Page 33 of Fated to the Wolf Billionaire

I could see the light of Kari’s power, still hugging Brielle in the middle.

“Goddess’s green-eyed mistress,” Reed mumbled, his grip on my hand tightening reflexively.

“She’s okay. The power is still around her.”

“Thank fuck somebody can see it,” Leigh murmured from my other side as she shot me a grateful glance. “This is creepy as all get-out, y’all.”

“It’s actually kind of beautiful,” I whispered, something about the moment demanding our reverence, our quiet.

“Watching one of your best friends get sucked into a water tornado? Not so much.” Leigh rolled her eyes, but she had already turned back to worriedly watch her friend hang suspended in the air.

“Something’s happening,” I blurted as the light inside the ball began to intensify.

But this was different. This wasn’t witch power, now that I’d had a few minutes of sensing it to become accustomed.

This was… nothing I could name. Pure, bright,burning. Like a star lighting up the night sky, the ball of energy built to a level so high, I had to turn my head and shield my eyes against the brightness.

A keening sound echoed through the woods, thin and reedy, as if it was costing Karissma everything she had to fuel the magical cleansing.

And then I felt it. A fissure in her power, followed by a sharp whip snap of that bright burning energy. A boom reverberated painfully against my eardrums as a burst of light flooded the space. It was so bright, it made the forest temporarily seem like midday before it dissipated and left us all momentarily blind in the darkness.

I blinked furiously, needing to know what had happened, only to see Shay plunging into the once-again glowing water, scooping a limp Karissma from where she floated, nothing more than a puddle of drenched clothing on the emerald surface.

But Brielle… Brielle wasn’t in the lake. It was like my mind couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing as I scanned the surface back and forth, blinking some more as if it would make her materialize.

It was Galyna who spotted her first. She shouted and pointed up, to the treetops.

Brielle was floating, the water that used to surround her forming a cushion she stood on. Her eyes were white beams, the power radiating from her so strong that her hair even floated in the force of it.

Kane raced to stand beneath her, readying himself to catch her as she descended faster and faster. When she was only about ten feet above us, she saw him and smiled.

The water bubble she stood on burst, spraying out in every direction with the force of shrapnel as she dropped into his waiting arms.

When the spray of the water hit me, I barely noticed, I was so focused on all the magic happening in the small clearing. But Reed’s worried tone broke through my fog of wonder.

“Fiona? What’s happening?”

“What do you mean?” I turned toward him, looking up at his worried expression.

“You’re… You’re turning blue.Everywhere. And your ears, they’re turning pointed.”

I scoffed. “Don’t be silly, I’m fine. I feel—” I felt Kari’s power, that same power that I’d felt at a distance when it was surrounding Brielle. But it was still there, buzzing in the water.

Reed’s face blurred in front of mine, water dripping down into my eyes. I lifted a hand to flick it away.

But it wasn’t my hand. It was abluehand, covered in dark swirls that I didn’t understand but somehow recognized. As I wiped the water from my face, the buzz built in intensity, built in heat, as strange images started to flash in front of my eyes.

A man I didn’t know, tall and built, with blue skin stretched tight over his muscled frame, thick black eyebrows, and pointed ears. He was leaning closer and closer, a fingertip extended as if to touch my forehead.

You won’t remember a thing.The words were only inside my head, but I knew as well as I knew my own name, they came from him, somehow, sometime in the past.

When his finger connected, the buzzing felt like it had crawled under my skin, into my veins, piercing my lungs as I struggled to breathe. My chest was too tight. Something waswrong.

I gasped, trying my hardest and failing to drag in a full breath as the magic burned me up from the inside out.

“Fiona? What’s happening? Talk to me, Fiona!” Reed was shaking my shoulders when a pale-looking Kari appeared at his shoulder.

“It’s the spell. She shouldn’t have been affected unless she was also under some kind of curse.”

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