Kinsella was sorry. He hadn’t meant to offend me. He wanted to make it up to me with dinner and dancing at the banquet hall in O’Briens. I could bring my “friends.”

He’d probably sneered as he wrote that word.

My rage was a hurricane inside of me.

“Why are we doing this outside?” Hollace asked, his glass of champagne almost empty.

“Because it’s a nice day.” Cyra’s champagne was boiling, steam rising from the glass. She could transfer heat to anything with a simple touch. She apparently didn’t much care for champagne.

“Yes.” Mr. Tom slid a plate of melon slices wrapped in prosciutto onto the table. “Easter was so nice, I thought we might do something similar. I did not hide any eggs, though. I didn’t want to offend God.”

“That’s not…” I shook my head, letting it go.

“This is a trap,” Austin said, in jeans and a T-shirt, his hair rumpled and a spot of blood on his neck. A grizzly bear shifter had challenged him earlier in the day. He was happy to have acquired the shifter for his pack, but the sight of his gashes and seeping wounds had not made me happy. In the future, I intended to be at hand for challenges like that. I didn’t give a crap how shifters did things—I would not allow someone to kill Austin.

“Traps are good. We get to flex our muscles,” Cyra said.

“It takes a lot of the risk out of it when you come back from the dead.” Ulric scanned the ground even though Mr. Tom had said he hadn’t hidden any eggs.

“Yes, but dying still hurts,” she replied. Little flames replaced the steam at the top of her glass. “Dying at the hand of the alpha was not pleasant.”

Sebastian stood a few feet away in the sun, watching the basajaun eat flowers near the tree line. He’d come to check on me. The mage had foolishly sent the vampires after the shifters following our dinner, something that hadn’t ended well for the vampires, and the basajaun had heard the fighting through the trees.

“I called the closest office of magical mercenaries,” Sebastian said. “They’re sold out. They had access to fifty contractors, but they wouldn’t tell me if the same person took them all.”

“There’s an office for that stuff?” I asked, leaning my elbows on the table.

“Of course,” he replied. “How else would you hire them?”

“That seems awfully civilized,” I murmured.

“Tell me about the banquet hall,” Kingsley said, sitting beside his brother.

Austin leaned back and rubbed his fingers through his hair. “It’s a large facility used for weddings or special events, able to house…three hundred, probably. The inside is mostly open—there are four rooms: a main room, an entrance area, and a kitchen and dining room grouped together. Very few places to hide. The grounds are geared toward pictures and parking, mostly. There’s a large lot with plenty of space for us to maneuver the limos. The trick is that the place is on a rolling hill leading up a mountain. Great views, but the only way in and out for a car is a narrow two-lane road with very few pullouts. Block that road, and you block road transportation.”

“What do we care about road transportation?” Kingsley asked.

“Why do we care about road transportation?” Ulric asked with a laugh. “That sounds like the perfect setup for fliers.”

“If you go in,” Kingsley told Austin, “you cannot leave until the battle is done. If you go running, it’ll undermine Ivy House and your territory. Mercenaries for hire can be strong contenders. They have advanced weapons and are capable of handling all manner of magical creatures. Fifty or so of those plus whomever he’s called in from home, plus the people we didn’t take out the other night…”

“Failing to show won’t look any better,” Austin said. “Though we could just refuse his—”

“We’re not going to fail to show, and we’re not going to go running,” I said. “I gave him an opportunity to leave. He chose to double down on being a dick. So now we’ll send a message.”

Sebastian nodded, still watching the basajaun. So was Edgar, quietly sitting at the table, his champagne untouched. Why anyone had poured him any, I had no clue.

“Kingsley, can I have a word?” Austin said before glancing back at me. “Jess?”

We walked a few paces away from the others, and I wrapped us in a soundproof bubble.

Austin’s voice was low despite the spell protection. “I’ve dealt with mercenaries around here before. They are unnecessarily vicious and they don’t fight fair. They aim to kill, and they can do it from a distance. They’ll go for the most powerful first.”

“Mercenaries are the same everywhere.” Kingsley’s hands stayed at his sides, but he somehow gave the illusion of flaring them wide, bracing for a fight. “His people were nothing. Those mercenaries will be our real adversaries.”

