I twisted, trying to pry my hands apart. The ropes bit into my skin, refusing to budge. They were just too tight. I couldn’t take my eyes off the blade as it came closer, glinting like a shard of moonlight in the dark, the blade sharp enough to cut the air.

  I tensed to lash out, to fight back, but I knew it was futile. I couldn’t get free, and even if I fought, the others could just hold me in place for her. The truth of the matter was that I was watching my death stalk towards me, and even though I wouldn’t make anything easy for them, I knew with a horrible leaden feeling in my stomach that there wasn’t anything I could do.

  As if in answer to my thoughts, the bindings around my wrists suddenly slipped down my hands, unwrapping themselves, like a snake deciding it had better places to be. My heart surged up into my throat. Had I done that? But when I probed the place where my magic used to be, it was still dark and empty. Then what was it?

  I got my answer a half a second later when Maverick came pelting into the clearing, and without even breaking stride, launched a blood bolt at Lady Evergreen.

  The faerie woman went down with a shriek and was blasted halfway across the clearing in a burst of deep scarlet power. Just like that, the stranglehold on my magic snapped, and power flooded back into my body in a dizzying rush, like breathing pure oxygen. But it wasn’t the magic I was accustomed to. This magic was deeper, stronger, angrier, and deadly. It was the magic of the night, of the dead.

  It was Maverick’s magic.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The pain in my head, in my side, faded.

  Not gone, but bearable as my body worked to heal itself, suddenly on overload. I shuddered, feeling light as air, and as mad as a wet hornet.

  Janara whirled around to face the new threat, only for Maverick to bodily shoulder her away, knocking her down into the snow, to plant himself in front of me, his hands blazing with bloody light.

  “Keep the fuck away from her.” Red light blazed around his body, and the wind of his own power picked up the ends of his hair, making it whip around his cheeks until he was glowing furiously red.

  Overhead, thunder rumbled, and I stared up in shock. I’d never seen lightning as part of a snowstorm before, but there it was. Above us, the low hanging clouds still doing their best to bury the world in white, now had pale violet lightning arching between them, and the sky growled like a furious beast right before it attacks.

  I shook my head and tore myself free of the bindings, trying to force my still wobbly knees to hold my weight. No way was I going to lie on the ground like some damsel in distress while Maverick fought for me. I had my magic back, and even though I was still sore and weak, I also still had a few scores to settle.

  Wren and Rime seemed shocked by the sudden change and were left scrambling to keep up. They hurried to Janara, trying to drag her out of range of Maverick, while some other Fae tried to help a flailing Lady Evergreen out of the snowbank she’d been blasted into. Her pretty white furs were still smoking, one patch burnt black from the force of Maverick’s power.

  “No,” Janara snarled, tearing her arms free from her retainer’s grips. “No, you don’t escape again,” she spit the words at me. “The throne is mine, Olwen. I won’t allow you to take it from me!” She made a savage gesture, beckoning to the other Fae. “Kill them!”

  Wren lifted up her little hand, looking like a slightly bedraggled doll in her blue and white frothy dress, and summoned a dozen blades of gleaming black ice. The other Fae leveled their weapons, while the great shaggy white beast roared loudly enough to shake the snow off the nearby evergreens.

  I took a step forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Maverick. If I hadn’t known it would get in his way, I would have slipped my hand into his. I just couldn’t believe he was here—that he’d come alone to take on a whole legion of Fae and that he appeared to somehow be winning. That was the force of his blood magic. Not only that, it was also the force of his entire coven and the blood bonds between them. He was being fueled by all of them and that power was also fueling me. It was healing me.

  And I might not have much control over my magic, but I’d be damned before I stood back and let him fight on his own.

  Wren made a flicking gesture, and all of her summoned blades angled towards us.

  A vicious hex slammed into the faerie sorceress from between the trees, and I watched in open-mouthed surprise as horrible red boils popped up all over her face and arms. Wren shrieked, high and pitiful, her summoned blades popping out of existence like soap bubbles on the wind.

