He was strong. One of the most powerful of his coven, former and current, even if he hadn’t gotten much recognition for it in the past. But the sheer amount of magic he was laying down now, it was too much. Power wasn’t limitless. Using too much of mine could lay me out for an afternoon, making me feel like I’d sprinted up a mountain. What was Maverick doing to himself? What was he risking?

  The Will-o’-the-Wisps, whatever they were expecting when they came to Haven Hollow, it clearly wasn’t a Blood Warlock. Green Hair tried to run, his damaged wings blurring as he tried to lift off and flee. But storm winds easily caught him, buffeting him wildly before slamming him back down to the earth.

  The brunette tried to weave some spell, to bring the fog back for cover, or just to escape, but bands of scarlet energy wrapped her from head to toe, and she tipped over sideways with a strangled scream.

  I looked at Maverick’s face and froze. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, making his irises look like they were floating on a sea of red. His teeth were barred like a wolf.

  His voice came out in a dangerous growl. “How dare you attack my family!”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Maverick’s words hit me in the gut like a sucker punch.

  I knew Maverick had been unhappy when his sister Astrid went off to Blood Rose Academy to learn with other young witches. He’d tried to talk her out of it, refused to see her off even. And I knew he regretted that, horribly. Because while she’d been there, in that pit of vipers masquerading as a school, Astrid had died, without anyone around to help her. The fact that she’d risen again as a vampire didn’t really help with Maverick’s feelings of failing her. He didn’t like to talk about it, but I knew Maverick felt that he’d let her down, and the idea of what might have happened if she hadn’t been given vampire blood before she’d died haunted him.

  Even with Astrid safe with their uncle (Fox Aspen—it seemed I’d never escape the man), learning and adjusting, and pretty happily from what I knew, that didn’t change the fact that Maverick had been beyond touchy about anyone taking a shot at his family, and I couldn’t help the little flutter of warmth in my chest to realize that he now included me in that category.

  The idea of someone caring about me, of someone wanting to protect me, it made me feel like I’d swallowed the moon, and any second that silver light was going to start leaking out of my skin with joy. But no way was I going to let Maverick hurt himself on my behalf, especially not for a band of jumped-up pixies who’d picked a fight they were hilariously outgunned for.

  First things first, taking care of the still leaking wound in my arm. The shot had missed the artery there, or I would have already been passed out on the dirt. Out in the woods with no supplies, I didn’t have a lot of options. So, I brought my good arm up and clapped a hand over the gash.

  My teeth clenched, I released a bit of the raging winter storming through my body, and winced as the blood froze over the wound. It wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t going to last for long, but at least it kept a bit more of the red on the inside of my body where it belonged, so it was going to have to do for now.

  Then I hurried across to where Maverick was still hammering down spell after spell, forcing the Will-o’-the-Wisps into a little shivering knot, unable to escape him.

  With the red lightning crackling up and down his arms, I didn’t dare to put a hand on him, but I crowded as close as I thought I could get without being magically electrocuted. “Mav. Hey, Maverick, listen to me. I’m okay. We’re okay. But you need to stop.”

  His chest was heaving, each breath a punched-out gasp as another hex tore through the air, followed by a shriek from the Fae.

  To hell with it.

  I took the risk and put my hand on his shoulder. Stray sparks of magic licked over my skin, but other than a little bit of prickling heat, I didn’t feel anything.

  “Maverick, you have to stop,” I whispered. “They’re done—the threat is gone and now you just risk hurting yourself. Come back to me. Please.”

  I bit my lip, seriously wondering what the heck I was going to do if Maverick didn’t let up. But something must have managed to make it through the haze of his fury, because the next spell didn’t come. Instead, he stood there, glaring, his arms hanging at his sides. And the magic biting over his skin slowed and then vanished altogether. Up above, the clouds must have been breaking up, because a little sliver of moonlight managed to peek through the canopy, glittering off the frost clinging to the ground.

