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CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

The night shattered apart with the caws of the stone crow sentries.

Something pawed frantically at my face, little thorns pricking.

I came fully awake with a yelp, flinging both Sawyer and the bedsheets to the ground. Ossian was gone, the depression in the mattress beside me not yet cool. My head was a fuzzy, murky mess, almost as bad as when Ossian had dosed me with Caer powder, except recent memories came flooding back the more I shook off the dregs of sleep.

The magic oak tree flashed with opalescent light, burning away the residue left behind by the stolen bond. The wretch had given me enough to stay blissfully asleep until morning had it not been for the sentries. My feet hit the rug with a solid thunk , and I raced out into the corridor in yesterday’s clothes with Sawyer at my heels.

The stone crows’ alarm reverberated even louder here, and I mashed my hands against my ears. Even muffled, they could still hear the sounds of faraway shouts, something of the castle being under attack .

Who would chance such a thing? And why now, when the Stag Man was stronger than ever before?

A strange itch in my palm suggested an answer. Holding my hand out in front of me, I swept it through the beam of moonlight coming from the window from left to right as if it were a compass. The itch increased noticeably when my hand angled towards the great hall instead of the atrium. Before I could follow the sensation, Sawyer swatted at my ankle.

There in the dust at my feet, his claw had written out one word to confirm my wildest suspicion: Grumpy .

Llewellyn!

By the Green Mother, what was that Nemean wolf doing here?

The tomcat squeaked when a green vine sprouted beneath his belly and tossed him into my arms. I raced through the castle, hugging to the shadows as Brothers in battle leathers and active Faerish scripts rushed past. They were headed to the front gate and the bridge, another pair to the rear exit. No one hurried to bolster the guard protecting the bear.

The side door made such a loud squeak when I opened it that I wanted to tear it from its hinges and throw it into the fireplace for betraying my arrival.

Wan moonlight striped the cold stone floor and the flames in the fireplace snapped quietly, punctuating the harsh silence. The great hall was as it should be—painfully sparse—with the trestle table freshly scrubbed, the throne polished, the grizzly bear chained and listless with Faebane protruding from his shoulder blades, and two Brothers standing guard.

Except there was only one Brother standing guard, and he was hunched over as if battling a sudden onset of food poisoning. A crunch later, he slumped to the ground altogether, something wet trickling away from his outstretched hand and pooling in one of the gouges the grizzly had made in the floor .

There was a scrape of nails against stone, but it wasn’t from the grizzly rising. No, the bear moved hardly at all except to breathe.

A golden-white wolf stepped into the moonlight and shook the red from his muzzle. Then he head-butted the bear and nipped at his ears and cheeks. The wolf made himself a nuisance trying to rouse the bear, but the hulking beast stoutly ignored him. With a few frustrated but quiet yaps, the wolf told the grizzly exactly what a pain in the butt he was being. Then his ears pricked as he noticed the reason for the bear’s unwillingness to move.

Faebane stuck out of the bear’s shoulders like a meat thermometer. Bracing his paws on the bear’s ribs, the wolf angled his jaws to snatch the rapier.

On the trestle table, the pixies confined in the silver birdcage went wild with flute-like shrieks.

“ No! ” I cried.

But our protests were drowned out by the grizzly’s roar as he lurched upright and batted the wolf away with a massive paw. Nails slashed against stone as the golden-white wolf righted himself. He snarled at the bear, but the grizzly merely dropped back down on his stomach and swung his head resolutely away. His amber eyes caught sight of me poised in the doorway. A low chuff of surprise escaped him, alerting the wolf that they weren’t alone.

The Nemean wolf followed the bear’s gaze, his snarl evaporating. A heartbeat later, he shifted into the muscled retrieval specialist with steel-colored hair and golden eyes. Even with the tell-tale itch in my palm—the mark of my adoption into his pack—I still couldn’t believe he was here.

“Lewellyn,” I whispered.

“Well get over here, little witch,” Lewellyn Chase snapped. “I can’t hardly rescue you if you’re standing all the way over there. ”

His words were like a cattle brand to my backside—I lurched forward, shutting the side door behind me. In passing, I murmured reassuring words to the pixies, asking them to be quiet. Sawyer raced over to the werewolf, rubbing up hard against his shins.

“Glad to see you too, Stripes, but why aren’t you talking? And who collared you?”

Sawyer yowled as Lewellyn snatched him up and hooked his finger over the silver band of the collar.

“Don’t!” I cried, reaching out.

A thread of water jumped from the bear’s water bowl and whipped against the back of Lewellyn’s hand with a loud snap! It startled the wolf shifter enough that Sawyer could wiggle free and swat him in the face before jumping away. The tomcat landed on the grizzly’s giant head, but the bear didn’t even flinch.

“Well that’s new,” the wolf shifter snarked.

“Take that collar off and you kill Arthur,” I explained. “Touch that sword and you do the same thing.”

Lewellyn cursed, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry, big man.”

The bear released a half-hearted grumble.