  Wanda strolled out from between the trees, somehow making the lumpy, snow-covered ground look like a catwalk. She shot a vicious smirk at Wren who was doubled over and glaring from weeping, swollen eyes. Then her eyes found mine.

  “Sorry I’m late.”

  Wanda struck a pose, one foot forward, her hands on her hips as she faced the Fae before her again. “Ugh, all of you again?” she asked, frowning. “Don’t you remember what happened the last time you picked a fight with us?”

  Lorcan ghosted up out of the woods behind her, smiling wide enough to flash his fangs. “I suppose we’ll just need to make sure the lesson sticks this time, sweetling.”

  My heart leapt up into my throat as the other members of the Council came boiling up out of the woods. Roy was there in his full Sasquatch form, moving through the trees with an eerie grace. It was weird to see someone so big move so quietly over the snow. Fifi was right at his heels, along with a sullen looking Angelo.

  The rest of the coven, minus Maverick’s younger sister Astrid, were all there. Poppy with her determination and her hands full of potions. Betanya Tayir, and Olga and even the newest witch to Haven Hollow, Imani. Even Wanda’s vampire brothers had turned up, with their smiles full of fangs as they watched the Fae like a cat watches a bird.

  There were more people behind them, some I only knew in passing. It looked like any supernatural in Haven Hollow who knew how to throw a punch had shown up to the fight.

  “You dare,” Lady Evergreen hissed as she stalked forward. “You are in the presence of royal—ack!”

  The potion bottle caught her mid tirade, the delicate glass shattering against her shoulder and spraying her face and hair with liquid that caused her to stagger back, looking woozy and a little disoriented.

  Poppy looked a bit shocked that her aim had hit so well, her expression somewhere between guilty and pleased. Roy apparently decided that the talking part of the fight was over, because he charged forward without another word, launching himself at the big shaggy white Fae. He jerked the faerie up off its feet, twisted, and hurled it off into the trees. The sound of branches snapping was as distinct as a bell ringing in the suddenly silent clearing. There was a splintering crash, and a tree fell somewhere out in the woods.

  After that, it didn’t seem like many of the other Fae wanted to get within arm’s reach of the Sasquatch.

  But most of my attention was on Maverick who was slinging blood bolts and hexes like something out of a legend. There was none of his usual sarcasm or smirking pleasure in his own skill. His face was pale, his skin tight, and almost mask-like in his fury. He pivoted, launching attack after attack that each of the Fae scrambled to avoid. One armored faerie dodged a blood bolt, only to back into Lorcan’s reach, and then it was lights out for him. Another leapt out of the way, only to get nailed by one of Wanda’s hexes.

  “Thank you, cousin,” she sing-songed as the Fae collapsed in a groaning heap.

  When Janara’s hate-filled gaze settled on me, Maverick snarled. He made a gesture, barked a word.

  And the sky erupted.

  Brilliant violet-white power came thundering down out of the heavens, and only Rime moving an instant before they struck kept Janara from becoming a smoking crater in the dirt. The force of Maverick’s power was still enough to blast half a dozen faeries flying off into the woods.

  I managed not to gape, but just barely.

  It was chaos. People were running and screaming in all directions, there were brilliant flashes of spells and potions interspersed with gouts of winter magic. A bitter wind whipped up, dragging snow through the air in an attempt to give some cover to the Fae defenders, but it didn’t seem to slow Roy or Lorcan down, though the vampire did squint into the wind like it had done him a personal wrong.

  I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. Rime had managed to collect a still boil-covered Wren, and helped her hobble over to regroup with Janara. Lady Evergreen still wandered through the battlefield like she was in a dream, lashing out with bolts of cold at anyone who came too close to her.

  Whatever potion it was that Poppy had nailed her with, it seemed to be doing a good job of keeping her, if not out of the fight, then from helping Janara. It was like Lady Evergreen was confused or lost or maybe the potion was designed to keep her away from the action. Whatever it was, it seemed to be working like… well, a charm.

