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Tears pricked my eyes at the mention of her mother’s name. The mother who had died giving birth to her because she’d been out of reach of both medical and magical intervention. One big reason Vanessa had spent so much
t
around my family growing up—and another reason h disappearance had so devastated Jessica. Her big sister h~ been more like a mother to her than a sibling.

How morbidly apropos that Vanessa chose that same name to give to her own little girl, the one she would never set eyes on the way her mother had never lived to see her. The gods-bedamned circle of life.

Her eyes flew open and she clutched my hand in a suddenly strong grip. “You have to save her, Riss.

Get her away from those bastards for me. Please!”

I forced steel into my voice. “Of course I will, Nessa. I’ll get her back, and I’ll make them pay for what they done to you.” I glanced at Sense, whose eyes glittered w unshed tears. “What they’ve done to you all?’

The strength in her grip faded away as abruptly as it came. Her breathing grew more labored. The stench of death became so sharply acrid I nearly threw up. Vanessa sighed, sagging back against the floor in a boneless pile. “Olivia belongs to you now, Riss. Keep her safe for me. I love you both, so much.”

My vision grew blurry and I leaned my head on her

chest again. “I love you, too, Nessa. Gods speed you home, little sister.”

She let out a breath that sounded more like a sigh, and

her eyes fluttered shut once more. This time, they didn’t snap back open.

THE
STINK OF DEATH FADED. AT FIRST IT WAS
a relief, but then I had to face the reality of what it meant. Vanessa was gone. This time forever.

Grief flared into Rage in a heartbeat. I let it wash over me and took shelter in it, finding its red-hot edge preferable by far to the choking despair on its other side. Vanessa, childhood friend and adolescent confidante, was gone. And I he ones who stole her from me had gotten away.

I leapt to my feet and howled, a harsh, inhuman sound that reverberated in the oversized cavern.

Anger burned, hot and heavy, increasing in leaps and bounds rather than the
typical dribs and drabs. And I let it. Soon I could barely breathe from the sheer brunt of it beating against my every sense. A cold, clinical part of me realized how desperately close to the edge separating Fury from Harpy I had drawn, but I didn’t care.

Fortunately, those around me did. Mom’s hand cracked against my cheek With sickening force. I rocked back a step, lasting blood in my mouth and seeing stars flash across my vision. Even so, it was barely enough to distract me from blazing Rage.

“Snap out of it, Fury!” Sense advanced on me with claws raised high. “How are you going to save her draught if you can’t control yourself?” The words hit harder than my mother’s physical blow. But her next words were the ones to talk me down off the ledge. “I’m going to need your help to track her down.”

Shoving aside the superhuman fury took every ounce of self-control I possessed. My fingers dug furrows into my palms while I took long, slow breaths, focusing on the Harpy’s last few words, repeating them over and over in my mind.
Track her down, track her down.
. .
Have help track her down!
At last, the twin distractions of pa and being needed allowed me to step away from the edge My voice even sounded sane when I looked up and spook again. “You can track her?”

The others’ sighs of relief were audible to my over heightened Fury senses. Sense motioned to the blood staining the ground. “Mother and daughter are bound their shared blood ties. I can use that of the one to magically track the other—with your help to control the Ra~ long enough.”

My mouth widened. The first I’d heard that a Fury could help a Harpy control her unpredictable Rage.

Then again the only Furies willing to help a Harpy would have to magically coerced or tortured into doing it.

I glanced away from the blood and met Mom’s sympathetic eyes. “We’ll have to leave her here for now. Olivia’s what matters most.” I nodded, lips thinning to a tight line. She squeezed my hand. “We can seal the mouth of the cave to make sure nothing disturbs her before we lay her to rest.” My breath blew out explosively, and I let my body relax before nodding again.

It became too much for me. I whirled, fleeing up the tunnel and stumbling out of the cave’s entrance as if demons were pursuing me. Scott’s clenched hands and tense body caught my attention immediately.

He’d heard my cry of Rage but had remained at his self-assigned post. His unspoken faith bolstered me in a way nothing else could have.