“His people can be used to create chaos.” Austin squared off with his brother, and I realized there was something behind the scenes here that I didn’t understand. “Sheer numbers can dominate in something like this, and he’ll have those numbers, I can feel it. They’re going to try to trap us.”

“Let them,” Sebastian said, stepping toward us. Austin and his brother shot him fearsome looks, and he grimaced. “No one else can hear you, just me. Jess’s spells are really coming along, but she hasn’t fixed this one. It’s pretty easy to circumvent. If I may…” He sidled closer, hunched a little and with his hands up—a defensive posture—and I expanded the bubble to include him. “They’re trying to trap you. Let them. We have two powerful mages and the most fearsome alpha in the world, whose rage is tethered by a deteriorating leash. That’s all we need to win.”

“Two of the most fearsome alphas,” Kingsley growled.

“You have a family at home, Kingsley Barazza,” Austin replied, his eyes hard. “This isn’t your fight. You’ve been an incredible help to me, but my little niece needs a father. I nearly took you from her once. I will not do it again.”

“Your little niece isn’t so little anymore, and she would scold me if I walked away from Uncle Auzzie at a time like this.” Kingsley leaned in a little, and my small hairs stood on end. “We’re brothers. I’ve got your back, no matter what. I’m in this.”

They stared at each other for a tense moment. Sebastian scooted away again, hunching even more now.

As though a bubble burst, both men breathed out and their postures relaxed. Austin held out his hand, and Kingsley grabbed it, pulling him into a bro hug.

“Don’t think I won’t call you if someone tries to steamroll my pack,” Kingsley told Austin.

“I’d expect nothing less.”

They stepped back, and I popped the bubble of silence, making a mental note to ask Sebastian how to make a better one.

“Now that that’s settled, whatever it was”—Mr. Tom walked over with a silver tray laden with champagne—“care for another drink, anyone?”

“Do you have any beer?” Kingsley asked.

“At a garden party?” Mr. Tom put up his nose and pushed the tray forward. “I most certainly do not.”

Kingsley took the champagne, staring Mr. Tom down all the while.

“Go ahead, do your worst,” Mr. Tom responded. “I’m used to it.”

Austin turned to Sebastian. “You said two powerful mages. Do you plan to do more than lurk this time?”

Sebastian gave a humorless grin. “I most certainly do. And I can’t wait to see their faces when I let the magic fly.”

I’d accepted the invitation shortly after receiving it, and now, two days later, we were preparing to walk into the belly of the beast.

Austin sat at the table by my bedroom window, waiting for me to finish getting ready. He had on jeans and a T-shirt (we’d decided there was no point in being uncomfortable for what was surely going to be a battle). His people were assembled and ready, along with Kingsley and his people, all waiting at the base of the mountain in animal form. They would scale the mountain with Edgar, and Austin, Sebastian, and I would drive up. The basajaun, who’d offered to help because he’d overindulged in flowers at the forced garden party (Niamh maintained that he’d done it on purpose because he wanted to come all along), would ride with us. Sebastian was the one who’d made the suggestion about the ride-along—he wanted to see the mages’ face when they caught sight of our fearsome friend. Given the basajaun’s great love was causing horrible surprises, he’d been tickled by the idea. The rest of my people would fly in as we drove, swooping down when the action started.

Speaking of my team…

“I want to give Cyra, Hollace, and Nathanial more time,” I called to Austin, “because I haven’t gotten to properly interact with them, but it seems like the right time to ask Sebastian to join the team. What do you think?”

“I’d say it’s a good bet. He’s done nothing but help you, and he gets along with everyone.”

I nodded. “Good. I mean, we’ll see how he does with the…possibly very awkward and embarrassing dinner and dancing coming up.”

“Fat chance.”

“We’ll see how he does in the battle, then.”

“I think the team is shaping up to be really strong, babe,” he said, standing when I exited the bathroom.

I walked into his arms, needing a moment to lean on him, to soak in his strength. It still felt surreal that we were together, that someone as hot as him was calling me babe. The most desirable bachelor in the area, for Janes and magical people alike, had said he’d wait for me to come around and be his mate.

“Good,” I said, “but I’m still not looking forward to this.” I huffed out a shaky laugh. “You’d think I’d be used to fighting by now.”

“I don’t think you’ll ever get used to bloodshed, but you, Jacinta Ironheart, are strong enough to bear anything.”