Oh, God.

He was back. All of them were back—Marrow and his men. The only difference was Marrow had brought more soldiers with him this time. A dozen pale, thin, and ridiculously tall fae soldiers, all standing shoulder to shoulder on the narrow sidewalk across the street.

Marrow was out in front of them of course, looking every inch an otherworldly general. A long sword dangled from his hand. The light from the streetlamp gleamed off its double edge. Damn, it looked sharp.

Sharp enough to take off her head in a single swipe.

Or somebody else’s.

Nicole threw open the window and swept her gaze from one end of the narrow street to the other. Fortunately, she didn’t see another soul.

At least not yet.

This part of the city didn’t really buzz with pedestrians on weekend nights, but Nicole knew someone was bound to walk past eventually. It was only a matter of time until someone wandered by this freakish standoff and called the cops.

She didn’t want to think what would happen after that. The poor bastards would show up with lights flashing and guns drawn…and step right into a bloodbath. There was no way a handful of city cops could win a battle against fae soldiers.

And Nicole wasn’t certain she’d be able to save them. The book had allowed her to use its magic when she was the one under attack, but she had no idea if it would let her risk her life for strangers.

Her fingers shook against the window sill. She had no idea what to do next.

In that instant, she felt Shay’s strong, steadying hand spread across her back.

“Courage.” His voice was deep and low against her ear. The single word rumbled through her. She didn’t just hear it. She felt it…and just like that the shivers stopped radiating down her arms and legs.

Strangely, this time Nicole didn’t care if the wave of calm that swept through her came from magic or the power of her trust in him. All that mattered was that the fog of panic was dissipating in her head, allowing her to think clearly again.

For the moment, she was safe. Shay’s warding was working. Marrow obviously hadn’t found a way to break through it. If he had, he wouldn’t be here to make a deal.

Which made this a standoff. One that Nicole wanted to end as soon as possible.

“What do you want?” she shouted down at the fae commander.

“I’m here to speak with the jinni, mortal.”

Nicole tried not to flinch at the tone he used while spitting out the last word. The hatred and ugliness of it was all too familiar.

But if he thought his derision would shut her down, he had another thing coming.

She gripped the window sill tighter and thrust her head out even farther. The curtains caught around her shoulders and blew around her head like brightly colored banners in the wind.

“You can either talk to both of us, or nobody at all, asshole.”

Nicole smiled with satisfaction as the fae’s shoulders visibly tensed.

“Do you agree with this absurdity, jinni?” Marrow asked.

“What’s absurd?” Shay’s voice came out steady and strong. At least one of them was in control of their emotions. “She’s every bit as involved in this as you or I.”

“She’s human.” Marrow said the word as though it actually tasted sour in his mouth. “Far beneath creatures of real power like you and I.”

Shay chuckled. The low sound echoed off the tall walls of the alley. “Strange, Marrow, from up here, the only person below me is you.”

Marrow growled in displeasure. He scraped the tip of his long blade against the sidewalk. Nicole’s eyes widened as sparks flew from the friction. What the hell kind of metal was that thing made out of? Her newfound confidence wavered at the sight.

“But you were saying something about a deal,” Shay prompted the fae.

Even from across the street she could still feel the chill of Marrow’s glare. “Give me the grimoire.”

“Counter offer,” Nicole said. “How about I give you a hard kick to the nuts instead?”

Marrow’s gaze gleamed with malice as he glared up at her. “One day I will slice that impudent tongue from your head, bitch.”

“Before or after I cut off your dick and ram it down your throat?”

Marrow roared. His pale face burned bright with rage.

Shay, on the other hand, just gave her a gentle pat on the back. “I think perhaps this might go faster if I spoke with him.”

Nicole nodded. Point taken. Maybe it was time to give Shay the lead in the negotiations for a while.

“And what are you offering in return?” Shay asked.

“I’ll spare your life.”

Even from a story up Nicole could see the deception in Marrow’s eyes. She leaned over to warn Shay, but it seemed he already knew.

“No deal,” he said.

“Don’t be a fool, jinni.” Marrow tried to take a step forward, but butted up against the warding. He stopped cold in his tracks.

“I’m not,” Shay said. “You’re the fool to come all the way back to earth just to offer me what I already have.”

“Would rather I killed you?”

“You’re welcome to try…again.” Shay shrugged. “It didn’t work out so well the last time.”

Marrow stilled. His eyes narrowed. Apparently, he didn’t like being taunted in front of his men. She’d never seen a deadlier look in anyone’s eyes.

Nicole held her breath as she glanced over at Shay. He looked as cool as could be.

