Orson’s people in Butte reported more sightings, and Niall was already on his way back to the pack grounds to meet us. “I’m sending Puck your way, but Morgan, you’ve got to get Pen back on her feet.” It was the third time he’d mentioned Penelope since I’d called him and the snake coiled around my internal organs squeezed tighter every time.

"I have my best people working on it, Orson. No one is better than the lesser Fae at understanding wild magic. and they will protect her better than I would ever trust my father's soldiers too."

He grunted and hung up on me, leaving me swaying on my feet and silently praying that I was right. Gray had become even more taciturn as he drove us back to the pack grounds, while I repeated everything Orson had told me and then babbled about Millie and Ravenna and how they wanted to help. Nothing I said urged more than one syllable or a grunt in reply.

"Are we okay?" I whispered. I'd finally run out of breath and managed to be silent for a few minutes. He didn't say anything confirming my fears. "Maybe I should stay with Penelope, and you guys should just get Flannery on your own.

The car jerked as he looked at me, then back at the road ahead. “What, why? I know you’re worried about her, but we need you to heal Carl’s kid and secure this alliance.”

Right. The pack had never crossed the coalition, but they’d never sworn loyalty to it, either. “If I’m Fae, and you don’t want to be with me, what does my help have to do with the coalition? I’m not part of it either.”

The wheel jerked again, but instead of righting it, Gray pulled over and slammed on the brakes. “First off, when did we break up? Second, you have every right to be part of the coalition, and I’ve been operating under the belief that we were in this together. What happened back there to change your mind?”

“My mind? You haven’t had two words to put together for me since we got in the car. I asked if you were done, and you didn’t even answer.”

The sun filtered down through the trees that arched across the old highway, dappling the black hood of the SUV with light. The way it danced reminded me of the wisps, and the way their glow would brighten or dim as they moved, like light passing through leaves moved by the breeze.

“The only thing I’ve been thinking of since we left was how to get you and Pen home safely.” He glanced at me, then back at his hands, folded in his lap. The sun warmed the car and my knees when the canopy let it through, and I realized I was almost too sleepy to listen to him.

"Start the car, Gray, there's magic here," I yawned, "I can't stay awake." I slumped in my seat, too sluggish to be afraid. But I felt his urgency, his concern wrapped around me like a blanket, and I slept.

The bumpy gravel of the pack’s long private drive jolted me awake a few minutes later. My mind was humming as I searched for the source of the attack on me.

“What happened? How did you make it out of the sleep spell?”

“I wasn’t affected. Whatever it was, it seems to me it might have been benevolent. You were in a sorry state when we left the Fae, and now you look ready to do magic again.”

My calf burned slightly, as it had when I’d received my tattoo from the Goddess. I lifted my pant-leg and showed Gray. “I guess I needed a nap, and the Goddess helped me along.” On a branch below my wolf, a rose had been added to the tree.

“What do you think it represents?” He parked the car and shut it off, turning to face me. “Rosalind?”

"Not directly." I thought about it. "The pixies, the wee folk of the flowers. Rosalind is one of them, and by bringing her out, I stood with the pixies I couldn't save. I wish you had seen it, Gray. They didn't see me or care that there was a rope hanging within reach. It was like everything had vanished for them except whatever menial task at hand."

“Rosalind was different.”

“She had a child to care for. It gave her purpose, even though she was trapped. The wee folk need to fulfill their purpose.” I thought of my best Fae friend at home. “Just like Pippa needed a home to care for, every lesser Fae has a job to do.”

“And the high Fae?”

I scoffed and shook my head. “Their purpose seems to be slowly draining magic from their world, so humans will think they’re beautiful and powerful. The only magic they ever added to Fairy was when they were gods and cavemen worshipped them.”

He stared at me for an eternity without speaking, but I knew what he was thinking.

