I had always liked the desert. Scrub brush and cacti covered the rocky sand. The saguaro cacti towered over everything else, reaching anywhere from five to sixty feet tall. But without any foliage, it was still easy to see across the terrain for miles.

Mesas towering hundreds of feet in the air dotted the landscape. We used to climb the bases of the mesas when I was a kid and my mom would drive Mickey, Bell, and me out to hike. We had to be careful of loose rocks, but we had found tiny caves and slivers of space between boulders. The desert had been the best playground in the world, if also the most dangerous.

The Samhain festival was in the same part of the desert every year. There were cab UTVs that would shuttle humans and magics that couldn’t run the terrain from the parking areas to the festival. I could hear their engines racing across the sand and brush. There was one about fifty feet from where Mira ultimately parked, waiting to pick up a group of people.

We exited the truck. I could see a fire off in the mountainous distance that marked the front of the festival.

“Are you okay to run?” I asked Annie. “I can take you if not.”

“No, I’m—”

Mira interrupted her. “Annie, you ain’t fully healed. Get on Sloane.”

Annie scowled but she didn’t argue. She climbed on my back.

Mira climbed up onto Bell, and Mikko on Mickey.

“Let’s roll,” I said.

And we were off.

The closer we got, the more I realized that the fire I had seen from afar was a bit larger than I anticipated.

“Did they set a house on fire?” Annie asked as she got off my back.

“Is that . . . the Wicked Witch of the East’s house?” Mira asked. She looked windswept, but a quick run of her fingers through her hair fixed that.

I stared at the fire.

“It is,” Mickey said after a moment.

They were right. The kindling for the fire appeared to be a house. And there were sparkling red shoes sticking out from under it, slowly being consumed by the fire that engulfed them.

“Last year they did that fire scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, including carved wooden status of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery,” Mikko said, fixing his hair from our journey. It made me check to make sure my hair was still in place.

I looked out over the festival. It was early, but it was already busy. Hundreds of people were spread out over a mile across my field of vision. Men, women, animals, faeries, rainbows, shadows, and too many other things to even begin to try and describe. I could see the Unseelie queen sitting on a throne of pure ice.

Shifters and vampires talked to each other without trying to kill each other. Mages practiced their magic freely, things flying around. I saw some kids working on lifting up a boulder together. Leprechauns argued with nymphs, sylphs talked to maenads, and in the flames, I could see salamanders swimming. Creatures floated through the air and stalked along the sand.

There were tables upon tables of food, drinks, and things I couldn’t begin to identify. Different creatures milled around the food, paper plates bending under the strain of their loads. The sound of tuning instruments floated from somewhere in the crowd.

I didn’t see anyone I recognized. I couldn’t feel Ilona’s cold presence, meaning she wasn’t here yet. Or, at least, not close enough to feel.

“The dancing is about to begin,” Mikko said, interrupting my scan.

I looked to seem him pointing off to where a stage had been erected on the other side of the fire, filled with musicians. There were traditional instruments from all over the world—Guqins, erhus, bongos, Veenas, drums, and . I had always liked to go up after the dancing to talk to the musicians and ask about their instruments. Erhus, the two stringed Chinese fiddles, were so cool to me. The bow sat between the strings.

Behind the traditional instruments, as always, sat a modern-day rock band. They were complete with guitars, drums, keyboards, and a vocalist.

It was always a cool combination. The festival always mixed up traditional music with contemporary music.

A beautiful woman walked out onto the stage. “Places!” she called out. She had long black, blue, and green hair that flowed down a slender back. She wore a white silk dress interwoven with jewels and peacock feathers. The peacock queen. She was alone, the elephant queen likely one of the dancers.

A hush fell over the crowd and all that could be heard was the crackling of the fire.

The dancers darted out from beside the stage, each one in a different colored outfit. Some were traditional clothes from different cultures, most of which I didn’t recognize. Men and women of all races and colors filled the crowd of dancers. They moved in concert to surround the fire.

A single drumbeat started the dance.

