1
Eve
* * *
I stared at the door that had just been closed in my face, shocked.
“She didn’t know anything.” My voice sounded hollow to my own ears.
“Someone else will.” Mac, my seer friend, wrapped her arm around my shoulders and drew me away from the house. It was located in a quiet London neighborhood, and we were alone on the early morning street.
My old friend Liora hadn’t slammed the door in my face, but it sure felt like she had. We’d come to her because she was the best potion maker in London, and I’d hoped she’d have something that would help me control my wild new magic.
Against all odds, she’d had nothing.
I rubbed my arms and stared out at the residential street. Two days ago, a mysterious foe called the Maker had torn my enchanted necklace away from my neck, releasing a powerful magic within me. Ever since then, I’d felt it roiling, wanting to burst free and wreak havoc.
“I need to gain control of it,” I said. “Fast.”
Mac nodded, her short blond hair glinting in the light. “That bastard was never trying to kidnap you, was he? He just wanted to ignite the power within you.”
“Well, his plan worked.” I could feel my newfound power sparking like a live wire. Suddenly, I had the ability to move massive things with my mind, but I had no idea why I could do that. It certainly wasn’t a shifter trait…not that I was a proper shifter.
We turned the corner toward a busier part of London. Big Ben rose in the distance, the iconic clock tower spearing majestically toward the sky. The early morning was still dark, the streets quiet.
“Why does Liora live out here?” Mac asked. “There’s just so many humans.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but—”
A figure ran out of a brick building about fifty yards in front of us, tall and familiar.
I squinted. “That’s no human.”
“Is that Lachlan?”
The flash of dark hair under a streetlamp had a slightly different shape, and I gasped. “Garreth.”
“Holy fates.” Mac turned to me, eyes wide. “Let’s get him.”
I was already running, my heart pounding in my ears as adrenaline surged through my veins.
Garreth had been missing ever since the fight down in the Clerkenwell tunnels last week. We thought we’d won him over to our side, but the Dark Moon curse had stolen him back, and he’d disappeared. We hadn’t heard from him since.
This is my chance.
If we could catch him, maybe we could cure him. But there was no known cure.
Didn’t matter. We still had to catch him. For Lachlan. For Garreth himself.
But he was so damned fast.
The bastard was still lengths ahead of me and sprinting toward a corner. He neared the edge, and I knew that by the time I reached it, he would be gone—down an alley or through an door.
Panic flared. This could be our last chance.
My new magic surged inside me, seeming to have a life of its own. It roared, rising like a beast. Even though the telekinesis didn’t seem like a shifter trait, I felt more like a wolf than ever.
I spotted a rubbish bin across the street from Garreth, right in front of a large lorry parked along the curb. I reached out, my magic surging effortlessly through my arm. An image flashed in my mind of me hurling the bin at Garreth and knocking him down. I hadn’t used my magic since the fight in the Clerkenwell tunnels, and it exploded out of me, so powerful that my vision went blurry and I fell to my knees, a tearing sensation ripping through my middle. Agony flared as I gripped my stomach, trying to keep my eyes open through the tears.
Ahead of me, the lorry shot away from the curb, lifted into the air by my magic before hurtling across the street to slam into the building on the other side. Bricks and glass shattered and flew everywhere.
“Holy fates.” Mac stopped abruptly.
I gaped.
The lorry had smashed side-first into the building, breaking away the wall so that debris lay scattered all over the pavement.
“Garreth,” I whispered, staggering to my feet. Had I killed him?
My insides felt like they had been torn to pieces, and I gasped, my head spinning.
Mac turned back to me, her face pale. “Are you all right? You look like hell.”
“Fine.” Dumbstruck, I staggered toward the lorry.
It was early, and no one was out of their houses yet, but they’d be here any second, roused by the sound of the collision.
“Garreth got away,” Mac said. “I saw him turn the corner right before the lorry hit.”
“Thank fates.” Kind of. We needed to catch him, but more importantly, I needed not to kill him.
As I staggered up to the lorry, I noticed the bin on the other side of the road. It had tumbled onto its side, but it hadn’t moved.
Damn it. My damned magic was so broken, and I hurt like hell.
Mac put an arm around my waist to help me walk. Gratefully, I leaned into her. We neared the building, and I prayed that no one had been hurt. Fear turned my insides sour, competing with feeling of being ripped apart.
Fortunately, the sign above the door indicated that it was a dentist’s office, closed until midmorning.
Thank fates. Gratitude welled within me. No one had been hurt.
“Did you mean to do this?” Mac asked.
“No.” I looked toward the bin that had tipped over. “I was going to try to hit him with that.”
“Shit.” She turned to me. “You look bad.”
“I feel bad.”
“Oy, what’s going on here?” A rough, masculine voice sounded from behind us, thick with a London accent.
We turned back to see a man in his dressing gown staring at us from his front stoop a few buildings down.
Mac and I looked at each other.
How to explain this?
The thing was…we couldn’t. Humans shouldn’t know about magic, but how else would a lorry slam side-first into a building?
“We need to get out of here,” Mac murmured. “We can find a way to help pay for the damage once we’re safe.”
I nodded, wincing at the idea of how long it would take me to pay off this debt. I’d have to, though. I couldn’t just leave this poor dentist up a creek.
Together, we turned and staggered off down the street. Every step was agony, and Mac had to put more and more strength into keeping me upright. Several blocks down, we heard the sound of police sirens and ducked into an alley. They weren’t likely to question us, but better safe than sorry.
Mac leaned me against a wall, and my chest heaved as I used all the energy I could muster to stay upright.
“What happened to you?” she demanded.
“Tore something.”
“Like a muscle?”
“Like…” I frowned, searching for the word. “My soul, maybe. Fates, I don’t know. But it hurts.”
“Your soul?”
“Yeah. Like the magic went wild and something real bad happened.” I clutched my stomach.
Mac nodded, her jaw set. “We need to fix this shit.” She gestured up and down my body. “Whatever is wrong with you, we need it sorted.”
“Yeah.” The word escaped on a gasp. “I’m just not sure how much longer I’m going to be conscious.”