Alecto laughed. “Are you her knight, then? Where was all this protective rage when your own sister died, alone and afraid on a dirt floor?” She took a step forward, and spoke in a whisper that somehow carried more clearly than a shout. “You are a monster. Your family was right to throw you away.”

  Maverick staggered like he’d taken a good, solid punch to the gut. His face was as pale as chalk.

  I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees as I realized what Alecto was doing—how she was playing on each person’s own sense of shame and guilt, turning them into weapons. My limbs were shaking hard enough to almost send me back down to the ground. “Stop it.” The words came out an airless wheeze.

  Other people were pouring into the woods, coming to help, but it didn’t fill me with any kind of hope. What would Alecto do to them? I didn’t want them to suffer because they were trying to help me.

  And then Wanda was there, her face tight with anger, her magic spreading out into the night like the shadow of a comet, dark tendrils writhing against the ground. Lorcan was at her side, fangs bared, his eyes a brilliant shining green, like a cat’s. The rest of the members of Scapegrace stood alongside them.

  Roy towered over everyone by almost a head, and I saw the flash of Fifi’s pale hair. Darla clung to Henner’s arm, obviously frightened, but there to help in any way she could. Even Stanley, pawing at the ground like he was going to charge, still in his Stomper’s Creamery T-shirt.

  All the friends I’d made since coming to the Hollow, all the people I cared about were all here, ready to fight, ready to stand up for me. I just prayed that someone had thought to keep Finn away. If he got hurt, I didn’t know what I’d do.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I was so scared that my whole body felt like it had been plunged into an ice bath. It took me two tries to push myself up and off the ground, and my knees threatened to buckle at any second.

  Because, in spite of the small army of supernatural beings standing tall and looking ready to fight, Alecto didn’t seem worried. She looked them all over with a vicious kind of amusement, like she was planning how to tear them apart and enjoying the thought of it.

  Taliyah still looked shaky, standing close enough to Maverick that her shoulder bumped him. They both looked like they’d been gutted, pale and sweating, and I knew Alecto had done something to them. She’d dealt them a wound that would be slow to heal, or maybe just reopened one that had never healed in the first place. She’d used their own guilt against them like a knife, and she was going to do the same to all the people I loved, just because they were trying to stand up for me.

  “Poppy!”

  Andre was suddenly coming up right beside me, his arm sliding around my shoulders, lending me support. His free hand cupped my face, and his skin was almost burning hot against my numb cheek.

  “Are you alright?” He searched my face, his accent more clipped than usual. Then he turned to face Alecto and whispered, “what is she?”

  My mouth was drier than sand, and I had to swallow a couple times to get enough moisture back that I could speak. “Alecto. She’s a Fury.” My throat squeezed, convulsing. “She’s here for me.”

  Andre’s face went tight with anger, and he pushed me behind him with a sweep of his arm.

  I stared at his back, surprised and close to tears. I knew he wanted to protect me, they all did. But they didn’t understand that Alecto was here because I’d subconsciously summoned her—that I was the person responsible for her. My friends wanted to keep me safe, but I wanted them to be safe, too. I couldn’t let the Fury rip into them, using their own vulnerabilities against them.

  To hear her rip into Wanda, or Andre, I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t. It was my fault, and mine alone. So, I lurched out from behind Andre, ignoring it when he shouted after me, and stumbled through the crowd of people to face Alecto head on.

  “Leave them alone.” I’d meant the words to come out strong, a shout of defiance, but my voice broke on the last word. “It’s me you’re here for, not them. So, leave them out of this. I’m the one you want.”

  Alecto smiled, her head tilting to one side in a shockingly girlish gesture. She hummed. “True. I’m not here for them, not yet. But I have come to see your punishment doled out.”

  A sob caught in my throat, choking my breath. My eyes burned, and tears I couldn’t hold back any longer carved a path down my cheeks through the soot and the grime.

  “Poppy?”

  My heart stuttered for a beat, and I whipped around at the sound of the voice.