Because there were only a few weeks to practice every year, the choreographers always made the dance as simple as possible. Which meant they spent about six months out of the year planning it. I knew from experience that the choreography that went into this dance was insane.

But you wouldn’t know it to watch the dancers as the drums picked up. The movements of dozens of cultures echoed through the dance. Some moved as if their goal was to touch the sand as infrequently as possible. Others moved as if they wanted to bury themselves into the ground.

Mira’s grandmother used to be a known dancer for the festival and when her granddaughter began to attend the festival with her, she was included in the dances as well. When I start to hang around, I was also invited to dance. As were all of us. Even Mikko had danced some years. I didn’t know if Frankie had ever been invited.

The thrill of watching the dance raced through my veins, my heart pulsing in time with the beat of the drum. The heat of the fire was dull on my skin, but it burned inside of me.

It was easy to forget why I was there.

But not for long.

I felt a cold gaze on me. It wasn’t Ilona but . . .

There.

Arachne was beautiful. A jaw that could cut glass and a long, down-turned nose. Black eyes beneath thick black eyebrows. Long black hair like obsidian down her back.

Her olive skin was tattooed with black spiders and spider webs. Her dress was white spider silk with an empire waistline cut to her knees to reveal endless legs.

I hadn’t seen her since I had broken up with her almost four years ago. And seeing her now as an adult was unnerving. When I had been with her, she’d had the body and mindset of a teenager.

Her gaze on me was intense but I met it. I wouldn’t let her . . . cow me? I don’t know. I wasn’t going to be the type of person who was afraid of their exes.

A moment passed before I leaned toward Mickey. “Can you stand a bit in front of me?”

Mickey glanced at me, raising an eyebrow. I shook my head. “I’ll tell you later.”

He shrugged and took a step forward. I guided him and let him block Arachne from my sight. It was a blessed relief.

Mickey remained where he was, and we watched the dancing until the drumming stopped. With that, the dancing came to a close. Cheers erupted from the audience, and a swarm of onlookers overtook the dancers. Friends and family congratulated them on a job well done.

Throughout the dance, I had scanned the crowd, searching for anyone linking back to Ilona. But she was still in the wind. The only stare I felt during the dance was Arachne’s.

“I’m gonna find Corvine,” I told Mira. “See if she’s seen anything.”

“I’m going to Hazel’s contingent. I’ll ask around, too,” she replied.

“Thanks.”

I disappeared into the crowd with a tail. Mickey and Bell were following me everywhere until we finally found Ilona.

It wasn’t hard to find Corvine. I just had to search for the goth, brooding shifters that always trailed her at the festivals. Some of them were ravens and crows, I was sure, but most of them just came for the aesthetic.

I saw the occasional corvae, similar in stature to Korbin, with dark shiny skin and claws for legs and giant bird skull hats.

Corvine sat in a black throne. It was shiny with lacquer and filled with feathers. Corvine had told me once that the throne was made of dead crows. I honestly wasn’t sure if she was serious or not.

Korbin stood next to her, surveying the festival. When he caught sight of me, he nodded to me. Corvine looked up.

“What, did you get bodyguard detail, Korbin?” I asked once I stood in front of Corvine’s disturbing throne. Mickey and Bell stood behind me, looking around Corvine’s entourage in awe.

Korbin glanced at Corvine, and she waved her hand in a motion telling him she didn’t care if he spoke.

“I am her Majesty’s military general,” he said.

I paused for a second, surprised. It only last for a second because, “Of course you are. Corvine, you were watching me after I saw you in the bar, weren’t you?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You knew. When you came to see me in Minnesota, you knew things were going to hell. That’s why Korbin was the one I found when I needed you the other night.”

“I was aware some strange things were happening down here,” Corvine shrugged. “I thought having a reminder of my debt would help you. And I hear you have everything resolved.”

She was right. Had Corvine not contacted me, I don’t think I would have thought to call her favor. “Not quite.”

She tilted her head to the side in a silent question.

“My sire would like a word.”

She grimaced. “Well, ideally, that should be helpful.” She pointed to my neck.

It took me a second to realize she meant my necklace. I touched it absently. “You know what this is?”

