He stepped out of a shadow wearing all black with a stiletto knife on his hip.

  Tauno bared her sharp teeth.

  “You ruined me,” she snarled.

  Rowan moved quicker than I could track. He wrapped his long slender fingers around Tauno’s throat and lifted her off the ground.

  “You polluted your people’s magic and tried to steal mine. You broke the ancient laws, and now you will pay,” he said coolly.

  Slowly, he squeezed Tauno’s throat tight as she squirmed and thrashed, trying to kick him.

  Rowan continued to hold her there as he looked around at the other sidhe gathered.

  “The veil is necessary at this time, and your leader has been lying to you. She polluted your magic through greed and deals with alchemists. She sold your children and poisoned your food, all in a quest to gain more power and magic. She is weak. She stole magic from you, her people. The only way for you to live through this night is to kneel before me,” Rowan said.

  An older female sidhe tried to get a dagger to Carys’s throat, but Ben was on her before she could get within reach. The shifter wrenched her off her feet and stamped on her throat. He stood over here, foot still on her crushed neck, daring any other sidhe to try and harm Carys.

  Tauno stopped thrashing and went limp on Rowan’s hand.

  “Make your decision now,” he said sharply.

  One by one, the sidhe knelt, and Rowan dropped the corpse of their former leader in front of them. Carys ran to Kane, who held her tight and stroked her hair.

  “You’re safe. It’s ok. You’re safe,” he whispered.

  “Take her home. I’ll deal with this,” Rowan said without looking at us.

  We thanked Ben and Adam for their time and promised we’d remember them and their pack before we headed home with Carys safely under our protection.

  FIFTY-TWO

  Carys was very impressed by her room in the castle. She looked at the king-sized bed with glee and let out a squeal of happiness when she saw the jacuzzi tub in her en suite bathroom. I left her and Kane to have some brother-sister time. They’d lost contact in the past couple of years, but they always kept in touch.

  I went and slept in Dante’s room. I didn’t need to hear the soft flute notes in his bloodsong to know he wasn’t feeling entirely himself. Placing my hand over his heart, I smiled and relaxed against him as he put his arm around my waist.

  “This is the first time I’ve had family,” he said softly.

  I circled my fingertips over the tattoos around his heart and waited for him to find his words.

  “My mother saw me as a tool, and my brother was happy to fall in line; if that meant throwing me to the wolves, so be it.”

  My childhood had been idyllic until my parents vanished. I couldn’t picture growing up fearing and resenting my family the way Dante did.

  Dante stroked down over my hip and kissed my forehead.

  “You’re the best thing to happen to me, Wren Kincaid,” he whispered.

  I kissed the soft smooth skin of his chest.

  “I’d be lost without you,” I whispered back.

  The morning was quiet and blissful, right up until Moira tried to get through our wards.

  “That woman doesn’t know when to give up,” Kane growled.

  “The Crone abandoned her last year; she’s been desperately trying to get power and magic since,” Carys said.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Kane asked.

  Carys shrugged. “You wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.”

  “You’re the rightful coven crone,” Kane said.

  “I’m too young…”

  “You’re perfect for the position!” Kane said.

  I felt something trying to squirm through the wards.

  “Kane, what’s that weird feeling in the wards?”

  “Moira is trying to push spells through to spy on us,” Kane snarled.

  Gideon’s hands caught fire.

  “Should I?” he asked.

  “Not until we figure out the coven politics,” Kane said.

  A lean older guy cautiously knocked on the kitchen window.

  “Harrison!” Carys cried out and went to open the back door to let him in.

  “What brings you here?” Carys asked.

  “I have a proposal…” Harrison said.

  The man looked to be in his late thirties or early forties. His sandy brown hair stuck up at odd angles, likely where he kept running his fingers through it.

  “A proposal? You do, or Moira does?” Kane asked.

  “I do. I’ve lived a good life… my blood’s pure. And Moira is a tyrant. The coven would be better with Carys at the helm,” Harrison said.

  Kane looked meaningfully at Carys.

  Carys frowned and looked at Harrison.

  “You know the life I have in the coven. My time’s come. I’m not allowed to find love. I’m nothing but a mutt,” Harrison said.

  The coven mutt was a poorly treated servant that the witches abused and used to run errands and do tasks they didn’t want to do. They were usually a teenage boy, too young to be married off. For Harrison to be the mutt, the coven must have felt he was almost useless. All males were good for was marrying off to strong covens to forge good alliances. Sometimes, they were kept within the coven to make strong babies, but they were never treated with dignity or respect.

  Carys looked at us.

  “Would he work?” she asked softly.

  “Yes, he would,” Kane said.

  “I want Moira to know her being removed from power was my doing,” Harrison said.

  Kane grinned. “She’s outside now, isn’t she?”

  “Aye,” Harrison said.

  “Then let’s go and instate the new coven crone, shall we?” Kane said.

  “Isn’t there supposed to be a ceremony or something?” I asked.

  “I’ve already texted Kirsty; she’ll be our witness,” Carys said.

  Kane practically bounced with glee as we walked out down the driveway towards Moira, who was waiting at the very edge of the castle grounds. She stood with her arms crossed and a petulant look on her face.

