Up ahead, through the trees, I caught the sound of voices over the wind. My heart sank, because it sounded like the sounds were coming from a whole lot of people. I could only hope Lady Evergreen didn’t have a ton of support in her ‘free Janara’ plot. And if there were a bunch of them and—I glanced around—only nine of us… what would that mean? Sure, two of us were faerie royalty, and Wanda was the High Witch of Haven Hollow, Maverick was a Blood Warlock and Lorcan was a centuries-old powerful vampire and Betanya, Imani, and Olga weren’t anything to scoff at. But I was just a middle-aged mom with some basically useless potions, and some uncomfortable magic (which I didn’t even know how to use) rolling around in my guts like acid reflux.

  I couldn’t focus on the possibility of us being outnumbered and outmagicked. I’d do what I had to. But Janara and her lackeys weren’t ever getting near my son again, not if I had anything to say about it.

  I hoped like heck I’d have something to say about it.

  The first blow took me totally off guard, and sent me staggering to my knees in the snow, trying to breathe around the shock. It hadn’t been a physical attack at all, there wasn’t even anyone close to me, and it took me a second to force my dizzy head to clear so I could figure out what had happened.

  “Someone’s attacking the circle!” Fox yelled out against the onslaught of the icy wind.

  I’d helped to lay that circle, back when we’d first trapped Janara, before Taliyah had ever even come to town. Janara’s seer had been an entire year off in his predictions, causing Janara to ransom the town’s children to force us to hand over Olwen—someone (at the time) we’d never even heard of.

  We’d used Janara’s own circle to trap the lot of them, after I’d woven my power and potions through it. And I supposed that weaving of my own magic into the thread of the circle had left me tied to the spell. Again someone wound up like a wrecking ball and smashed into the side of the circle and I was nearly catapulted right off my feet.

  I collapsed against the ground, feeling like I’d been hit by a truck.

  Wanda hurried towards me, her dark eyes wide. “Poppy?”

  “The circle.” I sucked in a lung full of bitterly cold air and coughed.

  “They’re trying to break the circle,” Fox said as he appeared right beside me and gathered me into his arms, pulling me to my feet. I leaned heavily against him and together, we continued forward.

  Taliyah and Fox exchanged a glance, and then Lorcan was beside me, taking over for Fox as the latter bolted forward, almost in unison with Taliyah. They vanished between the trees, moving swiftly and silently as nightfall.

  Wanda grabbed me by one arm and Lorcan by the other and continued to drag me forward as I fought to find the strength to stand on my own feet. I gently pushed their hands away. “Go, I’m fine.” They both would be a lot more help in a fight than I would at this point.

  Wanda looked conflicted for a second, but her mouth firmed into a line, and she turned and hurried after Fox and Taliyah. I, meanwhile, had to brace myself against a tree to try to shake off the last of the dizziness. Whoever it was that had hit the circle sure packed a punch.

  That didn’t bode well for us.

  Chapter Seventeen

  When I finally managed to stumble through the last of the trees and into the forest clearing, I found absolute chaos.

  There were bizarre creatures everywhere that had to be fae, but didn’t look like any of the faeries I’d ever encountered. One was huge and white furred like a polar bear, or the abominable snowman. There were a couple that looked like smaller humans, but their features were so pale and perfect, they appeared to be sculpted out of ice. A few had icicle spines, others had delicate wings made of frost swirls, and one looked more like a miniature blizzard than a person, just a small cyclone of perpetually spinning snow.

  What struck me even more than their bizarre appearances was their sheer number—there were so many of them! I couldn’t help but wonder if all of them were loyal to Janara. Was this what Taliyah was going to have to deal with, just to take a throne I was pretty sure she wanted nothing to do with in the first place?

  And that was when I saw her… a woman, tall and statuesque, dressed in white furs, her frost pale hair done up and held in place with a little sprig of pine needles. She looked like the white witch from the Narnia books, all pale and perfect and terrifying. This had to be Lady Evergreen.

  She stood in front of the area where the circle was, but there was no way to see into it. Just a little shimmer in the air, like a mirage. At least that meant the spell was still holding. For now, anyway. How many more blows like the last one could it take though?