“It’s hard to mistake soulsilver for anything else.” She nodded to Mickey and Bell. “Wherever you all got yours, you’re very lucky. Soulsilver is rare.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“It had many uses, but it’s foremost use is as a weapon. It’s made with a type of magic called metaphysiomancy. And it is usually only made by elves.”

“Usually?”

She paused for a moment, mulling over her answer before saying, “Or spirits. It’s uncommon, but it happens. And usually, once they’ve made it, they move on. Who made yours, Sloane?”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t want to talk about it.

Before she could continue, she tilted her head to look behind me. I followed her gaze, and my heart sank.

Arachne stood behind us, waiting. She regarded me coldly.

My time was up. “Corvine,” I said, “have you seen my sire or his sire?”

She shook her head. “If she’s here for you, I have not heard anything or seen anything.”

“Thanks. See you.”

Korbin bowed his head to me. I turned back and gave Arachne a wide berth as I headed back to the bonfire.

As I passed her, I could have sworn I heard her say, “We aren’t finished.”

I looked back at her, startled, but she wasn’t looking at me. She was walking towards Corvine.

“Did you hear that?” Bell muttered in my ear as we left.

I nodded.

“Was that Arachne?” Mickey asked.

I nodded again.

“Fantastic.”

Their stomachs groaned in tandem, and I jumped at something else to focus on. “You hungry?”

“Always,” Bell replied.

“Let’s set up somewhere close to a food table.”

There was a rule at Samhain that any offered food couldn’t have any obligation attached to it. The stereotype of the Fey offering food and using it as a way to trap someone wasn’t just a story. But here, all food was to be free and plentiful during Samhain.

I explained this to Mickey and Bell while still urging them away from the Fey food. They made me uncomfortable. Especially the faerie with sunset-colored hair that was eyeing me as we approached and passed their food.

We found Mira eating from a table from the elf contingent. The food on her plate was all weird-looking fruits and vegetables made into pastas, kebabs, and salads. She was facing the bonfire, watching more people dance.

“Any luck?” I asked, as Mickey and Bell made their way, picking through the elf food.

“No,” she shook her head. “Hazel didn’t know where Ilona is. She said she would keep an eye out for her. Said she would let me know. She also asked to meet you if you get the time.”

“Nope. Enough meetings with vampires today.”

“I thought so, but I told her I would let you know.”

“Thanks.”

“Here.” Mira held out an edge of her plate to me. There were four red berries on it.

“What are they?”

“I don’t know, but they’re gross. They taste like blood.”

I raised an eyebrow and picked one up. I popped it into my mouth and bit down.

Warm, juicy copper burst in my mouth. I chewed and swallowed before grabbing the others. “This is amazing!”

She shuddered. “No. Ew.”

I shrugged, finishing off the remaining berries and looking out at the bonfire.

“What’s wrong?” she asked after a moment of silence. “Seems like more than Ilona.”

I shrugged. “I saw Arachne.”

“When it rains, it pours.”

“Yeah. It does.” I took a step back and hit something solid that made a deep noise of annoyance.

I turned and saw a tall man with white hair. It took me a second to recognize him as the man that had helped me outside of the Swanskin’s in Albuquerque.

“Watch it, vampire,” he growled.

I started to respond, but Mira interrupted. Sloane.

Mira didn’t say anything out loud, she just nodded to the man who had stopped to glare at me.

“Sorry,” I said without any feeling.

He eyed me for a second. Then he said, “You’re that bloodsucker from Albuquerque.”

“So nice of you to remember.” I smiled at him without any warmth.

“You’re bad at keeping out of trouble,” he said. Then he turned from me and continued on his way. He looked like a middle-aged man, but he was spry and quick as he moved.

“You know him?” Mira asked.

“I told you about that fight in Albuquerque. He was the guy who helped. Why did you stop me?”

“I thought he’d hurt you.”

“Why?”

“That was Frost, the vampire hunter.”

I stared at her. “That was who, the what?”

“You heard me.”

My eyebrows went up. Frost was a famous vampire hunter, up there with Zero and Theron.

