Free The Spell Realm by Dima Zales, Anna Zaires

involuntarily admired the creature’s intelligence. This was long-term planning in action. Like its more commonplace wolf relatives, bearwolves apparently hunted in packs—and were quite good at coordinating their actions.
    They also seemed to know how to hunt humans.
    “We are so dead,” Ara whispered, standing next to him. Blaise could hear the fear and resignation in her voice, and some of his own shock faded.
    The archers were frantically preparing to release their arrows, their hands shaking, but Blaise could see the lack of hope on their faces. All around them, he could hear low, furious growling and see the reflective sheen in the creatures’ small yellow eyes.
    At most, they had seconds before the bearwolves attacked.
    His heart pounding, Blaise grabbed his Interpreter Stone and began reaching for his spell cards. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Shram pulling out a long knife.
    “What are you doing?” one of the men hissed at him.
    “I’m going to die on my own terms,” the scarred man gritted out, gripping the knife tightly and starting forward. Before he could take more than a few steps, there was a blur of motion, and Shram was on the ground, a large snarling mass on top of him.
    “No!” Ara let out a shrill scream just as Blaise loaded a card into his Stone, releasing the fireball he prepared earlier.
    The flash of light was so bright, it hurt Blaise’s enhanced vision. However, it appeared to hurt the beast more, singing its fur. With a roar, the bearwolf jumped off Shram, rolling on the ground in pain.
    It was a big creature, Blaise noted with that cool part of his mind. Bigger than the rest. Perhaps it was the alpha of this pack. His hands shaking, Blaise desperately searched his cards again. There was nothing he’d be able to write in time. He only had moments to improvise something else, before the creatures would recuperate and attack in full force. “Buy me a little time,” he barked at Kostya, beginning to chant the shield spell.
    At Kostya’s command, the archers released their arrows. Many hit their targets, but as before, few penetrated the animals’ thick hide. Maddened, the bearwolves sprang at them, and at that moment, Blaise’s shield spell manifested. Instead of reaching the hunters, the beasts’ massive bulk hit the shimmering wall of the protective bubble Blaise had managed to erect.
    “How long is this going to hold?” Kostya asked, his voice tight with anxiety. Two of the men were dragging Shram away from the bubble’s edge. He looked to be in bad shape, his arm ripped to shreds.
    “Not long,” Blaise said tensely. “I have an idea, but I need to concentrate.”
    This idea hinged on a lot of assumptions. The biggest one was that an illusion spell designed for human beings would work on these animal hybrids. Blaise thought it might, just because many of these spells were initially tested on animals, but there was no guarantee.
    His other assumption was that these creatures were indeed like wolves in their behavior.
    Frantically writing his spell, Blaise could hear the creatures attacking the bubble over and over again, growing more maddened with every attempt. He knew he had almost no time, as pressure applied to the spell bubble tended to weaken it faster. It was as though the creatures knew it too, because they kept pouncing, clawing at the invisible wall.
    His hands slippery with sweat, Blaise loaded the spell as soon as it was done. Then he looked up, waiting to see if it worked.
    Visibly, nothing had changed about himself and his companions. However, the bearwolves stopped attacking the bubble. Instead, they appeared confused, their thick tails swinging from side to side.
    At that moment, the bubble shimmer began to fade as the shield spell ran its course. If Blaise’s illusion spell didn’t work correctly, they would all be at the creatures’ mercy.
    “What’s happening?” Kostya asked, sounding fearful.
    “I used an illusion spell,” Blaise