  “Tally,” Maverick rasped, his voice wrecked. It sounded like the word had to be dragged over broken glass and gravel before it came out of his mouth. But he turned to look at me, and his eyes might have been a little bloodshot, but they were Maverick’s eyes again, and he was seeing me.

  “There you are.” I couldn’t have stopped the relieved smile that crept across my face, and I didn’t bother to try. “You did it, Maverick. You saved me.”

  A shudder ran through his body, and he tipped forward just far enough that his forehead touched mine, his eyes closed.

  I heard a rustle, like someone was trying to move without being overheard, and I sighed. I didn’t even bother to look at which pixie was trying to either escape, or make one last ditch attack on me. I just lifted my hand and let the winter storm inside my chest come spilling out.

  Ice erupted from the ground, encasing each of the Will-o’-the-Wisps right up to their waists. I heard their cries over the creak of the ice settling, but I didn’t care. After what they’d pulled, a bit of uncomfortable cold was the least of what they had coming to them.

  After a quiet minute of just standing there, breathing, and holding one another, Maverick leaned back with a sigh. When his gaze fell on the frozen mess of blood on my sleeve, his face tightened again with fury.

  “Okay, no, enough of that,” I said with a little smile. “Let’s just deal with these morons and go home.” I managed a smile. “I don’t know about you, but I’m beat.”

  That at least got me a snort, and part of an eyeroll. Then Maverick was pulling away from me carefully, and striding back across the clearing to where the Will-o’-the-Wisps were frozen to the ground in what looked like the world’s worst game of twister.

  They tried to jerk back from Maverick, but the ice held them fast. Maverick stopped, towering over the captive Fae as he glared down at them. Then he leaned down so his head was closer to them, his long shadow stretching over their pale faces.

  “Tell Janara,” he started in an almost pleasant conversational tone, which somehow was way worse than shouting could have been. “Not to send her lackeys to Haven Hollow again. Not unless she wants them sent back to her in frozen chunks.”

  Green Hair and the brunette blanched. I was pretty sure the blonde was dead.

  Maverick smiled, and holy crap it was terrifying, and it wasn’t even directed at me.

  “And tell her if she can find the nerve to come here herself, we’ll be waiting.” Maverick took a step back then and made a ripping gesture with one hand.

  The air tore. I didn’t know how else to describe it. One second, we were in a dark, frosty forest. The next there was a kind of window or portal to somewhere very different just hanging in the air. Through the gap in reality, I could see huge trees, all of them decked out in the most brilliant autumn colors. Strains of music trickled through the air in a haunting melody. Maverick’s other hand curled into a fist, and he made a gesture like he was throwing a baseball. The whole chunk of frozen faeries rose into the air and rocketed into the portal and vanished.

  I stared, my jaw almost on the ground.

  Maverick turned back to the portal, and brought his hands together again, palm to palm, but it looked like while the rent in the air opened up easily enough, it didn’t want to close.

  Maverick strained, his arms shaking as he pressed his palms tighter and tighter together. His knuckles blanched, turning white as frost. He tilted his head forward, shoulders trembling as inch by agonizing inch the portal slowly stitched itself back together and the sunny fall woodland was gone.

  Maverick swayed a little and then sat down a little too quickly for it to have been completely his decision. I hurried to his side, worried he was going to collapse. Yes, Maverick was slender, but he was also extremely tall, and there was no way I was going to be able to cart him out of the woods by myself, not with all the magic faerie powers in the world.

  But he just sat there, blinking, his face drawn into lines of exhaustion as he swayed a bit from side to side. The dark circles under his eyes almost looked like he’d been punched, his skin paper white.

  “Are you okay?” I knelt down beside him, bracing his back to help him stay upright. “What the heck did you do?”

  He turned towards me, and a ghost of his usual smirk crossed his lips. “Come now, Taliyah. I’m sure you know that it’s a husband’s job to take out the trash.”

  That startled a laugh out of me, and once I started, I couldn’t seem to stop. Maverick joined in, his laughter low and deep, and I could feel it vibrating his chest and into my own. His head fell back, and for a wild moment, I wanted to lean forward and press my lips to his throat, to see if I could taste his laughter, too.

