The Savage Grace

  Daniel towered over the red wolf, and I could see the fierceness in his eyes. Not rage like I’d seen in Talbot, but the fierceness and determination of a warrior.

  “Submit!” Daniel commanded the red wolf. I could feel the tidal wave of power crashing off his body. “Submit and I will spare you!”

  The red wolf crumpled in submission. Daniel pulled the sword from his chest. The red wolf rolled over and crawled from the ring on its belly. That’s when I noticed that many of the guardians around the ring were bowing to Daniel now. As if they’d heeded Daniel’s call for submission also. I looked behind me and saw Lisa and Slade bent on one knee.

  Only Talbot still stood. The bloody remains of his kill at his feet.

  Daniel dropped his sword in the straw and clutched at his shoulder. He must have injured it again in the fight. He looked at me, his eyes softer now, and I ran toward him.

  What now? I thought. With all the challengers gone, and Shadow Kings a no-show, did that mean it was over?

  I was only feet from Daniel when Brent shouted in my ear: “Grace! Stop! The barn!”

  I spun around and looked at the barn.

  Nothing.

  “Look up!”

  My gaze flitted up to the roof, and I saw them, perched there like gargoyles. Rows and rows of Shadow Kings.

  Caleb stood on the very apex of the barn’s roof, a tin rooster-shaped weathervane spinning at his feet. “Sorry to miss the preshow entertainment,” he called, “but I’ve made it just in time for the main event.”

  A horrible chorus of screeches, snarls, and howls echoed into the night as the waves of Shadow Kings charged down the roof of the barn and vaulted onto the battlefield.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  THE REAL BATTLE BEGINS

  WITHIN SECONDS

  There were so many of them. So many Shadow Kings. More than I’d ever imagined. They just kept on coming, hurdling over the roof of the barn, filling the challenging ring. Caleb must have spent every moment of the last week creating and recruiting new Akhs and Gelals. I wondered how many of these Akhs had been regular teens at the trance party from earlier this week. I imagined empty homeless shelters and halfway houses. I tried to remember that they were already dead when I took my first swing at an Akh, slicing through its neck with my broadsword.

  I could barely see Daniel, who was only a few yards away, just flashes of his gold hair or his sword as he took out demon and after demon that just kept on coming. Lisa, Talbot, and Slade, who had been on the other end of the 150-yard-wide battlefield, were totally lost from my vision. But the spray of Gelal acid and bursts of dust that went up in the air in that part of the arena told me that at least two of them were still fighting.

  I took out three more Ahks and a Gelal with my sword, wondering why I had ever settled for a stake in the past.

  However, not all the SKs were pure demon, and I had to pull back on one of my swings before I nearly took off the head of an Urbat teen. He growled and almost instantaneously transformed into a great hulking tan wolf right in front of me. He was almost as big as the red wolf Daniel had fought.

  More growls rumbled out from Caleb’s forces, and fourteen more boys burst into giant wolves—the speed of their transformation aided by the lunar eclipse.

  I couldn’t believe how huge the wolves were, and I knew Daniel would be even bigger if he transformed into the great white wolf. But I also knew he wasn’t going let the white wolf free under the eclipse.

  Caleb stood in the middle of it all, laughing like the madman he was.

  “Now?” Brent shouted into my ear.

  I’d almost forgotten about him in my struggle to keep up with the SKs and wondered how long he’d been shouting at me.

  “Now!” I responded as the enormous tan wolf came volleying at my head.

  I swung at it with my sword, but at the same moment a great crack resonated through the air. A bullet whizzed past my ear, and the tan wolf yelped. He fell to the ground, his shoulder bloody where the silver bullet had hit.

  “Tell Ryan to watch it,” I shouted at Brent. “He almost hit me.”

  “These bullets don’t fly right,” I heard Ryan shout in the background in my earpiece.

  “Cheat to the left,” I said, remembering what the hunters I’d stolen the guns from had said. “You have to aim to the left of what you want to hit!”

