«Aren’t they miserable already?»

«Perhaps, perhaps not. But if I have their souls, they will become aware of their suffering. I will make certain of it.»

Alanna shrugged, pretending not to care. She had to make Kieran think she sided with him until the very last minute.

«Well, whatever you intend do with the dogs’ souls, the sword maker kept his end of the bargain, to my surprise. I will take his sons back to the human world.»

Kieran gave her another disgusted look. «I don’t bargain with Shifters.» He snapped his fingers. «You. Bring the Shifter’s get.»

Two attendants disappeared and returned holding the squirming Fae-cat cubs. The cubs were wrapped in nets, both attendants cursing as they dropped the bundles to the ground.

One of the attendants put his hands on his hips, panting. «They refuse to shift back to human form.»

Alanna knelt next to the net-wrapped cubs, keeping herself out of reach of their flailing claws. «Your father sends his love,» she whispered so the attendants wouldn’t hear. «He says to tell you he’s proud of you.»

Both small cats eyed her in suspicion, but they quieted.

Kieran strode to them. «Let us test the blade on them, shall we?»

Alanna rose quickly. «You said it wasn’t a killing blade.»

«No, but it will likely do some damage; they are small, and I imagine their souls will be. cute.»

Alanna tried to grab Kieran’s arm, but before she could, a huge Fae-cat tore through the clearing and leaped at him.

Niall.

He’d followed her. Alanna watched in panic as the men-at-arms and attendants fought him off. Kieran would kill Niall for certain.

Niall fought hard, but there were ten Fae to one Shifter and, after a few minutes of struggle, Niall was overwhelmed. The men-at-arms bound him in another net, and Niall went insane, fighting and clawing the ropes, foam and blood flecking his mouth.

Kieran approached Niall, rage on his face. «I’ll test the blade on its maker instead.»

Alanna clenched her hands in fear, but Niall raged and fought so hard through the net that Kieran couldn’t get near him. The men-at-arms advised their prince to abandon the attempt.

«Tell him to shift back,» Kieran shouted at Alanna. «He shifts back or I kill his cubs.»

«Why would he listen to me?» Alanna folded her arms. «I’m Fae. He was foul as foul can be the whole time. I hope you’re happy. Shifters disgust me.»

Niall roared, the sound filling the clearing. His children fought and yowled, encouraged by their father’s wrath.

«Fine,» Kieran said. «I’ll shoot the bastard, instead. Good target practice.»

Alanna touched his arm, trying to make her tone cool. «Why don’t you show the Shifter smith what the sword was made for?»

Kieran stopped, then a feral smile creased his face. «Sister, you will make a fine Fae yet. Watch, Shifter. Let me show you how I can reach into the past and hurt your kind in the present.»

The Prince walked to the closest mound, flicking back his cloak. He lifted the sword and drove it point down straight through the mound.

Light flashed up the length of the sword, and a shower of dirt shot from the grave. In the midst, a swirl of smoke changed into the misty shape of a Fae-wolf. Kieran laughed. He went to the next mound, and the next, releasing the essences of the Lupines, who floated insubstantially over the places where their bones had been buried.

Kieran flourished the sword, its silver blade flashing. «Behold the souls of those who slew my grandfather.» He turned to them, and opened his arms. «You will surrender to me, and do what I bid. You will kill the Shifter Feline and his cubs.»

The figures whirled around him. Alanna held her breath, fingers at her mouth. This was not what she’d expected to happen. She’d changed the spells so that the wolves would disperse, their souls free for all eternity, not bound. Instead they lingered, like wolves gathering around prey.

Prey.

«Kieran!» Alanna shouted. «Drop the sword. Run!»

Kieran ignored her. He swept the sword blade through the ghostlike creatures. «Obey, wraiths. Now you are mine.»

The wolves circled him, their eyes glowing yellow through the mist. As one, they attacked. Kieran cried out as the pack swept down on him in wild glee, and then he began to scream.

Niall shifted to human form, watching in amazement as the insubstantial wolves ripped into Kieran. They were mist and smoke — they shouldn’t be able to touch him — and yet the wolves rapidly tore the Prince apart. His pristine white cloak turned scarlet, and his men-at-arms and attendants fled.

The sword flew from Kieran’s hand, as though it propelled itself, and landed at Niall’s feet. Kieran screamed again. His bloody body turned in on itself and crumpled to dust.

