Chapter Thirty-Four
The shape in the mist shifted.
For a second, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. The fog moved strangely in the woods at this time of day, and the shadows were already twisting everything into something that didn’t quite feel real.
Then the figure stepped forward.
A wolf.
Not just any wolf.
My breath caught before my mind even finished the thought.
Keegan.
He came out of the trees like a storm breaking loose. His dark coat caught what little light remained under the canopy, and the moment his paws hit the edge of the clearing, he didn’t slow down. He barreled straight into the swarm of shadows circling the hedge.
The first one tried to dive at him.
Keegan leapt.
His jaws snapped shut on it midair, and the shadow burst apart in a cloud of black mist that scattered across the ground.
Twobble screamed in delight. “Yes! Get ’em!”
Behind Keegan, the trees exploded with movement again.
More people poured into the woods. They must have seen the skies darken over here.
I watched as orcs came first, with their broad shoulders pushing through branches, and axes and clubs already raised.
Two witches followed close behind them, hands glowing with spellwork that crackled like sparks in dry leaves.
A cluster of shifters came next, moving low and fast, their eyes already locked on the circling shadows.
Luna marched in with several witches, casting protective spells.
I even recognized Matele from orientation.
And then came Caleb.
He skidded into the clearing with a breathless cuss and a staff clutched in one hand, still shifting as he made his way into the brush.
Nova didn’t even glance back.
“Thank goodness,” she shouted. “We needed more bodies!”
The shadows reacted immediately, as they turned from the hedge and dove toward the new arrivals.
One orc swung his axe in a brutal arc and caught a shadow clean through the middle. It split apart like smoke torn by wind.
A witch lifted both hands and sent a blast of bright white magic streaking through the clearing. Two shadows shrieked as it tore through them.
Keegan moved through the swarm like he’d been waiting for a fight all day.
Another shadow dove at him from above, and he twisted mid-leap and slammed into it shoulder-first, sending it spinning across the clearing before it dissolved.
For a moment, the battle shifted, and the shadows no longer circled only me.
But I could feel the Priestess become restless.
The shadows were everywhere now, darting between the hedge vines, swooping toward the witches, snapping at the shifters.
And Keegan was right in the middle of it.
My chest tightened.
He hadn’t looked toward me yet.
He hadn’t looked toward Rendel.
I risked a glance, and Rendel stood a few paces away, silver magic flashing along his hands each time a shadow slipped too close. Every strike was quick and clean, like he’d been doing this longer than any of us.
But he never once looked at Keegan.
Not yet.
My stomach knotted.
If Keegan turned and saw him, really saw him, everything would change in a heartbeat. The shock alone could snap his attention away from the fight.
And the shadows didn’t miss moments like that.
One of them still clung to my shoulder, half-caught in the Hedge magic I’d tried to throw up earlier. Instead of being driven off, it had worked its way through the spell, dark threads slipping through the vines until the whole bramble wall warped and sagged in places that should have held firm.
Every pulse of the mark made my magic stumble again.
I tightened my grip on my wand and forced the hedge to rise once more.
The vines responded, but sluggishly.
They shot upward in crooked bursts instead of the solid wall I wanted.
“Maeve!” Ardetia called.
“I’ve got it!”
I did not, in fact, have it.
Another shadow dove straight toward Keegan’s back.
“Behind you!” Ardetia shouted as Caleb jumped to block the shadow.
Keegan spun, claws raking through the creature as it lunged. The shadow shredded under the strike and scattered across the ground.
An orc beside him bellowed something approving.
“Good, Wolf!”
Keegan didn’t pause before he launched himself toward another diving shape, his teeth flashing as he tore it apart.
Nova sent another wave of green flame sweeping across the clearing.
“Keep them moving!” she shouted.
Bella shifted low beside her, springing upward to intercept a shadow streaking toward the witches.
The air felt thicker now.
Colder.
The shadows weren’t attacking randomly anymore.
They were testing the edges of the clearing.
Testing the hedge.
Testing us.
And every time my mark pulsed, several of them turned toward me again as if they could feel it.
Twobble darted to my side, panting.
“I would like to formally object to this mark situation!”
“Join the club,” I muttered right before another shadow slammed into the weakened hedge.
The vines shuddered, but the creature didn’t break like last time. Instead, it slid along the thorns until it reached the place where the shadow tangled in my mark had woven itself through the magic.
The hedge twitched and bent as if someone had grabbed the vines from the inside.
“Oh no,” Twobble breathed.
The shadow on my shoulder tightened again while pain flared across the mark.
The vines twisted harder, pulling inward.
Rendel noticed immediately.
“They’re using it,” he said.
“Using what?” Skonk demanded, swinging the broom wildly at a shadow that had slipped through the gap.
“The mark. It’s anchoring them to her magic.”
That explained the way my hedge kept faltering.
Every time I pushed the magic outward, the shadow twisted it back.
We were all pulling on the same thread.
Across the clearing, Keegan tore through another diving shadow.
He landed, shook the dark mist from his fur—
And lifted his head.
His eyes locked on me.
For a split second, everything else fell away.
Relief flooded through me so fast it almost knocked the breath out of my lungs.
He was here.
He was alive.
He was—
Keegan hit the clearing in front of me like a thunderclap.
