Lotus might not be strong enough to cope with the pain—but Eric was. He'd broken limbs before, the scratch of a wild animal wouldn't slow him down. There was clearly some of his strength left in her, because Lotus kept fighting. She screamed louder than the voice in her mind, then lashed out with a sudden wave of power.

Her scream wasn't just noise—it was flame. One timberwolf jumped for the spell book and turned to smoldering embers. Nothing ahead of her survived, except for the spell book itself, magically untouched.