Deep in his mind, he felt the hawk's stillness, his waiting.
This was the final test, he realized, of his trust in the wildness that had claimed him, that had marked him. He'd spent a century and a half holding back that part of him.
He'd given in to it to reach Faith. But that didn't mean he could just abandon . . .
Hawke, I love you. Faith's sweet voice caressed his mind. Give in. For me. For us. Please?
The shudder started in his head and traveled all the way down his body, goose bumps rising on his arms. She wanted him to give in. To the wildness. To the hawk. To seize what his father had once had with this animal spirit. The strength, the speed. Goddess, yes. And suddenly it wasn't hard at all. For love of Faith he could do anything.
As the polar bear lunged, Hawke shouted into the castle's dungeon, "One for all and all for one!"
Kkkeeeeer! In his head, his hawk made a sound that could only be called a war cry. And then he was shifting, flying up to where the falcon circled. Below, all five Ferals had shifted and now paced, watching their prey with hungry eyes - the huge crocodile, saber-toothed cat, snow leopard, white tiger, polar bear. The sight of such animal majesty? Magnificent. The fact that they wanted him dead? Like hell. Adrenaline rushed through his veins, clearing his mind, even as the thought of Faith getting anywhere near them filled him with dread.
A sense of confidence pressed at his mind, the hawk's reassurance. His belief they could do this.
I think this is the hardest thing I've ever done, buddy. But I trust you to help me keep her safe. I trust you.
Ready? Faith asked.
Hell. Ready.
As one, they zipped down, dive-bombing the sabertooth. But as they drew close, the white tiger leaped, nearly snatching the falcon out of the air. Tail feathers fluttered free as she darted away.
Faith!
I'm okay. He could almost hear her falcon's heart pounding.
He couldn't do this. If she'd been a second slower, she'd have been tiger food. New plan. With the skull destroyed, the warding's probably down. We'll open the gates for the other Ferals. We'll take on Maxim then.
But even as the words flew from his mind to hers, the pentagram flared brighter. Magic, thick and crawling, began to shake the walls of the dungeon.
We're out of time, Faith cried. The magic is trying to capture me, to use me to feed the Daemons. It's now, Hawke. Now or never.
Shit. All right, we have to draw Maxim away. Pretend to be injured and head for the opposite wall.
Without hesitation, the beautiful little falcon spiraled down as if she were indeed injured, flying in a disjointed manner to the precise spot he'd eyed, well away from the animals.
Land and shift, he told her. Three seconds later, she was on the stone floor, a woman once more, falling to her knees, her head bent as if in agony. Good girl. He followed her, landing and shifting into human form more effortlessly than he'd ever been able to. Awe and gratitude filled his heart and mind, and he embraced the hawk spirit with both, receiving a warm rush of appreciation and pride in return.
Three of the animals started toward them, but as Hawke had counted on, Maxim held them back. He thought Hawke and Faith were beaten, and he wanted to deliver the killing blow.
Hawke stood as if guarding his injured mate as the sabertooth stalked them. "You're not going to touch her, Maxim," he snarled. The walls shook with the force of the terrible, rising magic, making his skin crawl and his stomach clench. "She's mine! My woman. My mate."
The great cat roared his fury, as Hawke had counted on, and leaped.
Now! Hawke shouted silently. As one, he and Faith shifted into their birds and flew at the sabertooth, the falcon aiming for the back of the cat's head, the hawk for his soft underside.
As she reached the great cat, Faith shifted back to human form, straddling his back and plunging her knife deep into his skull in one fluid, graceful move. Hawke zipped between the cat's legs, shifted, and plunged his blade deep into its chest. Maxim thrashed, releasing a horrible roar of anger and pain. Blood poured over Hawke, but he finished what he'd started, digging out the bastard's black heart.
The cat collapsed on top of him. The feel of magic vanished, the glow from the pentagram winking out.
Hawke pushed aside the heavy carcass and rose, battle ready, prepared to finish the fight or take on the other animals. But all were gone except for Lepard. A man once more, the snow-leopard shifter was on his knees across the dungeon, and appeared to be struggling.
"Did you see where they went?" Hawke asked Faith, who was already running for the girls. The pair, still hanging over the pentagram, were both crying openly now.
"No. But I've let the others know what happened."
As Hawke approached Lepard, the man looked up at him with a ferocity that had Hawke pulling his knives. Until he heard his snarled words.
"Stop . . . me. Tie . . . me."
Glancing around, he spied an extra coil of rope against a nearby wall and grabbed it, pushing a barely resisting Lepard to his stomach and tying him hand and foot.
"Where are the others?" Hawke demanded.
"Ran," Lepard managed to get out, his voice guttural, as if he forced the words through a constricted throat. "Called."
"By whom?"
"Don't . . . know."
"Ten bucks says it's Inir." He rose, looking down at the big male trussed up like fresh game ready for the barbecue. "Don't go anywhere." He joined Faith as she laid the second of the girls on the floor, far from the bloody pentagram.
The girl stared at Faith with a mix of fascination and wariness. But no fear. "What are you?" she breathed.
Faith smiled. "I'm what I've always been, Paulina. Just someone who wants to help you." She looked up as he approached, her face splattered with blood, her cheeks flushed, her eyes bright with victory and soft with love. And she'd never looked more beautiful to him.
He glanced at the other girl, the one who'd been injured. She was still crying softly as she pressed the torn sleeve of Faith's sweater to her chest.
"How bad is the cut?"
"Not bad at all. I think Maxim must have put some kind of bleeding spell into that pentagram for it to have drawn as much blood from her as it did. I barely nicked her, thanks to you."