“Why the hell did he help me in Albuquerque then?”

“Search me,” she said. “He should have let those dogs kill you dead.”

She wasn’t wrong.

“Where the fuck is the meat?” Bell growled as he returned to us with Mickey. His plate was sparse with some pasta and salad. He also had some of those red berries that Mira had given me.

I reached over to pluck the berries off his plate, but he smacked my hand. “Just because I’m complaining, doesn’t mean I don’t want it.”

“I doubt you want those.”

He sneered at me, grabbing three off the plate and throwing them in his mouth. As he bit down, I saw the immediate regret. He spit them out. “Ew, what the fuck?”

I took the rest of them off his plate and ate them. The relief was so similar to what I felt with blood. What the hell were these things?

Mickey handed me all the berries he had without any fanfare.

“Not going to try them?”

“Don’t need to know why it’s gross, just that it’s gross.” He had a lot more food on his plate and was going to town on bow tie pasta with the green strings of some vegetable mixed in.

I ate the rest of the berries. Mira had been kind enough to go to Lazarus to get me some blood when Lunette never came back with it. I was okay on blood, but these were great.

Movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention. I looked up to see a blonde man in his mid-thirties. He looked familiar.

As he got closer, it was clear he was headed for me.

It was Carrick, I realized with a start. All of the heat drained from my body, and I felt cold. I swallowed my last berry, my tongue turning to sand.

“Sloane,” he said, nodding to me. His voice was tight.

“Carrick . . . is she here?”

He nodded. I noticed a vein jumping in his jaw as he did. He didn’t seem to want to be here anymore than I wanted him to be.

“She has requested your presence. I assume you got her note.”

My fists clenched and for the first time since I had gotten her note, I felt anger. It wasn’t hot enough to overcome the cold fear in my body, but it was there. I hated fear. It was a reminder of being powerless.

Anger, I could do.

“What does she want?” I demanded.

“Just to talk,” he lied.

“Bullshit. I know how she likes to treat her children. And I know she hates me.” I had felt it the night I had met her for the first time. The seething, furious hatred.

He stood up straighter. “You’re calling me a liar?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely. You and your fucking sire.”

He bared his teeth at me. His canines were just a little too sharp, and his blue eyes flashed to a metallic cobalt for a second. “I will not take disrespect—”

“Or you’ll fucking what, Carrick? We’re at the Samhain festival. Neutral. Ground. Especially for someone as old as you.”

He gritted his teeth, but he didn’t continue his threat. “I would suggest you follow me back to Ilona. Otherwise, when the festival is over, the consequences will be worse than you can imagine.”

I glanced at Mira. Her expression had iced over.

“The psychic and your . . . wolves . . . are not invited,” Carrick said. He made sure to emphasize his disgust when he said “wolves”.

That’s fine, Mira replied in my head. We’ll be there. Fucker thinks he’s too old for me to see into his head.

I didn’t react to Mira. I just said, “Fine.”

Neither Mickey nor Bell reacted with protests, which made me think that Mira was in their heads, too.

Carrick turned from me and led the way. I followed him, glancing at Mira, Mickey, and Bell. I saw Mickey already had green flames licking at his hair. But otherwise, they didn’t make a move to follow me.

I followed Carrick through the crowds, passing the different entourages of various magics—bestia, mages, Fey, shifters; they were all here.

He led me through all of these until the entourages thinned and all that was left were couples and families sitting on towels, eating food from the overflowing tables inside the festival.

Finally, I felt her cold, cruel presence. I couldn’t see her, but I knew it was close.

We rounded a rock formation and I finally met Ilona for the first time in months.

Karhi, Lunette, Carry, Onyx, and Zeren were standing off to the side. Not a single one of them met my eyes. Not even Karhi. Their attention was rapt on Ilona.

She’s forcing them to do that, I thought. They can’t look at me.

And on either side of Ilona were Ava and Angus. When they saw me, their faces cracked into cold, cruel smiles.

Cold seeped down my back, like someone had cracked an egg over my head. I hadn’t thought that Ilona would have these two here. I would have thought she’d do the dirty work herself.