  Adrenaline was a very weird thing.

  Instead, I let my head fall forward until it was resting against his shoulder, and we both laughed until our ribs hurt and our bodies shook. Then we just sat there quietly, too exhausted to move, at least in my case.

  Long fingers wrapped around my hand, and I lifted my head to find Maverick’s face close to mine. My breath caught, and all I wanted to do was to lean forward again, and slot our mouths together. Just remembering the kiss in the living room, just what it had felt like to have those big hands sliding up my back… well, warmth was now kindling in my belly.

  But I was exhausted. Even feeling the ghost of Maverick’s warm breath against my lips couldn’t get me to raise my arms, especially the one that was throbbing like it had its own heartbeat. The spirit was extremely willing, but the flesh was sleep deprived and ready to keep face down in the dirt.

  Maverick squeezed my hand, his face unexpectedly solemn. “How’s your arm?”

  “Sore.” It was burning with a weird sensation that couldn’t decide if it was hot or cold, so it just settled on painful. If I moved wrong, the frozen blood pulled and made me wince, but at least I wasn’t losing any more blood. I didn’t feel like explaining all that, though, and it would have just made Mav worry.

  Though, from the look on his face, he was plenty worried already.

  He reached for my arm, but I turned just enough to put it out of reach.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get it looked at later. It’s fine for now.”

  His mouth twisted like he’d bitten into something sour. “Your idea of fine and mine aren’t even in the same postal code, Morgan.”

  I shook my head and did my best to change the subject. “Where was it you sent them? What was that thing you did to the air? It looked like a portal.”

  Maverick shifted a little and grunted. “That was Faerie.”

  “Then you opened a portal to Faerie?”

  He nodded. “I figured it was their problem, so I sent it back to them.”

  I stared at him, incredulous. “You just ripped a hole into the Faerie realm? Are you nuts? Isn’t that going to piss all the Fae off?”

  “Oh, I’m counting on it.” His smile was wolfish, and far too pleased with himself.

  I really didn’t have the energy to worry about future problems at the moment, so I just shook my head and sighed.

  The gentle brush of Maverick’s hand on my face made me open my eyes, surprised. He cupped my chin, his thumb sweeping back and forth slowly over my cheek. I couldn’t have spoken, even if I’d known what to say.

  “I can’t lose any more of my family.” The words were barely a breath, his face somber.

  My throat tightened, and I tipped my face more firmly into his hand. In spite of everything, the corners of my lips curled up. Our marriage might have been, if not one of convenience, then one of necessity. But real, fake, however I had to look at it, there was one thing I was absolutely certain of: whatever else we were to each other, Maverick and I were family.

  The glow of that warmed me all the way to my toes. It was enough for me to ignore the frost melting underneath me as we sat there, in the middle of the woods, with the shadows getting darker beneath the canopy.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Life pretty much returned to normal after that.

  Haven Hollow was nothing if not resilient. Well, it would have to be, with all the stupid crap that kept happening here. I’d take a drug bust or a theft any day over wicked fairies and magic spells.

  Life didn’t get back to normal all at once, though. It took a few days to a week for everyone to catch up on all the sleep they’d missed and to stop lurching around like semi-conscious zombies. A lot of the stores remained closed, but then, there weren’t any tourists or locals awake to go shopping. The hospital was slammed for a bit, but as the doctors and nurses started getting some sleep too, things evened out.

  The one good thing was that crime basically evaporated in Haven Hollow for the week, so it was quiet enough around the precinct that I didn’t feel bad heading home at the time I was actually supposed to.

  Chloe was still watching the boys, which was very fortunate for me, because I was worried that after the big reveal, she wouldn’t want to stick around any longer. But she didn’t seem to mind that I was fae—like she’d said, she’d gotten the chance to know me and that had allowed her to trust me, I figured. So things were good with Chloe and she promised not to put up any fae protections that would cause me problems. Instead, she’d been researching hidden ‘traps’ as she called them. Whatever that meant, I wasn’t sure.

