Alek roared; the same deep coughing sound as earlier at the Henhouse reverberated throughout the hall. It was an impressive sound coming from a human throat, human lungs. Around me bodies turned from human to wolf, dropping from two legs to four, until I was standing at the edge of a sea of wolves. Beside me a huge black wolf with a wide white streak down his back crouched and growled, golden eyes focused above. Aurelio. I stepped in closer to him and looked up.

In the gallery, the men and women holding machine guns had stayed human as well. I squinted, making out earbuds and the lines of a cords running from their ears. No wonder Eva had gestured to signal them. One of the brothers held a gun that looked more like one of the paintball rifles we used. It made me nervous, though I didn't know why.

Eva was still human as well. She laughed. "Thank you. Saved me the trouble of forcing them to shift later."

Alek glared at her and snarled. "I challenge you, Eva. You want the old ways? Then let us fight, tooth and claw. We shall see who is right."

"You are a tiger," she said. "Hardly a fair fight."

"I am still weak from your poison," he said.

"Good point," she said. "That reminds me." She gestured again, pointing at Alek and making eye contact with the brother holding the air rifle.

"No," I yelled in warning as I threw my power at Alek, trying to shove him aside. I recognized the gun now. It was like the ones some of the scientists used when tagging wolves out in the River of No Return Wilderness. A tranq dart gun.

Only I knew it wouldn't hold a tranquilizer.

The dart stuck him in the shoulder instead of the neck as my magic shoved him sideways. With a snarl he ripped it out and threw it down, then shifted immediately and sprang at Eva.

She pulled a small cylinder from her pocket, gripping it in her hand before she shifted as well. She wasn't that big a human, but her wolf form was massive, thick with muscle and covered in sleek red fur.

Tiger-Alek dwarfed her, but his leap missed as she sprang sideways. Around the edges of the hall the wolves pressed backward against the walls, giving the two Justices room. One wolf tried to climb the stairs, snarling up at the shifters with guns. A gun cracked, impossibly loud in the hall, and the wolf fell back, screaming in pain.

Alek and Eva circled each other. He kept lunging and trying to grab her, but she was too quick, leaping out of reach and circling around, snapping at his legs and forcing him to twist and turn. She was waiting, I saw—waiting for him to weaken. My hands tightened into fists and I wanted to fry her where she stood. Alek's pale eyes caught mine, and I held back. He had made me promise that Eva was his. This wasn't my fight, unfair though it was.

I had to trust him. He had shifted before the poison had gotten deep into him. He could take her. I hoped.

Beside me, Aurelio moved away, stalking along the edge of the wolves, heading for the stairs. I hesitated for a moment, worried about Alek, but gave myself a mental shake and followed Aurelio, turning my attention to the gunmen above.

The brother with the dart gun noticed us moving, and nudged his brother. I hoped I was close enough and sent a bolt of lightning streaking into him. The lighting arced between them and blasted both brothers off their feet, smashing them back into their companions. My spell was weaker than the one I'd thrown at the men outside, the lightning dying out before traveling to more than the two of them. Fatigue turned my legs to lead and my head felt about ready to explode, but I threw another bolt into the gallery, then another, striking as many as I could.

The remainder started trying to shoot me, but automatic weapons aren't exactly accurate. I threw up a shield, trying to angle it so bullets would skip off at an upward angle, away from the wolves trying to back away from me.

"Get out," I yelled at them. "The side door, go." But no one was listening, their attention either on the gallery where Aurelio had gained the stairs, or on the tiger and wolf fighting in the center of the hall.

The alphas meant to see the fight through. Idiots.

Aurelio and his white wolf companion ripped into the gunmen above me, and I dared not throw more lightning around. The gunfire stopped as the few remaining found they had more pressing, and toothy, problems. It looked like Aurelio had things in hand as three more brave alphas flowed up the stairs and joined in subduing the last of the gunmen.

I staggered against a bench and sat heavily, trying to breathe through my exhaustion, my gaze returning to the fight. Wolves around me were turning back to men and women, taking up seats again. They all gave me wide berth, leaving me with a perfect front-row seat.

Blood ran down Alek's flank, staining his pristine white coat. There was blood on his mouth as well, and a wound gaped in Eva's right shoulder where his teeth had found purchase. She glanced up at the gallery and snarled. Alek took advantage of her distraction to spring, his tail whipping back and forth as he landed on her, pinning her partially beneath him. His jaw snapped closed just above where her head should have been as she shifted to human and then back to wolf in a blink, avoiding the killing blow. Her jaws sank into his foreleg, and he twisted, ripping into her injured shoulder again with his teeth. She rolled out from under him, fur and blood dripping from her mouth.

Alek didn't let her go far; his were teeth still locked in her shoulder. He tore free a huge chunk of fur and flesh, revealing the white of her bone before a curtain of blood covered it. So much blood, spurting from severed arteries. She was too hurt to continue. She had to be. I leaned forward, holding my breath, waiting for Alek to deliver the killing blow.

Eva screamed, scrabbling away from him. She couldn't stand, however, instead crouching low on the stone slab, her blood gushing down and slowly painting the knotwork engravings crimson. She became human again, her hand still clutching whatever she had pulled from her pocket before the fight.

Alek shifted back to human as well. His face was gaunt, his eyes filled with rage and pain.

"It is over," he said. "I find you guilty of murder, Eva Phillips. I find you unworthy to wear the mark of the Justice."

She laughed, her eyes darting around crazily. "It's a stupid charm I bought from a stand on the road," she said. "My feather melted away like ice in sunlight the night I killed that stupid wolf bitch. The Council has already turned on me. But the Peace will never succeed, even if I die. The Council is sick. This way of life is over. We will find a new way."

"I am here. The Council is here through me," Alek said. "It does not matter. You will die by my hand." He walked toward her cautiously, not trusting her. I applauded that.

"No," she said, spitting blood. "You'll all die by mine." And she raised her hand, revealing the silvery object. It looked like a pen, but with a button on top.

I'd watched enough action movies to recognize that. A switch.

"I had Wulf buried with a little something extra," she said, still cackling as blood frothed from her mouth.