“You,” I whispered, staring at them.

“Honestly, didn’t expect tae see ye here again, lassie,” Angus said, stepping forwards. But he stopped, glancing back at Ilona. “Sorry,” he said. He moved back to where he had been standing. “I thought ye wanted me tae—”

“I don’t want you to do anything, Angus. You or your sister.” Ilona’s voice was like she had put a chalkboard against my back and scratched her nails down it. I felt that awful, awful sound inside of my bones.

He pouted, but he stayed put.

Ilona took a step forward to meet me.

“Sloane. How nice to see you again,” she smiled.

Nausea welled up in my stomach at her smile. The heavy pressure of her cold presence against me made me want to run and find somewhere to throw up.

“You haven’t come to visit me,” she murmured. Her tone was lifeless.

I felt her emotions inside of me like they were my own. Her fury was a pit in my stomach, weighing me down, trying to break me from the inside. I never felt Karhi like this. He was always a soft presence in the back of my head.

Ilona was visceral. She knew how to make her children feel.

Fire tore across my chest, eating through my skin and down my abdomen. I shrieked in pain, dropping to the ground.

The pain disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. I was face down in the sand. I heard Ilona say, “Get up.”

Almost without telling my body, I got up. I looked up at Ilona wildly. She had used my own impulse to stand and rode it to make me move faster.

She was so much worse than I had ever thought. Every fear I had ever had of her, everything I had thought she was—it was so much worse. The anger I had felt earlier, when I was talking to Carrick, it was gone. Gone and replaced with cold, all-consuming fear.

Ilona was a Copier. She copied other vampires’ powers. That paired with her mind control made my hands shake. My mouth was like sandpaper.

“My children came to visit me. I even requested you. And yet you didn’t show up. After I was so gracious and allowed you to take up Karhi’s time for so long.” Her tone wasn’t even anymore. There was a volatility in it. And it, ever so slightly, seemed to vary when she spoke of Karhi. She was angry that I had taken Karhi.

But how was that my fault? It was vampire law that a sire was to stay with their fledgling until their year mark. It was required. How was any of that my fault?

Helplessness threatened to give way to tears. But I fought them. I wouldn’t cry in front of her.

“Why haven’t you come to visit me?” she asked.

Everything inside of me wanted to apologize. Everything wanted to beg for her forgiveness.

But I had never been one to beg. “My family needed me.”

The ice in her eyes grew colder if that was even possible. I could feel it like liquid nitrogen against my psyche. It was painful.

“Yes,” she said. “Family. Tell me, Sloane, you were friends with the White Psychic since before you were turned.”

“We lost touch.” I needed to stop talking. I knew I needed to stop talking.

“But you knew her? Growing up?”

“Yeah.” I couldn’t stop talking. Because I wasn’t the one really answering. She was forcing me to talk.

“And you didn’t think to tell me,” she said. “She only received the contract with Hazel two months ago. So, I could have had a contract with her before that. I could have had the White Psychic.”

“She’s not property,” I growled.

I saw a flicker of surprise flash across her face. She hadn’t controlled that answer.

She regained her composure quickly. The anger didn’t fade from her eyes. But that anger kindled an answering fire in me.

Why did she get to do this?

“Your insolence,” Ilona said, green eyes glowing, “is growing tiresome. But this? This is treacherous.”

“Treacherous?” The anger burned against my neck. It was like fire to steel. I could feel my resolve strengthening. The fear was waning.

“You are my fledgling, under my control. You are loyal to no other, and yet you keep this from me? You knew who she was, and you said nothing? You allowed Hazel to control her before me?”

“And yet you still hit her with a car and sent her to the hospital. I can only imagine what it would have been like if you’d actually contracted with her.”

There was no surprise this time at my answer. Instead, she smiled. “I didn’t know she was there. It was an accident.”

I could feel that she was telling the truth. I could also feel that she didn’t regret it. “But you sure as shit didn’t try to help her.”

