Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted novel Chapter 376

LISA

Mira stands in front of me, fully wolfed out, gray fur bristling.

Snow crunches beneath my boots as I back a little further away.

Something isn’t right. Ten massive wolves wrestle with the Westwood wolves, brutally aggressive, and yet not a single one glances my way.

A gray wolf—one of our guards, I’m pretty sure—flies past us, blood matting his fur. He slams into a tree with a sickening crack. My stomach lurches. I can’t recognize the wolves by sight like Ava does, because they all look alike. Only Kellan stands out from the rest, a little larger and more russet than gray.

He launches at two attackers, his teeth finding purchase in one’s throat, trying to pull him to the ground. But these wolves don’t seem to notice pain.

The brace on my wrist is warm, already charged with a few drops of blood and ready to fire. But there’s no way I can use it with them all tangled together like this. I’m as liable to hit one of my guards as I am an enemy.

My fingers hover over the brace. If I can just get a clear shot...

But it doesn’t look like that’s happening anytime soon.

Another guard crashes nearby, his leg bent at an impossible angle. Still, not one of the attacking wolves turns our way. It’s like Mira and I are invisible, or...

"They’re only targeting the pack," I murmur.

But how do they know? _{freёwebnovel.com}

Kellan roars in pain as three wolves pin him down. My heart leaps into my throat. The brace grows hot against my skin, responding to my panic.

But why avoid me? Unless...

Unless someone wants me alive.

No. That’s crazy. Who would—

Mira whirls suddenly with a vicious snarl, bounding behind me in an instant. Before I can turn, something whistles behind me.

Ice floods my veins. My muscles lock up as a primal part of my brain screams danger.

Red sprays across pristine white in my peripheral vision, and I jerk around while stumbling back, slipping in the fresh now.

Mira’s body crumples in front of me, and I’m already raising my arm, aiming my brace at—

No.

My whole body trembles.

Marisol stands before me, but she’s wrong. All wrong. Her delicate features remain unchanged, that same pixie-like face that had brought me food in that dark cell. But power radiates from her. Or something does, anyway, with an aura of darkness and fire. Her unnatural green eyes practically glow like fluorescent toxicity, and her skin... her skin seems to ripple with shadows that shouldn’t exist.

"Sweet Lisa." Her voice carries the same musical lilt I remember, but now it scrapes against my ears like broken glass. It’s strange, like it isn’t her speaking, even though her mouth moves with her words. "Did you miss me?"

The brace is right there, charged and ready, aimed straight for her face. But I can’t say the words. Can’t make my body respond to my mind. I’m frozen in fear and memories I’ve done my best to bury.

Those eyes. Those horrible, beautiful eyes hold me captive, as if all this freedom is nothing more than an illusion.

The shadows writhing beneath her skin stretch outward, reaching for me with grasping tendrils. My legs won’t move. My lungs won’t work. The sounds of fighting fade to a distant roar as those toxic eyes consume my world.

Just like before. Just like that cell. Just like every nightmare since. I can’t do anything.

But this isn’t before, and I’m not the same helpless girl I was then. This time I have power of my own.

"Shape," I whisper. In my head, all I can see is a giant lance made of flame.

A spear of pure flame, ten feet long and thick as my arm. Its tip blazes white-hot, the shaft a swirling inferno of orange and gold. Something large enough to contain all my terror. All my rage. All the helplessness of those days lost in darkness. The grief over Mira’s body, just lying there, surrounded in a sea of crimson.

"What?" Marisol’s melodic voice carries a note of confusion, her eyes moving to the arm I have pointed at her.

Naturally, I picture the lance piercing straight through her chest, burning away the darkness that writhes beneath her skin. The flames would consume her from the inside out, turning those toxic green eyes to ash. My lips part as I whisper the command that will make it real.