CHAPTER ONE
ONE: MAEVE
Corbin’s lifeless head lolled back onto the ground, and my heart crumbled to dust.
He can’t be dead. He can’t be.
But my rational mind fought against my protests. Corbin wasn’t moving or crying out. The bone knife was buried in his side right up to the hilt. It would’ve struck organs. He’d been bleeding internally for Athena knows how long. I hadn’t seen him since he’d locked me and Rowan away in the priest hole.
Blood pounded in my ears. The world around me faded. The angry villagers, the triumphant grin on Daigh’s face, and the horrifying stakes rigged up to accept their sacrifices all blurred into white noise as Corbin’s glassy eyes shattered the universe around me.
The remains of my heart sank through my chest cavity, settling over my organs like crystalline tears. My body lost form and function, toppling forward through the void of the world. My head slammed into the ground and bounced, wrenching my neck so hard stars danced in front of my eyes. I didn’t feel any of it.
Corbin’s dead. Dead, dead, dead.
Pain tore at my body as the familiar, numb horror of grief setted in.
Corbin’s dead and it’s all my fault.
Imade the decision to drop the barrier and allow the humans into Briarwood.Itrusted Daigh and Aline against all the evidence that warned me otherwise.Ikept secret what Aline and I had done and allowed Corbin to walk into that battle unprepared.I’dhidden away in that priest hole like a coward while he sacrificed his life for us. I should have known as soon as he shoved Rowan and I in there that all was lost.
Corbin would never allow us to lose Briarwood without a fight, even if it meant…
… if it meant…
I choked on the dust of my shattered heart.
I gulped in a breath, trying to force myself back to the present. But the grief bit into me and I couldn’t think. Numb, I watched Daigh pace in front of his troops, his lips curled in a smirk, his eyes cold and focused. He yelled something that made the villagers cheer, but the words were without meaning.
Maeve, can you hear me?
Blake’s voice roared inside my head, snapping me back from my grief. Cold dirt bit my cheek. Fresh grass tickled the back of my neck.
Maeve, I know you’re hurting, but you must focus. We need to get everyone else away from here before they end up joining Corbin. I don’t think the villagers are safe. I have a way, but I need your help.
At the mention of Corbin’s name, another wave of grief rocked my body. I reeled, pulling my mind back to the present, to Blake, to Arthur and Flynn and Rowan and Kelly – the people I loved who were still alive but in terrible danger. I was still the High Priestess. I was still responsible for them.
Two of the fae stepped forward, looping their bows over their backs as they grabbed Corbin’s legs and arms and dragged his body toward the roaring bonfire. Behind me, I was faintly aware of the villagers yelling.They’re going to get their burning witch tonight.
But they won’t get us all. The Briarwood coven will survive. I’ll make sure of it, even if means I die on that fire myself.
I tested my magic, calling up the pillar of power that flared inside me. It sizzled as it slid under my skin, but when I tried to push the energy out of my palms and fingers, it resisted, bouncing back at me and shooting hot energy back into my veins. I was definitely blocked.
I lifted my head and sent a thought back to Blake.Okay.I’m here. My magic is blocked but I’m ready to push as soon as it’s free. What’s the plan?
There’s going to be a distraction. I’m hoping it will break the spell that prevents us using our powers. When it happens, I need you to do whatever it takes to get to me. We’re going to have to break that annoying moral code of yours and force all the fae back into the Underworld, and then rewrite the memories of the villagers so we’re the good witches saving them from the evil magical fae.
It took me a moment to realise what he was talking about.
Compulsion.
As witches, Blake and I should never be able to perform compulsion – it was fae magic through and through. Just as well, because the idea of messing in other people’s minds was a bit ethically wobbly to me. But Blake’s childhood under Daigh’s ruthless tutelage had given him the ability to transcend his spirit powers, and he could perform basic compulsion that – when teamed up with my heightened powers of projection and dreamwalking – meant we’d once been able to tell a whole bunch of fae to fuck right off, and off they’d fucked.
Apparently we were going to do it again.
I can do that,I thought to Blake.Wearethe good witches.
I could practically hear Blake’s smirk.If you say so, Princess.