She smiled even though her next words didn’t match her tone or face. It didn’t even sound like it was part of the same conversation because she didn’t address what I had just said. “And then, you have this connection to one of the bestia. You are mine. You shall use no such connection without my permission. You won’t use it to save another whelp.”

I blinked. Something in the way she had said that . . . it sounded like she sounded when she was angry about my distracting Karhi. As if I was taking away a toy.

“It was you,” I said, my voice so low I could hardly hear it myself.

I had figured it out with my subconscious but hearing her say it made it so much more real. She had taken Mikko and tortured him. For no reason.

“I knew that if I came after your family, it would lure you here,” she said. “Consider it a taste of the punishment I have planned for you.”

“Did you hurt Annie, too?”

“Who?” she said. “Oh, that halfborn shifter? No, it looks like someone got to her before me.”

I ignored the slur. I had suspected the answer was no. It wasn’t cruel enough. But I couldn’t dwell on it now.

“Did you kill Genie and Frankie’s parents, too?”

“I did not,” she said. She looked at Angus. “I believe that was mostly you.”

“I cannot take all the credit,” he smiled, the angle of his lips razor sharp.

“I dismembered them,” Ava nodded, looking at Ilona.

I gnashed my teeth together. “Why?”

“I told you,” Ilona said. “I wanted your attention. I wanted you to have a taste of what I was going to do to you.” She stepped forward until we were inches from each other. I felt her cold fury against the heat of mine. “I will teach you to respect me.”

I stepped away from her advance. “Respect me,” I mimicked her without even pausing to think.

“Sloane!” Karhi shouted, stepping towards us.

Ilona spun on him. He froze where he was standing. “I forbade you from speaking to her,” she hissed.

The heat in my neck started to spread. “You did what?”

She spun back to face me. “You don’t question me,” she snarled. “I am your master. You will obey me.” She stepped closer.

“I obey no one,” I roared back. “You think you fucking scare me?”

Without warning, my knees buckled, and I knelt into the sand before Ilona. It left me level with her chest.

She reached forward, grabbing my face and forcing me to look up at her. It hurt, but I didn’t give her the satisfaction of voicing the pain. “I think that I scare you a lot,” she purred. “And your attempts to prove otherwise are childish and pathetic.” She let go of me, a sparkle of pleasure in her inhuman emerald eyes. She was having fun.

“You came after my family to get to me. You’re a fucking coward.” I spat at her feet.

The glint of pleasure disappeared, her beautiful face contorting into a horrifying mockery of humanity. “Take her,” she growled at Angus and Ava.

“With pleasure,” Angus grinned, darting forward. He grabbed me by my hair and yanked back.

I shrieked, reaching for my hair. I tried to claw at his hands, but he slapped me so hard that I saw stars.

Fear threatened to consume me, images of my own death flashing through my head. Angus and Ava had torn me apart before. They would do it again.

Where was Mira? Bell? Mickey? Why weren’t they here yet?

Tears threatened to overwhelm me, and I screamed. Not again.

“Stop whining,” Ilona snapped. “You would be so lucky to be their victim. They would just kill you. I will do much worse.”

And then I couldn’t scream anymore. I couldn’t move. The only thing I could do was lay there as Angus dragged me across the sand by my hair.

Who the fuck does she think she is?

I didn’t know where that thought came from. It startled me.

You said you wanted to use that fire on her. What are you waiting for? She’s trying to take us away from our familyagain. She’s trying to take everything from us. Why are you so fucking scared? Why aren’t you angry? Why aren’t you fighting back?

Why wasn’t I fighting back? Why was I . . .

Ilona could get in my head. She could stoke emotions she wanted and push away ones she didn’t.

Fear served her. It made me compliant.

Anger didn’t serve her.

Fury, stronger than anything I had felt that night, erupted inside of me. Who the fuck was she to force me into submission? To force me into compliance?

She had killed Genie and Frankie’s parents. She had tortured Mikko. She had me torn apart.

She had her own children, people who I had come to develop a fondness for, watching this. She was making them watch, and they couldn’t do a fucking thing.

She had tried to break me. And she wouldn’t stop here.

She would make sure everyone suffered.

No.

