Page 80 of Wolf Tamer

The wolves surge forward from both sides and come up against a wall of air, a shield the women have to work together as one to keep in place. Determined to reach them, Reid lunges forward regardless, roaring with fury and slashing at the barrier with clawed hands.

He’s wild and feral—a real force of nature and the complete opposite of whenever we’ve fought each other—and it makes me realize just how much he’s been holding back.

A blast of heat hits my back where some of the witches have started throwing fire balls to any of the wolves who are getting too close. Meanwhile, Mae and a few others start waving their hands and chanting the incantations to recreate the portal.

They’re going to try and escape.

Over my dead body.

I take in the scene—really take it in—and use my knowledge and skills to assess the situation. Even with Reid’s brute strength and determination, he’s having a hard time breaking the invisible wall they’ve built to keep the wolves from reaching them. If he keeps at it, he’ll pass out from exhaustion before making a real dent.

And that’s obviously what the witches are counting on. Or just popping into a different location through the portal, like the cowards they are.

I need to do something. Something magical.

Pushing myself up on shaky legs, I clutch my side and grind my teeth at the stabbing pain in my ribs.

Am I even strong enough to manifest my magic? Especially with my injuries?

As my gaze finds Julius, whose life hangs in the balance, I know I have to try. For him. For Reid. For all of the Redcliff Pack.

I close my eyes and draw in a deep breath through my nose, doing my best to drown out the chaotic noise raging around me. Whenever I used to go on my assignments, my confidence was what always kept my calm and focused. And that made my invisibility easy to hold onto.

On the opposing side, whenever I felt high levels of emotion, my new witch powers have switched on. Explosive and uncontrollable.

Is there a way I can harness both sides and bring the two parts together?

Time to find out.

All I have to do is think about Mae double crossing me, setting me up, and trying to kill me Salem Witchcraft Trial style for my anger to rekindle. Automatically, it switches to the moment Emily plunged the knife into Julius’s chest, and I’m vibrating with the need for revenge. Every part of me pinches and aches from my bruises, but I can already feel the new power rising up within me.

I focus on keeping my breathing steady, my anger controlled, and what helps me the most is thinking—ironically—about Reid. How he was so willing to help me from the start, even knowing being with me, a witch, is forbidden. He never cared. I’d given him a hard time at every turn, but he never gave up on me.

Peeking my eye open, I glance down at my hand only to find nothing there. Or, it onlyseemslike nothing’s there because my skin is blending in with the air around me.

Heart racing, I quickly look down at my body to see all of me is gone. Completely camouflaged.

Holy shit! I’m invisible!

I’m back!

Knowing my time may be limited, I squeeze my way past the wall of wolves who are trying their damnedest to break through the barrier to the witches. My hair is thrown up from the gusts of the spell, making it hard for my invisibility to hold, so I work fast.

With my anger still bubbling hot inside me, I grab onto it and let the magic awaken but not overrun me. Unlike the other Buson witches, I don’t have to say any Latin words to trigger it. Instead, the sizzling power circles me, encasing me in a shell that allows me to pass through the witches’ barricade untouched. But once on the other side, both my magic and my invisibility flicker and dissolve all around me.

Okay, maybe thinking I am “back” was a little premature on my part.

It seems half of the witches have already retreated into the portal because the only ones left are Mae and Sarah, and they’re working hard to keep the walls of protection up.

Emily has one foot inside when she spots me standing there and she growls viciously. “You!”

“Tasha?” Reid’s panicked shout comes of the other side. He’s got most of his arm inside the coven’s makeshift fortress, where it appears that Sarah is struggling to keep the wall up at full strength. “I’m coming in! Hold on!”

Emily takes her foot out of the portal and holds up the knife for me to get a good look at it. It’smyknife. Mine. The one I’d left in my bedroom during our scout of the grounds, and it’s still covered in Julius’s blood.

She grins when she notices I’ve found out her little thieving secret.

“I’m not usually the weapon wielding type, but I’ve always been someone who likes to work smarter not harder,” she says.

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