Maggie was upset, but she shrugged it off and said she’d manage. I was just so tired! All I wanted to do was go home and go to sleep. Sam and I walked out together, and as soon as Maggie was gone, he said, “Guess you told her.”I socked him in the arm, and he rubbed it, looking injured. “What was that for?”“Oh, like that hurt.”“It did!” He shook his head at me. “Maybe you’re stronger than I remember.”I had to stifle a laugh because it just sounded so ridiculous. “I wasn’t trying to show her. I just can’t Fionna anymore tonight.”“I understand that.” He stopped rubbing his arm as we headed down the steps

I knew when my alarm went off that something was way different. I was so exhausted from not getting enough sleep lately and using so much of my powers, it took me a moment for everything to come back to me. Pictures flooded my mind. The war with Jason Buzzard. My pack frozen. Sam’s memory loss. Mage Jaye’s anger. Fionna. That came to me a little later than it should have. As I reached over to turn my alarm off, I realized I couldn’t move easily because I was being weighed down by something--someone. And it wasn’t Ben.I sat up quickly and realized that Fionna had switched into her human form at some point in the night and had curled up with me, on Ben’s pillow, and on my shoulder. Horrified, I shouted, “Fionna!” and leapt out of the bed, ending up near the closet doors as I stared at her, my eyes wide.She yawned and st

Raven pushed my frozen-in-shock body out the door. Somehow, I got my feet moving so that I didn’t trip and fall down the steps. It was weird not holding Ben’s hand as I walked to his truck, but I had probably just embarrassed the hell out of him and not because I had said something stupid again but because I was fangirling on a guy that I’d just met who was dating my roommate. Whether or not Alec liked girls or boys or both or neither, it didn’t matter. He was Brice’s dude, and I had my own dude, one that opened his truck door for me but didn’t wait for me to get in like he always does so he can close it for me. Instead, he left it gaping open, much like my mouth had been at Alec’s news, and went around to the driver’s side.I had no idea what to say. Clearly, words were not my thing that morning. If I were smart, I wouldn’t say anything at all. But, I

“What is that?” I asked Ben, moving toward the swath of pink I could see in the distance between trees.“I don’t know,” he said, following along behind me. He was probably looking to take me hope, drop me off, and never have to see me again after the conversation we had just had. But we were switching frames of mind now. We were no longer “relationship” Ben and Harlow. We were “work” Ben and Harlow. And “work” Ben and Harlow are able to put things behind them and set aside their differences much more easily than “relationship” Ben and Harlow were.I picked my way between the trees until it came into focus. It was a tree, and what I was seeing was pink bark. Unlike the last trees that Brice and I had seen in these same woods, further away from here, it was a bright fuschia pink from th

“Fionna, dearest, what did you do to the other mages, and can you undo it?” I asked her as I took a peek out the window. Those Buzzards I’d seen flying in were landing all over the clearing outside, and even though there were plenty of wolves howling in the distance to let me know that my pack was summoning anyone and everyone who might be willing to come and help, we were in a world of trouble. I knew that a wolf’s abilities were limited against a mage, especially the ones as powerful as the mages landing outside. I didn’t get a good count, but it looked like there were at least twenty, maybe more. They were of all ages, shapes, sizes, etc. from young women to old men and everything in between. The one thing they all had in common as they shifted from bird to human and touched down in my forest was that all of them looked pissed off at the world and ready to fight. One girl in particular caught my eye. S