"So what do we do then?!"

Irene didn’t need to know who asked the question from the crowd of sub-alphas, she heard it loud and clear.

Her gaze swept across the faces of the sub-alphas. Some met her stare with the same cold, unreadable expression she wore, while a few lowered their eyes.

That did not impress her. This was not the time for cowardice.

"We fight," she said.

That earned her a fresh wave of murmuring.

She went on,

"Angus is not our leader. He’s a dictator who wants domination, and we will not let that happen. As Alphas, it is our duty to defend our territories, even if it costs us our lives. We will not be intimidated into submission." Her voice hardened."Especially not by a king whose time is over."

This time, the wolves nodded, determination in their eyes. But there was something else there too.

Fear.

"How do we fight a man who can’t be killed?" one of them asked. "You all saw what happened. Even our Alpha King was tossed around like a child."

This time, Elijah’s face did redden. Yep, that

memory burned. And it would stay burned until he paid Angus back for it.

So he stood.

"Angus is not invincible," Elijah said. "No charm is that foolproof. For instance, my necklace—" He lifted his chin slightly.

"Take it off, and I’m no longer protected from psychic attacks."

The wolves listened.

"We only need to find out where he keeps his protection. Remove that, and he’s no different from the rest of us."

"So how do we find out?" Will challenged.

Elijah’s eyes met his and held. Will did not look away even as his eyes watered and Elijah’s dominance pressed down on him, tightening around his lungs, trying to

force his body to remember its place—

he stood his ground.

"Would you both cut it out already?" Irene snapped.

The tension snapped with it.

Elijah looked away first, a small smile tugging at his lips, but his eyes said something else entirely: We’ll settle this later, boy.

Griffin spoke. "Micah can."

Elijah frowned. "What?"

"Micah can find what we need," Griffin said. "If there’s anyone who can get us that kind of information, it’s Micah Richmond."

He didn’t stop there.

"And if you want to win this fight, then you’d better involve your nephew. He’s the best chance we have against your brother."

Griffin’s gaze locked onto Elijah’s, hard and unyielding. Elijah exhaled slowly. What was with everyone looking at him like that? Like he was the problem. Angus was.

"Fine," he said dryly. "We’ll involve my demon of a brother’s son stuck in Lunaris Academy. Happy?" He gave Griffin a saccharine smile.

Griffin only scowled. He was in no mood for jokes.

Leon spoke next, the thought clearly just hitting him.

"Say we find Angus’s weakness—or we don’t—what’s the plan? Angus gave us three days."

"Don’t worry," Elijah said. "We won’t take that long."

Irene’s instincts immediately prickled. That tone and confidence never meant anything good.

She narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

Elijah’s lips curved slightly.

"We have the Cardinal Alphas here," he said. "Or at least half of them." His gaze flicked between Griffin and Roman. "That should be enough to eliminate Angus. Don’t you think so?"

There was a beat, then Irene let out a string of very colorful curses. Because if Elijah wasn’t careful, she was going to kill him herself.

Meanwhile, at Lunaris Academy....

Whatever shield the witches had thrown over Lunaris Academy had effectively turned the school into a prison. No portal could be summoned within the academy grounds.

The witches had tried enough times to prove that. Every spell meant to rip open space either fizzled out or crashed against the barrier and snapped back, making the witches curse and the air hiss with burnt magic.

So now they were stuck with the students with no clear way out of the academy.

Right now, they were outside while the cries of the zombies echoed just out the academy walls.

They were a horde of zombies now, drawn to whatever wretched magic Ziva had spelled to the school.

They crowded near the barrier in ugly clusters, their ruined bodies dragging and jerking, mouths opening in soundless groans from this distance. Every now and then, one would slam into the dome and scream in pain from the electrical shocks, then slide down it, leaving behind a sick smear that made anyone watching want to retch.

No one dared risk lowering the shield and stepping out. Not with that many of them pressing in and with one mistake being enough to doom everybody inside. Which meant their only chance of getting the fuck out of Lunaris Academy rested on Micah.

They had discovered, quite by accident, that whatever magic blocked portals did not seem to fully affect him. Micah was a demon who could vanish from where he stood, drop into hell, then come back to earth.

The problem was he always came back to the same place he stood before vanishing like a cursed loop. It was useless for trying to escape from Lunaris Academy since they’d be stuck in the same place.

Still, Samantha refused to accept that.

She stood opposite Micah now, arms folded over her chest, the wind tugging at her dark hair as though even nature had grown impatient.

Around her stood the other witches Micah had recently come to know far too well.

Liv and Hazel, the two blondes, and Willow, the brunette.

Adele stood off to the side, tense and silent, every muscle in her body wound tight.

Samantha pointed to the ground. Two marks had been made in the earth, several feet apart. One here and the other there.

"That distance," Samantha said. "That is all I’m asking."

Micah gave her a flat stare.

