“Absolutely not. I have no idea who or what you’ve got under those bags, but my sons are not up for sale, barter, or trade.”
Meribah shrugged and lifted her right arm as though waving off a pestering bug. A blue glow, similar to the glow in the bones of Doug’s hands, only more concentrated, shot down her index finger and continued, revealing a long, thin blade with a pointed tip. She raised her arm above her head, touched the edge of the ward with the tip of the blade, and sliced a hole through the magic-charged air.
The woman accompanying her, who had yet to speak, grabbed one edge of the slit and held it to the side, allowing Meribah to step through and place one booted foot and then the other onto my land.
I sucked in my breath, expecting all hell to break loose, just like it would in the movies, with explosions and lasers and sound effects.
Silence.
“There are old wards here, wards that know my blood.” Meribah gave me her cold, brutal smile and a one-shouldered shrug. “They don’t like me, but they know me.” Reaching behind her, she held hands with the woman I didn’t recognize and pulled her through the opening.
With that, the wards shattered, falling like brittle glass curtains ringing a massive stage.
Josiah and Garnet each placed one hand at the back of the necks of their captives and pushed them forward. Garnet took the rope attached to the wrist bindings and handed it to Doug’s mother.
I sucked in a breath, certain I was about to drown. Saltwater filled my lungs, and overwhelming panic blacked out my ability to see a way around the bizarre situation unfolding in front of me.
Until cracks and snaps rose out of the wooded area on the other side of the driveway. Ivy bind?
Yes, I breathed. Ivy wind, ivy bind.
My vision cleared. Before I could send a more specific instruction to my loyal invasives, Garnet grabbed the hoods covering the men’s heads and ripped them back. Both men choked and dropped to their knees.
“Peasgood! Hyslop! What are you doing with my boys?” Abigail’s low wail rose from the guests gathered behind me.
I whipped my head side to side, searching to see who was positioned where.
“Abigail, no!” Clifford ambled across the grass, trying to keep Abigail with him, but she slapped his hands away and continued, spindly arms outstretched.
Josiah and Garnet stepped away from the two shackled men, giving tacit permission for them to stumble forward and be met by their grandparents.
I spun in place. Behind me, Tanner, Rose, River, L’Runa, Wes, and Kaz had spread out, forming an arc with their bodies. Belle and Rowan were hustling Leilani and Sallie into the darker part of the yard, with James protecting the rear. I didn’t see Malvyn anywhere.
The four Pearmains huddled in a tight bundle of hugs and tears on the grass between me and the invading Flechettes.
“What the hell are you trying to accomplish here, Meribah?” I demanded.
“Land, Calliope,” she said, as smug as I had ever seen her. “I want more land. And I will do anything I have to do to acquire it.”
“Including murder?”
She shrugged, and the drop of her shoulders signaled the start of a transformation. Her glamour faded, as did Doug’s and Roger’s and those of the other three. Ears elongated into points, and bodies morphed into taut, battle-ready silhouettes. Weapons strapped to their torsos and hidden behind their cultivated facades appeared, crackling with magical charge.
“Ivy wind; ivy bind. Ivy wind; ivy bind,” I murmured, sweeping my wand across the array of altered Fae standing in front of me. I urged the vines to start with my ex and his twin brother.
Bursting from the ground as tendrils, the vines thickened, growing thorns and oily leaves as they threaded over and around one another in a rush to follow my command.
Doug and Roger reacted by unleashing their claw-enhanced fingers. They dodged the Pearmains and headed for my sons, who had the presence of mind to run in opposite directions. Wes and River followed the Flechette brothers then stopped, dropped, and shifted into their river otter forms. I had no time to gawk at the beauty of the transformation, only a second to wish them sharp claws, sharp teeth, and all the viciously protective instincts they could muster.
I whipped my attention back to Abigail and Clifford, terrified her frail body wouldn’t withstand the violence of the erupting chaos. Having my attention diverted away from my sons ripped at me, but I had to trust my vines and the druids.
The wards reactivated, flaring brighter and taller than before and further lighting the scene in front of me.
From the side of the road, an explosion rocked the cars.
I could see the upper half of Malvyn’s body on the other side of the lead SUV. His arms were raised to shoulder height. A spinning wheel of red hovered in front of each palm.
Garnet and Josiah’s arms flailed out as the backsides of their bodies slammed against the side of one of the SUVS, held there by Mal’s spell. Arms up, elbows locked, he skirted the vehicle and slapped his hands against Josiah’s wrists then Garnet’s and again at their ankles, leaving the husband and wife manacled to the metal doors.
Two of the six Fae were contained, and two more were close to going down, leaving Meribah and the mystery woman to me.
Adelaide. It was Adelaide Dunfay, the realtor who’d left her card with the Pearmains week after week, trying to get them to sell.
Anger rose along my limbs. I wanted that woman disarmed. I wanted to know why she’d chosen the Pearmains, and if she had anything to do with the deaths of the hidden folk. But I knew charging at her, my untested wand raised to the sky and a battle cry on my lips, was a laughable tactic.
In the next breath, the animal presence I sensed outside my bedroom
