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Jason’s jaw dropped in horror as he jerked backward. “You…can’t do that.”

“It seems that I can.”

The power was a torrent through her. She didn’t know how long she could hold onto it. Not long.

“The iron…”

“I’m only half Fae,” she snarled. “Half of anything is a whole of nothing.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said carefully.

The mean and ugly persona he’d been spitting at her when he’d had her cornered disappeared in the wake of her power.

She watched him try to bring back the charming guy he’d always used to win people over.

“You don’t want to use those powers too much or the Fae Killer is going to find you. That’s what I saved you from, right?”

Kierse’s eyes narrowed. “The Fae Killer is still out there? Aren’t all the other Fae dead?”

“He’s still out there,” he assured her.

“Do you know who he is?”

Jason’s lip quirked up. “I do. And I think you do, too.” He straightened up to make himself look more important. “If you kill me, you’ll never find out.”

“Fuck you, Jason,” she said, taking a step forward. The force of holding her powers in her hand was like trying to lift a car over her head. “Your death belongs to me.”

Jason’s eyes darted to his followers. “Don’t just stand there! Stop her.”

Then like the coward he was, he fled the room. She rushed after him, but his followers came out of their stupor all at once. There were only three of them, but they had guns. As they fumbled for them, Kierse had only one chance.

She’d never used her magic in this way before. She didn’t even know if wisps could do what she had just done. Phasing wasn’t exactly part of the repertoire, but if she could do that, then she could do more. She had enough energy to push herself to the brink. Anything to stop Jason.

Her absorption had always been passive. But over the weeks she’d learned how to turn it on and off, how to use it as an amplifier in her triskel, how to feed the power she absorbed to others. This time she only had herself. She needed to be her own amplifier and her own power source.

Grasping her power tightly in her fist, she turned her palm out toward the Sansara cultists and unleashed her energy. Like a fire hose, it rushed out of her skin and hit the first guy hard in the chest. He wrenched backward into the other two guards.

One had already gotten her gun up and aimed for Kierse’s chest. She punched another bout of magic toward the woman. It hit her the same moment that the bullet punched through Kierse’s shoulder.

They both screamed. Kierse dropped her magic and clutched her shoulder. Blood poured from the wound. At least the bullet had gone straight through. If it had lodged in, she would have been extra fucked. But her strength wouldn’t hold up long without a healer.

There was no time to waste.

She grabbed a gun from the first guard, shoved it into the back of her pants with her good arm, and grabbed a second to carry.

She stepped over the pile of guards, blood seeping down her fingers as she tried to hold herself together and head toward the elevator bank.

She was weak. Too weak. She couldn’t do much more from here, not without assistance.

But she had to kill Jason. That was her only mission.

The elevator doors dinged as she reached them. She fired the weapon a few times through the small crack and watched the shots ping wide. The smell of lemon and pine rose up strong. Jason had used his magic to redirect the bullets. His smug face disappeared as the doors closed.

“No!” she screamed, hitting her fist against them.

There was no light that told her what floor he was going to.

This wasn’t the movies where she could figure it out and magically appear.

She had to make a choice. Up or down. Up meant ballroom levels that led out to the main hotel.

Down meant the loading docks and bigger exits.

With a bloody nose and in a hurry, he’d go down.

Kierse whipped around and rushed into the nearest staircase, taking them two at a time toward the basement levels.

Her legs felt like jelly, and she had to focus on her Fae instincts to get her body to keep moving.

She wasn’t going fast enough. There was no way around it.

The blood loss and magic loss was taking a toll. She had two more floors to make it.

“Keep going,” she whispered to herself. “Just keep going.”

When she hit the final landing, her knees nearly collapsed out from underneath her. She held onto the railing for a second too long before pushing out to the loading docks. Because of the late hour, there weren’t as many people working, but it wasn’t empty, either.

“Your shoulder!” a man said with wide eyes. “You need a doctor.”