"You’re asking me to do something I’ve never done."

"It doesn’t make sense," Samantha snapped. "A demon can teleport to hell but not anywhere on earth? How does that sound to you?"

Willow lifted a shoulder. "Incubi and succubi manipulate and steal sexual energy from any being around them. It speaks to movement. Infiltration. Access. Your kind should be capable of slipping through space better than most."

Micah’s mouth twitched with irritation.

"In case you don’t remember," he said, "I was not born a demon. I was made into one in my mother’s womb."

"Turned or not, you’re still one," Liv countered coolly. "You still have demon blood, and it runs strongly."

Hazel tilted her head, studying him with shameless clinical interest. "Or perhaps it’s the little werewolf blood in him causing the disability."

Adele winced while Micah’s gaze sharpened instantly. He did not even look at Hazel like a person at that moment, but a problem waiting for permission to bleed.

Samantha stepped in before that could go anywhere.

"Disability or not," she said, voice hard as stone, "you’d be amazed what people are capable of when they’re pushed to the wall."

Micah did not like the way she said that.

But he stepped into position anyway.

The first mark.

Samantha pointed to the second mark. "Just from here to there." She made it sound so easy.

Micah exhaled slowly and focused. He then vanished. The air snapped.

Adele jerked. She would never get used to that.

A heartbeat later, Micah reappeared exactly where he had started. Not on the second mark. No, he had not come even close. He was right back where he had been and he smelt of sulfur, smoke and burnt metal.

Hell.

Micah bent slightly, his jaw was tight, and eyes dark with fury. He failed.

Hazel muttered, "Again."

So they did it again. And again. And again.

Every single time, Micah disappeared from the first spot only to return to that same first spot moments later, hell clinging to him like a second skin.

He was never near the second marked spot like some cursed pattern. It was almost like his body knew only one door and refused to learn another.

Minutes bled into longer, uglier stretches of time. Everyone was beginning to get tired and clearly frustrated.

A fine sheen of sweat gathered at Micah’s temples and his shirt began to cling to his back.

The witches argued over theory while making him repeat the impossible.

"Try to anchor to the second point."

"Feel the earth, not the underworld."

"Break your instinct."

"Override it."

They gave him ideas after the other. Unfortunately, Micah was getting tired in a way that made murder sound pretty reasonable.

Still Samantha did not stop.

Even when Adele softly said, "Maybe he needs a break."

Samantha ignored her.

"Again."

Micah vanished.

Hell.

Returned.

Same place.

His hands clenched into fists.

Again. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Hell.

Returned.

Same place.

By the time he came back the next round, his eyes looked a little too dark. This was beginning to toil on him.

Adele’s chest tightened. She could feel it through the bond. He was exhausted.

"This isn’t working," Micah growled.

Samantha stared at him. Then something in her changed.

Her face lost what little patience it had left. Her features turned cold in a way Adele had only seen in people right before they chose cruelty and decided to call it necessity.

"You’re not trying hard enough," Samantha said.

Micah took one dangerous step forward. "Try me again."

Samantha looked past him, her eyes taking in Adele. She said quietly, "If you don’t move to that marker, I’ll hurt her."

The world seemed to stop and Micah’s head snapped around so fast it looked painful.

Adele froze. Her eyes widening as it dawned on her.

Micah moved immediately but it was too late.

A dome slammed down around Adele in a burst of light, sealing her inside before he could reach her. At the same time, another dome flared around Samantha, Liv, Hazel, and Willow, locking them behind their own protection.

Micah hit Adele’s dome with brutal force.

"Adele!"

She barely had time to answer before

Pain tore through her.

It was sudden and vile and deep, like something had reached into her bones and decided to squeeze. Adele screamed, collapsing to her knees inside the dome, arms wrapping around herself as if she could hold her body together through sheer will.

Micah went insane. He slammed both hands against the barrier again, snarling, then spun toward the witches and launched himself at their dome instead.

"Let her go!" he roared.

But the dome held even as he hit it again and again.

The snarls coming out of him no longer sounded entirely human. Or wolf. Or even demon. They sounded like all three. He looked dangerous as hell.

He hated the witch for this and would snap their pretty little necks once this dome drops.

But Samantha did not falter. He’d thank her for this later.

"You know what to do," she said.

Adele screamed again. Micah turned back toward her and something in his face cracked wide open.

There was no thought left there now, only terror, rage and the unbearable instinct to get to his mate.

He vanished in that instant and for one awful second, there was nothing. Then Micah appeared moments later on the second marker.

Everyone froze. Even Adele’s cries stuttered.

Micah stared down at the ground beneath him, chest heaving, eyes wide in disbelief.

He had done it.

Samantha dropped Adele’s dome immediately, shocked.

He had done it!

Then Micah was moving before the light fully faded. He quickly grabbed Adele and vanished before any of the witches could guess his intentions.