  I was just happy she still wanted to stick around, because I figured who was in a better position to keep my kids safe than someone who knew all the tricks and traps that Janara and her minions might try to use? Other than having an armed guard at all times, Chloe was as safe as I could make them. Plus, it was obvious that Sean and Charlie adored her.

  But back to the citizens of Haven Hollow… of course, people weren’t stupid, so the mass wave of insomnia and hallucinations was noticed by the mundane half of Haven Hollow, and as Chief of Police, I had to be the one to spread the word that there had been a gas leak on Main Street that had caused it. I hated the lie, the conspiracy of it all. Even on the inside, it still bothered me.

  But, as much as I hated to admit it, it was safer this way. Not just for the supernatural part of the town, who obviously wanted to live their lives in safety and mind their own business for the most part, but for the humans, too. So, I helped with the cover up, no matter how much it burned me to do so. And while there were a few questions, most people were happy to accept the story and move on with their lives, which pretty much just reinforced the idea that they were better off not knowing the truth about this place.

  Finally, after a week and a half, I was starting to feel normal again. It was crazy what a few nights of good sleep could do for you. My arm was on its way to healing, as long as I didn’t bash it against anything. The truth was that I barely even noticed it. Maverick had insisted on using some supplies that Wanda and Poppy had come up with. Bandages soaked with potions or something along those lines.

  I had to admit, whatever it was they’d made, the bandages had worked great. I’d been pretty sure I was going to need stitches, and really wasn’t looking forward to getting them, especially not in a hospital full of sleep deprived staff. But with the dressings Maverick brought me, I probably wasn’t even going to scar.

  There hadn’t been any follow up from the Faerie side, though I wasn’t enough of an optimist to think that Janara had given up. She couldn’t afford to have me around as a threat to her claim to the throne. As long as I was alive, Fae who hated her, or were loyal to my birth parents, would see me as a potential figurehead for rebellion. It didn’t matter that I’d turned down the throne and had no intention of ever moving to Faerie—that wouldn’t be enough to discourage Janara.

  I understood her position, even if I didn’t agree with it. I couldn’t risk my family, and I had no intentions of just tossing my entire life and everything I’d worked for into the dumpster to run off and play Queen of the Faeries, but I also hated the thought of people depending on me and being subjected to that amoral, murderous, narcissistic Sidhe bitch.

  Too bad I didn’t know what I could do about it.

  For the moment, I was happy to try and catch my breath and I was happy that my family was safe, and all the people I cared about were okay. The town was still in one piece, and there was no sign of the big bad ice queen usurper. After the last few months of insanity, I was going to take what I could get.

  Winter was going to come, there wasn’t anything anyone could do to stop it. All I could do was plan, make arrangements, and fight if that was what it came down to. I didn’t want people to suffer, or to pay for my choices. But I also didn’t want my choices made by other people. There had to be a way through it all, I just needed to figure out what that way was.

  But, at the moment, things were as close to quiet and peaceful as they’d ever been in Haven Hollow, and I was planning to take full advantage of that hiatus for as long as I could.

  As a celebration of our win, however short it might be, Maverick and I decided to take the kids to the fall festival they were holding at the garden center up the hill. The place was amazing no matter what time of year you went, though it tended to be a bit slow in the winter, since half the owners and workers tended to hibernate. Dryads didn’t much care for the cold, apparently.

  The nursery had been abandoned when I’d first come to town, but shortly after that, a group of Nymphs and Dryads had taken over the place, and they’d turned it into a little slice of paradise. All of them were Fae from various courts, though none of them were from the court of Winter, so it was less awkward for me to go there. They were all very nice, though I’d heard a few rumors around the station that after hours, they all tended to go skinny dipping in the river behind the nursery. I’d done my best to squash that rumor in order to protect their privacy. As far as I was concerned, they weren’t hurting anyone or causing any problems. And, I don’t know, but it just seemed wrong to tell a nature spirit they had to keep their pants on.