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throat that he didn’t die and could take a breath. Then I squeezed again.
    ‘You’re going to tell Morrigan that I’m coming for her. And that she made a mistake taking Anyan. Before, we were ready to play the way she’d always played, but now all bets are off. We’re going to find a way to kill her, and for good.
    ‘She’s going to die, and she’s not coming back from this one.’
    I let go of Graeme’s throat so promptly he fell forward; choking with harsh strangled sounds that were like the sweet tinkling of bells to my ear.
    ‘Now get the hell out of here. And if you ever step foot in Rockabill again, I’m killing you.’
    With those words I sent a massive arc of power at the frozen golem. It exploded in a magnificent shower of icy mud that rained over Graeme like a riot of chocolate sprinkles.
    He looked up at me, then, and although his eyes were still full of the same hate they always were, I saw something new.
    I saw fear.
    I saw respect.
    I saw the Jane I’d become – the avenging Fury who meant it when she said she’d kill someone.
    A dark shadow swooped down on Graeme from above, and then he was aloft, carried by the now recovered harpy.
    I signaled for Ryu to release the other one, who launched herself in the air with the aerial version of a limp.
    She buzzed out of sight, lumbering in the night sky like a pollen-drunk honeybee, following the larger shape of her Graeme-laden sister.
    Turning back to Ryu, I found him watching me with a dark, inscrutable gaze. Graeme wasn’t the only one who got schooled that day.
    It seemed that everyone was learning just what Jane was made of, including Jane herself.

Chapter Five
    ‘Is that the creature?’ Iris whispered at me, pointing surreptitiously at the giant eyeball staring at us from the rock wall.
    ‘Yes. Well, its eye at least.’
    ‘And the, um, appendages?’ she said, giving a furtive flutter of her hand toward the piles of tentacles lying around the cave.
    ‘Yes, they belong to the creature, too.’
    The creature had apparated all of us down to its underground lair. Graeme had undoubtedly taken my message back to Morrigan, but we knew there was a good chance the harpies were still skulking about, trying to spy on us.
    And since harpies, with their control over the air, could do all sorts of things to make listening from a distance easy, the creature had suggested we meet underground, on its turf.
    The cave hadn’t changed much – it was still dank, drippy, and muddy. I was relieved, however, that Phaedra’s body was nowhere to be seen. The creature had speared the little Alfar like a kebab; only tentacles make much bigger holes than skewers.
    It hadn’t been a pleasant sight, watching her die, and her corpse would be even less pleasant after time to rot.
    With us for this meeting were Iris, Caleb, Ryu, Daoud (in from Boston), Nell, and Trill. At my insistence, we’d also brought my father, Grizzie, and Tracy. Ryu was not convinced that they’d be of any use, but I wanted them there for a few reasons. I wanted their support, if I was honest, but I also knew that, sometimes, those farthest from a problem could often see it the clearest.
    We had left Gog, Magog, and Hiral back at the ranch. It’s not that I didn’t want to trust them, but I also knew that they had divided loyalties, no matter how much they liked and supported me. They’d always have their affiliations to the rebels of the Great Island, and after Lyman’s betrayal I wasn’t able to trust his brother, Jack, the rebel leader. For even though I knew Jack was devastated by his brother’s betrayal and subsequent death, we now knew Jack didn’t have the control over his people that he thought he did. If his brother could go that rotten without him realizing, lord only knows what else was lurking in his crew. So while I trusted Gog and Magog to have my back, I didn’t trust them not to tell Jack what we were up to.
    Hiral was another matter. The little gwyllion had grown on