Formidable: Shifters Forever Worlds (Ever After Dark Book 1) by Elle Thorne

attention. She couldn’t shift and leave them vulnerable. Damn it. Her options were getting more scarce by the minute.
    She let out a soft chuff to get his attention. Nothing. Unresponsive.
    Isabel paused, listening in the forest for any sounds that could indicate an enemy’s approach.
    There were no sounds but the sounds of the light buzzing of the force field and the sound of Giovanni’s heart beating. She’d come to recognize it, as if it were her own.
    She listened to his human heart, beating with his tiger’s. The rhythm grew slower, the beating softer. Isabel waited, listening, gauging.
    A moment later, panic hit her. The beat was getting more faint. Something was draining his pulse.
    That damned force field was killing him. She had to save him. She couldn’t let him die. The realization that the light could kill her as well should have stopped her.
    It didn’t.
    She seized his forearm, the one closest to the edge of the force field. The bright blue flash returned, pushing against Isabel, forcing her to close her eyes while her head was tethered by the electrical pulses that surrounded her with a million tentacles, seizing, seducing, pulling her closer.
    She shook her head defiantly, but wasn’t able to shake loose the power that was trying to pull her fully into the field. She dug her claws into the dirt, holding her ground.
    With her mighty jaws, she grabbed the flesh of Giovanni’s arm firmly and yanked, pulling him half out of the boundaries. She tugged him further and further until the buzzing sound had dissipated. She released his still limp body from her mighty jaws and stood over him, guarding, watching, waiting.
    Was the danger to him gone now that he was out of the field of energy?
    Her head burned, her eyes felt as if they’d been seared. She shook her tiger head side to side to clear the pain. Isabel could see nothing.
    She was completely blind.
    Surrounded by darkness, she tried to open her eyes, only to find they were already open. Rubbing her eyes with her paws, she found nothing wrong.
    Great. Just great. What good were they? An unconscious shifter in his human form and a blind tigress.
    A blazing pain seared through her brain, originating behind her eyes, flowing throughout her skull. She pushed the pain away, trying to keep it from immobilizing her.
    She nuzzled Giovanni. He was still in his human form, still unmoving. Listening for his heartbeat, she could tell it was stronger than it had been a moment ago.
    And if they were attacked? What then?
    She’d stay vigilant listening for any intruders. More than ever, she’d rely on her other heightened shifter senses. She’d scent an intruder or hear one. Then she’d use the same senses to defend Giovanni and herself.
    Now what?
    Now, she’d wait until he recovered, or until her sight returned. If it returned.

13
    “ I sabel .” The voice penetrated Isabel’s blindness and a sleeplike fog she’d fallen into. A voice she knew too well, one from her younger days at the boarding school.
    “Desideria?” She said the name of the witch who’d been her and Ana’s teacher. “How are you talking to me in my sync? I thought only shifters could do that?”
    “No, ‘Bel.” Desideria’s nickname for Isabel.
    Isabel opened her eyes. Still blind. “We fell into a trap. I’m blind.”
    “I know. It won’t last long.”
    She listened for Giovanni’s heartbeat, found it stable and unchanged. He was still out.
    Then what Desideria said struck home. “You know? What about Giovanni? He’s… Wait—what—what are you doing here?”
    “He’ll be fine. Just like your eyes. Just give it a little time. I’ll be here to make sure nothing happens to either of you. But I have to leave when he awakens. He wouldn’t take too kindly to another witch being here.”
    Isabel was relieved that her friend and old school teacher was here, but she still had questions. Lots of them. “Whose trap? What happened? What are you doing here?”
    “My sister