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Beneath the natty yellow bow tie, the butler’s throat worked. “Yes, miss.”

“This way.” She urged him back down the hall. “What’s in there?” She jerked her head at the door opposite the library.

“The prince’s bedroom.”

Behind her, she heard grunts and a crash. She shot a glance over her shoulder, but all she could see was the still unconscious wolf. If Langdon managed to get a message out to his guards, they were fucked.

“Open the door,” she snapped at Olivier, then waited impatiently as he turned the knob with agonizing slowness. “Inside.” She punctuated the order with a small shove. As she kicked the door shut behind them, her gaze lit on the sturdy four-poster bed. Perfect.

“Take off your belt.”

Olivier undid the buckle, slid the belt from its loops and handed it to her.

“Hands together.”

A pained expression crossed the butler’s broad face. “Is this necessary, miss?”

“Yes,” she snapped. “Now do it.”

His mouth thinned, but he presented his hands, palms together. Quickly, she wound the belt around his wrists a couple of times and then looped the rest around one of the bed’s thick black posts.

“It’s better this way,” she told him as she cinched the belt. “You can tell the prince you had no choice.”

His mouth lifted in a wry arc. “Next you’ll be saying I should thank you.”

Their eyes met. So the man had a sense of humor hidden behind that stone face.

“Sorry,” she said with a shrug and shot out the door.

Downstairs, the front door crashed open. She darted down the hall long enough to see what looked like an entire cadre of warriors pouring inside.

Langdon had gotten a message out.

She sprinted back to the library, slamming the door shut and turning the key.

The entire room was roiling with shadows. Luc was still unconscious, but Adric and Langdon were in another corner now. Langdon was bleeding from the torso and favoring the arm the wolf had savaged, but he looked better than Adric, who wavered drunkenly from side to side.

He had the dagger again. A quick glance at the floor told her the bat had disappeared.

Unfortunately, the dagger wasn’t doing Adric any good. He had it gripped in both hands but could barely keep the point turned up. Blood dripped from a gash in his temple, mixing with the gray powder streaking his face. He looked like a crazed clown.

He glanced at her, scowled. “You’re s’pposed…to be gone.”

She snatched the dagger from him. “Someone has to save your ass, cat.”

She advanced on Langdon. He faded back into the darkest shadow—and disappeared.

With a frustrated growl, she shoved the dagger into her pocket and ran her hands over the wall, just in case Langdon was still there. But the bastard was gone.

The warriors banged on the locked door, demanding entrance.

“Now what?” Adric asked Rosana with a lopsided smile.

“We get the hell out of here.”

“Sounds…like a…plan.” He walked several unsteady feet and sat down hard next to the wolf. He stroked his friend’s fur. “Luc?” When the other shifter didn’t move, Adric looked up at Rosana, a perplexed line between his eyes. “He’s hurt.”

“So are you.”

“Oh.” He touched his head and then stared at the blood on his fingers.

From across the hall, Olivier was shouting for help.

She gripped Adric’s shoulder. “We have to get out of here. The window.”

“’Kay.” He came onto his hands and knees and then just stayed there, staring at the floor as if he’d never seen marble before.

Outside the door, she heard Olivier explaining the situation to Langdon’s guards. There was short silence, and then a loud explosion shook the library.

Hellfire. They were using fae balls.

The door shuddered on its hinges, but the thick wood held. For now.

Rosana crouched next to Adric, trying to lift him up. But he was heavy, with a fada’s extra solid bones. She stifled a sob.

“Adric.” She tugged on his arm. “Get up, damn it. If they find us here, we’re dead.”

“Yeah.” He nodded sagely—and collapsed. She barely managed to catch him before his head hit the marble. She eased him the rest of the way down onto his stomach. He lay still, head turned to the side, blood seeping out of the wound.

“ No .” She pressed a fist to her mouth. What was she going to do now?

Next to him, Luc’s eyes fluttered open. He whined and nuzzled Adric’s shoulder.

The door shuddered with a second explosion, and then another.

Bang. Bang.

The hinges shrieked as they started to give.

She lurched into action, grabbing Adric’s wrists and dragged him toward the nearest window. Jerking the blind open, she ran her hands around the sash, frantically searching for a way to open it. But the window was one long oblong of glass with no latch that she could detect.

Giving up, she snatched up the poor, abused raven one last time and swung it as hard as she could at the center of the window. The glass didn’t even crack. Instead, she watched, incredulous, as the statue broke instead, its stone head careening sideways and almost landing on Adric.

The door broke from the wall and crashed to the floor.

She tossed the raven’s body aside and whipped out Adric’s dagger.

Five night fae stormed into the library.

One set a foot on Luc’s neck, stilling his weak, half-conscious movements, while the others surrounded her and the still-unconscious Adric.

She moved in front of him, dagger out. “Stay where you are.”

The man who’d led the charge regarded her with icy eyes. “Where’s the prince?”

“He ’ported out of here. Or whatever you call that disappearing-into-the shadows thing he does.”

The warrior jerked his head at one of his men. “Find Prince Langdon. The rest of you, take these two.”

“Yes, Captain.” The three remaining men closed in on her and Adric.

She bared her teeth. “Come any closer, and I’ll rip your goddamned hearts out.” She knew she wasn’t being rational—she was surrounded, with no way out—but her animal wouldn’t let them get any closer to Adric. Not while he was injured.

The captain swirled his hand, magician-like, and held it, palm up, fingers spread wide. A purple spark appeared in his palm, expanding into an orb of dark, pulsating light.

A fae ball, night-fae style.

She swallowed sickly. One of those could burn a hole right through you.

“Surrender,” he said, “or I’ll throw this at your mate, there.”

“He’s not my mate,” she returned dully. But she brought the dagger to her side.

They swarmed around her. The knife was wrenched from her hand. The captain took her arm in a firm grip while two others lifted Adric like a sack of potatoes and carried him toward the door.

Langdon appeared in the doorway.

“My lord.” The captain inclined his head respectfully.

“I see you finally realized there were intruders.”

The tall warrior’s spine went ramrod straight. “My apologies, sir. We didn’t detect him when he came through the portal.”

Langdon gave a cold nod. “We’ll discuss your failure later, Quade. For now, confine the earth fada below. The woman you can leave here.”

“No!” She jerked against the captain’s confining hand. “You’re not taking Adric anywhere without me.”

Langdon tilted his head to the side. “You prefer to go with him?”

She raised her chin. “Yes. In fact, I insist on it.”

The prince’s lips stretched in a chilling smile. Too late, she realized she’d given him permission to imprison her.

“Then we’ll be happy to accommodate you both.”