I shouldn’t go back to Fairy. If anything, I should disavow my father and that part of my lineage as he had done to me for so many years and choose to live with the people who gave a damn about me. But I hadn’t stopped helping witches in need despite a couple of decades of her bad behavior.

“If I hadn’t gone down in that pit, Newt and Rosalind would still be down there.”

“I know. But at what point do you admit you have enough people to take care of?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. I guess when I can’t take care of them anymore. Don’t forget, Grayson Xenos, West Coast Alpha, some of those people you’re counting as mine, are really yours.”

His face was unreadable, which in Grayson-speak, meant his feelings were hurt.

“That doesn’t mean I won’t help them. I just want you to remember that the pack is still mostly on the fence about me, especially the single females.”

His hand snaked around my neck and drew me to him. “I’m not interested in auditioning for a mate right now,” he whispered, his mouth brushing mine. He nipped at my bottom lip just enough to send a tingle down to my nether regions.

“Damn. I can’t remember what we were talking about.”

"Your tattoo just got fancier, and your personal deity gave you a power nap. Literally, from the glow, you're giving off."

I laughed at him as he leaned in to nuzzle my neck. “It might just be that I’m thinking about you.”

He pulled away and shook his head. "Come on, let's get to work before I can't stop myself and we end up the evening's entertainment."

Sure enough, when I looked out my window, Carl and two of his soldiers were waiting for us. He waved and managed a wry grin at my surprise. “I got some information about Farley, and one of my boys is on his way to the airport to pick up your new guy.”

I saw Grayson switch from the private version of him only a few got to see, to the leader of the coalition and pack alpha he’d been chosen to be. Layer by layer he closed off his emotions and replaced them with diplomacy, pride, and stoicism required by the mantle of power.

Carl had his version of it too, beneath the façade of an easy-going cowboy was an iron will I'd seen already when dealing with his own people.

The men faced off, staring each other down as they tried to figure out who was in charge of the hunt for my skip. Luckily, I had the solution for their standoff.

“Okay, Carl, I’m going to need some noses to the ground, and since your people know the woods better than we do, that means I’m taking volunteers.”

Both men looked at me like I’d grown horns.

“Little lady, I don’t think my wolves will answer to you. You ain’t alpha, you’re not even a shifter.”

I pasted a saccharine smile to my face. “Well, Carl, I would hope that you are alpha enough that when you tell them I’m in charge, they obey.”

Grayson's eyes widened, and behind Carl and his ‘boys,' I saw Niall cover his mouth with his hand to stifle a grin. Without another word, I flagged down Sheryl and joined her by the prep tables where they were butchering meat for dinner. Shifters were working on feeding their pack mates all day, every day, each of them taking shifts as they tried to keep all those preternatural metabolisms fed.

She seemed disheartened by my update about Penelope but still wanted to move forward with a ritual for her son. Suddenly, I went from no help on the hunt to a call for ‘all hands on deck' from the she-wolf, and a group formed around us without hesitation.

When Carl reached us, I began to apologize, but he waved me off, saying, “Oh, I know better than to suggest Sheryl doesn’t have everything well in hand. When you need something, it’s always best to go straight to the boss.”

I caught a look between him and Grayson, but Carl was already speaking to his wolves, and I was forced to listen to his instructions for the hunt along with everyone else.

Despite human acceptance of preternaturals, at least constitutionally, Carl set the hunt for after dark, a few hours off. I wanted to start while the sun was up, but Puck’s flight wouldn’t land for almost an hour, and even with whoever Carl had sent to get him, it would be closing in on twilight when he arrived anyway.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, making me jump. It was from Ravenna, of course, because she was one of few Fae who liked humans enough to have a cell phone. I was summoned back to my father’s. That was all, no niceties like “please” or a reason why.

“Do I have time to make it to the manor and back again before this goes down?”

Carl nodded, and I felt Gray's eyes burn into the back of my head.

