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“And how can I make penance for Marty’s pain?” I demanded.
“I have to take something from you. You need to understand the loss you’ve inflicted.” She smiled, and it might have been gentle if it weren’t for those horrible fangs I could see peeking through. “You broke his heart, so now I have to break yours. I have to take the thing you love most of all.”
It took me a second to realize what she was talking about, but when I did, my entire body locked up in blind panic. No magic required.
What I loved most? More than my home, or my friends, or my business? More than my own life?
Finn. She was talking aboutFinn.
Alecto was standing so close that I could feel the brush of her cool breath on my face. Her wings were almost entirely wrapped around us, blocking out the world. She was enjoying the terror running through me, drinking it down like sweet wine, and my stomach heaved.
My body still felt like it was crushed in some invisible fist, keeping me in place so I couldn’t fight back. I didn’t have any potions on me, and even if I could have reached them, I hadn’t brought anything to the festival that could protect me. I’d only packed fun, entertaining things. Happy things.
I didn’t have offensive magic. I couldn’t throw a curse or a hex like Wanda or Maverick. I wasn’t a witch, or a Magician, or a demon.
But I was a mom. And this monster had just threatened my son.
I’d barely managed to wriggle any part of me free, and I still couldn’t move anything from the neck down. So, I snapped my head back, and slammed my forehead into the end of her nose.
Pain exploded in my head like I’d just run into a wall, and Alecto fell back with a screech.
I didn’t think I’d actually hurt her, more that she was so shocked that I’d managed to do anything, much less fight back. Whichever it was, it was distracting enough that she lost control of whatever spell was holding me in place, and I scrambled backwards as her wings raked the air.
My head pounded, and my knees were shaky, but I started hobbling back towards the field as fast as I could go. I needed to get to Finn. Nothing else mattered, as long as he was safe. I could get Wanda to protect him if I had to—hell, the whole coven would protect him and I was more than sure they’d be enough against a fury. He would be okay. He had to be.
Behind me, Alecto roared. “Howdareyou touch me, mortal?”
Fire erupted in the trees around me, leaves curling in the heat as pine sap popped like a gunshot. I threw myself to the ground with a scream of panic as scorching heat rolled over my back and embers fell in a burning rain. Smoke poured into the sky, a hot wind carrying ashes up towards the clouds.
I had to get out of the trees. We’d had a dry summer so far, and a fire would race through the woods around Haven Hollow. Nowhere would be safe, not from the flames, and not from the smoke. It had to be stopped, right here, right now.
A branch shattered overhead in the intense heat, pelting me with splinters and pine needles. It was just like my dreams, scarlet and gold flames rolling up over the trunks, and huge gouts of smoke filling the air beneath the boughs, forcing me to crawl on my belly or risk suffocating.
Alecto moved through the fire easily, like none of the ashes dared to fall on her. Her wings flared, and the hellish light cast bloody shadows on the ground.
“Your life is mine, human,” she snarled. “I will burn your world to the ground.”
And it seemed like she really might, when a huge tree crashed to the ground in front of me, blocking my mad scramble. It sent a gout of fire up into the air, leaf litter catching like tinder. The ground started to smolder under my shaking hands.
The heat was too intense. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see through the smoke to know where to go. My eyes streamed burning tears, blinding me. And then, blessedly chilly air touched my face, freezing the tears to my cheeks, like a miracle. A blast of frost smothered the flames on the trees, coating the trunks in ice and melting to soak the ground and keep the fire from spreading any further. A winter storm sprang to life beneath the canopy, filling the air with snow and hail.
Alecto raised a wing to keep the sleet from pelting her, and she snarled.
Chief Morgan, Princess and Heir apparent to the throne of Winter, hopped up onto the fallen tree, her service weapon out and trained on the Fury.
“Stop where you are,” she barked. “Hands where I can see them.”
I’d never been so happy to see another person in my entire life.
My arms were shaking, but I crawled out of the way from between the two, not wanting to block Taliyah’s shot. Though I wasn’t sure bullets would really do much to a fury—maybe they’d be more like an inconvenience.
“Really, Taliyah?” Maverick sauntered into view, pale violet lightning curling around his fingers. His tone was light, almost casual, but he watched Alecto like she was a poisonous snake he’d just tripped over. “That was the perfect place to make a ‘freeze’ joke. I’m disappointed.”
“Not now.” Taliyah’s pale hair had escaped the knot she’d tied it back into, and it danced around her head on the winds of the storm she’d summoned. “Get down on the ground,” she ordered Alecto.
The Fury looked at the armed Faerie Princess and the Blood Warlock ready to throw down, and she gave a little huff of amusement.
“Who do you think you are?” Alecto tilted her head to one side, her hair draping towards the ground like a bloody waterfall. “I am a goddess, you pitiful creatures. Do you think I fear you?”
