“I’m the Herald,” Julie said. Her voice had an odd cadence. “I serve the Guardian of the City.”

“Well, your Guardian isn’t here.” The dark magic around Adams coalesced. Black serpentine shapes slid within it, stretching from him, each tipped with a skeletal dragon head armed with needle-sharp teeth.

“Her blood is my blood. Her power is my power.”

Adams halted. “Cute. Are you incanting, little one?”

“Look into my eyes and despair. For I’m Punishment, and you cannot escape me.”

The black smoke serpents streaked to her, their skeletal mouths opening wide, their smoke bodies billowing with black.

Magic punched from her, sweeping the smoke serpents aside. For a fraction of a second Adams froze, his face shocked.

Julie opened her mouth. “Karsaran.” The sound rocked her. She dropped to her knees.

An unseen power jerked Adams off his feet. His body froze, rigid. A sharp short tremor shook him with a loud sickening snap, as if every bone in the warlock’s body had broken. The body fell onto the ground.

Julie straightened, wiped the blood from her nose with the back of her hand, pulled out her tomahawk, and walked toward Adams, her mouth set in a hard line.

He saw Adams’ mouth gaping.

“He’ll still die,” the warlock squeezed out.

“Come, beloved. . . . Give me your love. I will make you whole.”

“I’m coming,” he said. He was almost to her, to that celestial pliant body, so soft, so eager for him. Ready. Willing.

Julie raised her tomahawk and chopped down.

The golden woman opened her arms. She was so beautiful, he wanted to weep. He wanted that body. To claim it, to feel her flesh under his fingers. . . . She smiled at him, and visions of her mouth swirled in his mind. He didn’t care that it was filled with sharp serrated teeth. He wanted to taste those red lips. The need was there, but it wasn’t coming from him.

She reached out and stroked his face with her fingertips. Her silver eyes shone. Her voice came in a shocked whisper. “You belong to someone else.”

“Yes.” His body tore with the last of its strength. The wolf spilled out, and he shoved his clawed hand into her chest. His claws punctured her heart. He tore it out.

She screamed, shocked, her shark teeth bared. Her body burst into ash. For a moment, it held together, and then the wind swept it off the rock into the city.

He was so tired, he didn’t feel himself falling. He didn’t hear Julie scream.