Angus screamed, and the pressure on my head disappeared. The lock that Ilona had on my body broke.

And I could move.

I rolled to my feet and came up in time to see green flames devouring Angus. Where he had held me, his hand was just bones. And the flames were continuing to eat him. He screamed for them to stop.

This was the power Bell and Mickey had tried to explain to me. Soulfire. I felt it, anger and magic coursing through my veins, pulsing in time with my heartbeat. It was warm and comfortable. It fit me like an old, cozy sweater.

Ava watched her brother burn with wide eyes and I darted for her, grabbing her and pushing the flames forth.

She screamed as the soulfire consumed her arm and spread up her body.

I turned from them to Ilona. I could see the green flames flickering in my peripheries. They ran up and down my body and splashed out on the ground like a long dress. They followed me perfectly as I moved.

Ilona’s mouth hung open in shock, my green flames flickering in the reflection of her eyes. She seemed rooted to the spot. “How . . . how . . .” Her eyes narrowed and she reached out to me with a hand.

I felt her will against me, but it was like waves on a rocky shore. Over years, maybe she could wear me down, but right now? She was nothing.

I flicked my hand towards her, and a column of green flames shot out at her.

A blur knocked into her, just avoiding the flames.

It was Carrick. He had protected her.

“Loyal lapdog,” I growled. “Carrick—how much of what happened in the past few weeks was under your direction?”

He bared his teeth at me. “I haven’t been around. She did this on her own. Sloane don’t do this. Killing her would mean—”

“I don’t give a shit,” I snarled. “I don’t care what effect it would have on anything. She has spent a thousand years torturing people because she thought it was fun. She was going to do it to me just because she didn’t like that I took away her toy.” I looked over to Karhi. He watched us with wide eyes. “People aren’t fucking toys.”

“Carrick!” Ilona screamed, shoving him to the side. “You do not speak for me. I won’t let this little bitch—”

Green flames erupted where Ilona stood, and she screamed. The flames ate away at her feet and climbed up her body, laying waste to any flesh in its way.

“What is going on?”

I looked up into deep blue penetrating eyes. They towered over me by at least a foot.

I felt the fire extinguish as my anger suddenly cooled.

A pale man with straight corn silk hair that fell to his waist stood over me. A delicate silver crown with a center deep blue stone that matched his eyes held his hair from his face. Long, pointed ears emerged from beneath his hair. He wore long white robes accented with blue that complimented his eyes and the crown.

A gasping voice rasped, “K-King Al-Alaric. Sh-she broke th-the Samhain covenant.”

I spun to see that Ilona was still alive. The flesh was gone from her legs and arms, leaving only sinew and bone, but she was still alive. My green flames had extinguished just short of her vital organs.

Angus and Ava had not been so lucky. Only bones lay where they had once stood.

But Ilona was bleeding so much that the point may have been moot soon enough anyway.

“I see that.” The man—King Alaric—look down at me. “Do you have an explanation?”

“I’m nineteen, and she was going to kidnap me and torture me.”

King Alaric blinked. I got the feeling that I had caught him off guard. I also got the feeling that this wasn’t a common occurrence.

He looked up at everyone else who wasn’t half dead. “Is this true?”

Except Ilona and Carrick, all of the Emelyns nodded their heads.

“Nineteen?” Ilona croaked.

“So was Mikko, you fucking bitch,” I snarled. I lunged but a firm hand on my shoulder kept me from moving forward. I looked up to see that Alaric held onto me.A soothing, mild chill soaked into my skin from his hand.

I realized he was calming me. What the hell was this guy? He had extinguished my flames by calming me, too.

“Sloane!”

I looked up to see Mira, Bell, and Mickey running towards us.

“Where the fuck have you been?” I demanded.

“Enough,” Alaric said. “I will deal with Ilona. Is she your sire?”

I shook my head. I found myself pointing at Karhi before I knew what I was doing.

“Karhi,” he said. “You and your fledgling are to go talk to the committee.”

Karhi nodded. And then looked surprised that he had nodded.

Ilona didn’t have control anymore.

“Go,” Alaric said.