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B laer was livid at being excluded from the new moon ritual. She stood at the living room window, staring out at the rain.

Luc’s nape crawled. The fae lady was at her most dangerous when completely still.

A quarter mile distant, a pitched battle was being fought, but she seemed unaware of the light and noise. This wasn’t just fada. From the bright bursts of color, the sun fae had joined the battle.

For the first time in days—no, weeks—hope sparked in Luc. Not for him, but for Adric. Maybe the alpha would get out of this alive, after all.

He flashed on Rosana’s bewildered young face and swallowed, shame a hot stone in his belly. Just when he’d thought he couldn’t go lower, he had. He’d given a woman—a girl barely out of her teens—to the night fae.

Adric had been right to be furious. He should’ve just slit Luc’s throat and been done with it.

At least Marjani was safe. Luc didn’t know what he’d have done if the prince had gotten his hands on her.

Blaer turned her dark eyes on him. Sensing his distress in that spooky way night fae had.

“Your alpha and the do Rio woman are at the ritual.”

“What?” Luc scrubbed a hand over his face. Why would Langdon invite Adric to a private ritual?

And then he knew . His stomach lurched.

Blaer prowled across the marble floor. Her dress today was an ice-blue scrap of material that barely covered her ass. Sapphires and diamonds dripped from her throat and glittered on the pointed ears peeking through her platinum hair.

“The fada attacked the prince in his own lair. You didn’t think he’d let them off with just a slap on the wrist, did you?”

Luc grabbed her bare arm. “Why are you telling me this?”

She tilted her head. “Why do you think?”

He narrowed his eyes. “You want me to get you inside tonight’s circle. But why?”

“Can you?”

He knew when he was being used. But who the fuck cared? Adric needed him. Luc had no compunction using Blaer right back.

He released her. “Take me to the circle. I’ll get us inside.”

Passing through the portal turned out to be the easy part. Marjani had only gone a few steps into the woods on the other side when she realized the shadows had deepened to pitch-black. Her eyes went night-glow, but she still couldn’t see more than a couple of yards in any direction.

She tightened her grip on her dagger and peered around, growling lowly.

“It’s okay,” Fane murmured. “It’s a different time of day in here, that’s all.”

She nodded tightly. The mechanics of fae vs. human time always made her dizzy. You could spend a few days in a fae court and go home to find a whole month had passed.

What made her heart falter was the realization that in here, the new moon might be just an hour, not five hours away.

“You feel Ric yet?” That was Jace.

“No,” she admitted. She’d hoped that her quartz would relink to Adric’s as soon as they passed through the portal, but it hadn’t. She couldn’t even say for sure if he was still alive.

“Me, neither,” Jace said.

“He’s here.” She picked up the pace. “I know he is.”

That’s when the skies opened up. Rain sluiced down as if someone had turned a fire hose on them. Her black turtleneck was instantly plastered to her body. Within seconds, she’d lost sight of everyone but Jace and Fane.

She dashed the water out of her eyes and kept moving.

The deeper they went into the woods, the thicker the shadows grew. With the rain sheeting down, it was like fighting your way through a waterfall. They were soaking wet, and beneath their feet, the forest floor had turned into a gluey black mud.

The shadows grew thick enough to touch. The nearest one began to slowly spiral.

They all froze.

Marjani put out a hand to see if it was as real as it looked. The shadow—or whatever it was—tried to curl around her, but recoiled from the protection charm.

“Careful!” Fane jerked her back. “It’s some kind of dark magic.”

The three of them eased around the mini black cyclone, but all the shadows were swirling now.

“What the fuck?” Jace snarled, his eyes the bright green of his jaguar.

The shadows spun faster, coalescing into hairy vines that slapped at their faces, dragged at their clothes.

Marjani dodged between two vines. As before, Olivia’s charm repelled them. But a third vine twined around Jace’s legs and threw him to the muddy ground. In the next breath, he was being dragged through the forest, his body slamming into trees and bouncing off rocks.

“Jace!” She and Fane sprinted after him.

He managed to snag an arm around a tree trunk. With the other, he hacked at the vine with his iron dagger. As they caught up to him, the vine disintegrated into ashes.