Damn. The guy was good. She was doing everything to keep her nerves under control, but Shay didn’t show a single shiver.

“I’m giving you a chance,” Marrow said through gritted teeth.

“You’re giving me nothing. You’re offering me nothing. You say you’re here to make a deal, but all you want to do is kill and steal.” Shay sounded far from impressed. “Come back when you have something interesting to say.”

“I will have that grimoire,” the fae shouted as Shay pulled his head back inside the apartment.

“Over my dead body,” Nicole spat back.

A cold, predatory smile spread across Marrow's face. “Oh, that’s the part I’m looking forward to the most.”

A chill swept up Nicole’s spine. Suddenly the outside wind seemed very cold. It froze her in place. All could she could do was blink, held captivated by the open, deadly threat shining in the fae’s unearthly eyes.

A second later, Shay’s hand slid up from her back to her shoulder, and he guided her back in through the open window. Once she was in, he slid the pane down and pulled the curtains closed.

Nicole didn’t move for a long moment. Her body wouldn’t let her. Her arms, her legs, her hands and feet—all of them refused to move. Not until she heard the telltale pop of the opening portal and the heavy gusts of wind that followed. A few seconds later, the din faded away.

Only then was Nicole able to find the courage to pull back the curtain and look down on the street below.

The empty street.

They were gone.

Gone someplace so far away it was hard to even imagine it. But she knew they could come back anytime they wanted. They could appear and disappear at will.

And they would always be able to.

Now that Marrow knew that the grimoire was here, he would never stop coming. Nicole recognized the look she’d seen shining in his eyes.

Greed.

She’d seen it far too many times before. That was what really scared her. People that hungered for power would crush whoever they had to in order to get it. History books were filled with greedy people and the wake of destruction they left behind.

But the power Marrow sought was far more dangerous than anything this world had ever seen. If the fae was ever able to crack the magic inside it, he could tear everything on Earth and in the Realm apart.

And right now she was the only one who could guard it.

She looked away from the window to find Shay watching her.

“Are you all right?” His voice was quiet, bordering on sensitive.

She didn’t nod. She didn’t lie and tell him she was fine. She didn’t say word. Somehow, she felt he already knew.

“It’s okay,” Shay told her. “You’re safe.”

It was true. She was fine, and as long as she stayed inside the shop or his apartment, she would stay that way.

But she couldn’t live her whole life within the confines of this building. And what about her parents? What would happen to them when they returned home?

“I’ve made a terrible mistake, haven’t I?” She wasn’t really asking. She already knew the answer.

“No, Nicole.” There was something about the way he said her name. The sound wrapped around her like a warm blanket on a cold night. “You haven’t.”

But it didn’t matter how soothing Shay’s voice was. He was only lying to make her feel better.

“If I had never used the book to banish the fae, then Marrow wouldn’t be after it now.”

“But we would have been slaughtered.”

Shay reached out and caressed his fingers down her arm. It was an intimate gesture, one Nicole was having a hard time fully appreciating at the moment.

“I should have never made the wish to force you to protect the store,” she said.

“But if you hadn’t there would have been nothing keeping Marrow from the grimoire. Or from you.”

Nicole frowned, her brows pulling together tight over her nose. “That’s not what you said yesterday.”

He raised his hand and gently cupped her cheek for a moment. She had no idea why he was being so sweet.

“Even jinn can change their minds, you know.” He sat down next to her on the edge of the window seat.

“What caused you to change it?”

“You,” he answered. “Just now. Shouting down at Marrow from the window.”

Nicole shook her head at the reminder. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that was another mistake.”

He laughed. A real laugh. The sound was so delightfully rich and full it felt like it filled up the whole room.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said. “It was one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard.”

“I don’t understand.”

He stared down at his feet for a full second before letting out a small sigh. “Do you know why I allowed Oberon to make his wishes with me?”

“Because you didn’t have a choice?”

“I always have a choice.”

“You didn’t with me,” she said.

“True. You blindsided me.” Shay cupped his hand over her knee again. “Until you I’d always felt everyone’s intentions far before they ever came close enough to say my name. You were different.”

“Because you couldn’t feel me?”

“Not hardly.” He chuckled. “I could feel every part of you. I just didn’t know what to make of you. Everyone who’d ever bartered their soul away came to me reeking of selfish intentions. But not you. You wanted to protect and preserve. That’s why I never saw your wish coming.”

“But you saw Oberon’s?” she asked. He nodded. “Because he was so powerful?”