  Another gunshot fired, and a Gelal’s head exploded as he came charging at me. His body kept moving for a full five steps until he burst into green ooze. I grabbed the closest Akh and used him as shield. He screeched as the acid hit his skin. I threw the demon at a black wolf; he ripped the Akh to pieces with no regard to the fact that they were on the same side.

  I looked back at the farmhouse and saw Ryan, Zach, and Brent in the windows of the master bedroom. Ryan and Zach aimed the hunting rifles out of the broken panes.

  “Again!” I shouted.

  More gunshots rang out, sending Shadow Kings scattering. I caught sight of Lisa as she grappled with a tawny wolf. An arrow went sailing into the wolf’s hindquarters from the direction of the farmhouse.

  I looked up to see one of the Etlu Urbats standing on the roof of the house with a crossbow. Two more archers joined him, just as we had planned. They took out several Akhs with their wooden arrows from their vantage point.

  Several more gunshots rocked the field.

  “Don’t go hog wild on those bullets,” I reminded them. I’d been able to get only two boxes of silver bullets from Mr. Day because he’d run out of them—having passed them out to all the hunters who’d come into town for the wolf hunt.

  “Can you see Caleb?” I asked Brent. He’d disappeared somewhere in the chaos of the field.

  “No,” Brent said.

  I swore. I heard a scream from somewhere in the crowd beyond the challenging ring, and I watched with great concern as several of the SKs started going after the guardians on the sidelines, not caring that they weren’t supposed to be part of the fight. We’d planned on this contingency, and Jude and Gabriel jumped into action, leading the spearmen in a fight to protect the people outside the ring.

  “I see him,” Brent said. “Caleb’s on the far north side of the ring, close to where it edges on the corn maze.”

  I looked out, but I couldn’t see him from where I stood.

  “Concentrate your fire on Caleb.”

  Two more shots rang out.

  “We can’t get at him. He’s got too many SKs around him.”

  I nodded. Of course Caleb would be using his own men as a shield. “Just keep firing in his direction. Get him mad enough that he sends the SKs into the house after you. That’s what we want.”

  I jumped and rolled head over heels to avoid the attack of an oncoming werewolf. I was locked in battle with it, when a barrage of gunfire and arrows pelted the north side of the field. Ahks screeched and Gelals snarled, and I heard Caleb shout his command. The demon hordes turned their attention on the farmhouse, their ghastly eyes locked on the boys who stood in the windows—my boys. Even the demons that had gone after the guardians outside the ring turned their attention to the house, clacking their claws and grinding their teeth.

  One of the Akhs let out a great shriek, and fifty or so demons ran straight for the house.

  Brent swore as he saw them coming.

  “Hold your ground,” I said. “Not yet.”

  I could hear Ryan cursing up a storm.

  “Almost,” I said.

  The demon army jumped onto the back porch of the farmhouse. They crashed through the door and the windows and flooded the house.

  “Not yet,” I said.

  “They’re coming up the stairs!” Brent shrieked. He, Ryan, and Brent stood in the frames of the windows, ready to jump.

  When almost all of the demons had crashed into the house, I shouted, “Now!”

  The boys sprang from the windows, clearing the porch below, just as I saw the first wave of demons enter the master bedroom. The boys hit the ground and
started running faster than I’d ever seen them move—fueled by adrenaline and the eclipse. Zach had lost his gun in the jump, but Ryan clutched onto his with dear life.

  The archers escaped the roof off the other side that led to the front yard of the farmhouse.

  “Blow it!” I shouted as my boys neared the center of the ring.

  Brent held out his hand and slammed his thumb down on the detonator he clenched in his fist. The boys braced for the impact of the explosion.

  Nothing happened.

  Brent looked down at the detonator. He mashed it again. Still nothing.

  Demons started to claw their way through the second-story window, still intent on their prey.

  “It’s been disconnected!” Brent shouted. “I have to set if off manually.”

  “Brent! No!”

  But Brent had already turned and rocketed back toward the house. He threw open a metal box that was attached to the outside railing of the porch. I knew from the design he’d showed me that there was a lead from that box to the explosives we’d planted under the house. “Don’t worry, I’ll have time!” His fingers moved quickly inside the box.

