Magic to the Bone by Annie Bellet Read Free Book Online

and Ciaran, but he had to wait for a special day and time. Magic was too stupidly complicated. Harper wished spell-caster types could button-mash in real life. It would solve so many problems.
    “At dusk. It may be my only chance for a while. If I could let them know what is going on, perhaps theycan come home more quickly.”
    “There will be, what, one or two on patrol? Maybe four in the house?” Levi asked. His expression gave Harper hope. He was thinking, planning. He’d come with them.
    Of course he would. Alek had spoken. They still followed what he said, even she herself did for the most part. He was the alpha, in the end, Justice or not. Harper figured now would be a poor time to startresenting that. She was exhausted, that was all. Tired and full of hate for the one man she had zero chance of killing. Feels bad, man .
    No time for riding the pity train to Sad Town. Harper gave herself a mental shake as Alek started outlining the plan.
    Junebug would watch the road in and be prepared to try to signal if the cars were returning. Harper and Alek would go in from the west, killingthe sentry there and using the fact that there were few windows on the rear of the farmhouse as cover for getting across the open ground. Ezee and Levi would hunt down the sentry on the other side and be prepared to run in as a distraction if Harper and Alek needed it. Rose was going to stay behind with Yosemite in his grove and keep guard. Harper was happy about that last, though she knew hermother wasn’t.
    “This isn’t the time for heroics,” her mom told her, pulling Harper into a hug.
    “I have to go. I know how to get that wire off,” Harper said, squeezing her mother back until she felt like her arms would pop.
    Not that there was much trick to it. Grab hold, ignore the horrible burn, pull. Harper wasn’t about to share that detail yet. She wanted to be in the thick of things. Alekwas huge and tough and shit, but he couldn’t be allowed to have all the fun. Or take on all the danger. Harper prayed that Samir hadn’t put any serious whammy on the fencing.
    Torch that bridge when you are over it , she told herself.
    Harper pulled away from her mom and smiled in what she hoped was a brave way. Then she reached for her fox and shifted, following the giant white tiger into thewoods.
    Round two, motherfucker , she thought. She was going to be a damn thorn, not a splinter, if she had any say at all.

    The sentry wolf was walking his normal route. It wasn’t Gamer Guy, as Harper had nicknamed her reluctant benefactor. She felt thin relief at thatas she looked at his corpse. This wolf hadn’t stood a chance against Alek, not when Alek was hunting and ready. The tiger had snapped the wolf’s neck to where it hung at a sickening angle even in death. There was barely any blood, just a tinge of its scent on the air. That was good. It wouldn’t give them away.
    Harper was used to activity in the clearing around the farmhouse. Dusk was falling,the tired winter sun sinking behind black spears of pine and fir. Her breath puffed out from her nose as the air chilled to below freezing. The snow had started to form a thin crust, and crunched beneath her paws. The sound was faint, something unlikely to be heard from the house, but it still made Harper jumpy. Nothing moved in the clearing except the dimly seen white form inside the wire dome.

    Junebug had reported correctly. What had been a paddock made of silvered barbed wire was now a cage of the stuff, the silver wiring glowing faintly where it curved upward and formed a latticelike dome. There were still gaps in the fencing, especially between the bottom wire and the snow-covered ground. Harper could get in the same way she had before, just going underneath it. Tiger-Alek wouldn’tfit.
    To get the halter off, she would have to shift. After that, she had no plan.
    Didn’t matter. No plan survives contact with the enemy , she told herself. Harper would do what a gamer did best; improvise