“Oberon was nothing when he came to me.” Shay shook his head. “Just a low-ranking soldier in the Queen’s army. But I could feel everything he wanted. His greed. His lust for power. His ruthlessness.”

Nicole narrowed her eyes. “You saw all that, and you let him wish anyway.”

“That was my mistake.” His voice full of regret. “I arrogantly believed that I could control him, the same way I’d controlled all the ambitious fools that had come before him.”

“I take it things didn’t turn out that way.”

“No. I made another mistake,” Shay said. “I underestimated him. I assumed his low rank meant he was easily led. I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

“And that’s how he took power.”

“It was,” he said. “He wished to marry Titania and take the throne by her side, but it was his cleverly calculated second wish that bound me. He wished that I would always obey him. If I had stayed, that wish would have made me his prisoner.”

“So you ran?” She turned toward him fully, pulled in by his story.

“I did,” he said. “I left the palace before he could tell me otherwise and I made sure to keep my distance from him or any palace guards. As the centuries drifted by, my hubris convinced me that Oberon had lost interest in me. Still another mistake.”

A cold feeling rose up in Nicole’s stomach when she realized the direction his story was going. “That’s when he came for you.”

“Exactly.” His voice fell. “He concentrated all the court magicians’ power to shield his presence from me just long enough to command me to return to the palace with him. From that point, I was under his control. He kept me in prison for nearly two centuries before assembling the other exiles and tossing us through the Gate together.”

“Why do you think he waited?” She couldn’t take the guarded pain in his eyes. She caressed the hand on her leg, lacing her fingers between his.

“Oberon needed a spectacle,” he said. “He was in a vulnerable position. Everyone knew he was sitting on the throne because of a wish he’d made nearly three millennia ago. He needed the connection between us severed before his soul was due, but he knew the moment our tie was broken his position was vulnerable. He needed every lackey like Marrow to see that his true power didn’t come from a jinni.”

Nicole sighed. And she thought that navigating the political drama in her role-playing games was complicated. It had nothing on this.

“Well, going by Marrow’s loyalty, it seems that’s Oberon’s position is pretty damn secure.”

The light in Shay’s eyes changed….quite literally. Suddenly, the golden embers were back, floating up through his deep brown irises. They glowed with a magical light as a hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

“Maybe it was,” he said. “But I think that might have changed the moment Marrow felt the power of your family’s grimoire.”

Nicole thought back to the fae’s furious expression as he glowered up at her from the street. It had an edge and determination that wasn’t there when he’d been in the bookshop. His voice had changed too. The dismissive ease was gone. He’d gone from a soldier simply carrying out orders to a man on a mission.

The seeds of understanding took root in Nicole’s mind. Apparently, Shay saw it before even she did.

“That’s right,” he said, encouraging her to say the idea that had blossomed in her mind.

“That’s why Marrow wants the Grimoire.” She grasped his hand even harder as it all became clear. “He thinks he can use its magic to overthrow Oberon.”

“There’s certainly enough power in it.”

“Sure,” she conceded. “But it’s power he can’t access."

A devious sparkle lit up in Shay’s eyes. “But he doesn’t know that.”

That was all it took. Those five words sent Nicole’s mind whirling. She stood up from the window seat.

“There has to be a way that we can use his plan against him.” She strode to his door and back again. She always did her best thinking when her feet were moving. It was a habit that drove her gaming partners crazy sometimes. “Is there a way we could let Oberon know what he has planned?”

“Probably,” Shay said. “But it wouldn’t solve our problems. He’d only send another general to secure the grimoire after eliminating Marrow.”

“It might buy us some time.”

“Not as much as you might think.”

“You’re right.” She took another trip to the door and back. “The better play is using the threat of Oberon to take away Marrow’s advantage. If he’s afraid, he might make a mistake we can exploit.”

“And if Oberon finds out about the grimoire?”

Nicole shrugged. “Then we threaten to use it on him. Like you said, he doesn’t know I’m the only one who can work it. He’d never screw with you again if he thought you had all that power.”

“That’s true.” Shay didn’t sound so serious anymore. His voice was heavy with humor. Enough to make Nicole stop in her tracks and turn his way. Sure enough, the laughter wasn’t just in his voice. It shone in his eyes as well.

“What’s so funny?”

“You,” he said. “Just a few minutes ago, you were so afraid that you’d doomed us all. Now you’re coming up with a plan to stop a fae general and overthrow the King of the Realm.”

Nicole crossed her arms. “And you don’t think I can do it?”

“Just the opposite.” Shay kept his gaze steady on hers. Not even a hint of mockery shone in its depths. “I’m starting to believe that you might be the only one who can.”