With her gun held at her side, she marched forward. Her head was spinning, but she couldn’t stop. At least she’d chosen right—gold magic floated around Jason’s legs as he used it to help himself into the van.

She lifted her weapon and fired at him. Shouts rang from the workers as they all ducked behind equipment and hid.

Her shoulder screamed as she tried to hold the gun steady and continue toward the van.

Jason ducked down out of sight. The door to the van slammed shut.

The tires screeched as it backed out of the loading dock.

Kierse kept firing. She tried to focus on the tires like she had when she’d chased Imani, but her vision was blurring. Was that blood loss? Magic drain?

“Fuck!” she screamed as her bullets embedded into the side of the van, but it continued out of the dock and onto the streets.

She ran to the exit only to watch it disappear from view.

He was gone. Jason was gone. All of that and he’d gotten away. She dropped to her knees as the adrenaline slipped away from her. She was in a bad way. She needed…

What did she need?

Graves.

A way to escape this.

The workers were still cowering, glancing over the tops of boxes to see if the worst was over. They’d all been so conditioned by the Monster War that no one had even intervened. Which benefited her, at least.

She wouldn’t make the blocks north to get to Graves’s brownstone. Not on foot, at least. She needed a cell phone. She needed—

With all the adrenaline gone, another pulse of magic hummed louder. She’d been so caught up in the ordeal with Jason that she hadn’t been able to focus on anything else. Now, as it was all going dark, she realized that Lorcan had gotten closer. Very close. Had he heard her plea?

A black van stopped in front of the docks, and the passenger door ripped open. Her magic went wild, pulsing in her chest to the tempo of her blood flowing through her veins. She brought her gaze up to meet the blue eyes of her rescuer.

“I’ve got you,” Lorcan said.

He lifted her up into his arms. The connection between them picked up from trot to a gallop.

“How did you know I’d be here?”

“I heard you call for me,” he said. “I’ll always come.”

She stared up into his face for a moment before giving in and leaning her head against his chest. He carried her to the van. The door to the back slid open. Niamh was perched inside, her face a mask of worry.

“Hurry. She’s lost a lot of blood,” Niamh said.

Lorcan lifted Kierse inside. Then he hoisted himself inside as well. “Declan, move,” he barked.

His second grumbled something under his breath but got the van moving out onto the street.

Lorcan cradled her head into his lap. He brushed her hair out of her eyes as Niamh went to work ripping away part of her dress to get a look at the damage. So many beautiful dresses she’d ruined in the past few weeks.

“You’re okay now,” Lorcan told her.

She hissed as Niamh began to work on her wound. She didn’t understand the healing magic, only that it was not painless like she’d thought.

“Sorry,” Niamh said quickly. “Think good thoughts. The rest might hurt.”

“Thank you,” she whispered to both of them.

“Close your eyes. You’re safe.”

Safe. She was safe.

She didn’t feel safe. Jason had gotten away. He was still out there, and she didn’t know what he was going to do next. The Fae Killer was out there, too. Jason knew her true identity. Would he…tell him about her? She needed to talk about this with Graves. He’d have answers. He always had answers.

“Graves,” she said through gritted teeth as Niamh worked on her arm. “I need you to take me to Graves.”

Lorcan sighed heavily. “I’m afraid that I can’t do that.”

“I need to…I need to get back to him. He doesn’t know what happened.”

“Lorcan, hold her steady,” Niamh said.

Lorcan’s hands grasped her sides as he kept her from shaking. The contact made her jump. It was like a pipeline had opened that she no longer had a way of closing.

“Just rest,” he said softly, his fingers splaying across her skin. “After tonight, you won’t ever want to go back to him.”

“What does that mean?” Kierse asked, jerking against him.

He nodded at Niamh, who frowned at the gesture but put her hand on Kierse’s temple. “Sorry,” she whispered. Then she said the word, “Sleep.”

Her anger at Lorcan’s betrayal dissolved into the fading light.