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“Remind me not to piss you off,” he muttered.

“Too late,” she said, careful not to look at what remained of the ogre’s head and swallowing back bile.

He cleared his throat. “Now what?”

“We try again.” She wiped back the remnants of blood beneath her nose with the back of a sleeve.

There was no other choice. Not for her. Not when it came to her family.

Before she could summon the shadows, two more ogres appeared before the tear in the ward, their single eyes narrowing—as though they could sense her and the erox behind his cloak of invisibility.

Slowly, she sought out the darkness beneath her feet, coaxing it out of the ground. The shadows resisted her at first, feeling like they were vexed with her. When they slowly acquiesced and extended out around her, she realized the ogres weren’t looking at her but something behind her. Breckett must have realized it at the same time because they turned around together, careful to keep a point of connection between them.

What she saw took her breath away.

A fae warrior with wings the color of midnight descended from the sky, ripping through the daylight and bringing starlight upon the land. Power thickened the air, leaving a faint humming on the wind. The ward opened willingly for him as he flew down. His wings stretched out on either side of him and were twice his massive height. He landed on the ground behind her with unmatched grace, a sword in a fist. It was then she noticed a faint shimmer of colors on what she’d initially thought was pitch-black wings of countless feathers.

When he looked up, his eyes weren’t the deep brown she’d expected but glowed a dark blue.

The color of the Twilight Court.

“Prince Hadeon,” she said as she released Breckett’s hand. The invisibility cloak fell from them as her vision cleared. “What are you?—”

Before she could finish, the fae swept his arm forward, and the ogres that had pushed through the opening in the ward instantly evaporated. There was a trail of dark blue dust in the air, and then… nothing.

As though they had never existed.

In another sweep of his arms, there was a plume of blue magic that stretched out into the air and latched on to the tear in the ward. Slowly, the magic pulled the sides of the tear inward before the ward slowly started mending itself back together.

Belatedly, she closed her gaping mouth.

So much power.

She knew the fae were powerful, and from their brief interactions in the Twilight Court, she knew Hadeon was especially so. But it was one thing to sense a wielder’s ability and another to see it before her eyes.

The prince lowered his arm, and his eyes fastened on hers, shimmering faintly as though laced with starlight.

“You have ogres on your doorstep.”

Chapter Four

ARABELLA

Arabella rolled her eyes at the fae prince. “Oh really? I hadn’t noticed.”

The body of the ogre she’d killed lay lifeless on the ground a few feet away from them, minus half its head. Dark blood pooled in the grass. The strange blue dust that had been the other two ogres hovered in the air before being swept away over the lake in a gust of wind.

Hadeon raised a brow, studying her with his midnight-blue eyes.

The fae prince had olive skin, short black hair, and his face was clean shaven. He was taller than Arabella, and his wingspan was wider than his height. His physical presence was nearly overwhelming at the size of him, let alone the assault on her senses as she felt the sheer power of his magic.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as she spared a glance toward the castle where she’d last seen the other enchantresses.

They were nowhere in sight.

Please be okay,she thought.

“I’ve come for my favor,” Hadeon said, interrupting her thoughts.