Page 78 of Faerie Trials

The dagger was no help. I wasn’t strong enough.I can’t beat this guy.

He wasn’t going to go down; he was too strong. How had I managed to fight him off the last time? Although I’d gotten the upper hand the last time we fought, I hadn’t been able to take him down permanently. I knew I would have a hard time beating him even in wolf form.

Do you want to be fair? Or do you want to win?

Because the difference might be life or death.

Uncle Will’s words echoed in my head. Did I want to be fair? Did I want to do the best I could and still maintain my integrity? Or did I want to make this guy pay for hurting innocent women?

He crouched in the middle of the forest, his dense fur flickering, flaring with his anger. Feral, animal. No trace of anything human remained.

I was staring at a nightmare. A dangerous, violent nightmare with long limbs and a supremely muscled body. Capable of killing me and everyone else around.

The half-shifter crashed into me the moment I called a protection spell. Magic boomed and reverberated outward but it was too little too late. Before I had time to gather myself for a second spell, he hit again, and the impact of his body sent me flying. I should be used to it by now. The last thing I saw before I smashed into the ground was the white blaze of his eyes.

Shock filled me as he rammed me again, roaring, his expression ferocious.

Something snapped to the forefront of my consciousness. He might be a half-shifter, but so was I, and I hadn’t survived this many games and tests and trials for no reason.

I didn’t know how to get to my own halfling form. But I’d grown up wolf. I’d grown up training to fight like a wolf and to use my shifter senses. I knewhowto be a wolf. I centered my power on my core and grew the kernel there, merging with and releasing the female alpha inside of me.

Show me what to do, I begged her.Show me how to beat him.

And I had a faint awareness of her satisfaction as black fur burst from my skin.

The shifter leaped at me again, this time accompanied with a guttural growl. I snarled and dodged to the left as my body completed the transformation. Sliced at him with my claws as I went. He bounced off of the nearest tree and twisted his body, lunging forward again. His claws gripped my shoulders and I sagged under the pressure when he began to squeeze.

Those moves…

It was like he somehow anticipated my next move or how I would react.

I needed more power. I needed to be better, stronger.

I pushed through the barriers I’d put in place, one in the mortal realm to hide my Fae half, and one for Faerie to hide my wolf shifter half. Along with deception barriers for protection, there were physical restraints with any form. I didn’t want them anymore, any of them. I wanted to match this guy move for move, muscle for muscle. What did I need to do to improve?

His rear leg knocked into my midsection and sent me down again. Crashing back into a boulder, pain exploding through my spine and ribs. I coughed, muscles seizing. I finally managed to get up when the shifter brought his elbow down a split second later on the same spot where I’d landed.

I rolled into a crouch just in time to avoid the next bone-crushing blow and tried to swipe his legs out from under him. He jumped, striking down twice. Lashing at me with those impossibly long claws.

Nothing I seemed to do damaged him enough to matter.

I need more. My tongue lolled out as I lost my breath. Panting. Why could I not summon the halfling form? And why did it always seem like I never had enough power?

Blood dripped from a multitude of wounds and poured from his mouth, but he kept coming. His pounding steps toward me seemed to shake the earth and his next kick took me below the ribs, driving me back. I hadn’t had the strength to even attempt to dodge. A few more of those and I’d be done for…

Enough!

Except I didn’t say the word out loud. It reverberated in my head and a magical torrent burst forth from me, tearing at him with a million claws of fierce magic. He stumbled once and shook himself, like a dog shaking off water. The last of my desperation surged even as I questioned everything about my life, about my heritage, about my innate power and magic and why it wasn’t enough. I had just one last chance, and if there was ever a moment…

I took the magic I’d been sending at the shifter—and turned it on myself instead. Everything I’d planned to hit him with in wolf form, I now channeled inward.

And felt my body growing. Shifting. Larger, leaner. My fur grew longer and the bones along my spine protruded.

I writhed under the force, one I was not used to. The halfling took another step forward and my in-between form clawed at the air in front of his face.

He stopped just short, as if shocked at the sight of my claws growing longer, my muscles thickening.

More magic, I told myself, even when the logical part of me howled to stop before I self-destructed. But I didn’t want to stop. Icouldn’tstop. Not when the power building up in me felt as if, for once, I might get the upper hand in this situation.

---