  The others were all there already. Fox had gotten a sword from somewhere (or maybe he’d simply magicked it into being), shining silver in the starlight, with a hilt made out of what looked like hammered gold leaves. He knew how to use it, too, if the way he was holding off a bunch of winter fae on his own was any indication. Wanda was alive with magic, calling out spells and curses, her long dark hair floating around her on the wind of her own power. Maverick appeared just as fierce right beside her. And Imani, Betanya, and Olga were all holding hands and I could see them chanting something.

  Lady Evergreen took another step towards the circle, her arms raised as power gathered between her palms. Blue-white magic built between her hands, crackling like ice breaking on the surface of a river.

  Before she could launch her attack, though, Taliyah bolted forward, sliding in between Lady Evergreen and the circle prison. Without giving Lady Evergreen a chance to react, or launch her spell, Taliyah wound back and punched her square in the jaw.

  I sucked in a sharp breath, almost choking on the hysterical giggle that wanted to slip out, but before I could so much as gasp, there was a flash of pale energy before Taliyah’s fist made full contact with Lady Evergreen’s face. It was like time stood still as Lady Evergreen simply took a step back, looking somewhere between shocked and furious, and Taliyah nearly lost her balance.

  The faerie woman’s pale pink lips peeled back off her teeth in a dainty looking sneer. She looked at Taliyah like she was something a dog had tracked in on the carpet.

  “You,” Lady Evergreen spat. “How dare you come here?”

  Taliyah brought her hands up to shield her chest and neck, balanced forward like a boxer. “Funny,” she drawled. “I was about to ask you the exact same question.”

  More fae (that looked like winter nightmares) came spilling out from between the trees, and panic sputtered to life in my chest. I needed to do something. There were too many of them for Fox and Wanda and the coven to take care of on their own, especially with Taliyah doing everything she could to hold off Lady Evergreen.

  I patted myself over again, trying to think of something, anything useful I’d managed to bring with me. My power slopped around on my insides, feeling like too much liquid poured into too small a glass. It made my fingers shake, my knees tremble, and I tried not to be sick right there in the snow. My searching hands landed on the confused potion I’d made accidentally, and I slid the bottle into my hand.

  I still wasn’t entirely sure what would happen if I used it, but I was pretty quickly running out of options. An unknown and wonky potion wasn’t normally something I’d risk using, but desperate times and all that. So, I took a deep breath and then waited until Fox managed to drive back the huge, shaggy white abominable snowman fae, and then I uncorked the top of the potion and waited for the next huge gust of wind. I didn’t have to wait long. Holding the messed up potion above and in front of me, I tossed the entirety of it into the air.

  The wind immediately whipped the muddy blue liquid and dumped it all over the faeries in the clearing, sending little sparkles of psychedelic light into the air. A good ninety percent of it had landed on the enormous shaggy white animal looking thing (mainly because the thing towered over everyone else) and it simply stopped roaring, and shook its great, shaggy head like it wasn’t sure what had just hit it. It staggered to the side a little as if it were suddenly extremely drunk and on the deck of a ship tossed at sea. The faerie made a little aggrieved sound in its chest, a rumbling sound like thunder and then its ‘eyebrows’ seemed to close in over its eyes in what I imagined was an expression of anger and the loudest roar it had emitted yet came careening out of its fanged mouth. Still bellowing, it turned and took a swipe at the fae standing next to it, one of those covered in ice spines.

  I watched, my mouth gaping open, as the ice fae flew through the air and smacked into a pine tree before tumbling to the ground, unmoving. The tree quivered in place, then dumped a load of snow from its branches on top of the faerie.

  The big, shaggy creature started to stagger around then, taking swings at anything or anyone who got too close, which turned out to be the fae, since Fox, Wanda and the others were doing their best to avoid it. In a few moments, the big, white and furry fae creature had knocked flat about half of Lady Evergreen’s forces.

  Well. Score one for my mismatched potion.

  With the help of my unexpected backup, Fox, Wanda and the coven were doing well enough holding off the rest of Lady Evergreen’s supporters with sword and spell work. But when I checked in on Taliyah, my heart sank.

