Daire and I exchange a brief look, and I know she’s thinking the same thing as me.
Is this a challenge—a trick—or are they just that overconfident we wouldn’t dare try to crash?
Figuring we’ll find out either way, we push through the wall that’s not really a wall, and creep through the tunnel with a step that, while purposely light, still manages to amplify in a series of dull, heavy thuds that are sure to alert them.
It’s not by coincidence that the Richters crafted the entrance of tin.
Nothing they do is an accident.
Nothing except me, that is.
According to Cade, I’m the biggest, most regretful mistake Leandro’s ever made.
And if I do nothing else with my life, I vow to prove him right.
He has no idea just how much he’ll come to regret the violence he wrought on my mother the day he conjured me.
Has no idea of my vow to make sure he pays.
My hands automatically curl into fists. The thought alone enough to spark the bit of stolen darkness within me.
It begins with a glimmer that soon morphs into a deeply rooted thrum that continues to grow and expand until my entire body is alive with a buzzing intensity that’s hard to contain.
I fight to steady my breath—settle my limbs. With Daire right beside me, I can’t afford to let on.
Still, this must be what Cade feels when he transforms into the demon version of himself.
Uncaged.
Liberated.
Released of all moral obligations—exceeding all physical limits.
“You okay?” Daire asks, her voice no more than a whisper, but still it seems to echo off the walls, and reverberate in my head.
I inhale a deep breath, steal a hasty glance at my body. “Yeah. Fine,” I mumble, surprised to find I’m still me. Black sweater. Dark jeans. No talons—no tail—no scaly feet—and yet, there’s no denying the presence of the creature now awakened within me.
Daire casts a concerned look my way, but continues toward the mouth of the den, where the two of us stand in the entrance, observing a party in full swing. Everyone oblivious to our presence.
Everyone except Coyote, that is.
With a snarling snout and red glowing eyes, he springs into the air and lunges straight for my throat. His irrepressible bloodlust fueled by the memory of the prior feasts he’s made of my flesh.
Somewhere nearby a girl screams.
Another one squeals.
As the growling beast roars toward me with the sole intent to kill.
Instinctively, Daire leaps between us—tries to intervene. Spurred by the knowledge that as Cade’s spirit animal, the wounds Coyote inflicts on me bear no effect on my twin.
But the darkness inside me is strumming.
Thrumming.
Leaving me with unknowable strength, and lightning-fast reflexes.
Long before Daire can inject herself into the fight—long before Coyote can sink his fangs into my flesh—I catch him in midflight and shove my way through the crowd. Shouting, “Where’s Cade?” as the snarling Coyote hangs from my fist.