He studied the girl's pallor. She hadn't lost much blood overall. She'd be fine. "We have to take their memories. Try it. If you have trouble, I'll help you."
Faith's smile bloomed, confident and sure.
Remembering her unique ability to hear him even when neither of them was in their animals, he added, You might add a suggestion or two while you're at it. To go home or to seek help or to get off the streets.
Or to talk to the director of the art school and to dump the pimp boyfriend. Her smile turned wry. "If only I'd had this ability before. Helping kids would have been so much easier."
"But it wouldn't have changed anything. You'd still have been out there with them."
Her expression turned thoughtful. "I suppose you're right. We all have our journeys to take, and this was mine."
"I have money," he told her. "And everything I have is yours. Get them what they need, starting with tuition for that art school."
Her smile turned beatific, flipping him head over tail in love with her all over again. At the sound of Feral footsteps behind him, he turned to find Kougar and Wulfe racing into the dungeon. Kougar looked at the dead sabertooth with cold-eyed satisfaction.
He joined his friends. "Did you catch the other three when they escaped?"
Kougar shook his head. "We never saw them. They must have gone out through an underground passage. Bolt-holes are common enough in castles like this. Paenther and the others are searching for them."
"I suspect Inir called them."
"I agree. The last thing he wants is us cutting the strings off his puppets." Kougar nodded at Lepard, who lay on his side, still struggling against his bonds. "You caught one."
"Lepard caught himself. He's been fighting the magic, as Grizz suspected. We're just helping him."
On a pine-scented breeze, Ariana appeared before them, first mist, then flesh, a distraught look on her face. Hawke sighed. There was trouble. Again.
"Kara's missing," she announced without preamble.
Her words slammed into him like a fist. Not Kara. His gaze collided with Kougar's.
Wulfe snarled. "Those Mage are going to die."
Hawke shook his head. "How did this happen? Lyon always senses where she is."
"I don't know." Ariana went to Kougar, and he pulled her close. "He knows she's alive, but he can't get a read on her whereabouts. It's as if something is hiding her from him."
"He must be going crazy," Wulfe said.
"He is. Lynks is missing, too."
Kougar's expression turned grim. "Get me back there, Ariana, and send your maidens for the others."
"Hawke," Faith called. "I can't go. Not yet. Paulina says there are other girls in the castle. Maxim left more than a dozen in cages."
Hawke turned to Kougar. "Faith and I will get the girls to safety, then call for a pickup."
"I'll send Brielle to you," Ariana said. "If anything goes wrong, she can call in the troops."
"Good. Thank you." Hawke glanced at what was left of Maxim. "We'll need to get rid of the sabertooth. Can you imagine the humans finding it?"
Wulfe groaned.
"We'll dispose of it in the Crystal Realm," Ariana said. A moment later, she and Kougar were gone.
As Hawke turned to Faith, Wulfe said behind him, "I'll start looking for the caged girls." Hawke nodded and went to join Faith.
"Any luck?" he asked her.
Faith looked up, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "I did it. If this works, they may both wind up in school. I think Maria's going to be a schoolteacher. She loves to learn, just like I do." Both girls lay sleeping, now, their expressions soft and peaceful. The tears began to spill down Faith's cheeks as she stood and turned to him.
He pulled her into his arms, fairly certain he knew where the tears had come from. "You heard about Kara."
She nodded against his chest.
"We think they have Lynks, too."
With a sniffle, she pulled back, meeting his gaze. "Or Lynks took her."
"What do you mean?"
"The falcon told me something. When we were wondering about Lepard, she said that his actions would tell us whether he was the one meant to be marked, or the one . . . the one the infection wanted."
"Ask her what she meant."
Faith's lashes swept down, then up again a moment later, clarity gleaming from her beautiful eyes. "None of the new Ferals was marked by accident. The magic was designed to force the animal spirits to mark the worst of the line, not the best. The one most susceptible to evil."
"It failed with you."
"Yes. The falcon fought hard against it and managed to claim the one she'd wanted. But the saber-toothed cat spirit wasn't as successful. Perhaps neither was the lynx."
Hawke stared at her, taking it all in. "If the falcon spirit is right, and she has been in everything else so far, then there were no mistakes. Each new Feral is either the best or the worst of his line. If Lynks is the latter, then even cured of the magic, he might be working against us."
"That's what I'm afraid of."
"This changes everything. And Kara . . . Goddess." What kind of danger was she in?
Faith's eyes turned fierce. "The Feral Warriors will find her, Hawke. We'll find her. The bastards who took her don't stand a chance."
Hawke nodded slowly. He had to believe it. Kara was so much more than the Feral Warriors' Radiant, their strength. She was their heart.
But Faith was his heart. He kissed her, needing her warmth, and receiving a rush of love that he knew would sustain him through anything, a wholeness far beyond anything he'd ever dreamed possible. For the first time, his heart and body were in perfect accord thanks to the animal inside him and the woman in his arms.
"Together, we can do anything," he murmured against her lips.
"Let me see your shoulder," she said suddenly, pulling out of his arms and lifting his shirt from behind. A moment later, she was beaming at him. "Your feral marks look as good as new."
Whole.
In his mind, he heard the sound of a satisfied bird and felt a wash of the spirit's approval so rich and full, it reminded him of his father's, as if in death, a piece of him had remained behind with the animal spirit who'd claimed them both.
Faith watched him, her eyes brimming with tears. "We made it." She flashed him that darling grin - a grin that no longer held even a touch of uncertainty. No, this was the smile of a confident, powerful woman. A sweet, dangerous little pixie with blue-tipped hair.
"Be my mate, Smiley. Stay with me forever."
His love. His life.
"Forever, my Hawke. I'm yours."
Hawke's heart soared.
