Chapter 7 - Conan #2
Simon backs up toward the van just as the third demon charges. I meet it head-on, spurred on by the resurgence of air magic. Volatile, unsteady, but still present enough to make this count.
The demon’s claws rake across my shoulder, ripping through fur and flesh as pain explodes through me, but I retaliate with a violent blast of unstable wind that sends gravel and broken branches spiraling into a miniature cyclone around us.
The power is raw, too sudden after years without it. But Goddess, it’s there, and that’s what matters right now.
The demon shrieks as the wind current slams it upward, and I use that moment to leap, my jaw closing around its neck midair.
Crunch!
Black blood rains down just as another scream erupts behind me. It’s human this time.
It’s Hannah.
I spin on my hind legs, seeing the first demon—the one I blasted into the tree—charging toward the van again, aiming for Clarissa. That’s when rage detonates inside me like a ticking time bomb on its last second in its countdown.
Nothing else matters when my vision tunnels on the girl, my protective instincts naturally kicking into full gear.
I unleash another burst of air magic, stronger this time, but the power surges too violently through my body.
Pain rips through my chest as the unstable current spirals out of control, uprooting dirt and branches in every direction.
The demon powers through the magic I just unleashed, able to move through it with ease. It’s too fast, too close, and my wolf wails from sheer panic and defeat.
But then fire explodes across the darkness, sending a current of light that brightens the entire road in ropes of gold. The demon shrieks as flames wrap around its body like living ropes, forcing it backward.
My breath catches, my heart hammering with the realization that the source of that magic was none other than Hannah.
She stands outside the overturned van with Clarissa behind her, one hand outstretched as fire spirals around her arm in brilliant waves of red, gold, and white.
But it’s the wind around her that steals the breath from my lungs.
Air currents thrash violently around her body, her hair whipping wildly, feeding the flames until they become an inferno. She isn’t using ordinary magic—not one isolated attack against the demons. She’s using air and fire, together, perfectly fused like a wildfire carried by a storm.
The demon lunges anyway, but Hannah lifts her other hand until both palms face outward.
The air changes, the pressure dropping violently as wind erupts down the road in a screaming torrent powerful enough to force even me backward a step while flames twist within the current like dragons made of molten light.
The demon is swallowed whole. Its scream lasts only seconds before the fire tears through its body completely.
Ash scatters into the night in the aftermath, whispering to the gravel road like snow.
I stare at Hannah in stunned disbelief, understanding the full extent of my true mate’s power. She isn’t like the others—the lunas of the alphas in the valley. She wields Ashclaw fire and Iron Breath air as one.
Not despite being wolfless, but because she belonged to both sides of the valley—the west and the south.
And Goddess…she’s powerful. More powerful than Sophie or Annika had been when they awakened.
Our eyes meet—mine in wolf form, hers glowing orbs that permeate with the power she wields—and my heartbeat slows down as if the mate bond itself is what feeds air into my lungs.
But out of the corner of my eye, I notice another demon coming for her from the trees. I’m about to call out to her through the mind link, hoping she’d hear me, when Simon’s voice storms into my mind.
“Behind you!” he shouts through the link.
I don’t listen to him, too focused on Hannah as she turns too slowly, exhaustion already shadowing her face.
I launch forward just as the demon reaches her, slamming into the creature with enough force to send us both tumbling across the dirt road.
It claws at me wildly, but I rip into it viciously, teeth shredding black flesh while unstable currents of air slice through the creature like invisible blades.
The demon howls right before fire crashes into it. The flames erupt so intensely that they engulf both me and the creature for half a second, but the fire bends around my body as if it’s protecting me.
The demon is not spared. It disintegrates beneath her combined magic, the last one burning in the fire when it tries to get to me. Silence falls around us then, and only harsh breathing remains.
Smoke curls through the ruined road, and the demons are burned into nothingness.
I turn my wolf head toward Hannah, only to see her swaying, her face paling. The fire around her hands flickers weakly before vanishing entirely.
“Hannah!”
She collapses when I call out through the mind link, so I race forward, shifting mid-run and catching her before she hits the ground. Her body trembles violently in my arms.
“She overused her magic,” Simon says grimly as he approaches with Clarissa clinging tightly to his side. “The air and fire together…shit. We’ve never seen anything like it…”
Hannah’s head lolls weakly against my chest, her breathing shallow. Panic grips me instantly, and I clutch her cheek with one hand. “Hannah.”
Her eyelids flutter but don’t open fully, eyes rolling to the back of her head.
Clarissa rushes forward. “Mommy!”
“She’s alive,” I assure the child quickly, tightening my hold on Hannah. “She’s just exhausted.”
The child’s frightened eyes lift to mine. Something twists painfully in my chest, but I stop the feeling before it can be recognized.
No.
I shove the thought away immediately, knowing what I need to focus on.
Hannah.
“We need to move,” Simon warns, glancing toward the forest. “Those things weren’t wandering randomly. They tracked us.”
I nod sharply. “Take Clarissa.”
Simon hesitates.
“Conan—”
“Now.”
He carefully lifts Clarissa into his arms while I gather Hannah against my chest. My concern for her feels far too raw. Far too deep. The mate bond pulses violently beneath my skin as I stare down at her unconscious face.
She fought for Clarissa without hesitation. Without fear. And Goddess help me…watching Hannah wield both fire and air felt like watching fate itself descend onto that road, and I will do everything in my power to ensure they’re both safe. It’s an oath as deep and convicted as the mate bond itself.
I shift again carefully, balancing Hannah across my back while Simon does the same with Clarissa.
Then we run straight toward the Bitterroot Valley beneath the full moon, to the beginning of our new life together, where I swear to protect them both.