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“Shit!” I said loudly and then screamed again as I fell.

Hisser was rolling in pain and thrashing his coils now. One of them rolled hard against me and sent me sailing toward a stone wall of the cave. In my panic, I struck out at the wall with the dagger. The weapon sizzled as it sank into solid rock. Still screaming, I slid down to the floor leaving a melted gash.

I yanked the dagger free of the wall and stared at it in shock. Melted rock dripped off the blade. “Thank you,” I whispered.

Then I heard the portal crackle again and I looked wildly around for my child. I saw Fiona yelling at a stranger while the still struggling portal closed behind him.

A few feet away from Fiona and the stranger, Ezra and his energy sword had been frozen in place. His hand and weapon were poised in front of him—poised as I last saw him leaning toward my daughter with full intentions of killing her.

Freezing a person was something I’d only seen Rasmus and Zara do. That thought filled me with dread about who the stranger was.

I shook my head at the chaos. I’d wanted help to fight but this didn’t feel very helpful. Part of me knew that was unreasonable since both Hisser and Ezra could have killed me and I was damn lucky they hadn’t.

Hisser wasn’t able to use his fangs now. I’d split his mouth and the muscles between his fangs. In a great deal of pain, he continued his distracting thrashing. It took me a few moments to tune Hisser out enough to listen to Fiona’s ranting.

“Never do that again.You could have flown us here, you big idiot,” she yelled.

“You can’t fly into a cave, woman. Use your brain,” he ordered.

“Cretin!” she yelled.

“Wimp,” he replied calmly.

Fiona muttered more under her breath but I didn’t take in what she was complaining about. The loud, painful hissing and the adrenalin from fighting for my life had my ears ringing.

Over the ringing, though, I heard the stranger laughing at my daughter’s fussing the same way I often did. The man looked older than Fiona, but the lustful look he gave her was in no way familial. I could only imagine what she’d said to him that I hadn’t heard. My eyebrows shot up when she blushed and stomped her foot.

Then she turned and saw me.

“Mom!” she yelled, making me wince enough to grab my ringing ears.

My daughter ran over to me arms out to hug but then stopped abruptly a few feet away.

“What kind of outfit are you wearing? Snakeskin does not suit a short woman. It makes your hips look big. And you’re covered in ashes and stinky goo. Mother, youneeda shower.” Reaching out, Fiona pulled something out of what was left of my hair. It had been caught in a curl. “Eww...is this someone’s finger?The nail has a pentagram on it.”

She promptly dropped the finger on the floor and squealed. “Gross, gross, gross,” she chanted, wiping her hands on her jeans.

My brain abruptly hit the reality that both Fiona and I were still alive and I laughed. I reached behind me, shoved the dagger in the back of my jeans, and threw my arms around my protesting child. Despite her size, I proved to be much stronger. I swung her around, laughing like an idiot the whole time.

She hadn’t figured out that she’d saved me yet. But then it hadn’t been her, had it?

I glanced over at Fiona’s companion who was watching me with a grin on his face.

“Put me down.Mother, put me down, right now!There will be no more touching until you wash all the dead people out of your hair.”

I lowered her to the floor but my smile stayed in place. “Thank ya for the help, daughter. Hang on while I finish my job. I have to free Conn and Mulan. I’ll only be a few minutes.”

I pulled the dagger the Dagda stone gave me from my belt and turned toward Hisser. Then I discovered I couldn’t move my feet.

“Sorry, but I can’t let you kill him. Not while I’m around,” the stranger said, sighing with obvious reluctance to stop me.

“I appreciate yer help, stranger, but this isn’t yer fight.”

“It is now, and I totally blame your daughter for that,” he said.

Held in place by stronger magick than the constraint spell I liked to use, I looked at Fiona, who I could see revving up to fuss at him over stopping me.

Shouldn’t I be panicking again? Oddly, all I felt was a weird kind of relief.