  The would-be Queen didn’t seem very pleased with the way things were going, if the scowl on her face was anything to go by. An ugly light sparked in her eyes, and I knew she was going to come for me—if nothing else, I was her biggest hurdle and if she was going to die, she wanted to take me with her.

  But without Lady Evergreen’s magical binding on my own magic, the icy power of deepest winter coursed through my body, making my limbs feel light and strong, clearing my head, filling me with determination. I hadn’t realized just how much my body depended on that magic until it was stripped from me.

  I wasn’t human. That much, I had to admit. What that meant for me though, I still didn’t know.

  I didn’t want to be queen though—that much was true. But I also knew there was no way I could hand an entire court of people, people just like Cardinal, who only wanted to live and be safe. Cardinal… who was still probably lying out there in the snow like discarded trash. There was no way I was going to hand them over to that icy bitch.

  Bea did her best, with the time we’d had together, to show me how to wield my magic properly. I still didn’t have much idea of how to do it, and there was also the fact that Bea was a faerie of spring, of warm breezes and green growing things, and I was so very much not. But whatever practice I did have, I was calling on it now.

  In a contest of skill, I wasn’t a match for Lady Evergreen, or Janara, or Wren or even Rime. I knew that. But I was still strong and I could feel that strength flowing through my veins, like the swift dark water under the frozen surface of a river. And on top of that, I was mad as hell.

  So, I reached deep, down to the frozen core of my power and I summoned all my fury, my disgust, my icy disdain for the woman who wanted to be queen. Not because she loved her people, or wanted to protect them, or thought she would govern well. But because she was grasping at power the way a miser scrambles after loose change, and she was dragging herself to the crown over the bloody corpses of the very people she wanted to rule.

  My power leapt into my hand like a well-trained dog. I let out a breath that formed ice crystals in the air, turned all my focus onto the place where Janara stood, surrounded by her lackeys and sycophants.

  And I called winter down on her.

  It wasn’t skilled or pretty. My magic wasn’t a laser, like Wanda’s, or a fencing foil, like Maverick’s. Both of them were plenty powerful, but they had a finesse, and accuracy to their magic that almost made it into an art form.

  My power was a sledgehammer, and I brought it down with devastating force right on top of Janara.

  A blizzard slammed down on top of the four of them, the wind howling like a mad thing. It tore at their already tattered clothes, whipping their hair around their faces. The air nearly froze solid, every breath they sucked in full of tiny ice crystals. Rime coughed blood as bright as rubies against his pale lips.

  Snow climbed their legs, clinging and freezing as they struggled to pull free. Janara called out, and Wren tried to cast a spell through her swollen mouth, but the wind tore their breath from them, stealing their words away.

  A curl of satisfaction wound itself through my chest like a friendly cat. They might all have been raised with magic, they might have decades of practice over me, but they had also been weakened. Imprisoned just shy of a year in a mushroom circle. They couldn’t stand against me, not now, not in their weakened states.

  And by the furious, hate filled look Janara sent my way, she knew it.

  “Don’t get too comfortable, Princess.” She spat the title out like it was covered in poison. “This isn’t over.”

  I didn’t bother to answer. I just turned my will to the bitter wind and blasted the three of them with another barrage of ice and snow. Janara had to throw an arm up to shield her face. An icicle still made it past her guard, slicing a razor thin line across one pale cheek. She shrieked in outraged fury and staggered back under the onslaught of the wind.

  Janara barked something at Rime, who grabbed Lady Evergreen (who still appeared delirious) by the arm, hauling her after them as the trio vanished into a snow dervish. They were gone, but they wouldn’t be gone forever. I knew that. Even so, I was just grateful to see them go.

  Once they realized they’d been abandoned by their leaders, the other Fae tried to make a run for it. Some of them vanished between the trees, some just flat out ran away, dragging their wounded with them, and Roy and Lorcan gave chase.

