Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
The flicker of black was her only warning. Diana darted behind a cedar trunk just as the gun barked twice. Bullets bit into the other side of the tree, but she was already moving, slinking along the rocky terrain on all fours with inhuman speed, past the thicket of agarita to the left. A few more feet, and Diana sank to the ground, hidden by a mountain laurel bush, and went still.
In front of her, the massive live oak rose from the hillside. Someone had cleared the brush around it, and the packed-gravel ground lay bare. A stone bench—just a slab of limestone resting on two other chunks—waited by the tree, and beyond it, there was a hole of open air. Kensley had run to a scenic overlook near the apex of the hill.
Diana inhaled deeply. Her senses sampled the environment and identified the foreign presence, a shadow figure leaning against the big oak’s trunk. The assassin had tried to blend in, weaving an illusion, but she was not nearly as skilled as Augustine. She had succeeded in matching the color and pattern of her clothes, skin, and hair to the oak’s bark, but she was still human-shaped. She still breathed and smelled, although she had altered her scent again, trying to match the cedar. In her place, Augustine would’ve been invisible.
Diana held still and listened to the soft whisper of air going in and out of Kensley’s nose.
Her bond told her Akela had circled all the way to the back. He was ten yards behind the woman, while Whiskey crouched on Diana’s right, not too far from the direction from which they had originally come.
The wolves waited, and she waited with them. She had waited this long; she could wait a little longer.
Minutes passed, soft and slow. The sun was setting, and the golden and pink light of the sunset was dying slowly, congealing into dusk.
Kensley shifted by the trunk.
More moments, falling down softly like feathers, marked by Kensley’s breaths.
The killer took a slow step from behind the trunk, holding her gun with both hands.
Diana leaned forward, the muscles of her legs flexing, compacting herself like a panther just before it leaped.
Her magic found a red-tailed hawk in a treetop across the clearing. She wasn’t as compatible with birds as Cornelius, but she didn’t need much.
The hawk flew with a screech.
Kensley spun toward the noise, firing two shots in the direction of the sound.
Diana pounced.
She launched herself out of the brush, clearing the distance in a single bound. Her weight landed on Kensley’s back, and Diana locked her hands on the illusion mage’s neck and yanked her backward. Kensley’s legs folded under her. She dropped, trying to roll and bring the gun around, but Diana ripped it out of her hand and threw it. The weapon went flying. Diana let go and bounced away.
Not yet. That would have been too quick.
Kensley jumped to her feet. Her eyes went right, then left, looking for an escape.
Akela and Whiskey emerged from the brush. Whiskey’s golden eyes glowed, catching the last rays of daylight. Akela’s lips trembled in the beginning of a snarl. He showed his fangs, long and white.
Kensley’s eyes went wide. There it was. Fear. Delicious, sweet fear.
Be afraid, Kensley. Be more afraid.
The wolves took a step. Another.
Diana could see the calculation in her eyes. Two wolves or one human.
Kensley charged her, aiming to knock her off-balance. Diana met her halfway. Her hand closed on Kensley’s neck and she fell backward, planting her right foot just above the assassin’s hip. Kensley’s momentum carried her up and over. Her back slammed the ground. The air burst out of Kensley’s mouth.
For a fraction of a second, they were both on their backs, heads toward each other. Diana flipped over, her hands on the ground, her feet digging into the gravel, as if she were a sprinter crouched in the starting position. She surged forward, looming over Kensley. She knew exactly what the other woman saw: her face, shadowed in twilight, her teeth bared, and her eyes glowing with eerie, golden magic. The color of the glow shifted depending on its intensity, green when her power was a trickle, yellow when it was a river, and right now she was all in.
Kensley sucked in a hoarse breath and Diana slapped her across the face. The blow knocked Kensley to the side. A little harder, and she could have broken her neck.
Not yet.
Kensley scrambled to her feet and leaped as Whiskey bit the air an inch from her thigh. The assassin spun around, her eyes wild and drowning in terror.
There it was, the scent of true fear, spiced with adrenaline, flavored with cold sweat, accented with a rapid heartbeat. Diana let it wash over her and drank it in. Akela raised his gorgeous head and howled, singing a long blood-curdling song that promised pain and death.