“Fabulous. I’ve got to go answer for a few non-high Fae things I’ve done recently.” I held out my hand for the keys to our rental. “No need for anyone to join me this time. I’m sure it’s only my continued humiliation on the menu.”

Both alphas looked like they wanted to stop me, but Gray took his keys out of his pocket and offered to walk me to the car. “I don’t like you going in alone.”

I sighed, refusing to waste time on a fight we’d have no matter if I made him wait. “We’ll talk when I get back, okay? Try to remember that I’ve won every duel I’ve fought…and my father won’t have me executed for whatever rule of polite Fae society I’ve broken this time.”

Halfway back to the manor, I paused in the same place the goddess had visited me. My hands began to shake, and I pulled over on the opposite side of the road.

Goddess, I know you forced me to stop for a moment, to rest and make myself strong again. I need more than my own strength to go back in there and take what’s mine. I can’t leave Pen with people who don’t love her.

I slowly pulled back out and continued on my way, unsure if I had made the wrong choice in facing my father alone. But facing the dragons in my life alone was a habit, and for the moment, it was also comforting to know that the rest of my friends were out of the line of fire.

Ravenna was waiting on the apron when I arrived, wringing her beautiful hands and pacing.

“Lady, you have distressed your father.”

The stone in the pit of my stomach grew heavier, but I laughed around it. “I’m fairly certain that’s all I’m capable of doing, Lady Ravenna. My apologies for drawing you into the family drama.”

"Well, I am family after all, somewhere along the ancestral line," she tittered sweetly. "But please, hurry. He grows angrier by the minute, and the wisps are quite agitated."

The throne room was empty, for once, when Ravenna let me through the door ahead of her. Father was too angry to keep up his glamor, and I saw him as he truly was, a handsome, middle-aged man with a temper flared so high his veins bulged at the forehead.

He glowered at me and then continued to pace, ignoring me as he walked the length of the platform his throne sat on, grumbling to himself.

“Father, I respectfully request that you do what you must, yell, decree a punishment, whatever it is. I have a dangerous criminal to help catch and a friend’s life to save.”

He stopped then and stared down at me. I didn’t miss the metaphor, but I had no patience for the famous high Fae superiority anymore. “You went to the pit for answers. You brought back a prisoner.”

“I brought back an innocent child and a former slave.”

His jaw worked as he searched for words or the control to not snap my neck. I wasn’t sure enough that my life was safe to get any closer and find out. He finally sat, cupping his face in one hand. “You should never have been left among humans.”

“I didn’t ask to be.”

It was the question I’d come to ask, finally dragged out of the corner and into the light. Neither of us spoke. I’d said all I could, and I knew I was still unlikely to receive an answer from the king of the court of light and illusions.

“She must go with you. She cannot stay here, or she will be killed.”

I blanched. “Are you really such a monster?”

“No.” He shook his head. “But there are those who simply cannot allow that a lesser Fae to be released from the pit.”

"Because it weakens them, not being able to feed off her." I rubbed my arms against the goosebumps that the memory gave me. "I felt the fading. I can't imagine what it was like to be a baby in that dank, place, being fed on by parasites bigger than you are."

It was his turn to go pale. “The pit is the only prison we have. We aren’t magical leeches, Morgan.”

“Except that you are, and my Goddess has shown herself to me outside Fairy. No, not Gaia, the wiccan goddess. Danu, the three-faced goddess of nature and magic.” I raised my pants and showed him the tattoo. “You can see the magic glowing still. Her magic. But she never visits Fairy anymore, does she?”

He came down from the throne and knelt at my feet, touching the scrolling vines etched into my skin. “You must go and take the pixies with you. They aren’t safe here, and neither is your friend.”

Confused, I backed away from him. “You seem more pleased than I thought you’d be.”

“Why? The Goddess has claimed you, it is one more obstacle to your crown removed. Take care, Morgan. The forces working against us both know they’re running out of time. Take your friends and leave. Now.”

