Chapter 132 Nico #3
Between the strength of the shifters and the power of Sinthy’s spells, we might have a chance.
The fight started to turn as Sinthy sent more magic toward the crowd—fireballs, then electric bolts, and then a shimmering flash of ice shards that miraculously missed all of us but crashed into the attackers.
Sinthy was pressing her attack, doing more magic in a few minutes than I’d seen her use the whole time I’d known her.
Not only was she attacking the anti-shifters, but she was also casting protection wards around as many shifters as she could see.
An instant later, a bullet pinged away from my face. Sinthy had obviously put a ward around me, and I hadn’t even noticed. She’d just saved me from having my brains blown out for the third time in one day. If I survived the rest of this, I’d have to find a way to thank her properly.
The fighting became more chaotic. The humans spread out, and the battle wasn’t as easy as a straight face-to-face fight.
Instead of waning as I grew tired, my rage only flared brighter as the fight wore on.
It also made it more difficult for Sinthy’s spells to work as the fighting spread like cancer across the pack lands.
Sebastian and my brother Rafael galloped up beside me, snapping and biting at the attackers around us.
Rafael jumped up and tore a shotgun out of one man’s hands, taking one of the guy’s fingers along for the ride.
The pop of a gunshot behind me was almost insignificant—so simple and pointless compared to all the other noise that I barely spared a moment to give it a look.
What I saw when I turned nearly stopped my heart.
Sebastian, in wolf form, lay on the grass, blood oozing from a bullet wound near his ribs.
His yellow canine eyes rolled in their sockets, then locked on mine, and I knew he was hurt badly.
I could smell the fear and pain pheromones pulsing off him, and terror tore through me.
My gaze swept up to see the person who’d shot my friend.
An older man in a button-down shirt and jeans stood there, his hands shaking as he desperately attempted to reload his revolver.
I didn’t hesitate. This man had possibly killed my best friend. It was time for him to meet his maker. I lunged, and the man’s terrified screams were a balm on my soul.
I fell upon him and allowed my hate and rage to take over.
I pulled back all my humanity and let my wolf have free rein.
If anyone had told me I was capable of such savagery a day before, I’d have called them crazy, but when I was done with the man, what remained could barely be called human.
It sickened me, but he’d made his choice by coming here, and these were the consequences.
Spinning back, I found Sebastian had shifted back to his human form, the pain keeping him from keeping the connection with his wolf. The bullet wound was right below his left nipple. Dark arterial blood spilled from it, soaking into his clothes.
I shifted and cradled Sebastian’s head in my lap.
The battle vanished from my mind as I held my dying friend.
Glancing up, I saw Tiago had rallied his pack and helped my own press the humans back nearly to the gates.
Sinthy was directly in front of me, fingers dug deep into the ground, and I could practically see the energy radiating off her.
It was unlike any power she’d shown before.
It was actually scary. I had a strange feeling of immeasurable power being summoned, built, and formed out of nothing.
Her body quaked and shook, and I watched the skin on her arms and face go pale as she murmured words under her breath.
Her skin took on a corpse-like quality as she seemed to pump every ounce of magical energy she had into whatever spell she was attempting.
From the look of her, she was putting more than just magical power into it.
I had a flutter of fear that she was going too far.
Was she pushing herself over the edge to try and save us?
Moments later, the last humans were shoved back out the gate. Sinthy raised her face to the sky and screamed. Her voice was unimaginably loud, amplified by magic. I flinched as it thundered out of her throat.
“By the names of Morrigan and Dagda, Lugh and Brigid, Ceridwen and Herne, I command the powers of the four corners. Protect this land. We are the wolves of Hecate, and by her power, I close this gate.”
Sinthy lifted her hands and slammed the palms together in a clap.
The sound that came from her hands was like the voice of God.
The pulse of energy swept over me, causing Sebastian and me to slide backward across the grass several feet.
All over the pack lands, windows erupted and shattered.
The ground reverberated, and through it all, I could still hear Sinthy’s words echoing around me.
An instant later, Sinthy collapsed in a heap as an earth-shaking crack reverberated across the pack lands.
The humans were blasted away from the gate, and the shifters were knocked back into the pack lands as a new forcefield burst into existence all along the fences.
This time I could see it—it shimmered like water and rose twenty feet in the air.
The humans sprang to their feet and ran from the pack lands, terrified by Sinthy’s magic.
I didn’t revel in the victory. Sebastian was deathly pale. His eyes were half open, and his labored breathing had an audible wet hiss with each inhalation.
He raised a hand and tried to grab my shoulder but only managed to slap ineffectually at my chest.
“Nico? Nico?” he whispered, his voice a gurgle as if he were underwater.
I squeezed his hand. “I’m here, Sebastian. I’m here. You’re okay.”
“I don’t… I don’t want to go.” He was trembling violently. “I’m scared… so scared.”
“No. No, you aren’t going anywhere. You’re too stubborn, you son of a bitch. You hear me?” I spoke through a haze of tears.
Members of the pack had drifted over to us, dozens of them slowly circling us.
Sebastian’s eyes rolled back in his head until all I could see were the whites. I shook him. “Sebastian?” I shook him again, calling his name over and over. I could hear his breathing slowing. My shifter hearing picked up his thready and uneven heartbeat. He was dying.
Without taking my eyes off him, I screamed, “Sinthy.”