But what Kera didn’t understand was why. What did straw have to do with any—

It came out of the wall like a white shadow, easing along the floor until it turned into a naked, blood-covered female seconds before it rammed into Kera, knocking her on her back. It held her down by pressing against Kera’s shoulders, leaned in, and screeched out a wail that tormented Kera’s ears.

Hands grabbed Kera by the shoulders and dragged her back, but the woman followed, galloping after her on all fours, limbs moving in the most unnatural way possible.

Vig stepped between Kera and the thing after her and brought the Killer hammer up, knocking it across the floor.

“Get her up!” Vig ordered and Erin pulled Kera to her feet as more shadows moved into the room, coming at the small group from all sides.

“Fuuuuuck,” Erin growled.

Kera reached for her blades but she was tackled from the side by another one of those things. They rolled into tables and chairs until they hit the wall. Kera gripped its hair and slammed the back of its head against the wood wall.

When it was stunned, Kera got up, and that’s when she spotted one of the witches. She was badly hurt but still alive.

Kera dodged around swinging weapons and slid on her knees to stop by the witch.

“You . . . you must get it,” the witch panted out.

“What?”

The witch gripped Kera by her shirt. “We tried to stop it,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “We took what we could, but they found us. They found us.”

“Where is it? Tell me.”

“She can’t . . . she can’t get it. Do you understand?”

“Don’t you dare die on me until you tell me where it is!”

The witch pointed across the room to what appeared to be a small pagan altar with a pentagram hanging above it.

Kera stood to charge over, but as she took her first step, something grabbed hold of her ankle.

She looked down, expecting it to be the witch but it was one of those things. It smiled at her, revealing rows of small, black fangs. Just like the demon in that man’s house. The man she, at first, couldn’t kill.

Kera raised her fist to smash its face, but it unleashed another deafening screech that had Kera trying to pull her foot away, for no other reason than just to get away from that goddamn sound.

Yanked off her feet and onto her back, Kera reached out and grabbed on to a table leg. But she only managed to drag the table with her as the thing pulled her closer. So she used her free leg and smashed her foot into the thing’s face. She did damage. The thing’s nose caved in. That alone should have killed it, but the blow only seemed to make it more pissed off.

As it drew her closer, Kera sat up and grabbed the blades still holstered to her free ankle. Once she had them in her hands, she rammed the first one into the thing’s eye. That got a different kind of screech from the bitch. Apain-filled one. Then Kera shoved her second blade right into her enemy’s mouth, fed up with that goddamn noise!

At least that was effective. It went from screeching to making horrible choking sounds. But anything was better than that screeching. Kera could think once she’d stopped the screeching.

Yanking her foot away from the thing’s grasp, Kera stood up, and pulled the first blade from the woman’s eye. But before Kera could stab it in the other eye, it was abruptly dragged away from Kera. As if there was an invisible rope around it that yanked it across the room. It hit the wall, turned to white mist, and was gone, leaving only Kera’s second blade behind.

Her mouth open, Kera could only stare at where it had disappeared . . . and wonder what the fuck had just happened.

As if a silent call went out, the things either ran or were dragged away from the fight, their bodies turning to mist and disappearing into the walls.

But Vig knew that Kera still needed answers. He tried to grab one of them before it reached the wall, but it was already shadow and his hands went through it. Stieg, seeing what Vig was doing, did the same. He tried to grab one, but he couldn’t.

But just as another reached the wall, Brodie dove through the front glass of the tea shop and tackled the thing to the ground. Although the humans couldn’t touch it, the dog could. Snarling and growling, Brodie dragged the thing to the center of the room and away from the wall.

It kicked and screeched but Brodie didn’t let it go. She held on, waiting for Kera.

The Mara. Vig had never thought he’d ever see one of them in his lifetime. Much less a coven of them.

Kera unsheathed the hammer that Freyja had given her and pressed the weapon against the Mara’s chest. As soon as it touched the flesh, the runes glowed a hot red and it burned the thing’s skin.

“Erin,” Kera called out. “Check the altar in the corner. Anything there?”

Erin ran over to the altar and tore it apart. After a minute she said, “It’s empty. Whatever was here is gone.”

Kera leaned on the hammer, the Mara beneath her screeching in agony.

“What did you take, thing?”

The Mara grabbed the handle of the hammer but the runes burned its hands and it screeched out.

“Tell me!”

“No.” Chloe moved to Kera’s side and leaned down to look into the Mara’s face. “Tell me who you fight for, bitch.”

The Mara struggled beneath Kera’s hammer so Chloe shoved her foot down against her shoulder. “Answer me!”

Alessandra suddenly screamed out as one of the Mara yanked her back by the neck and dragged her away. Tessa went after her sister-Crow but Kera didn’t release the Mara she had trapped. Instead, she leaned on the hammer and the head melted the flesh away, falling deeper into the Mara’s chest.