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“I’m just going to…” Gen tr ailed off , and then Kierse heard her scurrying footsteps. “Kierse, Graves is in our flat. ”

“I know. I know.”

“What is he doing here?”

Kierse kicked the bedroom door closed. It probably wasn’t enough to keep Graves from listening in if he wanted to, but he might take the hint and afford them some privacy. She knew how important it was to him .

“Scheming,” Kierse said. She stripped out of her travel clothes, tossing them into an empty hamper.

“Are you involved in his schemes again?”

“Against my will,” Kierse assured her as she tugged on black leggings. “I was stealing the bracelet and he just happened to be there.”

“So he was stalking you.”

“What else is new?” She threw on a fitted black crop top and reached for her new favorite red jacket.

“I really didn’t think he would leave us alone all this time.”

“I don’t think he has. At the very least, he’s been spying on us,” Kierse said as she slid her arms into the cozy material.

Fully clothed, she reached for her most treasured possession—a wren necklace.

She stroked a finger over the bird at the center of the silver emblem.

It was the only thing that she had left from her parents.

And it was the first sign that had made Graves hire her for that job last winter.

Wrens and the Holly King were connected.

She’d been his little power booster until the winter solstice.

While she may have been the one to walk away from him, she could still hear him saying how poetic it was to fall for the source of his own destruction.

She shivered at the words and then looped the necklace around her neck, where it belonged.

“Well, I can’t imagine him letting you walk away. Not after…” Gen trailed off again.

Kierse wasn’t sure how Gen would have ended that sentence, but maybe she didn’t want to know, either.

“Did you sleep together?” Gen asked.

Kierse shot her a look. She never could get anything past her friend. She had been this close to doing just that. “Not yet.”

“Kierse!” Gen said with a shake of her head.

“I’m kidding. Things got heated, but nothing happened. You know it’s complicated.”

“So you still have it bad?”

Kierse made a little shrug. “Well, he’s very pretty.”

“Big trouble, though.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

Getting the third degree from Gen was unsurprising.

It was what family did when they were concerned, and Gen was family in every sense of the word.

After Jason had beaten Kierse to within an inch of her life and left her for dead, Gen had found her, taken her in, and healed her.

She’d done the same with Ethan when he’d escaped a similar fate in the church.

Gen had been there to pick up the pieces for the both of them.

“I’m not going to tell you not to do it, because I know you better than that,” Gen muttered.

“Good. I love you,” Kierse said with a laugh. “Anyway, we have more important things to deal with.”

Kierse reached under her bed and felt around for the hidden compartment she’d created when she’d first moved in, to store the spear. Gen had thought that they should keep it somewhere more secure, like a bank vault, but Kierse had broken into enough of those to want it near her person.

She reached through her ward and pulled out a gray metal box.

The carrying case was bulletproof and hermetically sealed.

She’d had a keypad and facial recognition scanner attached and then etched her warding in by hand.

No one was breaking into this thing. It didn’t keep anyone from stealing the entire case, but still, they’d have to get through her wards or through her for that, and the spear inside would remain inaccessible.

And through everything—the wards, the security, the case—she could feel the spear there. A humming under her fingers that called to her. It had gotten stronger once the spell on her was broken, like a metal detector vibrating to life as she got near the thing.

“So did you get the bracelet?” Gen asked.

“Yep. In there.” Kierse pointed to her purse. “Thanks to Graves.”

Gen chuckled as she pulled the bangle from the purse. “Tell me the whole story.”

Kierse relayed what had happened last night as she got through her locking system and opened the case to reveal the Spear of Lugh.

It wasn’t a long-handled spear like she’d first assumed it would be.

Instead, it was a handheld spear, for thrusting and parrying and slicing.

The thing had an iron blade attached to an ash handle that somehow looked brand new and not hundreds of years old.

She reached a shaky hand into the case and touched the spear.

The spear said, Hello, old friend.

And then its normal bullshit, Who are we killing today?

Kierse laughed and pushed aside the thought. No killing today.

The first time she had wielded the spear, it had imposed its will upon her. Kill thy enemies. Use me. Conquer the world . That sort of refrain. And while it still generally wanted to be used as the weapon it was, it had gotten, dare she say, used to her.

Gen shivered. “You should put that thing away.”

“I think I’m going to bring it into the market.”

She pulled it out of its case and twirled it expertly. She’d been practicing with it. Partially to get used to its particular weight and partially because she liked the weight of it in her hand.

“What? That’s a horrible idea.”

“I’ll glamour it,” Kierse told her. “Don’t worry.”

Gen snorted. “Worry is my birth right. How can I not worry about you?”

“Well, don’t worry about this. My glamours are improving.”

“They’re not that good yet.”

Kierse shrugged. “Fine. Fine.” She set the spear back into the case. “Maybe it’s not the best idea.”

“I feel like I should go with you, but that place creeps me out.”

“No,” Kierse said at once. “I don’t want you to go in there.”

The thought jostled her out of her reverie. She hid the spear away again. For a second, she felt as if she could still hear the echo of the spear’s murderous refrain, but it was there and gone.

“I know. I know. I just wish I could play point like Ethan.”

“I miss him,” Kierse muttered.

“Same,” Gen agreed.

Neither of them commented on his radio silence. Clearly it was Lorcan’s doing, and Kierse didn’t want to reach out to the head of the Druids to get answers. It was likely part of his plan to get to her, anyway.

“But I wouldn’t let Ethan follow me into the market, either,” Kierse told her quickly. “And I’d worry about you the whole time. It’d make me reckless.”

“As if you aren’t already reckless,” Gen said with a laugh.

“Fair.”

“But Graves is going to go in with you?” Gen guessed.

Kierse smothered a smile. “The bastard insisted.”

“Shocking,” Gen said with dripping sarcasm.

“I’ll be safe,” Kierse promised.

“Safe isn’t in your vocabulary.”

A knock from the front door interrupted their conversation. “You’re not wrong,” Kierse said as she left her bedroom and headed into the main room. “Think it’s Niamh?”

“I thought she was working today,” Gen said on her heels.

Graves had his head in a book but looked up when they emerged. Kierse pulled the door open and found a tall, stunning woman with burgundy hair down to her mid-back standing at the door.

“Hey, Niamh,” Kierse said.

“Hey! Heard you’re back!” Niamh said. She wore an impractically short, pleated mini skirt straight out of a Catholic school uniform with a white polo tucked in and lug sole loafers.

Kierse put her hand on the warding to let her friend inside. “I thought you’d be at the bookstore.”

“My shift starts in a few minutes. Heard your door open and…” She gestured to herself as she crossed the threshold.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Graves said.

Niamh turned her attention to Graves, who was now standing. “Well hello, handsome.”

He immediately moved into a defensive stance. “Get the fuck out.”

“Uh…do you know one another?” Kierse asked in confusion.

“This is the robin .”