He wrapped his arms around me when I threw myself against him, murmuring soothing words that held little meaning other than the fact that he cared enough to speak them. Deep, painful sobs wracked my body. I somehow managed to spill out the story, and he even more miraculously understood my blubbering. Moments passed, moments in which I managed to regain control over my grief and despair, and then footsteps heralded the arrival of the others. I pushed away from Scott and watched as Sense and Genie stepped over to join us. Mom, however, turned to face the mouth of the cave. She raised both hands, honey-blond hair glowing in the soft moonlight and flapping in the evening breeze as she began sucking in huge amounts of magic. She looked like a Celtic witch or a pagan goddess, both of which I numbered among my friends, and the Power surged around us as she called it to her as surely as if she were both. The ground rumbled as she channeled that massive amount of energy into the earth. The terrain surged beneath our feet, churning once, twice, and then the rocky wall surrounding the entrance buckled in on itself, until nothing remained but a smooth, unrelieved mass of stone.

Mom’s body trembled as she approached. I hurried over and wrapped my arm around her, taking half her weight against me and helping her along the rocky ground. Her face looked haggard, and well it should. What she’d just done had taken a tremendous amount of strength. I know I could never have managed it. Working with earth forces like that had never been my strongest suit. I was more a lire-and-air sort of girl, myself.

Scott was the one to break the heavy silence. “Now what?”

Serise gestured with her hands, drawing attention to

the blood-soaked gray cotton she gripped tightly. I blanched. “I use this to track the girl-child, but not without food and rest.
We’ll also need backup, and a lot of it.”

I wanted to rail against the delay, but knew that

only fools rushed in. And Harpies might have been tougher than nails, but even they had their limits.

She’d been held captive For days and tortured, then fought her way to freedom. Not to mention the fact that she’d done her best to protect Vanessa. I would never forget that. And, to top it all off, she was pregnant.

”Don’t worry, we have plenty of backup. And a safe place to regroup. We’ll rendezvous with the, others at the farmhouse and plan our next step. Besides, they’ll probably expect us to rush right in, magic and guns blazing. I’d hate to be so boringly predictable.” A small, smug smile brushed my lips as I glanced from her to my mother. “Not to mention, I have a chip to cash in.”

THE
CHIP IN QUESTION WAS WAITING FOR US by
the time we made it back to the farm. Serise had no problem flying Genie out, but I had to support an exhausted Mom in addition to carrying Scott, and, that slowed us down considerably. I had to give Calaeno props. She’d responded to my cell phone call quickly and efficiently (more than I could say for Stacia, who did not answer my repeated calls—I might have worried if I’d had the time), and a good dozen Harpies—probably the ones she’d had with her in the alleyway outside our safe house—poured out of the barn the moment they sensed their sister land.

Or it could have been the scent of two of their most ancient enemies that had them hustling so quickly.

I found myself glad Calaeno showed the sense of

keeping her “girls” in the barn, rather than joining the others inside the house. Furies weren’t the only ones who disliked Harpies, not by a long shot. And seeing as how we were all going to have to work together—and trust each other—in the coming hours, I would definitely prefer to avoid any little

“accidents” that might make that prospect impossible.

Calaeno smiled the moment Sense’s feet touched the ground. The wiped-out Harpy rushed to her Queen and bowed deeply. Her legs trembled from the effort, and she let out a surprised noise as they collapsed beneath her and she fell toward the ground. The Harpy next to Calaeno— the Queen had introduced her earlier as her second, Penelope—grabbed Sense by the arms just in time. She seemed somehow familiar, though probably because I’d seen her in the alleyway the day before. The three of them murmured words too low for me to make out, since I was more focused on helping my mother cross the yard at the moment.

Scott’s eyes met mine, and I nodded toward the house. “Get her to bed, please. I’ll handle things out here.”

Morn mumbled a protest, but Scott handled her with ease, taking my place at her side and browbeating her across the yard, much as I would have done. I couldn’t hold back a grin. Damn, I loved that man.

That thought nearly had me stumbling worse than Mom. Oh gods. I really did still love him. And probably always would...

But then thoughts of Vanessa intruded, and I felt

guilty for feeling even a moment’s happiness when her daughter was still in so much danger. I shoved both emotions aside and went to deal with the devil.