Dismissed with a wave of his hand, the room spun around me, and I found myself in the hall, staring at the wards on my own door. Goddamnit, he teleported me out without even letting me speak. I reached through the ward, carefully, in case someone else had hidden a malicious spell over it. Searching for malevolent magic was second nature to me. But having to do it among the Fae felt even worse than back home among the witches.

Millie was hovering over Penelope when I walked in, carefully reading her aura and adjusting her blankets for optimal comfort. It made my heart ache just a little that I couldn’t take her with me when I took Rosalind and Newt.

And Penelope.

The voice in my head was as clear as my own, but I knew the thought hadn’t come from me. I flipped back the covers and felt Pen’s toes. “Wake up, lady. I need you to show me I can get you through the door to the manor. After that, I can carry you as far as is needed.”

Her big toes twitched, and I squeezed them gently.

“She’s fighting, she is.” Millie’s voice was soft and full of awe. “I like this one.”

“Summon Rosalind and Newt. When I get Penelope up, it will be brief, and I’ll need them close to me if I’m to protect them.”

Millie opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again and nodded. She slipped out through the servants’ doorway as I continued to urge Pen with my magic and my voice. Pen rose to the surface then sank again, the power weighing her down like an anchor to Fairy. That was the bond I needed to interrupt, at least for a few minutes.

Rosalind peeked through the hidden door and pulled Newt through with her, both of them pink-cheeked and looking healthier than when last I’d seen them. “Come along, ladies, I’ll need you both touching me, and I’ll carry Penelope.”

Newt clambered up into Rosalind's arms, and the pixie reached out to touch Pen. "Can you carry her through the door? The magic is so similar to the power that kept us in the pit. No one bests it."

“That’s because the pit is the core of Fairy. I figured out why it all works the way it does. I just have to hope that my father wants me gone badly enough to keep the extra warding down long enough for us to push through.”

I summoned my own magic, the part of me that is a witch, not Fae. I saw the thin glowing lines of my warding behind my eyes, and collapsed them all, gathering that magic into me too.

Rosalind nodded and grabbed Pen's ankle, and she began to bleed like she'd been stuck by a thorn. "The pain will give her something to hold onto," she explained before I could say a word. "It's the only thing I can do to help."

Pen's fingers twitched and jumped, and I hefted her over my shoulder in a fireman carry, leaving my right hand free to cast. Rosalind grabbed hold of the hem of my jacket, and I felt Newt's little fingers in my hair. I glanced at her, and she stuck one skinny thumb up for me, shocking a laugh out of me.

“Okay, Newt, let’s go. The fastest way for us is out the front, or we’d take the servants’ corridors.”

“No, they were constructed for invisibility, not expedience. I’ll open the doors, you focus on your magic.”

I peered out the door into an empty hall, then motioned with my head for them to proceed as I slipped out and around the corner. Fairy stayed still, and I silently thanked my father for at least keeping the magic at bay for us.

Another long hall and a corner, and the front door was in sight. Still, Fairy made no attempt to stop us, and with a flick of her fingers, Rosalind sent the door flying open. With less than ten feet to go, I summoned the magic I'd gathered and pushed it at the open doorway, clearing the wards enough for us to slip through.

Despite my preternatural strength, Penelope was starting to get heavy, and sweat poured down my back from the combined exertion of magic and carrying my friend’s semi-conscious body.

“This is it, ladies,” I exulted as I saw Ravenna bouncing on her toes and ushering us forward, waving her hands and calling for us to hurry. My magic was weakening, and Fairy had finally realized I was taking the magic it had fed off for a hundred years.

The walls shook, and before I could cast a spell to stop them, roses, climbed them, blooming in large, crimson blossoms as Rosalind used the plants to hold the hallway in place for us.

I boosted my power to the opening ahead of us, until, when mere steps lay between us and Rosalind's true freedom when Fortunato and his guard appeared directly in front of me.

“You will never leave Fairy again, cousin. At least not of your own volition.”