The fangs failed to connect, likely because what remained of Tura was quickly dissolving into the air. But what remained was important enough for Delilah to seek. In other words we were screwed if it reached her.

I broke through trees and into the clearing, stopping short between Aric’s wolf form and Misha. Both were injured and bloody, but that didn’t compare to the rage cloaking their auras. “She’s offering herself as a vessel for Tura,” Misha hissed.

“Why?”

“To absorb what remains of him, combining her power, Shah’s, and that of hell itself.”

Of course, because we weren’t screwed enough.

Genevieve wasn’t having it, and neither was her coven. The women circled Genevieve, who raised her staff and aimed their collective magic at Delilah. “Muori!” she yelled, throwing the ultimate death curse.

A thin current of gold light as bright as the sun shot through Tura’s dissipating shape and right at Delilah. She blocked it, using Shah to absorb the curse and rebound it. Everyone scattered, but not everyone survived. A were and several witches fell dead while two of Misha’s vampires exploded into ash.

Aric and I edged around the cluster of boulders he’d dragged me behind. “Goddamnit,” he yelled, his now human form pulling me to him.

Tura had just reached Delilah when Genevieve screamed another spell. “Separa!” She was trying to keep them from joining. Her hold didn’t last, but it didn’t have to. It was long enough for what remained of Tura to dissolve into the breeze.

Delilah screamed and raised Shah over her head, calling his power and hers. She was crazed with fury, and determined to make us all pay.

She thought Shah now belonged to her. I wasn’t so sure and I sprinted out into the open to find out. I ignored the pain from my injured foot as I ran and dodged the death curses Delilah flung like beads. When I reached the clearing’s center I stretched out my open palm. “Shah!” I screamed.

Shah materialized in my hand. I clutched him to me as Aric tackled me and rolled us away from a massive death curse that caved in the ground where I’d stood. He wrenched me behind a stand of trees in time to see Taran charge forward and launch a funnel of blue and white fire from her zombie limb. Delilah fell shrieking when Taran’s blaze struck her core. She slammed to the ground, the protective shield she’d gathered around herself the only device that spared her bones from breaking and saved her from sudden death.

What remained of the coven pounced on her and subdued her with their power. I didn’t move right away, too stunned that we were alive and shocked that Shah had actually come to me. I supposed I was right; the little guy was done being used. “Thank you, Shah,” I told him quietly.

Someone tossed Aric a pair of sweatpants. He yanked them on, his stare trained on Delilah as he then led me forward. Two witches held her by her wrists with their magic, allowing Genevieve to glide to her and easily yank the talisman from her neck. Genevieve whispered something over the stone, crumbling it to dust, then dropped the simple metal chain to the ground.

We watched Genevieve step back and point her staff at Delilah. “Rivela,” Genevieve commanded. Reveal.

My sisters gathered around me, their anger escalating as Delilah’s deep wrinkles faded, her plump form thinned, and her hair darkened as black as her stare, falling in waves to her shoulders. She couldn’t have been older than me. But that wasn’t the only problem, and my sisters saw it, too. The witch before us was an exact twin of the one we killed during a bloodlust epidemic raging through Tahoe.

Everything seemed to slow. “What the hell?” I rasped. I looked back at Taran, who initially met my face with shock. But then something changed in her expression, almost at the same moment it changed in mine.

It was then my world as I knew it unraveled.

And I realized exactly why.

Taran stumbled forward, her eyes shimmering with rage and clarity that caused a fear I’d never seen in her. She locked her stare onto the witch’s murderous eyes—their color so dark, they appeared absent of irises. “Are those similar to the eyes from your vision?” I asked, my voice shaking.

Tears streaked Taran’s face, and she nodded. She knew I understood. But the revelation, and the weight of its significance, did nothing to spare us. It lashed out like a whip and caused me to break down. Aric wrapped his arm around me. He didn’t realize why I wept. No one did except for my sisters. “You’re the daughter of the aunt who cursed us? Aren’t you?” I asked the witch.

Koda relinquished his hold on Shayna and stormed forward, wrenching the witch up by the throat before she could speak. “Answer her,” he growled before flinging her to the ground.

The witch clutched her throat, spitting up blood. The other witches didn’t care; at Genevieve’s order, they hauled her back to her feet. Magic streamed from Genevieve’s staff. “I believe you owe the Wird sisters an explanation.”

If Genevieve’s magic didn’t force her to speak, Aric’s protective hold over me made it clear he’d get her to confess by any means necessary. “I am Rosaliana, daughter of Griselda,” she said, raising her chin. “And sister of Perladina, whom you robbed me of.”

“We could say the same,” Taran snapped. “After all, your fucking mother had our parents killed!”

Taran was in hysterics when she turned to us. “Those were Griselda’s eyes haunting my dreams.” She swallowed hard. “Do you know what this means?” she asked me, although she already knew the answer.

I nodded, fighting to hold back my tears so I could speak. “Griselda was the one who sent those men to kill us. But they found Mom and Dad first.” I released a breath. “That’s why you could see Mom and Dad’s murder in their reflection. Griselda was the one behind it all along.”

Taran lost what remained of her composure. Gemini hauled her to him. She didn’t fight him, clinging to him as she broke down. Koda gathered both Shayna and Emme, his hulking body trembling from the strength it was taking to hold back his wolf. Bren and even Danny had to be subdued by the Elders. “Let her finish speaking first,” Martin whispered tightly.

“You weren’t supposed to live!” Rosaliana accused, her voice quivering as her focus traveled to my sisters and me. “All of you were supposed to die. The evil is coming, and he must be allowed to come!”