I nodded, and the two of us walked toward the warehouse. It was an odd sensation as if I was moving in slow motion as the rest of the world raced by me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed another group running toward us. As they neared the dim light around the warehouse, I recognized some of the members of the Circus. They stationed themselves near the doors as the Sayges ran through, forming a wall of bodies in front of the entrance. If anyone came through, they'd block them. I knew that each of the four entrance points was similarly guarded. Evangeline, Miles, Goldie, and Joe had to be at one of the other doors.
The group of Fae nodded to Aunt Kay and me, stepping aside for us to walk through when we approached the now closed door. There was no way of knowing what we were walking into. If everything went smoothly, Terra would be under Sayge control by now at a minimum, dead if we were lucky.
One of the performers who usually walked the tightrope touched my arm lightly as I passed her. "Good luck."
"Thanks," I said as I pulled open the door and stepped inside.
The second we entered, something grabbed me and threw me to the ground. I smelled the foul breath and heard the growling before my vision focused enough to realize there was a wolf on top of me, teeth bared. Panic seized me, and for a moment, I froze staring up at the narrowed yellow eyes. I wasn't very good at distinguishing features on wolves, but I did a quick search of the face, hoping to find something that would let me know that this was Jasper.
The wolf snapped at me, teeth right in front of my face, drool landing on my cheek. I let out a cry that was somewhere between fear and being completely grossed out. Then, I turned, trying to knock the beast off of me. The wolf lost his grip for a moment, then pinned me down again, claws biting into my shoulders. I screamed as burning pain shot through me.
"Get off of me," I yelled at the creature. Tears streamed down my cheeks as it tightened its grip on my shoulders. I cried out again, every movement I made caused the claws to go deeper into the wounds.
Nearby, I heard another growl and turned to see another wolf, haunches raised, staring down the wolf who was claws-deep in my flesh. I was breathing too fast now as anxiety and fear took total control of me. Were they going to tear me apart?
The wolf on top of me retracted its claws, causing even more pain to sing through my body. Black spots danced in my vision, and I fought against the darkness that wanted to take over as my head spun from the pain.
When my attacker growled back at the newcomer, I realized the new wolf was not his friend. The new wolf snapped at the creature on top of me, then pulled back, as if daring the one on top of me to attack.
With lightning speed, the wolf that had pinned me down lunged from me toward the new threat. I rolled away onto my side, holding my stomach to keep from throwing up from the pressure of the wolf using me as a launching pad to attack the other one. Jasper. The new wolf had to be Jasper. I needed to help him, but I was moving too slowly.
I rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself up to all fours so I could stand. A yelping sound came from where I had last seen the wolves, and I looked over to see one on top of the other, teeth pulling away a chunk of the other wolf's throat. Swallowing down the food that was trying to come back up, I turned away for a moment. That was not the kind of thing I could unsee.
When I turned back, Jasper was sitting on the ground, covered in blood, next to a dead wolf. I ran to him. "Are you okay?"
He wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. His other arm was covering his stomach. "I'll be fine."
I moved his arm off of his stomach to see a huge gash sliced from one side of his waist to the other. "We have to get you to a hospital. You'll lose too much blood."
"We heal quickly. Just need a few minutes." He covered his stomach again.
For the first time since entering the warehouse, I looked around. I'd walked into the middle of an all out battle. Wolves launched through the air, Sayges threw colored powder, lights flashed around me. I turned back to Jasper. "What happened?"
"It was an ambush," he said. "She was waiting for us, just like we were waiting for her. Guess she didn't care if she killed Brenon, after all."
"Where is he?" Adrenaline shot through me, and suddenly I no longer felt pain. I jumped to my feet. There was too much iron dust around. Was he protecting himself?
Jasper shook his head. "No idea." I came in when I heard the commotion. It was already in full swing when I arrived."
He pulled his arm away from his stomach, and I glanced down. There was a lot of blood, but I could no longer see his muscles. The skin looked mended. "You do heal fast."
"Told you," he said. "We need to get you out of here. That's what Brenon would want."
"No, I have to help. I'm not leaving here without him, without all of you."
"You two are going to be the death of me, you know that?" he said, standing.
"We're going to be the death of everyone if we don't find a way to stop this soon," I said.
Jasper followed me into the fray. I needed to find Maggie and get some of that iron powder. Terra was probably looking for me. If anyone had a shot at getting close enough to her to cause real damage, it was me.
I ducked under a flash of light that came out of nowhere and bumped into a Sayge with a mohawk that I didn't know. "Do you have any iron powder?"
Mohawk shook his head, then turned away, back to whatever he was doing.
Suddenly, Jasper pushed me, knocking me to the ground. I sat in shock for a moment as he turned into a wolf right in front of my eyes. Facing off against a massive, black beast that resembled more of a bear than a wolf. Was this Jack in his wolf form?
Scrambling to my feet, I took off at a run, not wanting to get in the middle of the fight and knowing that the best thing I could do to help Jasper was to end this.
Ahead of me, I saw the short black bob of Maggie's head, and I raced toward her, desperate to get my hands on some of the powder.
Breathing heavy, I arrived just as she pulled a dagger out of a wolf. The creature fell to its side, taking shallow, rattling breaths but not moving. She looked up from the dying wolf, blood splatters across her face. "What are you doing in here?"
"I need powder. Now! I told you to give me some earlier," I said.
"No, you need to leave. You're the only one who can open the gate. You want to piss off all the Fae who can't get back after we find the bitch and finish her off?"
I grabbed Maggie's upper arm and pulled her to the wall, out of the fight. "What do you mean find her?"
"As far as I know, nobody's seen Terra yet."
"Where the hell are Brenon and Gia?" I asked.