The wolves padded in a circle around the Prince’s remains, then they lifted their heads and howled. It was a faint whisper of a howl, eerie and hollow, but it held a note of triumph.

The wolves shifted into a dozen men with broad shoulders and flowing hair, with the light blue eyes common to Lupines. They gave Niall and Alanna a collective look of acknowledgment, shifted back into wolves, and vanished. Wisps of smoke spun high into the sky and faded away.

Alanna caught up the sword, sliced swiftly through the net binding Niall, and helped him out of it. She moved to cut the ropes binding Piers and Marcus. Both cubs shifted into boys, running to Niall and throwing their arms around him. Tears streamed down Niall’s face as he knelt and gathered them in.

He looked over their heads at Alanna, who clenched the sword, her dark eyes wild. «Alanna, what happened? What did you do?»

Alanna was shaking, but she lifted her chin. «Kieran commanded me to make a soul-stealer, but I spelled the sword to be a soul releaser. Instead of binding the souls of those Shifters, driving it through their remains set them free.» She drew a breath, looking white and sick. «That’s all I meant to do. I did not realize the Shifters would decide to take their vengeance — I did not know they could.»

As horrifying as Kieran’s death had been Niall couldn’t be unhappy that the cruel Fae who’d abducted his children and would have murdered them was gone. «If they hadn’t, the Prince would have killed all of us.»

«Me, certainly,» Alanna said. «I hoped that while he attacked me, you and your cubs could get away.»

Niall shot to his feet. «That was your excellent plan? For me to run away while you died? ’Tis not what Shifters do for mates, lass.»

«It’s done, Niall. You must leave now. If they find you here, they will hold you responsible. Kieran’s cousin, his heir, had no love for him, but the Fae might demand he make an example of you.»

«And what is to say they won’t come after me into the human world?»

«Because most Fae had no love for Kieran, either.» Alanna smiled. «I doubt any of them will be willing to risk entering the human world again to hunt down a Shifter to avenge his name.»

«You cannot stay here, either, lass. They’ll blame you too.»

Alanna gave him a thoughtful look. «Perhaps, if you exchanged your steel knives for bronze ones, I could better serve you breakfast?»

Niall’s heart thumped fast and hard. He reached for her, pulled her into the circle of his family. «Love, you saved my boys, and me. You will stay with me as long as you damn well please.»

«Could you bring yourself to love a Fae?» she whispered.

«If that Fae was you, I think I could.»

Alanna pulled away and held the sword out to him. «This belongs to you.»

Niall closed his hand around the hilt. The sword felt right in his hand, as though he’d made it for himself to wield. «A soul-releaser?»

«I spelled it so that when a Shifter’s soul is in peril of being bound to its body or to another’s will, this sword will release it in peace. The Lupine souls that had been cursed to linger at their graves have at last gone to the Summerland.»

Niall studied the lines that ran down the blade and the hilt. «Why did you do this? Why help Shifters? You’re Fae.»

«You speak in ignorance, Niall. Most of the Fae are noble people. Some like Kieran, or our grandfather, or the ones who made and enslaved the Shifters in the first place, were cruel — even we consider them cruel. Fae have long lives, and we now live remote from the human world, which makes us view things differently. Kieran’s plan was that of a child pulling wings from a fly. I could not let him succeed.»

The boys were looking at the sword too, with the bright gazes of lads fascinated by a pretty weapon. Niall saw long days ahead explaining to them why they couldn’t touch it.

«Why didn’t you tell me, lass?» he asked. «When we made the sword together, why didn’t you tell me what you were doing?»

«Because when I walked into your forge, I knew you hated Fae. Why should you help me? You are Shifter. And to be honest, I simply didn’t think you’d believe me.»

«And you’d have been right, love. I wouldn’t have.» Niall’s heart squeezed as he thought of the danger she’d walked into, taking the sword to the Fae realm and knowing her brother would discover what she’d done. «But you should have told me this morning what you intended.»

«I intended to have your children back to you before you woke. I never thought you’d be daft enough to follow me to Faerie.»

«Daft, am I?» Niall tilted her face to his. «I am, to love a Fae. Now let’s be going, before your brother’s keepers return for us.»

They went, through the mists and the standing stones, back to the freezing wind from the wild sea, the light dancing on the waves and the green of the Great Isle across the strait. The wind tossed Alanna’s hair, which streamed like gold.