  Marty pushed through the crowd, shaking off the hands that tried to hold him back. Marty wasn’t a supernatural, but he was a Null, which meant that magic didn’t affect him. He was also a pretty big guy, so other than Roy putting him in a headlock, there wasn’t any real way to stop him from making it to my side.

  He stared down into my bruised, dirty face with something like horror, only glancing up at Alecto when her wings fanned the air.

  “What in the heck is going on here?”

  Alecto laughed, the sound razor sharp and barbed at the edges, and I flinched under the lash of it.

  “Well, isn’t this perfect? Your victim is here and now you can witness her punishment.”

  Marty stared, glancing between us, but I couldn’t meet his eyes. The guilt was like a boulder sitting on my shoulders, crushing me with its weight.

  Marty squared his shoulders, and faced the Fury. “Lacey? What is going on? What are you doing to Poppy?” He paused and then frowned. “And what in the heck are you?”

  How he even recognized her, I had no idea. And how he wasn’t terrified by her, I had no idea either.

  Alecto’s voice softened, her wings curling closer to her body. “I’m here to help you, Marty.”

  “Then stop doing whatever it is you’re doing,” he insisted.

  She frowned. “This woman hurt you. She stomped on your heart; she caused you pain. I’m here to make her pay for it, to ensure retribution is served.”

  Marty flinched, his whole-body recoiling. “What? No! I don’t want you to do anything to her! I want you to leave her alone.”

  Alecto froze, blinking in surprise. “What did you say?”

  “Leave her alone.” A step to the side put him between Alecto and me, so I had to peer over Marty’s shoulder to see her. “Poppy didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “The weight of her guilt would say otherwise.”

  He cocked his head to the side but continued shaking it. “Yeah, it sucks. Of course it does.” He raked a hand through his hair, making it stand up in sandy blonde spikes. “I’m sad it didn’t work out between us, of course, but she’s still my best friend and you aren’t going to touch a hair on her head.”

  Alecto blinked and looked a little dumbfounded. It was the most human gesture I’d seen her make since she’d dropped her human disguise.

  “I don’t think you understand,” she said slowly, watching Marty. “She hurt you. She led you on, deliberately. She took your ring, made a promise to you, and then threw it back in your face. She has to pay for that.”

  I’d known Marty since the day I’d moved to Haven Hollow, nearly three years ago. I could remember it like it was only yesterday when he’d showed up on my doorstep to introduce himself and welcome me to town. I knew him, and I’d seen him experience a lot of emotions; joy, worry, sadness unfortunately, excitement, and even fear after that one horror movie with the clown of all things. I’d never seen him angry though. But right then, he was furious.

  “No,” he said, low and angry, his hands fisted at his sides. “She doesn’t. It didn’t work out between us, but that isn’t a crime. So, you do not come here and try to hurt someone I care about, and then have the absolute gall to say you’re doing it on my behalf.”

  Alecto gaped and fell back a step when Marty took a single stride forward.

  He jabbed a finger at her. “Leave. Go away. I don’t want this. I don’t want your revenge, and I don’t want you in my town any longer.”

  The air lightened, and it was suddenly easier to breathe as Alecto’s terrifying aura lifted. The terrible gravity of my guilt began to lighten as well, and I sucked in a shaking breath as the fury scowled at Marty. The expression didn’t have the same vicious edge it had had before. She folded her arms across her chest as her tattered shift rustled in the breeze.

  “You will regret this,” she told Marty, as fresh bloody tears slowly streaked over her cheeks.

  Marty’s jaw tightened, hard enough that I could see the jump of the muscles in his jaw. “I won’t,” he told her.

  The fury gave him one last look, and then folded her wings around herself tightly.

  Between one blink and the next, she was gone.

  I couldn’t hold back any longer. I threw myself at Marty and hugged him tight, feeling the familiar warmth fold around me as I sobbed into his shoulder.

  “I’m sorry,” I managed. “I never meant to hurt you. I’m so sorry.”