For a moment, the shadows faltered, not retreating, but shifting, like a flock of birds suddenly unsure of the wind. The massive dark wolf tore through another wave before they could regroup, his teeth snapping shut on a twisting shape that burst apart in a spray of black mist.
Twobble pointed wildly as more figures poured from the trees behind him.
Stonewick was uniting and putting away our differences for the greater good. The exact thing that the Priestess hadn’t counted on.
A pulse of bright magic shot from the end of Nova’s staff and ripped through the nearest cluster of shadows as two of them tore apart midair, and the clearing exploded into motion.
Bella leapt into the air again, slamming another shadow into the dirt.
Stella raised the skillet like a warrior queen and smacked a shadow straight out of the air.
“I knew this thing would come in handy!”
Skonk cheered.
“Skillet skills!”
The battle was no longer a desperate circle around me.
Stonewick had arrived.
And Stonewick fought.
Nova’s green magic surged across the clearing in a rolling wave that forced several shadows back toward the treeline.
“Push them!” she shouted. “Don’t let them regroup!”
Ardetia stepped beside her, calm even in the middle of the chaos. Her magic flowed like water—quiet, controlled bursts that shattered shadows whenever they tried to slip past the front line.
The witches from town joined them, their spells weaving together in quick flashes of light.
The orcs held the ground, and every time a shadow dropped too low, a hammer or axe swung through it.
The shifters ran the edges of the fight, cutting off anything that slipped through.
And Keegan—
Keegan moved through the middle of it like a dark storm.
Another shadow dove toward him.
He leapt, twisting in midair, and tore it apart before it reached the ground.
A second shape lunged for one of the witches behind him.
Keegan slammed into it shoulder-first, sending it spinning into the hedge, where the thorns shredded it into drifting smoke.
The shadows began to thin.
Not gone.
But pushed back.
The swarm that had choked the sky earlier was breaking apart now, forced outward by the sheer stubbornness of half the town fighting back.
Twobble darted around the glowing barrier, throwing small bursts of gold magic wherever he saw an opening.
“Strategic goblin assistance!” he yelled.
Skonk swung the broom again and accidentally clipped a shadow that had been sneaking up behind an orc.
The creature burst apart.
Skonk blinked.
“…I am extremely good at this.”
Despite the chaos, a strange feeling crept into my chest.
Hope.
Stonewick was holding.
The Priestess still stood in the mist at the far end of the clearing, watching the battle with that quiet, unsettling smile, but the shadows were no longer swarming the way they had been.
They were losing ground.
Nova must have felt it too.
She stepped forward and unleashed another blast of green flame that forced the remaining shadows away from the center of the clearing.
Another shadow wrapped around my arm as the mark seared with pain, and I saw the Priestess smile as Luna came to my side. She closed her eyes and began chanting something as I heard Nova yell commands.
I closed my eyes briefly as the pain singed every cell in my body, and Luna worked against the shadows. I blinked open my eyes to see Bella dart through the opening and tackle another shadow before it could regroup.
Luna wrapped something around my shoulder and upper arm. “It’s the best I can do right now,” she whispered and took off to help the fight.
The compress steadied the pain. It didn’t take it away completely, but I’d take the relief.
Orcs pushed forward beside her, roaring with approval.
The shadows shrieked as the pressure mounted, and for the first time since they’d appeared, they looked disorganized.
Uncertain.
And the Hedge magic, twisted though it still was by the mark on my shoulder, began to respond again.
The vines surged outward, thickening along the edges of the clearing.
They snapped toward the nearest shadows and dragged two of them down into the thorns.
Rendel noticed.
His eyes flicked to the hedge, then back to the battlefield.
“Good,” he said quietly.
And I believed he felt that way. Another wave of shadows tried to dive toward the witches.
Keegan intercepted them.
He tore through the first, scattered the second, and drove the rest back toward the trees.
The clearing erupted in cheers from the orcs.
The Priestess’s smile faded.
Only slightly.
But enough.
The mist around her shifted.
The shadows that remained began pulling back toward her, retreating through the branches like smoke drawn toward a fire.
Nova noticed immediately.
“They’re falling back!”
“Keep pushing!” Lady Limora shouted.
Another surge of magic tore through the clearing.
The remaining shadows scattered.
One by one, they slipped into the mist behind the Priestess.
The battle slowed.
Then stopped.
Heavy breathing filled the clearing.
Leaves drifted down through the broken branches overhead.
For the first time in what felt like hours, the air stopped vibrating with magic.
Keegan stood near the center of the clearing, chest heaving as he shook the last fragments of shadow mist from his fur.
Around him, the people of Stonewick slowly lowered their weapons.
Nova stepped forward, her eyes fixed on the Priestess.
“You’re done here.”
The Priestess didn’t answer.
Her gaze moved slowly across the clearing, calculating.
Over the witches.
The orcs.
The shifters.
Then she looked at me.
The mark on my shoulder pulsed once more.
Soft.
Satisfied.
Her smile returned.
And then—
Keegan turned.
Not toward the Priestess.
Toward me.
His wolf eyes scanned the clearing quickly, checking every face.
Checking everyone who had arrived.
Then his gaze slid past my shoulder.
And stopped.
Right on Rendel.
Keegan froze.
And that was when the Priestess struck.