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A dric stared down at Tyrus’s badly burned body. Marjani was explaining what had happened, including the fact that it was Evie who had somehow fried Tyrus with a fae ball.

Adric didn’t give a flying fuck that the man was dead, but—“The prince can’t know we did this.”

Tyrus had been Langdon’s last living son. The night fae prince was going to be out for blood, and if he found out the Baltimore clan was involved, the Darktime would look like a warm-up compared to what he’d bring down on them.

“Agreed,” said Marjani.

He eyed her. He didn’t need anyone to tell him that she’d struck the final blow. The knife work had her signature. “You okay?”

She stared back with chocolate-colored eyes shot with the chill blue of her cougar. “Yeah.”

“Good,” he said, although he wasn’t so sure she was okay. But what was done was done, and she’d only done what she’d had to. “We’ve got to make him disappear—completely. Call the engineers and tell them to bring explosives.” Marjani needed something to do, something human to keep her cougar at bay.

While she started making the calls, Zuri organized the soldiers to bury Tyrus in the soil beneath Corban’s lair and clear the surrounding area of any trace of him. No one could know he’d been here.

Adric climbed the ladder to check on Jace and Evie. Tommy, a young male who was training with Suha, was working over Jace. Jace’s wounds were partly healed, but his quartz was blown out, explaining why he’d gone dead to Adric. He’d have to find a new one.

Evie sat close by, dressed only in a bra and bloodied pants. Her face was smudged with dirt, her gaze hollow. Adric knew that expression; it was that of someone who’d been pushed to her limit.

He stripped off his T-shirt. “Here. Put this on.”

She nodded and lifted her arms like a child. He dropped it over her head. He wasn’t a big man, but she was swamped by the gray cotton. A delicate blond fairy, all the glow stripped from her.

He muttered something dark.

Jace curled his fingers over hers and the thousand-yard stare left her eyes. She glanced at Jace. The look that passed between them made something deep and unacknowledged in Adric constrict. So his best friend had found his mate.

He was happy for Jace, of course, but a part of him cried out, Why not me? And then he thought of Rosana and clenched his right hand.

While the healer worked on Jace, Zuri walked over to ask about Corban and Kane.

“Kane’s dead,” Adric told him. “Corban got away. The bastard sacrificed his own brother to save his hide.”

Marjani had come up in time to hear that last part. She shook her head. “He’s gone rogue.”

Adric nodded grimly. “I’ve got a kill order out on him.”

“It’s worse than you think. He didn’t just help Tyrus kidnap Jace. He sold Jace’s quartz to him.”

Adric’s gut tightened. “He gave him the secret?” He glanced down at Jace, who nodded.

“Fuck.” Even knowing Corban as he did, Adric found it hard to believe.

Earth fada swore to guard the secret of the quartz with their lives.

As it was, most fae treated the fada as their pet mercenaries and errand boys.

If the secret of the earth fada’s quartz became general knowledge, they could turn the earth clans into slaves.

“I’ll let the other earth alphas know.” This was no longer simply a battle for supremacy between Adric and Corban; it was a full-out war. Every earth fada in the world would be on the lookout for Corban now, with orders to execute him on sight.

Adric glanced at the dank cellar where Tyrus’s body lay. “Thank the gods the man’s dead, or I’d have to kill him myself.”

“But did he tell anyone else?” Marjani spoke before he could. “His father?”

Adric grimaced. He was still reeling from the information that Leron had invited the night fae into Baltimore. The idea of Prince Langdon having that kind of power over the clan made his stomach churn. What did the prince know?

An hour later, it was done. Tyrus was in a shallow grave beneath the dirt floor, and every trace of his scent was removed from the area.

Just to make sure, one of their explosive experts—a woman barely out of her teens—set off a charge after everyone was out. The rest of them watched from a safe distance as the earth rumbled and shook, and then collapsed inward.

Adric didn’t kid himself that this was the end of it. Langdon would eventually track down his son’s remains, and he might even suspect the earth fada—but he wouldn’t have proof.

And if he went after the clan anyway, well, Adric would cross that bridge when he came to it.