I climbed back in the tree and hid myself beneath the shadows, raising my gun and watching for any sign of more enemies approaching. I quickly spotted a group of ten vampires rushing forward toward Ibrahim across the sand. Positioning my UV ray gun again, I fired bullet after bullet around the tree until every vampire had fallen.

I was relieved as Corrine and a dozen more of our battle-worn witches appeared alongside Ibrahim and began to help him arouse the prisoners.

“Watch out!” I yelled. Half a dozen of our werewolves and vampires were flying through the air toward us—which meant that the black witches were heading our way too.

Ibrahim, Corrine and the others made themselves invisible, and I was disappointed to see that none of them had managed to free even one of the captives. As the new wave of captives were lowered to the ground alongside the rest, there was an anguished scream. Julisse appeared from thin air and knelt beside her sister, rolling her over and clutching her in her arms.

“No!” she sobbed. “No!” She looked around at her companions who’d appeared by her side and pounded the sand with her fist. “Who did this?” she screamed.

Silently, I raised my gun again. I didn’t have enough ammunition on me to attempt to shoot all the black witches who’d just appeared here, but I could make a start.

I was about to pull the trigger on Julisse when a burst of flames engulfed the group of witches and blocked my vision. I turned to see an armored figure riding atop a giant black dog with ferocious red eyes.

So Derek Novak is back for more… I’d hoped he’d be more careful this time, but the blazing in his eyes told me that his almost death at the hands of Rhys had done nothing to mellow him out.

By the time the flames had cleared, all the witches had vanished along with Arielle’s body. Ibrahim flew toward Derek and, gripping him by the waist, vanished with him and the dog too.

I breathed out in frustration. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to make any headway if everyone keeps vanishing like this. More and more stiff bodies were being added to the pile of hostages by the minute. If we didn’t find a way to free them before too many piled up, it wouldn’t be long before the witches headed straight for the mountains… Those chambers were protected by various spells, but I had no doubt that it was only a matter of time before they figured out how to penetrate them. They’d easily broken through Mona’s shield around the island, after all.

I climbed higher up in the tree in an attempt to get a better view of the struggle and perhaps catch sight of more witches I could shoot down when a symphony of howling broke out on the beach below.

I stared down in horror to see the werewolves among us had begun to transform into their wolf forms. I cast my eyes toward the darkening horizon outside the boundary of the island.

Of course.

Night has arrived outside The Shade.

It was impossible to fire a gun with paws. Without the ability to fire long-distance, werewolves were hardly of use against these witches.

We’d just lost half of our already waning army.

Chapter 27: Derek

There was only one thought circling in my head as I surveyed the damage that had been done since I’d been away: We can’t let them reach the mountains.

Now that the werewolves had transformed into their wolf forms, their guns lying useless on the sand, they’d become horrifyingly easy targets. Hordes of invisible black witches swooped down at once and grabbed them, paralyzing them and carrying them over to where they’d piled up the rest of their captives.

Now just the vampires who hadn’t yet been taken and a few witches were the only ones left to distract them from venturing further inland.

“We have to free them, Ibrahim,” I growled beneath my breath as we stood invisible in the waves.

“We tried, but their bonds are tougher than we could have imagined. We’re going to need time.”

“We don’t have time.”

From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of three of the vampires in alliance with the black witches approaching to our left. Their eyes were fixed on Xavier and Landis, who were crouched down behind a bush in combat. The trio yelped in shock as I shot a blaze of fire toward them, forcing them to retreat.

Ibrahim gripped my shoulder and Shadow’s collar, moving us all again to a different location along the beach. We had to keep moving around to keep the black witches off our trail. As soon as one of them spotted my flames, at least two would be headed toward me. For Sofia’s sake, I couldn’t allow myself to get hit by a curse again.

“Where’s Mona?” I whispered. “Corrine said she was in combat with Rhys.”

“I don’t know where she is,” he replied. “But we need to find her. I’m sure she’d be able to free the hostages much faster than the rest of us witches combined.”

My gut clenched as several black witches came into view in the clearing leading up to the Port—Rhys leading the way. They were heading toward the forest.

Ibrahim swore. “Seems we’ve already lost the battle to keep them distracted.”

“No,” I breathed. “Not yet.” I dug my fingers into his forearm. “Take me to them.”

Even if it meant burning down every redwood in The Shade, I was going to delay them getting to those mountains.

Chapter 28: Rose

But how could it be that Ben and I possessed powers like our father? It made no sense. How could we have passed all these years without knowing it?

I went through every reason why the idea was ridiculous, yet the image of my father shooting flames replayed over and over in my mind. It was as though it had been engraved in my mind and I could think of nothing else even though I tried.