Page 123 of Wrath

“Thanks, brother,” I said.

Killian nodded once, his intense gaze already elsewhere.

I didn’t know where to look. It was fucking chaos. Nightmare fighting nightmare. Human fighting nightmare. Cries, screams, and shouts resonated through the air.

Magic rippled through me, and I lifted my hands, each one holding pure, unencumbered energy.

“Let’s fuck shit up,” I told Killian with a smirk, tossing one of the orbs at the nearest shifter with a deafening blast.

“That’s what you choose as your badass catch phrase?” He blinked up at me incredulously.

“What the hell is wrong with it?” I threw another ball, and the guard’s high-pitched scream sliced through the air like the crack of a whip.

“It’s just a little…cliché, if I’m being honest.”

I was going to strangle my brother.

“Go seduce people. Get the fuck out of my way.” I flicked my wrist in the universal “shoo” motion.

Killian rolled his eyes but remained beside me. I blasted shifters with my magic, and when they came too close, Killian used his powers to slow them down then knocked them unconscious with the butt of a gun he stole. I didn’t think he wanted to actually kill anyone, despite their horrendous crimes.

I, on the other hand, didn’t have anything holding me back.

These men and women deserved to die for the crimes they committed. They were beyond redemption, beyond atonement.

From somewhere in the distance, Lupe growled, the noise rife with menace, and I felt some of my muscles loosen at the assurance he was still alive.

“Bash, look!” Killian tugged at my arm, pulling me to a stop. He pointed towards where four humans were fighting against a burly shifter. All four were covered in dirt and wore raggedy clothes that seemed too big for their tiny frames. “The humans are helping.”

My jaw slackened.

Hundreds and hundreds of humans spilled out of the cafeteria and joined the fight. They were small and weak and no doubt in pain, but that didn’t stop them. They fought just as vigorously as our best trained soldiers.

With the newest additions, the tide of the battle quickly changed, and it wasn’t long until the ground was littered with dead bodies. Some were ours; most belonged to the shifters.

Lupe lumbered towards us, still in his bear form. Blood coated the fur around his mouth, but I knew it wasn’t his own. The only injury I could see was a slash running down his side, almost as if someone had caught him with the tip of a sword.

On the ground, dead, was the warden of the camp, his head detached from his body. Next to him lay a bloody sword.

Magic fizzled over Lupe’s skin. His fur receded, and his body shrank. In only a few seconds, a human Lupe stood there, his bare chest heaving, blood painting his face.

The three of us all looked at each other for a long moment, and I knew why.

We were cataloging each other for injuries.

Ensuring we were all okay.

“We did it,” Killian whispered, his tail swishing behind him.

A giddy, slightly hysterical laugh erupted from me. “WE FUCKING DID IT!”

I grabbed my brothers in a three-way hug, slinging my arms around their shoulders and pulling them towards me.

This might be only one camp of a couple dozen, but it was by far the biggest. The others would be easy in comparison.

We fought for the humans.

We fought for each other.

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