  “Carys is my daughter. I have a right to know what you’re doing with her,” Moira said.

  “Carys is taking the coven crone position,” Kane said with an unrestrained grin.

  “She can’t,” Moira huffed.

  “You have broken the witch laws and turned from the Crone. As mistress of the house, I act as witness to your ruin and to the ascension of Carys as the rightful heir,” Kirsty said smugly.

  “You bitch!” Moira said as she lunged at Kirsty, fingers extended to try and claw her eyes out.

  Moira stopped mid-lunge and dropped to her knees, gasping. Carys’ bloodsong shifted to a high piano piece and a dark wispy magic filled the area around us.

  “The Crone has spoken,” Kane said.

  Moira’s eyes were wide with terror as she looked skyward.

  “I wanted what was best for the coven,” Moira whispered.

  Kirsty grabbed Moira’s arm and dragged her to the car.

  “Thank you, Harrison,” Carys said.

  “No, thank you for freeing me,” Harrison said.

  Carys hugged Kane tight.

  “Do you want to be reinstated into the coven?” she asked.

  “No, I’m the Morrigan’s,” Kane said.

  Carys gave him a sad smile. “That is a hard path to walk.”

  “I’ve no choice,” Kane said.

  “Look after him,” Carys said to me before she got into the car with Kirsty driving.

  “The world is better now,” Kane said.

  FIFTY-THREE

  Carys reported that Moira would no longer be a problem, but we were exhausted and couldn’t face any more glitches. We had to survive twenty-four more hours before the ritual. Dante called in a pair of packs to act as guards: one canine shifter pack, one lycan pack. They had been honored to be tasked with the job and remained outside of the ground patrolling as was necessary. They weren’t close enough to be able to see what actually happened with the ritual.

  That left us with the dubious duty of giving Harrison his last night in the world. We offered him anything he wanted. He said he wanted to have a few beers and play board games. My heart broke for him, he was so happy to have people around him who treated him with dignity and respect.

  Gideon was very bemused by a Game of Death, where you have to lose all of your assets by the end of the board. Harrison kicked everyone’s ass at Trivial Pursuit, and no one brought up Monopoly as we’d never finish a game in time. Once the moon had risen, I slipped away to reread the book on blood magic. I needed to have every detail of the ritual straight in my head.

  We were sacrificing a strong, funny kind man. I couldn’t fuck it up and do that for nothing. I took one last look at Harrison and reminded myself that he was giving his life to save millions of others. So many lives had been lost during this whole ordeal, but it was nearly at an end.

  I fell asleep with the book under my face as I obsessively read and reread every last detail. I couldn’t fail.

  We’d fed the shifters and lycans in shifts so the perimeter was guarded at all moments. It had been quite an undertaking, though. They were large packs of some twenty people in each. Each of them had been polite and respectful. Gideon had been cautious but ran a few laps with a couple of them during late morning. Harrison had been quiet and contemplative as he sat with a glass of fresh orange juice looking over the bright sunny day from the seat under the pagoda.

  “I’m glad to have had a hand in Carys and Kane’s lives,” he said when I approached. “They are good people, despite their mother’s best efforts.” He shook his head. “I did all I could to help them and watch over them. She had a mean streak a mile wide.”

  I sat down in the chair next to him.

  “I was supposed to marry her. That would have been a fate worse than death,” he said with a wry smile.

  “What happened?”

  He sighed softly. “A handsome young man from a German coven caught her eye. He disappeared a week after Carys was born. There were rumours. Some called her the Black Widow behind her back.

  “Don’t feel bad about this, Wren. I am grateful to be giving my life to a good cause. I have no regrets,” Harrison said, putting his hand on mine.

  My heart broke all over again.

  FIFTY-FOUR

  Preparations for the ritual were simple. It felt as though there should have been complicated tasks and unusual ingredients needed for such a big undertaking. All I needed was some white sand, a silver dagger, and a willing pure-blooded sacrifice. The rest was on me and my magic.

  There was a chance I’d die, that my magic alone wouldn’t be enough and my life would be taken as payment. It was a chance I had to take. There was no one else to do this. The stone we had made had shattered an hour previously, and more people had already died thanks to the weakened veil.

  Harrison was wearing his favourite white board shorts and nothing else. He had a bright smile on his face as he stepped into the circle. Dante took my bottom lip between his teeth and looked into my eyes with a startling intensity.

  “I will not break my promise,” he whispered.

  I knew he would do everything in his power to keep me alive and safe, but this was on me and my magic.

  From what the book had said, from the outside it would look like a typical blood sacrifice. I would drive the dagger down into Harrison’s heart, and then assuming everything went well, a few minutes later his body would disintegrate and leave a ward stone in its place, much like a fucked-up phoenix.

  From my side, I didn’t know. What I hadn’t told the guys is that the book said no one had survived this ritual. I’d carefully hidden that little footnote, knowing they would never let me perform it if they knew.

  Harrison’s bloodsong was quiet and peaceful. He lay on the grass with a small contented smile on his face. He was ready.