  Marty didn’t push me away or step back. He folded his arms around me, soft and warm and comfortable, just like always. And he held me.

  “I know.” He patted my shoulder. “I know, Pops. And no matter what, we’ll always be friends.” His smile was a little sad, but had most of its sparkle back. “It’s just going to take a little time to get back to where we were.”

  “Okay.” Some of the clawing desperation eased, and I felt like I could take a full breath for the first time in weeks. “Okay.”

  My head pounded, the front curve of my skull feeling tender. There were little burns on my shoulders where my tank top hadn’t protected me from the ashes, and I’d scraped my palms, and my knee felt bruised though I couldn’t for the life of me remember when I’d hurt it, but I still felt good. Lighter somehow. I felt like a terribly infected wound had been lanced and was finally healing.

  I took a step back, and people converged on me, with Wanda and Andre leading the charge. Everyone was asking what the heck had just happened, and I tried to tell them as much as I could—which wasn’t really that much. Prior to this moment, I hadn’t even known furies were a thing.

  Wanda propped her fists onto her hips and glared at me. “I can’t leave you alone for a second. How the spell does someone get into trouble at a festival? And, furthermore, how in the world did you manage to call down a vengeance spirit on yourself?”

  “It’s kind of a long story,” I said meekly. “Well, no, I guess it isn’t. She was pulled here by my feeling guilty about things.”

  Wanda snorted and shook her head. “Well, there’s your first mistake. Never feel guilty about anything. Problem solved.”

  My laugh was maybe a bit shrill, but I thought I was due. “I’ll work on that.”

  There was one face that I wanted to see more than any other, and I scanned the crowd half-terrified I’d see him there, and half-terrified that I wouldn’t. “Where’s Finn?”

  Andre gave my hand a little squeeze. “That’s why it took me a minute to get here. I put him to work protecting the other kids and keeping them away from danger. And then I wove a charm to keep him safe. He’s fine, Poppy. He’s safe. I promise you.”

  My knees buckled in relief, and I had to shift my weight to stay standing upright. I wouldn’t be totally at ease until I saw him for myself, but I trusted Andre. If he said Finn was safe, I would believe him. I knew he’d never put my son at risk.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Taliyah and Maverick slipping away without a word. That was a bit weird. Usually Taliyah had a million questions whenever she was involved in a crime scene or some other such situation. As Haven Hollow’s Chief of Police, she liked to keep on top of threats that showed up. Then I remembered the words that Alecto had spat at them both, the guilt she’d wielded like a knife had absolutely spilled blood.

  So, I didn’t draw attention to them, just let them vanish into the trees, and told myself I’d check on them both later and just hope I didn’t end up frozen or hexed for it. If Wanda was tight lipped when it came to emotion, Taliyah was even worse.

  Wanda eyed me, her lips twisted up like she’d tasted something sour. “I can’t believe you just walked into the woods all alone. Like you thought you were a witch or something. Do I need to remind you that you’re still a gypsy? A human gypsy?”

  “No, you don’t need to remind me, Wanda.”

  “When are you going to start paying more attention to your own safety?” she continued, clearly angry with me. “You take way too many chances with yourself and I swear to Hecuba, you’re taking years off my life.”

  “Sorry, Wanda.”

  Why was it I felt more like Wanda’s kid than her best friend?

  “We’re going to need to get you a panic button, for the number of times you get into trouble.” The scowl turned into a smirk. “Or a bell.”

  “Hey.” The protest came out a little weak. I couldn’t really work up any steam over it, since Wanda had kind of come charging to my rescue and all.

  Though, I did promise myself that in the future, I’d be keeping at least one protection potion on me at all times. I didn’t want to find myself unarmed like this again, even if it probably wouldn’t have worked on Alecto.

  Andre’s warm arm slipped around me, steadying me when I swayed.

  “Come on, Poppy,” he said. “Let’s get you home.”

  I let out a slow breath, looking into his blue, blue eyes.

  That sounded pretty good to me.

