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“Well, shit.” I flinched at the swear word after just thinking of the Perchten, but seriously. “One mega distraction coming right up, whether we want it to or not.”

Before I could settle on a plan of attack, Josie enacted hers, unleashing her pent-up hurt and rage.

Thorny vines shot from the house, snapping at Ankou like whips, drawing blood where they landed hits. She sent one length to wrap his ankle, snatching him into the air, dangling him upside down over Kierce.

“Josie, baby, you’ve got it all wrong.” Ankou morphed into Armie before our eyes. “I’m on your side.”

“You’re on your own side.” She used another vine, lengthening its thorns until they stretched longer than my palm, and whipped his ass with them. “How dare you show your ugly face around here?”

“You liked my face just fine when you were sitting on it,” he yelled, his voice high-pitched as he writhed to escape. “Fucking hell, woman. Quit spanking me. You know that’s not my kink.”

“Keep talking, and I’ll show you the true meaning of kink.” Her voice dripped with malicious glee. “Tentacle porn ring any bells for you? How would you like to experience it for yourself?”

While Josie did a bang-up job of distracting everyone, I hatched a plan to get my one-on-one with Kierce.

Using a fresh lancet from my bag, I pricked my finger and smeared blood up my forearm, over the likeness of Badb. The summoning token hadn’t worked for a while, but Kierce was recovered now.

“Come on,” I chanted under my breath, massaging in the blood. “Work.”

Almost a full minute later, after my heart already accepted defeat, Kierce appeared a foot in front of me.

“You have to get out of here.” He balled his fists, concentrating his powers, but he refused to unleash the blow that would no doubt ring my bell. “I don’t know how long I can control myself.”

“What will it take to end this?” I surged to my feet. “What can I do?—?”

“You stole from him.” His eyes gleamed brighter, almost manic. “You violated the sanctity of his home.”

Fury kindling in my chest, I growled at him, “He almost killed my brother.”

“He can’t afford to be seen as weak. Now more than ever. He won’t let this go. He won’t letyougo.”

As much as I didn’t want to believe Kierce would ever hurt me, the way he fought every step closer, his muscles straining, told me he was losing the battle. And the magic wreathing his hands had only grown.

“Good work.” The shifter, probably, loped up behind Kierce. “You found her.”

Too focused on me, he failed to notice Anunit manifest her physical form. Her smile was beatific when she lunged at him.

A beast tore out of his skin the second her paws touched his chest, some fantastical melding of tiger and lion, and then there were two massive creatures wrestling for dominance.

Those poor ornamental shrubs behind me would never be the same after this.

“It’s harder to control myself this close to you.” Kierce gritted out the warning, his eyes holding a plea for me to run far away from here. From him. “I don’t know how long I can hold myself back.”

Though I meant to ask him how to fix this, all that came out was his name. “Kierce?—”

“You really do like living dangerously.” Pencil Wand strolled up next to Kierce, magic a hum in the air, looking me over like he couldn’t see the appeal. “His god’s got him by the balls. He can’t deny a direct order, and he was ordered to kill you. You’re wasting your breath—and the time you have left to live—by standing there staring at him.”

“This isn’t your fault, Kierce.” I swallowed a lump in my throat. “I don’t blame you.”

“Still not running? Bold choice.” Pencil Wand laughed. “I didn’t think the Alcheyvaha guardian would be quite this stupid, but they’re extinct for a reason, I suppose.”

“Watch your mouth,” Kierce rumbled, and lightning struck an inch from Pencil Wand’s foot.

“The old gods are starving, Viduus. They’re withering away. You know this. Now she’s cut them off from the one source that’s kept them from an all-out war with one another.” He slid his gaze toward me. “His god set him in your path for a reason, whether he knew his purpose at the time or not. Don’t romanticize him. He’s an empty shell to be filled with his god’s will. That’s it. That’s all any of us are.”

“You’re wrong.”

“You don’t know how much I wish that was the case.”