Misty lunged for the purple plants again, grabbing a handful. She raced to her pile of petals in the middle of the cave, threw the hyacinths down, and lifted her book.

Oison shoved Dougal from him. Dougal fell, moving in pain, his Collar continuing to spark. Oison headed for Misty, who was walking around and around her clump of flowers.

“By east and west, by north and south,” Misty read in a loud voice. “By wind and water, fire and earth. By the Goddess and moonlight, by the God and sunlight—I command you to do my will.”

Oison was almost upon her, but Misty kept walking. She lifted the book. “I command you to do my will!”

The petals swirled with her passing, rising a little, then moved faster. Faster still. A vortex of them rushed around her, encasing Misty in its tornado.

The vortex of petals reached all the way to the ceiling. Then they exploded, bursting over the entire cave, raining down like colorful snowflakes. They carpeted the ground, spilling over the vines, the black obsidian, Oison, the fallen Dougal, Matt, and Kyle.

As soon as the petals started to fall, Misty sprinted back to Graham. “Let him go!” she yelled at the vines.

They shivered, leaves and flowers shaking. Then they withdrew, unwinding from Graham and releasing him.

Misty stared, her mouth open. “It worked!” She shouted in delight. “I can’t believe it—it actually worked! I’m going to give Ben a big fat kiss when I see him again.”

“The hell you will.” Graham tried to pull himself up, but he fell again, weak and exhausted.

But Oison was coming. The Fae kicked aside vines and raised his sword again, swinging it hard at Misty.

Graham caught Oison’s wrist, and the blade swung and met Graham’s thick upper arm. Snarling, Graham let it cut him to the bone as he twisted Oison away from Misty, Graham’s Collar sparking hard. He tried to change to his between-beast as he fought, his strongest form, but Graham found he couldn’t shift at all. The sword, and his shocking Collar, combined to take the last of his strength.

Oison ripped himself from Graham’s bloody grasp, and Graham fell to his knees.

Misty screamed at the plants, and pointed at Oison. “Take him, take him!”

The plants moved sinuously toward Oison, the vines that had held Graham prisoner now seeking the Fae. But too slowly. Oison spun out of their way, his black eyes filled with rage, and brought his sword down on them. The vines he severed shuddered, then turned brown and crumpled away.

Oison went for the source of his frustration—Misty. Across the cave, Dougal tried to rise, tried to help. Graham forced himself to his feet, dizzy and dying. But he’d stop the bastard from hurting Misty. No matter what.

The cave shook again, the earth emitting another groan. Rock and sand poured from the ceiling, hitting the flowers and obsidian, the Shifters and Misty, Oison. Dust rose to coat the air. Graham heard Oison cursing, which told Graham the tremors weren’t of Oison’s making.

The sheet of ice that held Reid cracked with the sound of a gunshot. Graham turned to it as the ice fell away in huge chunks, not so much exploding as pushing outward and shattering on the cave floor.

As the ice splintered into needlelike shards and more rock from the wall fell, Reid walked out from the rubble. His clothes were shredded, he had blood all over him, and he was mad as hell.

Reid shouted something in a language that was guttural and harsh, unintelligible to Graham. Oison, on the other hand, whipped around, his sword raised. Oison had stark fear in his eyes, which Graham would enjoy if he didn’t feel so crappy.

Reid went for Oison. He bounded across the cave on his runner’s legs, hands outstretched, those odd-sounding words pouring from him. Oison met him, swinging his sword. Reid shouted again, and the rocks that had blown out with the ice rose up at his command.

The plants were still going for Oison as well. They tangled his legs as Reid’s rocks came down on top of the Fae.

Oison swung his sword at Reid, and rocks clanked against the blade. Oison whirled his sword again, and disappeared. Reid snarled something and disappeared with him.

The rocks were still spinning in midair. They stopped abruptly as soon as Reid vanished, raining down onto the cave, clacking against the obsidian.

“Time to go,” Graham said. “Misty, help me with Dougal.”

Dougal was still rolling in pain, his moans turning to wolf howls. He’d shifted again to human by the time Graham and Misty reached him.

“Come on.” Graham thrust his arm under Dougal, lifting his nephew to his feet.

Dougal jerked away. “No, I have to help Matt.”

“We’ll both help him. But we need to move.”

Graham had struggled to learn the exact combination of compassion and command to bump Dougal out of his despair. Dougal finally nodded and let Graham help him around the writhing vines.

The plants had drawn back from the two cubs, encircling them but not touching them. Misty leaned down and picked up Matt’s limp body.

“He’s alive,” she said in relief. “But he’s hurt.”

“I should have made them stay at Misty’s,” Dougal said. He hung on to Graham, his face wet with blood and tears. “Damn it.”

Misty cuddled Matt close and lifted Kyle, who was a whimpering ball of fur. “I don’t think these little guys would have listened.”

“We’ll never get out.” Dougal rubbed his hand over his face, crazed with fear. “He’ll trap us here.”

Before Graham could answer, Misty said, “Yes, we will. We’re family. We can do anything.”

Dougal blinked at her. “What are you talking about? We’re not pack.”

“Doesn’t matter. Graham brought you up, and he’s Matt’s and Kyle’s honorary father. And I’m his girlfriend. Close enough.”

“And you’re going to accept his mate-claim,” Dougal said with conviction.

“Can we talk about this outside this cave?” Misty tucked the two cubs firmly against her, gentleness itself. “Time to run, I think.”

Graham chuckled as he helped Dougal, half supporting himself on his nephew at the same time. “Hear that? Misty, for once, doesn’t want to talk.”

“Suck it up, Graham,” she said.

Graham’s laughter echoed against the cave walls, which were still too damn eerie for his taste. He made himself follow Misty’s cute butt through the darkness to the ley line, wherever it came out, and decided he’d follow that gorgeous ass anywhere.