She dropped to her knees, brushing the ashes off him. “You okay?”

Jace’s chest heaved. He gingerly tested his arms and legs. “Yeah.”

“Here.” Fane held out a hand, pulling him to his feet.

“God’s cat.” The jaguar shifter swiped a hand over his face. “What the fuck are those vines?”

“Hell if I know,” said Fane. “Some kind of ward? Or maybe even an illusion?”

“It was no illusion,” was the grim reply. “I’ve got the bruises to prove it.”

Fane shook his head. “With the night fae, it’s hard to tell what’s real, what’s not.”

“Look out!” Marjani slashed at a vine snaking at them from around a nearby tree. As before, it crumbled into ashes.

She took a second dagger from her boot so she had one in each hand. “Whatever it is, we have to get out of here. Stick next to me. The charm seems to repel them.”

The men nodded, mouths set, as three more vines dropped around them. Together, they hacked their way forward for several endless minutes.

Just when she wondered if they’d ever get out of the woods, there was an intense flash, followed by two more in rapid succession. Through the trees, they glimpsed a group of sun fae hurling fae balls at the vines, forcing a large patch of shadows around them into retreat.

Fane swore and slashed through yet another encroaching vine. “The bloody things are multiplying faster than we can fight them.”

“The sun fae.” She stabbed a vine right before it wrapped around Jace’s neck from behind. “They’re our only chance.”

The three of them continued slogging through the mud, dodging the shadow-vines when they could, and fighting them off when they couldn’t, but the sun fae warriors kept moving, too. They couldn’t seem to reach them.

They fought doggedly on. First Fane, then Jace were thrown to the ground. She helped cut the vines off them, and they continued forward, but they were all tiring. On top of that, they were soaked to the skin, and if there was anything Marjani’s cat detested, it was being cold and wet.

Then they lost sight of the sun fae. Although they could still hear sounds of the battle, it was impossible to tell exactly where it was coming from.

“Fuck.” Marjani turned in a circle, hopelessly lost. The shadows had somehow messed with her internal GPS. “Where’d they go?”

“I have no idea,” Jace muttered, while Fane just shook his head.

The shadows seemed to sense their confusion. The vines twisted around them. Not trying to touch them now, just weaving an inky cage.

Marjani hissed and shrank back against Fane. It was like the vines knew she was terrified of being caged—any fada was, but her own recent experience with Blaer’s cages had amped the fear up to near-panic level.

Her chest compressed. She snarled, her animal brain telling her to run like hell. She sprang forward. But the vines caught her, throwing her back against Jace and Fane.

Her terror ratcheted. “The charm isn’t working anymore,” she croaked.

Jace gave a low growl. She scented his own fear of being trapped, and it amped up hers.

“Easy, love.” Fane squeezed her shoulders from behind. “Try focusing the charm on one section.”

Yes. She gripped the charm, shoved it at the vines in front of her. To her relief, they parted. She moved the charm in a circle until she’d cleared a large enough opening in the vine-cage for her to pass through, then squeezed through sideways, unable to wait any longer.

Fane and Jace were right behind her—which gave her an idea.

“Form a single line behind me,” she said and moved forward, the charm held out in front of her. Fane hooked his fingers through her waistband, and she heard him direct Jace to keep touching him.

As before, the vines parted to let her through, and Fane and Jace were able to pass through as well before they closed again.

She increased her pace, and the vines and trees merged into each other, twining into a narrow passage with walls of a dank, murky fog that was nevertheless too solid for them to pass through.

She was growling continuously now.

“Keep moving,” Fane ordered. “Don’t stop, whatever you do.”

They continued to what looked like the end of the passage, but wasn’t. The shadows had formed a maze, forcing them to turn first right, then left, then another left and a right, and so on, in a seemingly random pattern.

Marjani lost all sense of direction and time. All she knew was that somewhere nearby, her brother awaited his execution—and she was trapped in this thrice-damned forest with its living shadows.

She was running now, her feet beating out a frenzied rhythm.

Hurry, hurry, hurry.

At last the walls of the maze thinned so they could see the trees again. Marjani checked, unsure which way to go.

Another explosion lit the night.

The three of them sprinted toward it—and exited the trees at last.