  Ahks and Gelals dropped from the window onto the porch.

  Ryan and Zach had made it to me on the field. “Hurry!” We all shouted at him.

  “Got it!” He closed the metal box and turned to run from the impending explosion, pumping his fists up in the air like Rocky Balboa. But before he could finish the gesture, a Gelal grabbed him from behind, yanking him up over the porch railing by the neck.

  “No!” I shouted.

  I ran for Brent, but before I could get halfway there, the farmhouse exploded right in front of me.

  It happened so fast, in the blink of an eye. Brent and the house and the demons were there when my eyes closed against the brightness of the blast. When my eyelids fluttered open, it was all gone.

  Brent was gone.

  Nothing left of him but the flames he’d created.

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  THE WARRIOR AND THE HEALER

  THIRTY SECONDS LATER

  I couldn’t hear anything but a terrible, nauseating ringing in my ears from the explosion. I couldn’t stand, either, the dizziness making my knees slam into the ground.

  “No!” Ryan screamed as he ran past me, but I couldn’t actually hear his shout over the ringing. I just saw his mouth shape the word. Felt the pain he radiated as he scrambled toward the flaming remains of the house. I reached out and tried to stop him from getting too close, but I couldn’t. He slaughtered two Ahks who had escaped the blast with his rifle, and then he fell to all fours in front of the fire.

  I rocked backward and lay on the ground, my head in the straw. I clawed the earpiece out and then clamped my hands over my ears. I concentrated my healing powers on my eardrums, willing the throbbing, pulsating pain to stop. The ringing eased slightly, and the pain lessened to a stinging ache, and I could hear well enough to make out someone shouting my name.

  More than one someone, actually, I realized as I arched my head back, trying to get a look at the battlefield from where I lay. The action reminded me of when I’d been taken down by the wolves in Caleb’s warehouse, and that made my head swim more. The challenging ring seemed eerily empty. Most of the Ahks and Gelals had been destroyed in Brent’s explosion. A small bunch of them, shielding Caleb at the far north side of the ring, remained, and a few others scattered about the field. I could make out only five remaining werewolves in the smoke that rolled into the ring from the burning house. I wondered how many of the wolves had been defeated in combat, and how many had run for the hills after the explosion.

  Daniel was one of the people who shouted my name. I could see his mouth moving as he fought two giant wolves that seemed to be trying their best to stop him from making it to my side. Their battle was bloody as they clashed in the air, and Daniel swung his sword at their flailing limbs. It all seemed to happen in surreal slow motion.

  It probably didn’t help that I was seeing the whole thing upside down from the way my head was positioned on the ground.

  Talbot also shouted my name, and I rocked my head so I could see him. He and Lisa were taking on two more of the terrible wolves. And even Slade and Zach, who were fighting off a few of the remaining demons, shouted at me. They all seemed to be waving their arms at me, as if trying to signal something. I was so disoriented from the blast that my brain took too long to process this information.

  I rolled over onto my stomach so I’d be able to see normally, and looked up just in time to notice someone running at me, a spear raised in one hand, while the other hand waved me away. It was Jude. Why had he entered the ring?

  His words finally made purchase in my brain. “Grace, run!”

  I scrambled up onto my knees just as Jude sent his spear sailing over my shoulder. It hit something just behind me, and I heard the growl of a wolf. I turned my head just enough to see the open jaws clamp down on the collar of my robe. The wolf yanked me off the ground, and with four great bounding leaps crossed the entire challenging ring, with me as its prisoner. It didn’t even seem to be fazed by the spear that protruded from one of its front legs.

  ONE LONG PIERCING SCREAM LATER

  The brown wolf flung me to the ground, my hip slamming against the hardened dirt. I looked up and found myself staring into the yellow, murderous eyes of Caleb Kalbi.

  His wicked smile cracked across his face, reminding me of a garish jack-o’-lantern when combined with his glowing eyes. We were at the north end of the ring, just in front of the boundary line of torches. They sent garish shadows dancing around him.

