Page 73 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part Two

It was a knockout, drag-out, ultimate fight between shifters, the world’s most powerful witch, and little ol’ me. We didn’t have the best chance, but when Leo pulled out of my arms and stood to his full height, shoulders squared, I truly believed we would win.

Because we had something Katarina would never have.

Unity.

“You heard her, Katarina. This is your last chance. Stand down or die,” Leo said in that booming voice of his that never failed to give me goosebumps. Did I have an authority kink? Potentially. Something to explore later. Because we were most definitely going to have a later. I was certain of that.

“You think your ragtag pack of mongrels can bring me down? The gods chose me and blessed me with their power. You are nothing to me. You may as well be ants!”

“I guess that answers that question.”

Leo shifted, launching himself forward in a blur of steam, and fur, and teeth. He didn’t make it all the way to the witch. None of us expected him to. If there was one thing I had learned about fighting magical people it was that you had to wear themout enough until they were distracted, then take advantage of that distraction as quickly as possible. It was a game of attrition, with one side having unchecked power and the other side having impressive healing capabilities. It really was the epitome of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

Except for me.

I was the spanner in the works, and I fully intended to use my skills to the maximum of my ability.

Starting with trying to bind the witch with vines.

I called forth the longest, thorniest vines wrapped around the outer branches of the tree and sent them all toward the witch’s back. They were thick, green, luscious things, full of a malevolent energy that went far beyond the plants I’d interacted with before. I figured it was a side effect of the strange pocket area we’d followed Leo into, but I still braced myself to make sure they didn’t contaminate me.

As lively and virulent as those vines were, they withered and crumbled as soon as they got within a foot of Katarina.

Her gaze flicked to me. Shit, I didn’t have the same element of surprise I had with her sons. None of them had known I was a dryad. Frederick had been the only one who’d come even close to realizing it. But Katarina knew. She’d told me what I was.

“Let’s get you out of the way, shall we?” she hissed, raising both of her hands.

I ran for it. I wanted to fight, but I would have to evade whenever I could. As she went to throw a spell at me, three different wolves charged her, all leaping for her limbs. She released the blast before she could get her aim, and I managed to dive safely behind a marble statue of… Actually, I had no idea what it was. It was one of those abstract art pieces people with too much money put in their too-large sitting rooms to show off to guests who also had too much money.

The witch rebuffed the three attackers with a shimmering force field that blasted out from her core. They were thrown far, one of them sailing out of an opening, but I was confident they’d be able to catch a tree branch before hitting the ground far below.

Five other shifters charged her. An eagle shifter swooped down at her head, trying to claw at her eyes, while a coyote shifter leaped for her throat. Two bear shifters were charging her at full speed while Leo went for her back.

For a moment, I thought we really had her, but then giant, slate rocks shot up from the flooring all around her, forming a barrier, and she flew up into the air, hovering ten feet above our heads. That was certainly going to complicate things.

I needed to think differently, because the vines wouldn’t be enough. I reached out into the considerable amount of foliage all around us and latched on to the branch that I’d used to descend from the balcony. Had standing up there been a touch dramatic? Absolutely. But I figured I deserved a little flare of drama considering we were in for the fight of our lives.

Filling the branch with the sizzling energy within me, I besieged it to call upon a sibling. A moment later, another branch grew through the floor, moving around like it was water instead of a solid object. I was still pretty hazy on all the rules of my new ability, but it worked better when I didn’t question anything.

I placed my hands over my heart, letting the branches feel the steady beat of it and become part of me. As I crouched behind that stupid marble statue, I had one of them swing at the witch.

I must have caught her off guard, because the branches came down on her head with a sickening crack. Again, I thought I’d done it, that maybe cracking her skull would be enough of a distraction for everyone to surge in and finish her off.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The crack I heard was the branch breaking in two, the top part falling to the ground below.

Nevertheless, I persisted. I tried to wallop her with the second branch. She was wise to my scheme, though, and all it took was a glare from her for the branch to burst into flames.

I fully planned to beat her with that burning branch, but when I swung it down again, it disintegrated into ash that rained down onto the floor. Okay, so witch fire was different than regular fire. Good to know.

Katarina focused on me, but then my companions swarmed her again and she had to fend them off. I appreciated their protection, but their cries of pain whenever her spell hit made my stomach heave.

I decided to leave the offensive for a bit and do a round of triage, running to the various bodies lying around—thankfully, none of them were in human form yet.

I was armed with both a messenger bag and two fanny packs, one high on my waist and the other on my hips. It wasn’t exactly glamorous battle armor, but what mattered was that it was chock-full of things that would help with healing, and a few offensive vials I’d whipped up last minute after doing some research online. I had no clue whether any of it would work.

Luckily, that first one had packed quite a punch. It was dill, salt, holy water, and some of the ash from where my home had burned. I had been surprised it had worked at all seeing as witches weren’t vampires, and as far as I knew only vampires had a reaction to holy water. It had definitely sent a message, though.

The offensive potions could wait, though, because I reached my first pack member and knelt down to help them. I did everything at a rapid pace. When I finished pouring differentconcoctions over their wounds, I placed my hands on their flank and did my best to channel my energy through them.

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