“The werewolf we came for is near,” countered a second voice, not far from the location of the first. This one was significantly softer, but just as seductive as its companion. “You know leaving isn’t something we’d enjoy until they speak the words we must hear, and then back home we can take the wolf boy.”

“Oh, forgive me,” I quickly replied, giving a large sweeping bow to the three members of the Coven before me. “I had no idea you had guests. I’ll be happy to leave once Jabari hands over Nicolai.”

“Why would I do such a thing?” Jabari slowly inquired, his dark eyes narrowing on me while his long fingers tightened on the arms of his throne. I half expected to hear the wood cracking and groaning under the force of his grip.

“Do you deny you sent him with the order to kill me?” I asked, my tone sweeter than sugar. My head cocked to the left and I flashed him a toothy smile. I knew when he’d figured out exactly what I was doing there because at least one of the wooden arms made a large cracking sound. Some small part of me prayed it was all an act for the rest of the Coven, or I was in serious trouble.

“He was sent for your heart,” Jabari admitted. His growing anger was causing his accent to thicken, pushing him closer to his traditional Egyptian. Sliding forward, he sat perched on his seat as if preparing to leap at me.

It was a fight for me to keep from taking a step back. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Confronting Jabari was like baiting a tiger—I’d be lucky if he didn’t rip my face off if I was wrong.

“Then I have come to claim the spoils of the fight. I spared his life, so it now belongs to me,” I said, forcing a smile. It was a very old tradition of my kind and not one frequently enforced simply because we typically killed whoever attacked us.

“You can’t have him,” Jabari snarled.

“What is the meaning of this?” Macaire demanded. A frown marred his distinguished features while his eyes darted between me and the Elder.

“He sent the lycanthrope to kill Mira,” Danaus replied, stepping forward so he was directly beside me. In no way attempting to hide his antagonism for the whole group, his right hand rested casually on the handle of one of the knives at his waist.

“Mira?” cried one of the female voices above my head. There was a sudden scrape of movement along the ceiling as if claws were scratching the stones overhead. There was a whisper of voices, words I couldn’t quite make out despite my keen hearing. I took a step backward and craned my head up in an attempt to see the creatures that lurked on the ceiling, but they remained hidden behind the scattering of flags and banners. Taking another step back, I intentionally bumped my shoulder into the hunter’s.

What the hell is up there? I sent the question directly into his brain, struggling to keep from sounding as terrified as I felt.

No idea.

I quickly stepped away from him at the sound of wings and a blur of shadow. One of the creatures swooped down from the ceiling and landed lightly on the floor directly between me and the Coven. I had to clamp down on my tongue to keep the scream from escaping when my eyes clearly took in the monster for the first time.

At close to five feet tall, the creature looked almost like a woman, though only by a stretch of the imagination. And that’s if you erased the batlike wings that stretched from the inside of her thin arms and down along her body. At the end of the wings were three long bony fingers, tipped with black claws. Her skin was flesh-colored and appeared paperthin since it sagged on her spindly body. However, it was her crowlike feet with their long talons clicking ominously on the marble floor that finally triggered a memory in my mind. This creature was the source of the ancient harpy mythology.

After encountering the two female naturi from the wind clan in the woods in England, I had assumed they were all the fairy-tale type, with elfin features and butterfly wings. Sure, Rowe looked different, but then everything about Rowe was different, from his black hair to his scars to his black wings. I never expected to find a naturi so horrifying to look upon.

“This is the monster who tamed the flame and reduced us to dusty ash,” the naturi said, taking a hesitant step closer to me. She wrapped her wings around herself so that her hands lightly gripped her bony shoulders, concealing her naked body. “Once again fulfilling her birth name. Yet, behind her lurks a bit of trash.” The creature’s narrowed yellow eyes turned to Danaus and closely inspected him, creeping yet another step closer.

“What is he? Please, tell me,” demanded a third voice from the ceiling. This one sounded younger, almost childlike in its pitch and impatient urgency. “He smells of sweat and weak human flesh, but carries behind him no shade of death. Not human born.”

“Nor vampire made,” chimed in a second from overhead.

“Nor wolf by moonlight torn,” finished the other naturi standing a few feet away.

“And he’s not for sale, so don’t get too attached,” I snapped, their strange rhyming grating on my nerves. I took a step sideways, to stand between Danaus and the naturi. The creature glared at me and retreated a step, keeping a comfortable distance between us. I was surprised they couldn’t identify the origin of the hunter’s powers. The naturi and bori were archenemies seemingly since the birth of time. You’d think they’d have recognized the presence of a bori no matter how faint. Then again, it had been more centuries than anyone could count since the last bori wandered the earth. Maybe they forgot what one felt like.

Struggling to tear my eyes off the creature with the stringy gray hair, I looked up at the Coven and said, “Just send out Nicolai, and we’ll be on our way.”

“We cannot,” Macaire said. “We have other plans for him.”

“Time to change your plans.” I smiled, slipping my dagger from my waist. I reached my free left hand behind me to the hunter, who took it. “Or Danaus and I turn anything that stinks of naturi into ash. Send out the wolf.”

Chaos erupted. The first harpy launched herself into the air with amazing speed and grace, disappearing among the flags hanging above. Again their voices swelled as they discussed something in their own language that I couldn’t quite make out. They either didn’t care for being threatened or had just figured out that the wolf I demanded was their soon-to-be sacrifice.

As I lifted my eyes to try to locate the three naturi that clung to the ceiling like overgrown bats, my brain filled with pain. At first Jabari had been the only presence pushing against my thoughts, but Danaus quickly shoved his way inside. Energy from both creatures surged through my frame, battling for dominance. The hunter was winning the battle, but I had a feeling it was only because he actually had physical contact with me, gripping my hand, while Jabari still sat several feet away on the dais. My scream shattered the air as the pain buckled my knees beneath me. I was only vaguely aware of the sound of my knife hitting the marble floor at the same time my knees came in contact with the cool stone.

My bones felt as if they were being ground into dust as Jabari and Danaus fought for control. Danaus still held my hand, and I tried to pull it free in a blind effort to stop the pain. Of course, if he released me, there was a chance that Jabari would win control and the hunter would die. There were no voices in my head this time. Just raw, angry power. I screamed again, wishing there was a way I could push them both out of my head, but there was nothing to grab onto, nothing to push against. They were both everywhere at once, separate but nearly indistinguishable in the various shades of pain they caused.

When I was sure I could take no more, Danaus finally won the battle, ejecting Jabari from my thoughts. Unfortunately, there was too much energy flowing in my painfully tense frame. I couldn’t let it go. A ring of fire nearly twelve feet in diameter instantly burst into existence. The flames crackled for a second in bright yellow and orange before settling into a silent pale blue. No one had put the need to create fire in my brain, it just happened.