  “I am glad you listened to my message,” he said.

  I scrambled to my feet, ready to charge at Caleb. Two Gelals grabbed me by the right arm, and two Ahks grabbed my left.

  “Where is he?” I seethed at Caleb. “Where is James? I came; I’ve fought. Just like you wanted. You said you’d bring him! Now where is he?”

  Caleb leaned in close. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

  I screamed and tried to smash my head into Caleb’s face, but the demons holding my arms yanked me back. They pulled so hard it felt like they were attempting to rip me in half.

  Caleb snorted. “You think you’re strong enough to take me on?”

  I grunted with pain. “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? That’s why you wanted me in the ring, so you could fight me yourself?”

  “I wanted you in the ring so I could destroy you myself. One way or the other.” He licked his lips. “You came into my house. You stole some of my boys. You made me have to leave my place. And now you will pay. I’ll kill you myself, and then Daniel, in front of everyone. And all will know that Caleb Kalbi is the strongest Urbat.”

  Caleb’s own words confirmed what I’d suspected all along. We’d humiliated him in his house, in front of his pack, and now he wanted the ultimate payback, in the most public form possible. To save face in front of the Urbat world.

  That’s why he didn’t kill us when he attacked in the night. He’d allowed us—at least in his eyes—to live until this moment. I was shocked his message hadn’t demanded that Talbot also be in the ring—since his former beta was one of his biggest betrayers. But maybe Talbot’s fighting had already been a given in Caleb’s mind. Like Daniel being in the ring was.

  My thoughts flitted to my friends. I had no idea what was happening to them outside the circle of demons that surrounded Caleb and me.

  Caleb snapped his fingers. The Akhs and Gelals yanked on my arms in opposite directions again. I screamed.

  Caleb frowned at me with disappointment. “You’re too weak,” he said, circling me. “You’re taking the enjoyment out of this for me. You’re too human. Not enough fight. Not enough power. You should let your wolf come out and play.” He smiled wide and evil. “Then we could really have some fun.”

  The mention of my inner wolf made it go crazy inside my head. It wanted nothing more than to take Caleb on. Let me out! it shrieked.
Embrace me.

  My body convulsed, and I looked up at the moon. Half of its surface was stained a bright bloodred now, its power increasing. I felt like it was crashing in on me. I tried to concentrate on the moonstones in my ears. But their pulse felt so faint compared to the screams of the wolf in my head, compared to the power of the eclipse.

  Let me free!

  I thought about what Talbot had said about channeling the power of the eclipse. I arched my head back toward the moon, soaking in its rays.

  “Stop fighting it,” Caleb said. “I can see it in your eyes. You want to. Embrace the power.”

  “I’ll show you power,” I said, concentrating energy into my arms. I bent them in and then flung them out. Sending the Ahks and Gelals who’d been holding me soaring into the air. They crashed outside of the ring, and two of the guardsmen went after them with their spears. Caleb barked an order, and the rest of his demons came at me. I lunged for one of the tiki torches, yanked it from the ground, and staked it through three of the demons at once. The two Gelals and the black wolf that remained shrieked and ran from the battlefield, disappearing into the corn maze beyond the challenging ring.

  Caleb stood alone, no longer surrounded by his demon followers. He roared and threw himself to the ground, almost as if in a tantrum, but instead of kicking and screaming, he shifted into a colossal tan-and-gray wolf. He clawed at the ground with his massive paws as he pushed himself up with his front legs. He stood on all fours, his body seething with power, as he glowered down at me. His jaws opened, and he growled, revealing teeth as long as my thumbs.

  I took a step back.

  Oh. Freaking. Crap.

  Caleb sent a clawed paw swiping at me. I spun out of the way, grabbed another tiki torch, and jumped on top of the hulking wolf’s back before he could turn his body around. I hit him over the head with the torch, but all it did was shatter into thin strips of bamboo. The wolf reared and bucked, trying to throw me off, as he spun around. I caught flashes of my friends as the beast turned, still grappling in their own battles with giant wolves.