Serise fell silent midsentence at my approach, failing into line between Calaeno and the Harpy who had saved her from falling on her ass.
Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be.
I felt foolish for feeling a pang of betrayal. After all, her kind and mine had been enemies for countless centuries. Millennia, even.

Calaeno stepped forward, hands outstretched. Surprised, I let her take hold of mine. She kissed me on one cheek, and then the other. Odd. I hadn’t known Harpies could be this civilized. Then again, normally we were too busy trying to kill each other to socialize much.

“We are grateful for the return of Qur missing sister, and we will take great pleasure in fulfilling the bargain we made with you. We thirteen shall stand with you as you rescue the captive arcanes. All enmities will be forgotten in the time it takes to accomplish this. For that period of time, we wifi be as one in spirit and purpose.”

Her words sounded friendly and sincere. Still, taking them for face value would make me nothing less than a moron. “Your words warm my heart, and I agree that all enmities shall be forgotten while we engage in this common cause. Still, I assume you will not mind taking the same blood-oath that all of us have taken?”

She curved her lips in a wolfish smile, the Harpy gazing out from her face with hungry eyes. I fought back a shiver. “Of course. Providing all of you are willing to affirm your peaceful intents toward me and mine with another blood-oath.”

Crafty bitch. I was kind of hoping she wouldn’t think of that. It might have come in handy later on.

“Of course,” I echoed. “I assume binding just the lieutenants to the new vow and having them bind their people in turn will suffice?”

The Harpy Queen merely nodded.

“Excellent. I would be honored if you would serve as lieutenant over your sisters. I’d rather not split any of the other groups up since the blood-oath has already settled.”

“A wise idea?’

I gestured to the house behind me. “I regret that I cannot offer any bedrooms for your use.”

She pointed to the barn. “This building is more than adequate for our purposes.”

“I’m glad to hear that. If you and Sense would accompany me inside, we can see the additional blood-oaths taken and plan our next course of action.”

Calaeno’s eyes narrowed. “What is your interest in Sense?” Her voice dripped with thinly veiled menace. Whoa! Apparently I’d struck a nerve.

“Only the fact that she can offer the most recent, most accurate information on those we must soon face in battle. And her offer to track them down.”

Sense flushed when her Queen turned an arched brow in her direction. “You neglected to mention this offer, sister”

“I meant to, Majesty. But—”

Calaeno waved a talon-tipped hand. “Never mind. Come along.” She murmured orders to the rest of her entourage before herding Serise toward the farmhouse. “The sooner we find those we seek, the sooner we can discharge our duties and be on our way.”

That sounded like a damned good plan to me.

WITH LIMITED PLACES TO SLEEP, IT SEEMED
stupid to insist on separate bedrooms when we could draw comfort—even if not sexual—from each other. Several hours later, I lay in bed next to Scott listening to him snore softly, staring up at the ceiling and trying to figure out what was bugging me. Well, other than the fact that I’d watched my best friend die in front of me.

I was glad that Calaeno had so readily agreed to assist in our assault on the new lab. After she’d earlier stated that the Harpies wouldn’t be helping with that little endeavor, I’d figured it would take some wrangling to get her to let me claim that as my boon. Sure, she seemed impatient to get it over with—that whole “The sooner we find those ‘we seek, the sooner we can discharge our duties and be on our way” comment.

A frown crossed my face as something about that

statement niggled at the back of my brain. Slipping out of bed, I paced to the half-open window and peered across the yard to the old-fashioned, red-slatted barn crouched in the darkness. More than a dozen of Furykind’s staunchest enemies were currently holed up in that building. But that wasn’t what was bugging me.

An owl took flight, hooting as it soared from the top of the barn toward the nearby woods. My eyes tracked its path as it flew, and I began running everything Calaeno had said the day before through my mind. She’d asked how many Harpies I’d killed, and seemed unsurprised when I’d said only one. The loss of her first sister, Rinda, hadn’t bothered her much, since Rinda had died “honorably” while trying to carry out a mission. Sense, on the other hand, had vanished after a meeting with one of their clien…