“He wants you dead,” the naturi said.

Again I shrugged. Rowe had won at the Palace of Knossos when he managed to break the seal that bound the naturi, but he still had to open the door. He knew that I was going to come after him again with everything I had, so he had been sending a continuous barrage of minor skirmishes my way during the past month, trying to wear me down.

With a twirl of the knife, I returned it to the sheath with my right hand while my left hand shot out, palm open toward him and the other two naturi. They exploded into three enormous candles of fire burning brightly in the night. I stopped them before there was even a chance for the fight to take place. I wasn’t willing to risk the lives of my companions for more information. Rowe would either come after me or I would meet up with him at the next sacrifice location.

A shot rang out followed by two more in quick succession. I twisted around, extinguishing the fire with a wave of my hand. Tristan and Knox faced the opposite direction, holding their guns with both hands and firing at the half-dozen naturi running from the forest surrounding us on all sides. They had been waiting for us to finally appear outside the city limits.

To my surprise, two fireballs appeared in the open hands of one of the naturi and were launched toward Knox and Tristan. A light clan naturi. Shit. Focusing all my attention on the flames, I captured the two fireballs and pulled them to myself before extinguishing them completely. Fire as a form of attack had now been taken out of the equation, since the light naturi could counter all of my moves.

Redrawing my knife, I ran at the approaching naturi. Gunshots filled the night as Tristan and Knox tried to level the playing field. As we closed on the group, the sound of wings filled the air. A flock of starlings flooded the night sky. I dove to the ground, my bare arms skidding along the rough, rock-riddled earth as I tried to escape from the sharp talons of the birds. Before I could regain my feet, the light naturi with her golden hair and bronze skin was on me, short sword drawn. I rolled to my left, narrowly missing the blade as it came down where I’d been only a second earlier. I created a wall of fire between us, hoping to slow her down for a second so I could regain my feet.

The light naturi wiped away the fire with a wave of her hand. As she took a step closer, I threw my knife at her, burying it deep within her chest.

Stumbling backward, the naturi gapped at the knife sticking out of her chest. She swiped blindly at me with her sword, but I easily dodged it. With a swift kick, I knocked the blade from her weakening grip. I smiled as I stepped forward and pulled my knife from her chest. My maker, Sadira, had made sure that I was an accomplished fighter without my powers. The sucking sound filled the night air followed by her cry of pain, cut short as I separated her head from her shoulders in a single, clean blow.

I was running to face the rest of the naturi before she hit the ground. A quick count revealed that only three remained of the six that had attacked. The birds were gone, indicating that the animal clan naturi had been killed.

Overhead, the clouds began to churn as an unexpected storm blew in from the east. The wind shifted and picked up, blowing my long red hair into my eyes. It appeared that the remaining naturi were members of the wind clan. This was bad. I couldn’t stop a lightning bolt, and not one of us was likely to survive being struck.

“Pull back,” I shouted. “Pull back.” I gathered my powers as I screamed at the nightwalkers. I couldn’t set any of the naturi on fire if they were close to the nightwalkers; there would be no way of protecting those important to me once the fire started.

Tristan and Knox hesitated for only a moment, but then pulled back, running toward my car. However, Amanda was trapped by a naturi slicing at her, backing her steadily toward the woods and away from the road. Concentrating, I set the two naturi that had been battling Knox and Tristan on fire and ran toward Amanda.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw another car pull off to the side of the road behind the naturi car. I didn’t need a bigger audience and could only guess our new friend was another naturi since we had the whole area magically cloaked.

Take care of the new arrival, I directed Tristan telepathically as I ran to Amanda’s side.

The wind naturi with the light brown hair paused a few feet from Amanda and raised one hand up into the air as if reaching to pull down a piece of the heavens. Amanda watched him, her hands trembling from exhaustion and possibly fear. She had no idea what she faced. I did and it wasn’t pretty. I had seen Rowe take the exact same stance just before a hailstorm of lightning bolts pelted the ground.

Digging my feet into the ground, I launched myself at her, tackling her to the ground just before a lightning bolt sizzled to the earth exactly where she had been standing only a moment earlier. Pain sliced through my abdomen, but I ignored it as I forced Amanda to roll several feet as we searched for safer ground. Once on my side, I directed a fireball at the offending wind naturi, bathing him in orange and yellow flames before he could call down another bolt.

With the naturi burned to a blackened crisp, I lay back on the ground and closed my eyes in relief. The naturi were dead and no one was seriously hurt.

Mira! Tristan shouted telepathically at the same time more gunshots rang out.

Twisting to look up, sending a fresh stab of pain through my abdomen, I saw three more naturi running toward us. Somehow I had missed them in my count—or they had run from the woods when I crashed to the ground with Amanda, trying to take advantage of a vulnerable moment.

Amanda pushed to her knees, moving in front of me in an effort to protect me, but I grabbed her elbow and pulled her to the side. I couldn’t have her block my field of vision. Lifting one shaking, bloody hand, I tried to set them on fire, but I struggled. Each movement of my body sent a fresh sliver of pain screaming through my frame, shattering my concentration. The naturi were gaining ground, faster than Tristan or Knox could. With a snarl, I dug deep, reaching past the pain, searching for the fire that burned bright where my soul was supposed to reside.

The three naturi slid to a halt a few feet away from me. Their gurgling cries filled the nearly silent night air. Dropping their weapons heedlessly to the ground, they clawed at their skin, which had begun to undulate strangely.

It was then that I felt the familiar touch of warm power in the air. I knew before turning my head that Danaus was there. Finally distracted from the pain and the fear, I waved my hand at the three naturi that were being boiled from the inside out and set them on fire. They were instantly incinerated under our combined power.

“Oh, God! Mira!” gasped Amanda beside me. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…it’s just…you tackled me…I didn’t—”

I looked down at where she was staring with a horrified look. The handle of a knife stuck out of my stomach. Blood was soaking into my shirt and beginning to fill the waistband of my jeans. That explained the sudden slice of pain when I’d crashed into Amanda. I impaled myself on the knife she had been holding.

“Figures,” I grumbled as I slowly pulled the blade out of my stomach with a low hiss of pain. I escaped being wounded by a naturi only to be hurt by one of my own. The embarrassment was worse than pain in my stomach as my body struggled to heal itself.

A whisper of running footsteps told me that Tristan and Knox were fast approaching to make sure that we were both safe. Refusing to allow them to see me wounded by Amanda’s blade, I pushed into a sitting position, wincing at the pain it caused.