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Chapter One
1996
Branson, Missouri
The Early Days of the Pretern Wars
“YOU’RE GOING TO GETyourself killed.”
Gia Hansen silently agreed. The risk was high.
But she wasn’t going to walk away, either. The bastards tucked away inside the derelict house on the other side of the fence had something that belonged to her. She was going to get it back.
They also held the piece of a puzzle she’d been trying to solve for more than a year. The name of a traitor. If she didn’t find the person, more and more allies would die.
Gia hadn’t asked to be drawn into the ugly war that was slowly spreading to all areas of the globe, but dead friends, attacks on supposedly-secure escape routes, the recent slaughter of a group of non-predatory shapeshifter ponies in Mississippi...no. She didn’t have the choice of sitting this conflict out. Nobody with the strength to stand could—not if they had a heart and wanted to face themselves in the morning.
In the past few years, tens of thousands had already died, human, shifter and Fae.
Sitting this out was a luxury she didn’t have.
“Gia! Listen to me!” Amy’s voice was louder this time, almost too loud.
With a wince, Gia looked at the woman she’d called friend for almost a decade. “Relax. I got this.”
“You don’t understand how many of those assholes are in there, how many you’re going to have to deal with,” Amy insisted.
Gia didn’t bother arguing with Amy. She couldn’t identify an exact number, no, but she had a rough idea and the weight of her magic hovered inside her, hungry and ready for an outlet. She couldn’t release the full fury inside that building, but those idiots in there weren’t going to be enough to stop her.
Not now that she’d found him.
Him. The one who had destroyed her childhood, her family.
She’d been preparing her entire life for this, and maybe she had.
She shook out her hands and rolled her shoulders, cracked her neck. She’d eaten a big meal today, spent hours in the woods, soaking up the energy she found in the earth.
These days, she hardly ever released the shields she kept wrapped around that part of her that was made of magic, moonlight and shadow. Only half-Fae, she passed for human easily—at least when she was among those humans.
She’d already done her research. The brainless fools were driven by hate and ignorance. The people in that building were human, through and through.
Human, stupid, greedy and cruel.
They probably had no idea who—or what—it was in there with them, pretending to be one of their own, a monster in sheep’s clothing. But she did. She’d been on his trail for years now, getting closer to him with every kill, every life he took, although he’d almost lost her when he left England.
If he’d kept his head down after once he’d left New England, she might not have found him. But he had to keep playing his murderous, bloody games and she’d tracked him to a small town south of Cape Cod.
He’d been gone by the time she made it there, but she’d finally caught his scent again and now she was here.
Soon, he’d be dead.
“Gia, please...think about this. You can’t do anything here. You’ll be caught.”
“Stop distracting me, Amy.” Taking in a deep, slow breath, she focused her mind’s eye.
The shields parted, adjusted themselves to let some of her base magic free and Gia had to clench her teeth to keep from gasping in relief. Even being just part Fae, magic was a part of her. Smothering it until it wasn’t even a flicker inside her felt wrong.
But being dead would really suck, so she hid who and what she was. In a world where nearly half the humans hunted her kind, she wasn’t about to advertise her magic with glowing skin and eyes, or magic that whispered to the wild things around her.
