The howl was still vibrating through the air when the darkness beside me exploded into motion.
Before Silas could even draw a breath to react to, a towering shadow blurred across.
Ares, Diego’s massive wolf, manifested in a violent flash of dark energy, slamming all six hundred pounds of apex predator muscle straight into Silas's chest. The sheer force of the impact tore through the silence of the night.
The sickening crack of bone meeting the ground echoed through the lower courtyard as Silas was hurled backward. His head cracked brutally against the bottom stairs of the central dais. Before he could even register the agony radiating through his spine, Ares was over him, pinning his body to the floor with two massive, claw-tipped paws.
"Goddess!" Silas shrieked, his trembling hands f