  As the last few skirmishes were mopping up, Maverick walked the short distance that separated us. The skin at the corner of his eyes was tight as he searched my face. Something dangerous passed over his expression as his gaze landed on the cheek that Jonathon had punched. He reached out but stopped before his fingers made contact.

  Which I appreciated because I already knew the bruise would be a doozy. The whole side of my face was throbbing, my teeth ached, and my eye was forced into a bit of a squint from the swelling on that side. Yes, my body was still healing itself but it had clearly triaged and worked on the parts that needed healing most. Like my ribs.

  “Are you alright?” Maverick asked me, a little too calmly.

  “Yeah.” I tried to smile and instantly regretted it. “Probably won’t be posing for a lot of pictures for a few days though.”

  Maverick’s lips pressed into a flat line, and I saw a muscle jump in his cheek.

  “Thank you,” I said quietly. “For coming, I mean.”

  That at least got his expression to thaw a little. The muscle in his jaw unclenched enough for him to smirk. “I think you might be embracing this princess thing a little too much. It’s not all going to be royal machinations and daring rescues from now on, is it?”

  “I will hit you,” I told him sweetly, smiling with too many teeth.

  He heaved a theatrical sigh. “This marriage is going to be a nightmare.”

  That was actually enough to get me to laugh, and even though doing so made my whole face throb and my ribs shriek in protest, it also made a hard, cold lump inside my chest relax a little bit.

  Maverick smiled, his tone just a little bit too casual when he asked, “Who did that to your face?”

  I hesitated. I was a peace officer, the Chief of Police of Haven Hollow. I couldn’t condone violence, or vigilante justice. Everyone deserved a fair trial; I believed that down to my core.

  But I just couldn’t get the image of Cardinal lying in a pool of her own blood in the snow, while Jonathon looked like he had somewhere better to be. He wasn’t outraged, or grief stricken by the outright murder of his girlfriend—something that had occurred right in front of him. He was mildly inconvenienced, if that, like someone had broken his favorite toy.

  That, in the end, was what clinched it for me. “Jonathon.”

  Maverick smiled. The expression made me shiver because it was the kind of look a wolf would wear before it sinks its teeth into its chosen prey.

  “I will kill him,” he promised, silkily.

  I believed him. And the truth in that statement probably should have bothered me.

  But it didn’t.

  Chapter Seventeen

  It took a few days to finish clearing up the aftermath of the skirmish from the streets of Haven Hollow.

  The Council had spread the word that the damage to the local businesses and property had been caused by a freak, localized winter storm. It was true enough, I supposed, but the lie still ate at me. Fortunately, everyone accepted the explanation without asking too many questions, but I was pretty sure a few judicious spells from Wanda’s coven was to thank for that.

  I really hated all the smoke and daggers crap. It reminded me too much of when I’d first come to town after my brother’s murder, and no one would give me any information or answers. It had been clear that there was a cover up, maybe even some sort of conspiracy that Cain had stumbled across, and his personal records had only strengthened my burning need to get to the bottom of everything.

  And now here I was, suddenly on the other side of the curtain, calmly commiserating with citizens about the rogue ‘blizzard’ that had torn through downtown. It made my skin itch. I hated being a part of it. But, as Fifi pointed out, it was for everyone’s protection.

  Not just the supernatural people of the Hollow, who deserved to be able to live their lives in peace, so long as they didn’t hurt anyone, but humans too. No one deserved to get hunted down because of superstition, prejudice and fear, like that poor vampire girl a few months back who’d come to town with her family to open up the Haunted House attraction, and ended up staked for it.

  These rules were also in place to protect the humans, to keep them from being targeted. How difficult would it be to know that the things lurking in the shadows of myth and legend were real, and living among them, and there was no way they could defend themselves if push came to shove?

  It was better this way. I still didn’t like it. Honesty was almost always the best policy, in my mind, but in this case, I could see how honesty wasn’t a route we could take.