“But that’s not the worst of your troubles, is it?” The wolf shifter crouched down, passing a hand over the bear’s cinder block of a forehead before lifting up on the bear’s eyelid with his thumb. “Those eyes are more brown than hazel. Damn it, Arthur, you’ve been a bear too long. You’ve only got one shift left in you, don’t you?”

A commotion in the foyer startled both of us, and I was abruptly reminded not to squander what time I had unsupervised. I took a step towards the bear only for a hand on my wrist to wrench me back .

“Come on,” Lewellyn hissed. “This way.”

I wiggled free like Sawyer, but with less yowling and scratching.

“Meadow,” the wolf shifter admonished.

“I can’t go. And how did you even get in here?” I asked as I retreated to the bear, stumbling over a body hidden in his shadow.

Well that answered the question as to where the second Brother had disappeared. Patrick, from his red hair and the throwing knives limp in his hands.

A burst of healing magic numbed the bear to Faebane, then I parted the fur around his collar to check on Auggie. The industrious snail was still gumming away, its acidic saliva compromising one rune after the other.

“Ame let us in,” Lewellyn informed quickly. “Me, Berengar, a whole squad of Coalition enforcers.”

Sawyer’s ears perked at the name of his mentor, tail lifting. Neither of us had seen her since she’d flung herself out my bedroom window after the faelight owl, but of course the crafty caliby cat had been up to something.

“She told us of the elm tree, the portal, your family in the farmhouse, everything.” He paused to check over his shoulder, but the double doors were still shut and there was no sound of approaching footsteps. “A strike team was sent to each and me and Berengar here since I could find you through our bond. Berengar’s out there distracting them, but despite what he says, he’s not the bear he used to be. Now come on.”

“I told you, I can’t leave.”

“But Ame said you charged the key. We can get to the portal—”

“ He has the key!” Clearly Ame had been keeping tabs on me—I was suddenly remembering that wounded mallaithe in Dunstan Forest very differently now—but she didn’t know everything. “And you don’t understand,” I told Lewellyn. “He has hostages here, Daphne among them.”

The wolf shifter’s mouth flattened into a grim line at the name of his lover. Something flickered in his eyes—resolve—and I stepped closer to the bear in case he tried to grab me again.

“If I do anything to displease him, that sword kills him. And he doesn’t have to be here to do it.” I thrust my finger at the copper-colored smoke ring lazing around Faebane’s hilt. “Think of that as a magic hand connected to his brain. He thinks it, it does it.”

“Well you’re a witch, aren’t you?” he snapped. “And a pretty powerful one as of late, so go counterspell this deathtrap or something. If I can’t leave with you, at least I can take him!”

That actually was a fantastic idea. I could even free the pixies! I wanted to kick myself for not realizing either idea earlier, but then again, my brain had been mush from the stolen bond.

Heart thrumming, I focused on the rapier and sent my perception into the spells and bindings on the sword. It wasn’t the same as using an Illuminate match, but maybe I’d stumble on to something. I’d never been alone with Ossian’s masterpiece before, and there were no Brothers around to interfere, the Stag Man was otherwise occupied, and so long as I didn’t touch the sword directly, I could maybe figure out—

Lewellyn swore, shifting into a wolf just as Alec burst through the double doors with three Brothers close behind him.

“Kyle, Patrick, what the—” Alec stopped short at the sight of his dead comrades, the strange golden-white wolf, and my glowing hands hovering around Faebane. Faerish scripts sprang from his skin with a flash of blue-green light .

Alec’s face twisted from outrage to sinister joy, and he threw his head back and howled, “Here, Cernunnos!”

Oh my Green Mother, Ossian would kill Lewellyn. The fae king had only gotten stronger the more his curse reversed, and impenetrable as Lewellyn’s hide was, his bones could still be crushed. There was only one thing to do in the seconds before the Stag Man arrived. A gamble, but I hoped it would work.

As the Brotherhood surged forward, the air thick with bluish-green magic, I flicked my fingers. An air current lifted Patrick’s throwing knives into my hand so fast the metal didn’t even glint in the moonlight. They were thin blades, both easily gripped in my hand to mimic a thicker knife.

“Get away from him!” I screamed, lunging forward.

The Nemean wolf’s golden eyes widened as he realized it wasn’t the attacking Brotherhood he should be worried about, but me.

My knives rammed into that spot behind his left elbow, the only flaw in his impenetrable Nemean hide.

The wolf yelped and staggered away, and for a terrifying moment, I thought I’d overcommitted and the knives had actually pierced his heart. The one knife remaining in my grasp came away red and dripping. A second later, it clattered to the ground and I threw up my hands to defend myself. The outraged wolf swung his giant jaws around for a punishing bite, but green vines cinched it shut. A blast of air knocked the massive beast off his feet, and as he crashed to the stone floor, I discovered Ossian and his longbow standing in the doorway of the great hall. Shane, the faelight brother, stood right behind him, blood smeared across his face like war paint.

Feigning a rage, I followed the wolf to the ground and whipped him mercilessly with the wicked, thorny vines of my battle magic. They didn’t hurt him, but he writhed and snarled with confusion and panic .

