I looked at Milly, my heart breaking into tiny shards. She knelt in front of me, her head bowed. Her hair parted, giving way to the creamy skin of her neck. “End this, Rylee. Once and for all.”

The sound of my sword sliding from the sheath on my back was the only sound. “Milly, you are far braver than I ever gave you credit for. I love you,” I whispered.

She lifted her eyes to mine and smiled. “I love you, Rylee. Be strong, and don’t forget me.”

I closed my eyes at the last second, felt the blade cut through bone and flesh, heard the thunk of her head rolling to the ground. But I couldn’t look. I stumbled backward, the grief hitting me as hard as if one of the cars had managed to drop on me.

Pamela was at my side. “Rylee, what about Alex?”

“Oh, shit,” I lurched to my feet. How could I forget him? There he lay, broken and twisted on the ground black fur matted with blood. Bones stuck through like a pincushion. “Alex.” I Tracked him, knowing I would find him gone.

I was wrong.

“Pamela! He’s still alive.” I dropped to my knees and touched his face gently. “Alex, hang on, Pam is going to heal you up.”

She fell to the ground beside me. “Rylee, I can’t. You know that.”

I took her face in my hands. “Pamela. I know you. You have the biggest heart of all of us, and you can do this. Alex trusts you. I trust you.”

Nodding, she lowered her hands to his side and closed her eyes. I did trust her, but was it enough? Could she find it in herself to heal him?

Alex’s life was there, a thread of a heartbeat so unsteady I wasn’t sure I could even patch him enough to allow him to heal himself the rest of the way. I swallowed hard and reached for my magic, pulling on it like I always did.

I froze, frowned, and stopped trying to force it. I begged it, opening myself in a way I never had before. “Please, I want to heal him,” I whispered, “Please, help me.”

The magic in me swirled softly against my ribs, beating in time with my heart. Flowing down my arms and into my hands, through my fingers and into Alex. I directed it carefully, putting Alex back together piece by piece. Bit by bit. It wasn’t enough. There were broken connections all through him. I couldn’t stop the magic and didn’t try. It was a living thing, an entity all its own as it zinged through his body, making him twitch and moan. His bones snapped and Rylee grunted.

“Pamela, he’s healed. What are you doing?”

He slept and I knew she meant well. “The magic is doing this.” But even that wasn’t true. The magic knew all along I’d wanted to heal, to do what no one else had been able to.

To fix whatever was broken inside Alex and make him whole. His body jerked and jumped and the fur began to recede, his limbs untwisting. Body changing. Shifting.

The fur under my hands was gone and my fingers were pressed against smooth, tanned skin.

“Holy shit, Pamela,” Rylee whispered. “What . . . how did you do this?”

“I think . . .” I opened my eyes and stared down at the sleeping body of a young man. Older than me, but not a grown-up by any chance of the imagination. “I think I might have taken the werewolf virus from him.”

He let out a groan and sat up, touching his head. “Damn.” His voice was the same . . . but not. I shook my head, suddenly realizing he was completely naked. “I’ll get a . . . some clothes.”

I stood and sprinted into the house, my emotions all over the map. I should have been happy. But somehow I felt like I’d lost a friend.

I stared at Alex, seeing in him the echo of a young girl from over a year ago, stolen away from her family. “Buddy, how are you feeling?”

His eyes, golden still, stared up at me. “Rylee? What happened?”

I patted the top of his head and laughed softly. “Pamela healed you. But it looks like she might have kicked out the werewolf in you, too.”

Slowly, he shook his head. “No. The wolf is still there. But I think I can shift back and forth now.”

“Welcome back to the world.”

He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around me. I thought it would be awkward. Weird. I closed my eyes and hugged him back. Nope. This was Alex. “I’m glad you’re still with us.”

He barked a laugh. Seriously barked a laugh. “Me, too.”

So many questions, but there were more important things happening. Pamela rushed out and handed him a pair of pants and shirt. Liam’s old clothes. They hung off Alex’s frame, but they were the right length. When he finished filling out, he might be as big as Liam in the end.

Eve hopped forward. “Rylee, I should take Pamela to Blaz. She can heal him now.”

Pamela nodded, and I saw her glance at Frank as she went to the Harpy. I stopped her and wrapped her into my arms. “Pamela, I’m sorry we lost Frank.”

She pushed away from me. “I can’t deal with this right now. When I get back from Blaz . . . .”

I nodded. Perhaps more than anyone else, I understood the desire to run from the grief. To pretend the bad things didn’t happen.

Eve left with Pamela. And now I had nothing to do but wait on Berget and Faris. Which thankfully took only minutes, not long enough for me to fully freak out.

A slash in the air opened up and three people stumbled forward. Berget, Faris, and Cactus—the red-headed elemental I’d met in Tian Shan. He’d helped me, been my friend. I hoped that hadn’t changed.

But by the way Faris held him, by the scruff of his neck, I wasn’t so sure. Faris gave him a shake. “Erik and Coyote got the babies out with Ophelia. Just in time.”