  She was still stuck between Lady Evergreen and the circle, but she was looking a little rough, her hair disheveled, her lip split, and her clothing covered in frost. There was a darkened patch of skin on her forearm that looked like a nasty case of frostbite. Taliyah was still giving it everything she had, but the problem was, Lady Evergreen was a powerful faerie, and Taliyah was doing her best to still fight like a human.

  Don’t get me wrong, in a fistfight or a mundane scrape, I’d want Taliyah at my back. She was one of the most hyper competent people I’d ever met. But you couldn’t bring boxing gloves to a fae spell duel and hope to win.

  It probably didn’t help that even across the clearing, I could feel Taliyah’s magic rolling like a storm wracked sea. It swelled and surged in uneven bursts while she did her best to keep Lady Evergreen from shattering the circle. Taliyah was fighting a battle on two fronts, against Lady Evergreen, and against her own power, trying to keep it locked down when it was trying to surge free.

  A spell slipped past Taliyah’s guard, and I sucked in a breath as I felt it hit the circle like a punch in the gut. Taliyah growled, ducked her shoulder, and charged Lady Evergreen, clearly intending to physically force the woman back.

  But Lady Evergreen shimmered in place, turning in an instant into a swirl of snow, and Taliyah charged straight through her—straight through nothing. Only fae grace kept Taliyah from face planting into the snow on the other side. Lady Evergreen reformed and twitched out her skirts, smoothing imaginary wrinkles as if this was just a play fight that was getting irritating. She lifted one hand to waggle her fingers in Taliyah’s direction in a mocking little wave, her expression cruel, and a little smug. Then she turned back towards the circle, magic gathering in her hands as she prepared to launch the spell that would shatter the prison, and set Janara loose on us all.

  And that couldn’t happen. Because we were in no way prepared to take on Janara and her fae posse. That would be the end of all of us. Possibly even the end of Haven Hollow.

  “No!” Taliyah spun around, her arms raised in denial, and the power burst from her like a river too long damned up. Freezing wind filled the clearing, kicking snow up in stinging walls, and the power of the heir to the throne of the Winter Court crashed into the circle, merging with the power already there, shoring it up and keeping it from shattering.

  I felt it like an ice cube dragged up my spine as Taliyah’s magic wove itself through the circle, bolstering my spell with walls of solid ice and winter’s cold strength. I didn’t know if it was due to the fact that the original spell was also cast by a winter noble, but Taliyah’s magic flowed flawlessly into the circle, even easier than mine had all those months ago. My breath came out as a wash of steam in the air, melting some of the tiny crystals of frost just hovering there. I had to catch myself against a tree to get my breath under control as the magic settled into place, stronger than ever.

  Lady Evergreen’s laughter was as cold and sharp as her magic. “Do you really think you have a hope of stopping me?” She looked down her nose at Taliyah. “That’s a temporary measure at best, but you gave it a good try. A circle isn’t meant to stand forever, not even supported by a princess’s magic, Olwen.”

  She spat the word ‘princess’ like it tasted sour in her mouth.

  Taliyah straightened and licked her busted bottom lip. There was blood on her teeth when she barred them. “It will stand long enough.” Power flicked around Taliyah, blue and green and palest violet. It was like the Aurora Borealis had wrapped around her like a shining cloak, casting dancing colors and shadows across the snow. I would have thought it beautiful if I weren’t scared out of my mind.

  Taliyah tilted her chin down and glared at Lady Evergreen. “And my name is Taliyah, you icy bitch.”

  Then Taliyah launched a bolt of silver-white light right at Lady Evergreen like she was pitching a fastball. At the roaring bright light, Fox glanced over his shoulder and swore when he saw that Taliyah was cornered by Lady Evergreen. He blasted the fairies he was fighting with a shockwave of scarlet and gold light, knocking them into the trees, before turning to join Taliyah against Lady Evergreen.

