a little pain.”

Blake looked down at the dead tiger shifter, blood pooling on the dark evergreen carpet. “Do you think it’s the same people from Joshua Tree?”

“Possible,” I said, reaching for his wrist but grabbing his hand instead. “Let’s go.”

I led him out of the office, where Verona lay dead on the floor. Blake sucked in a pained breath. Loud crashes and small explosions sounded from the direction of the gala.

I tugged Blake in the opposite direction. My main priority was getting him somewhere safe. Then I could circle back and help fight off whatever attack was happening.

Blake resisted. “Wait,” he said. “My mom and Cassius were in the gala. And Warrick. We need to make sure they’re okay.”

Warrick didn’t worry me; I knew he could handle himself. I wasn’t sure about his friend and mother, though. The determination in his eyes told me all I needed to know. We ran in the direction of the screams. There were bodies in the hall. Some were shifters, other humans. Five Secret Service agents ran toward us. Between them was Joshua. He appeared scared but unharmed. It struck me as odd that the secretary of transportation needed a bigger entourage than the vice president’s son.

“What’s happening?” I asked one of the agents.

“The gala was attacked,” she shouted over her shoulder as they all bolted past, red mana swirling around their arms.

“Where’s Cass?” Blake called out.

No answer. Did he already know his son was safe?

“That was helpful,” Blake said sarcastically. It got a dry chuckle out of me. We continued to hurry down the hall, the cries getting louder.

It didn’t matter in that moment. We entered the gala space and were greeted with a battlefield. Vibrant red mana flew through the air, shifters—a mix of wolves and predatory cats—dodging and ducking and leaping over tables, clawing at people’s faces and biting at their limbs. A vampire zoomed past me, grabbing a wolf shifter by the nape and tossing it across the room like it was made of paper. A sleek black panther snuck up behind her and took a nasty bite out of her thigh. Warrick sparred with a shifter that wielded a curved ivory scythe, cutting through the vines Warr sent whipping toward him from nearby potted plants,

“I don’t see my mom. They must have taken her to safety.”

“Good, let’s go.”

“Wait… Cass!”

Blake took off running. His friend was circled by two shifters, both of them in their human forms with their hands ending in sharp wolf claws. One of them had bloodred eyes that flickered over to me. He pinned his wolf ears back. His face was also more canine than human. His grin turned wicked as he effortlessly dodged a whip of red mana from behind him. Without turning, he flicked out a hand and sent a silver dagger flying through the air, impaling the Marvel’s throat and dropping him dead.

On his jacket was a cracked hourglass with the sand slipping out and forming an infinity symbol underneath it. The same emblem we found on the shifters that went after Blake.

Cassius fell to his knees, eyes shut in fear. Blake slammed into one of the shifters with his shoulder and dropped them both to the floor. I moved to join them, but the red-eyed shifter ignored Blake and Cassius and came running at me. He sent three daggers flying toward my chest. I broke all three of their momentums with quick balls of sand, solid as concrete. The daggers clattered to the floor.

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