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“We can thaw her, Arbitrator, but ya’re not going to like what ya discover.”

The female fairy arched one eyebrow. I motioned to Mulan. She came over and stood next to me. We both put our hands on the staff. I held out Ben’s talisman in my hand.

Mulan drew in a breath and chanted. The wind rose from nowhere until it whipped our hair. I kept a firm grip on Conn’s mantle to keep it from responding to Mulan. We needed the boost of me wearing it because the nagging nausea had weakened her.

The magick covering the fairy in the cage drained away one grain at a time and floated to my hand, where it got absorbed by the talisman. When it was done, I had to catch Mulan before she fell.

“Easy now,” I said to her.

“I am good partner,” she tiredly declared.

“Ya’re the best,” I said.

Rasmus rushed to us and lifted her into his arms.

“Put her in our bed to rest,” I told him.

Princess Lulutha studied the woman in the cage. She was nearly a mirror image of herself. What set her apart was the look in her eyes but not much else. “Dreama? Why would you do this? Murder is a crime.”

“Because Ezra is right, sister. Humans should be our servants. Instead, you serve them like a sheep. They are not our equals.”

Lulutha stepped back and stared in shock at her two caged siblings. “This has been a very illuminating and thoroughly dreadful day. Our parents warned me many times that punishing family was one of the hardest things a ruler ever had to do.”

She removed a weapon from her back and shot her two siblings. Both fell inside their cages.

I looked at them and sighed. “Did ya kill them?”

“No,” Lulutha said. “But when they wake, both will wish they were dead.”

She bowed to me and then looked at Murray. “Will you assist me in taking them home, cousin? I have to return and make sure my brother’s kill-for-power contract is no longer active.”

“I gave ya my word I would help ya no matter how mad yer parents get over yer siblings. But ya’re going to owe me some fairy mead when it’s done.”

“Deal,” Lulutha said. “I’m going to need some as well. My baby sister grew up to look just like me. I guess I should have gone home more often.”

“Let’s get this over with. There’s mead waiting. Lead the way, Princess. Lead the way.”

Each fairy grabbed a cage and disappeared with it.

Resealing the wards against all the beings who’d come and gone was going to take over a week to accomplish. And this time, I would have no help.

Mulan was going to need to rest for the next eight and half months—give or take a few weeks. Her child seemed determined to make her miserable.

I sighed and let Conn’s mantle fade away. Rasmus walked to me and took me into his arms.

Hart and Jessing walked to us. “Princess Lulutha—the real one—will see that the contract is removed.”

“Will ya stay a bit longer?” I asked. “Having ya here makes me feel safer, especially with Conn and Mulan both feeling under the weather.”

“Staying will be like having a vacation in a fancy hotel,” Jessing said. “We will stay until they call us.”

“They won’t call us until we report that we’re done,” Hart said.

“Perfect,” Jessing said with a smile. “I want to see the ancient one turn a horse into a pegasus.”

It was over—or mostly over. Lulutha would let the Shadow Breakers know when it was completely done, and they would contact Ben.

Somehow, it had all worked out. I had killed no one, and I hadn’t died, either.