“Where is the old witch?”

Dani gave me a glum look. “Right now?”

I nodded.

“Behind you.”

I whirled, bringing my gun up sharp and hard. And there it was: my biggest, most disconcerting shock of the day. Far more shocking than expanding Dark Zones, sky battles, and Interdimensional Fairy Potholes.

There stood Rowena, decked out in high Grand Mistress garb—the robes of the order that had been founded for the express purpose of hunting and killing Fae—arm in arm with a Fae. The Fae that had just sifted her in behind me.

It was no wonder Dani had been looking around nervously.

And no wonder V’lane had known my spear was at the abbey.

He was at the abbey.

All cozy with Rowena. Sifting her around, apparently.

I lowered my gun and glared at V’lane. “Is this a joke? Do you think this is funny? Why didn’t you just sift me here to begin with, if you were coming this way?”

Rowena’s nose could have pointed more skyward only if she’d been lying on her back. “As the spear is no longer your possession, nor is this Fae Prince. He has seen the light you fail to see. He aids all sidhe-seers now, not just one.”

Oh, really? We’d see about that. Both the spear and the prince. “I was talking to V’lane, old woman, not you.”

“He doesn’t answer to you.”

“Really?” I laughed. “You think he answers to you?” Only a fool would think a Fae Prince answered to anyone. Especially when one needed one.

“Are you fighting over me, MacKayla? I find this … attractive.” V’lane tossed his golden head. “I have seen this in humans before. It is called jealousy.”

“If that’s what you think, you have a problem interpreting subtle human emotions. It’s not called jealousy. It’s called ‘you’re pissing me off.’”

“Possessiveness.”

“My ass.”

“Is far more shapely than last I saw it.”

“She’s been working out.” Dani snickered.

“You have no business looking at it,” I said.

“But Barrons does?” The temperature in the room dropped sharply.

My breath frosted the air. “We are not talking about Barrons.” We were never going to talk about Barrons.

“I’d like to talk about Barrons,” said Dani.

“You chose,” V’lane said coldly.

“I chose nothing. I was out of my mind. Is that what this is about, V’lane? Barrons? You sound jealous. Possessive.”

“He does,” Dani agreed.

“Haud your whist!” Rowena snapped. “The lot of you! For the love of Mary, can you not see the world is falling apart around you, yet you stand here, bickering like children? You”—she stabbed a finger at me—“a sidhe-seer, and you”—she actually poked V’lane in the arm, and he looked startled that she’d done it—“a Fae Prince!” She glowered at Dani. “And don’t even get me started on you. You think I don’t know what you’ve been doing to bruise yourself so badly? I’m Grand Mistress, not grand fool. Enough, all of you!”

“Haud your whist yourself, old woman,” I told her flatly. “I’ll bicker while the world falls apart if I feel like it. I’ve done more good and less damage than you. Who had the Sinsar Dubh to begin with—and lost it?”

“Don’t be pushing your nose into doings you can’t begin to understand, girl!”

“Then help me understand them. I’m all ears. Where—no, how—were you keeping the Book?” That was what I wanted to know most. The secret to touching it, to containing the Sinsar Dubh, was the key to harnessing its power. “What happened? How did you lose it?”

“You answer to me, sidhe-seer,” she spat, “not the other way around.”

“In whose warped fantasy?”

“While at my abbey. Now might be the time to take a careful look around you.” It was a threat.

I didn’t need to. I’d heard the other sidhe-seers crowding close while we were arguing. The hall was large, and from the hushed murmurs, I guessed several hundred were behind me. “What have you done since the walls came down, Rowena?” I demanded. “Have you found the Book yet? Have you accomplished anything that might restore order to our world? Or are you still lording your power over a band of women who would do better with a little power of their own? You squeeze the heart out of who and what they are with your rules and regulations. You tie them down when you should be helping them learn to fly.”

“And getting them killed?”

“In any war there are losses. It’s their choice. It’s their birthright. We fight. And sometimes we pay terrible prices. Believe me, I know. But as long as we breathe, we get back up and fight again.”

“You brought us the Orb spiked with Shades!”

“You don’t believe that,” I scoffed. “If you did, you’d have killed me when I was Pri-ya, unable to defend myself. I’ll bet the very fact that I got turned Pri-ya is what convinced you that I wasn’t allied with the Lord Master.” I shrugged. “Why turn a turncoat? There’s no need.”

“There are spies within spies.”

“I’m not one of them. And I’m staying right here, in your abbey, until you see that.”

She blinked. I’d startled the old woman. I wasn’t angling for an invitation. I was staying with or without her permission. Openly or in hiding. I didn’t care which. There were two things within these walls I needed: my spear and answers, and I wasn’t leaving without both of them.

“We don’t want you here.”

“I didn’t want my sister to be murdered. I didn’t want to find out I was a sidhe-seer. I didn’t want to be raped by Unseelie Princes.” I listed my grievances but kept it brief. “In fact, I haven’t wanted a single thing that’s happened to me in the past few months. Fact is, I really don’t even want to be here myself, but a sidhe-seer does what needs to be done.”

We stared at each other.

“Would you agree to supervision?” she said finally, very tightly.

“We can discuss that.” Discussing is where it would end. I would take all her BS under advisement. Before I discarded it. “How’s the Book hunt going, Rowena?” I knew the answer. It wasn’t. “Has anyone spotted it lately?”

“What do you propose?”

“Give me the spear and I’ll go out hunting it.”

“Never.”

“‘Bye, then.” I walked past her, toward the door.

Behind me, sidhe-seers exploded. I smiled. They were frustrated. They were tired of being caged and accomplishing nothing. They were primed for a little pre-mutiny meddling, and I was primed to meddle.

“Silence!” Rowena said. “And you”—she snapped at my back—”stop right there!”

The hall went still. I paused at the door but I didn’t turn. “I won’t go out hunting it without the ability to defend myself.” I paused and bit my tongue hard before adding, “Grand Mistress.”

The silence stretched.

Finally, “You can take Dani, with the sword. She will defend you.”

“Give me the spear and she can come, too. And you can send any of your other sidhe-seers you want, as well.”

“What’s to keep you from walking away, from turning your back on us the minute I give you the spear?”

I whirled. My hands fisted and my lips drew back. Later, Dani would tell me I’d looked half animal, half avenging angel. It impressed even her, and the kid is tough to impress.

“I care, that’s what,” I snarled. “I drove out here through a wasteland. I saw the piles and husks everywhere. I looked in the baby’s car seat before I took it out of the Rover. I know what they’re doing to our world, and I will either stop them or die trying. So get the feck off my back—where you’ve been since the night you met me—and wake up! I’m not the bad guy. I’m the good guy. I’m the one who can help. And I will, but on my terms, not yours. Otherwise, I’m out of here.”

Dani stepped past Rowena and joined me. “And I’m going with her.”

I looked at her, my lips rounded on “no,” then I caught myself. What rights had I just argued for? Dani was old enough to choose. In my book, old enough to kill is old enough to choose. I think hell has a special place for hypocrites.