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, my voice barely audible as I collapsed to my knees as if from exhaustion. “Play dead and open your mouth.”

The Nemean wolf gave me an incredulous look but stopped his thrashing.

“Kill that alarm!” Ossian bellowed, lowering his bow and charging across the great hall. “Get away from that wolf, Meadow.”

Momentarily hidden from view by the gigantic wolf’s shoulder, I fumbled within my bra and extracted the vial of Rose’s metal-dissolving glitter. Shoving it into the wolf’s mouth, I explained quickly, “They’ll take you to the dungeon. Use it on the bars.”

Summoning my water element, I drew just enough blood from the wound to cascade down his fur and seep into the stones. The wolf whimpered once, closed his eyes, and went still.

Ossian arrived at my side then, stooping down to hoist me to my feet. I smacked his hand away and scuttled back like a crab. I only went a foot or two before I shored up against the grizzly’s paws. The bear gave hardly more than a grunt in response. Sawyer darted forward, hissing, but I snatched him into my lap.

“He wouldn’t listen. He tried to take Arthur,” I shouted up at the Stag Man. “He almost killed him!”

The Stag Man’s eyes glittered like the jewels they resembled. “So you . . . killed him instead.” One of his pointy ears twitched, picking up a heartbeat. He jabbed the wolf with his bow and received no response. “Or near enough.”

A sardonic smile came to his lips. “You killed your own ally to save a beast who barely remembers you.”

My chin dropped as I looked away, clutching my cat tighter to my chest. At my back, the bear huffed .

Ossian’s laugh was cut off as Alec reported, “My lord, Kelly says the elm tree is under attack. No news from the portal team.”

The Stag Man threw his head back with an ear-shattering roar. Gripping his necklace with both hands, he drew upon the magic stored in his caches. Copper lightning crackled up and down his body as he drained every crystal. The blue cloch, however, remained bright and swirling.

A wind rose around his feet, scattering dust. It swirled up his body, catching the lightning and forcing the many strands to twist into a single bolt above his head. With a shout, Ossian punched his fist towards the ceiling, and his magic shot into the air.

The copper lightning burst a hole through the central arch and released a hailstorm of broken masonry. Through the bay windows, we watched the lightning scatter over the copper shield encasing Redbud, previously invisible.

“The Coalition may have gotten in here,” he seethed, panting, “but they will not escape.

“Get this body out of here and bring her back to my chambers. Shane, with me,” the Stag Man thundered, vanishing with nothing but a gust of wind and a thundering of hooves in his wake.

Alec dismissed two of his Brothers to search the castle and ordered the third to stand guard at the double doors. Then he approached the fallen wolf and where I huddled nearby against the bear. His sharp blue gaze bore into me as he crouched down to eye level, an oily smile on his lips.

“Seems like what I saw and what Cernunnos saw are two different things, Meadow,” he said softly, as if he were sharing a secret. Alec wagged his finger at me. “You were trying to tamper with Faebane. Whether or not that’s the reason you shanked this wolf is irrelevant. And my lord will know about it. Your bear dies . ”

I jerked my chin at the fallen Nemean wolf. “And while you’re busy brown-nosing and being pathetic, that wolf will die. Taking his magic with him. Magic you’ll never get your hands on.”

“I can’t harvest it without a Solomon knot anyway.” He yanked down his shirt to reveal that pale, unblemished swath of sternum. “Something you made sure of.”

“You can’t, but Wystan can.”

No spectacle had been made of the hobgoblin, and since he was Fair Folk, I had assumed Ossian was holding him captive in the dungeon as a contingency if something should happen to the elm tree and he needed another source of magic. An error on Ossian’s part, for Wystan knew the ways of draining and donating magic to those without a Solomon knot. It’s why the Brotherhood had conspired to keep him free. And from the way Alec’s blue eyes widened, I had inferred all that correctly. And with his master away . . ..

“That’s the price of your silence, Alec. You get this wolf, and I keep my secret. Or . . ..” Lifting my hand, I snapped my fingers.

The magic hunter’s head whipped around as fresh blood trickled from the wound in the Nemean wolf’s side.

“Stop!” he cried. “You have my word, witch.” He rose, barking, “Nathan, get over here and help me with this.”

“Nurse him back to full health and imagine the power he’ll give you then,” I mused. A shrug followed. “If you’re willing to risk it, I suppose.”

From the covetous look in Alec’s eyes, he very much was.

‘Your jealousy and greed will be your undoing, Alec.’ And they’d be my allies.

“Get back to bed,” the magic hunter ordered.

Rising from the floor, I carried Sawyer to the side door without protest. There, I paused a beat and glanced over my shoulder to find the Nemean wolf suspended in the air via those ivy-like Faerish scripts. They shuttled him towards the double doors as if on an invisible stretcher. Sensing me watching him, the beast cracked open one golden eye and gave me a baleful look. Then he rolled that eye and allowed the magic hunters to ferry him off to the dungeon.