  Chapter Seventeen

  A few days after the bonfire disaster at the festival, I opened one of my kitchen cupboards and rooted around behind a stack of my least used mixing bowls, and sighed when I came up empty.

  After everything that had happened over the past few weeks, I supposed that misplacing dishes wasn’t all that strange, but I was usually pretty precise about putting things back, just to avoid situations like this one. After moving in and taking months to remember just where everything was, I’d actually hung lists on the inside of the doors for a while. Maybe I needed to start again.

  Of course, if a wayward measuring cup was the worst thing to happen today, I’d take it with a smile. I could do with a few calm, peaceful days.

  Thanks to everyone’s efforts, especially Fifi’s dryad friends, there wasn’t any permanent damage left to the festival grounds or the surrounding woods. The grass was lush and thick, and the trees were all patched up, though a couple were minus a branch or two, but there was no sign that there’d ever been a fire at all. And thanks to Taliyah’s quick work, the fire in the woods hadn’t gotten a chance to do much damage, or even spread. I still hated to think of what Alecto might have done to the town otherwise. An unseasonably dry summer and a fire wouldn’t end well. That was why the festival had had so many measures put into place.

  Things had all pretty much gone back to normal, other than Wanda texting me a few times a day to make sure I wasn’t in any peril. She’d become like an overprotective mother and then some—something which gave me cause for pause where Finn was concerned.

  As far as everything that had happened with Alecto, well, it was something I couldn’t keep out of my mind. And it was something I was fairly sure wasn’t just plaguing me. I kept seeing the expressions on Taliyah and Maverick’s faces when they’d showed up to help me, the way Alecto had torn into them, exposing their secret shames.

  I was just glad that things had started looking up, like the past couple of weeks hadn’t even happened. The night of the fire, after everything had died down, I’d taken Finn and gone home and slept like a log for about twelve hours, all without a single dream or hint of a nightmare. It had been blissful, but I’d still been tired for a few days afterwards. At least I’d started catching up on my sleep deficit. And my Dreamtime Oil was working beautifully again, without my own magic sabotaging it.

  Finn was talking to me again, so that was one big weight off my chest. I hated it when we fought, and I’d had to give myself a bit of a pep talk about it. He was growing up, after all. Finn was officially a teenager, and in a few short years, he’d be all grown up. There were bound to be growing pains and though I’d never apologize for wanting to protect him, it still upset me to have him mad at me.

  We’d had a talk, and decided his recent dizzy spell was owing to Alecto, since he hadn’t experienced anything like it in a long while. So, he was still taking lessons with Andre, with the agreement that at the first hint of him feeling tired, he had to let Andre know. Hopefully, with my magic not being stirred up by a vengeance goddess, I wouldn’t make things worse for him.

  My own powers seemed to have settled down again, though they still felt different. Odd, not necessarily in a bad way, but sometimes I could feel something ripening in my bones, like things were growing and shifting inside me—changing. Hopefully the coven would be able to help me with whatever new shape my magic was taking. With a Blood Witch, a Blood Warlock, a fae vampire and a shapeshifting mannequin, I still wasn’t the most unusual member, so that was comforting, at least.

  Whatever had been plaguing my usual supply company seemed to have just as mysteriously cleared up again, and they’d sent me my long overdue shipment. I’d been hard at work ever since, restocking my potions and catching up on orders. I still had a few the coven had helped me brew to keep me going until I got caught up, and I’d never stop being grateful for that. It gave me a little bit of breathing room, even with all the tourists in the city. Summer was always a busy time in Haven Hollow.

  And the other day, when I’d been out and about running errands, I’d run into Marty on the street and he’d smiled and waved at me. I’d been so relieved that I almost cried, but I didn’t want to make everything weird so I just smiled and waved back. It gave me hope that I hadn’t ruined everything between us, that someday I could have my friend back and it would be just like it had been when I’d first met him. It was weird that it had taken a vengeance-driven fury to help us get to this place, but I guess I’d take my wins where I could get them.