  The moon was beginning to rise. The ritual had to be started. There was something about the night and the rising moon that helped the magic of the ritual; the book hadn’t really explained that part. I took a calming breath, clasped the dagger in my hands, and allowed my magic forth.

  If I survived this, I would forever be changed. This and the magic involved were going to alter me permanently. I closed my eyes and made sure my magic was under my control before I drove the blade down into Harrison’s heart. I felt the moment the blade plunged into his heart. His life essence and blood were crystal clear in my mind, a tantalising pool of rich red with thin white threads crying out to be plucked. The thread of his life essence snapped immediately, and my magic surged forward in response.

  It was agonising, as though every nerve in my body was on fire where the magic swept out of me and claimed the life and magic in Harrison’s blood. It was a tsunami of pain and red that filled my vision and seemingly every fibre of my being. The threads of his life essence crystallised around me as the blood swirled in a frenzied mess that was barely under my control. There was so much magic there, enough to take out a small army should I so choose.

  Tears streamed down my face as I fought to control my magic and force it down into the complicated web it needed to form the ward stone. The harder I fought, the more my magic rebelled against me. It was like a living entity pushing and testing my boundaries. The magic swept and swirled around me in thrashing waves of red and black. At one point, I almost lost my grasp on it. The warm smooth threads slipped through my fingers, desperately trying to get out into the world. I wrapped my mind around it and pushed past the pain, forcing myself to stay conscious. I was stronger than this.

  The magic calmed some as I squashed it down into the start of the web that I needed. It was a riotous mess that held a vaguely round shape if you peered closely. Some threads thrashed and tore at my fingers as I shoved others downwards and stretched them out to form a nest-like shape. Slowly, the basic egg shape began to form, and I was able to start pushing the bulk of the magic into it. The outer egg shape crystallised into sharp-edged shards strong enough to contain the magic within, or so I hoped. Great swathes of red dripped through my fingers and stained my hands as the magic settled and bent to my will.

  I could feel the life essences around me. They would have made the ward stone stronger, unbreakable. The threads were right there, I could pluck them with such ease and weave them around my own. I would be unstoppable, the fearsome goddess this world needed. The thoughts came out of nowhere, and I didn’t have the strength to fight them. Kane’s bloodsong rang in my ears, the sound of waves crashing against the beach, and I dug deep, finding the will to stop myself from becoming that monster.

  Slowly, the magic formed the familiar ostrich-egg form, and it solidified beneath my agonised hands, dripping with Harrison’s blood and essence. Slowly, the thick shell finished forming, and it became physical on the physical plane. The final droplet fell from my fingertips, and it was done.

  I was vaguely aware of a shout of alarm and the feeling of cold hard earth beneath my skin before the darkness took me.

  FIFTY-SIX

  I was haunted by nightmares of a broken blackened world where threads of life essence crumbled beneath my hands and blood dripped from my fingertips. It was a barren landscape with cracked earth and a silence that threatened to consume me. It was my land, my future.

  There wasn’t a living soul within a hundred mile radius, I had consumed them and left the fragments of their physical forms to flutter in the wind. The feeling of absolute power radiated through me as I stood atop the small hill and looked out over the waves thrashing beneath the incoming storm. The world was mine to forge as I saw fit.

  I woke with a jolt. My eyes didn’t want to open at first, and when they did the light felt as though it were melting my eyes.

  “You’re awake!” Gideon said, his teeth grazing my throat and his arms wrapping around my shoulders.

  I wrapped my arms around him, revelling in the feeling of his presence.

  “Wren! Dear gods, you had us worried!” Kane said.

  Gideon moved aside, and Kane kissed me hard and passionately.

  “Don’t do that to us again.”

  I gave him a weak smile.

  “No promises,” I said.

  Dante stood near the edge of the bed, his hands in the pockets of his dove-grey suit.

  “You were unconscious for eight days. We thought we might lose you,” he said.

  Kane moved aside, and Dante leaned in and kissed behind my ear, a soft gentle caress of his lips that sent a shiver down my spine.

  “How’re you feeling?” he asked.

  “How is everyone? Was the stone ok?” I asked.

  “Answer my question first,” Dante said.

  “Exhausted and starving,” I said as my stomach growled.

  Gideon raced off out of the room.

  “Everyone is well. Rowan has been dealing with the political fallout. Carys is doing a fine job of running the coven and taking it in a better, more modern direction, and the stone is perfect. The veil is strong and healthy again,” Dante said.

  “What was it like during the ritual?” Kane asked gently as he put his hand on my lower back.

  I realised I was naked, and after a moment of discomfort I realised it didn’t matter. I was with my men.

  “Your eyes and fingertips were bleeding,” Dante said full of concern.

  The feeling of the life essence and blood magic tearing at my skin and fighting me at every turn came flooding back. I frowned at my fingertips feeling the sharp shards pressing against the sensitive skin. It was just a memory.

  “It was agonising, I can’t… the pain was unlike anything I could even imagine before. It felt like every nerve in my body was on fire. The magic was ripped from my body. I almost couldn’t control it; I almost lost the magic.”

  Kane stroked my hair, and I leaned against him, trying to push away the memories and the terror that came with them.