  A fae charged at me then, shrieking, a sword made of ice raised above its head, and that strange and dark magic that felt so unfamiliar began to surge up inside me like a rising tide of dark water. It filled my chest, my throat, and when I took a step back and threw my hands up instinctively, the power burst out of me in a bolt of deep carmine red.

  My magic slammed into the shocked fae, wrapping around its head and shoulders like a furious serpent as it screamed and fell to the snow, kicking and flailing, trying to free itself from the darkness.

  All I could do was stare, shocked as I glanced down at my hands which were still outstretched before me. That had never happened before. My magic was in potions, in infusing oils and herbs. Subtle things. Powerful, sure. I was very good at what I did, but my magic had never burst free from me like this, lashing out like all the small, frightened, furious parts of me could manifest into dark energy. I wasn’t even sure it was entirely my magic at all. If anything, this was witch magic.

  I’d known, at least objectively, that taking the oaths to join Wanda’s coven might have an effect on my magic. That was part of the point of a group of witches, who were notoriously strong willed and fiercely independent, actually agreeing to form a coven in the first place. They were stronger together, and not just in a ‘link-hands-and-sing-kumbaya’ kind of way. Power shared was power magnified, after all.

  But I’d thought most of it wouldn’t have any real effect on me. I wasn’t a witch. I’d never have magic like one, never be able to toss a hex or weave a curse. But maybe that didn’t matter? Apparently, that didn’t matter. At the end of the day, I’d joined a coven, one that was partly made up of a Blood Witch and a Blood Warlock. And while that spell I’d just flung reminded me a lot of Wanda’s magic, and it carried her signature, it had still come from me. And I didn’t know what that meant, but at this exact moment, I was glad for it.

  Another fae came at me, and I shoved all my doubts out of the way for the moment. Whatever this new power was, I was going to use it—at least, I was going to try to use it because I still didn’t have any idea how to summon it. And now, as I held my hands out in front of me again, nothing came. Hmm. I didn’t have any other offensive potions, but I threw a weaker healing potion at my attacker, because, hey, it was still a glass bottle and it hurt when anyone got nailed with a glass bottle.

  The potion smacked the fae in the forehead, and it staggered back, startled. That was enough to put the thing in reach of the big shaggy creature that was still stumbling around the clearing, looking meaner than a mosquito in a mannequin factory. The swipe of one heavy paw launched the much smaller fae into the air and out into the trees.

  A little bubble of laughter escaped me, and I started to think that maybe we could actually do this. Or at least hold Lady Evergreen off long enough for Andre and Roy to take care of whatever it was they were planning.

  Fox was supporting Taliyah, twining his magic with hers and helping her drive Lady Evergreen slowly but surely away from the circle. Meanwhile, Wanda was slinging hexes at the remaining fae, and looking collected, if a little witchy as she did it. Lorcan was right beside her, dispatching our enemies left and right. Maverick and the other witches were doing their best to protect the circle, as well.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving.

  One of the fairies that had been knocked down by the big shaggy fae was now pulling itself back to its feet and gathering a bolt of flickering blue light between its palms. The creature’s gaze was locked on Taliyah, who had her unprotected back to it. The fae pulled its arm back and released the sizzling bolt of winter’s electricity.

  I didn’t think, I just threw myself forward. My legs burned as I ran through the snow, my heart hammering so hard, I could feel it in my tongue. The magic within me coalesced, taking form, and I allowed it.

  Come on, whatever you can do, do it! I told the flow of dark power as I watched the fae’s deadly icicle, which was as thick, heading straight for Taliyah’s back.

  “Taliyah, watch out!” I lunged, putting myself between my friend and her attacker.

  The red hot power within me surged and I was faintly aware of a reddish glow surrounding me. But then it was like someone had pulled the cord on a heater because I was suddenly and fully cold.

  Freezing cold.

  It felt like a knife forged out of winter itself slammed into my shoulder. It didn’t feel like a wound, exactly—not even like a blade had punctured my body. Instead, the feeling was just pure ice throughout my body, so cold it almost burned, my muscles cramping up instantly. Numbness spread, but not the soothing kind. This was the prickling, static feeling of a limb fallen asleep, but it was spreading all the way through my chest and down my ribs.