“It has.”

The Abbess barely gestured behind her, and Ludolf fanned his hands across each other, releasing Balla.

“I’m surprised, Hurik,” he said, ignoring the gasping and coughing of the temple virgin on the ground, “to see you traveling with heretics.”

“Don’t worry about what I’m doing, Ludolf. What are you doing?” She gestured at the ground. “Is this all because of you? What the centaur sees?”

“This?” He studied the ground and Gemma realized he could see what the rest of them could not. “I wish my powers extended to such feats but no. This was not me.” He seemed to study their group as some helped Balla and the others held up their weapons, ready to charge. “Such an interesting . . . team, you have. And so close to the newish queen. Maybe you can help her.”

“Help her?” Gemma scoffed. “To do what? Fight an invisible army?”

“The ones that left the tracks only I and your horse-man can see are long gone, War Monk. But the friends that Cyrus the Honored left behind are still here.”

He had the attention of all of them. Even Balla, with her hand around her throat, stared at the red-robed man.

“What friends?” the Abbess asked.

“Why fight two armies when you can fight just one? Cyrus does not see your queen as a challenge. That would be his brother and the new wife, Beatrix.” His head moved slightly and Gemma knew he now looked at her. “Your sister, I believe, War Monk. But still, Queen Keeley’s army grows. People flock to her. Cyrus feels if he gets rid of her, he won’t have to worry about her and he can have all her territory. So those loyal to Cyrus move through the little town, unseen, unheard. Waiting to strike your queen. I could be wrong, but with your upcoming return, they probably feel the time for your older sister to continue living has come to an end, and—”

Gemma didn’t wait to hear any more. Didn’t wait to see if anyone followed. She just mounted Dagger and took off for home.

* * *

Someone was pulling a cart of firewood past the open gates of the battlements but Quinn cleared it. Not surprisingly, Gemma was ahead of him. What shocked him, though, was that right behind them were all those who’d traveled with them. All of them. Even the Abbess.

“Mum!” Gemma called out as she thundered up to the forge. “Mum! Where’s Keeley?!”

Emma pointed. “The woods! Near the north field!”

They barreled on, none of them stopping, and Gemma’s mother knew not to stop them. The travelers maneuvered their horses around merchants, locals, and members of the religious sects that had come to town for safety.

They made their way through the pasture and into the woods. Once inside, the trees became thicker and the ground more perilous. Soon, the humans abandoned their horses and Quinn tracked Keeley by her scent.

They found her by the base of a large, ancient tree. She stood with her back to them. And just as Gemma began to call out to her sister, a woman appeared, becoming visible among the leaves and trees where she’d camouflaged herself, and charging at Keeley’s back.

Keeley turned fast, snatching the woman up by her throat and slamming her against the tree twice. Another woman came at her and Keeley caught her head and twisted, snapping her neck with the brutal move. When the third attacked, Keeley dropped both women and pulled her sword. She rammed it into the woman’s belly; their eyes met and Keeley dragged the blade up.

She pushed the woman off, then threw the weapon down so the tip was buried in the dirt and it stood tall.

Reaching back, she picked up her hammer and gave a few practice swings.

Quinn, confused by that move, started forward, but Gemma grabbed his forearm tight and pulled him back.

As Keeley gripped the handle of her ridiculous hammer with both hands, Father Aubin leaned forward and asked Gemma very softly, “Should we be running?”

“Honestly,” she quietly replied, “I don’t know what’s happening.”

Without moving her head, Keeley looked from side to side with just her eyes, then barked, “Ainsley . . . now!”

Arrows came from the treetops and Gemma yelled, “Down!”

But the arrows weren’t for the travelers Gemma and Quinn had brought with them.

Quinn heard male grunts and saw bodies fall. Male bodies that he hadn’t seen before. It seemed that as long as these men stayed still, they could remain hidden by the trees and leaves, but as soon as they changed position, they were easy enough to spot. Especially by someone like Ainsley.

More arrows came down and more men fell. Ainsley was guessing now where these men stood, but her guesses were good enough, and now they no longer had a reason to remain hidden.

Cyrus’s soldiers charged at Keeley, weapons out, their battle cries loud. And she began to swing her hammer.

“By the almighty gods of war,” Léandre gasped when he saw her cave in the chests of the first men who came for her.

She turned her weapon and swung the other way, only higher, smashing heads like pumpkins.

Some of the soldiers, perhaps not as fanatical as those that had already lost their lives, began to run off into the trees.

“Ainsley!” Keeley barked.

More arrows flew, hitting the fleeing soldiers in the back. But several escaped and kept running.

“You missed—”

“I know!” Ainsley barked back. She inched out onto the tree limb she’d been sitting on. She raised her bow with three arrows nocked, breathed, and released. The arrows flew, hitting each of the targets. Two in the back of the neck and one right in the back of the head.

“Don’t look so proud of yourself, Lady I Can Take Care of Myself,” Keeley chastised. “You almost lost them.”

“But I didn’t.”

“But you almost did.”

Quinn heard moaning and realized Keeley’s first victim was still alive and attempting to crawl away.

Ainsley flipped out of the tree, nocked an arrow in her bow, and aimed at the woman’s back. But before she could let her arrow fly, blood flew, splashing them all as the head of Keeley’s hammer smashed into the head on the ground.

Gemma gasped at what her sister had done, her eyes wide in horror, blood and gore covering her face and chest.

“What the unholy fuck was that?” she exploded at Keeley.

Keeley lifted the hammer onto her shoulder and glared at her war monk sister. “Don’t yell at me,” she told Gemma. “I am in a bad mood.”

With that, Keeley headed back into town.

“Bad mood!” she growled over her shoulder one more time. As if unsure whether her sister had heard her the first time.

Ferdinand wiped gore off his chin. “So . . . that’s the queen then?”

“Oh, shut up, Vicar!”

CHAPTER 18

“You can’t really expect us to deal with her, can you?”

Gemma continued to scrape sorcerers’ remains off her face while trying to scare off Balla with one of her looks. Unfortunately, the temple virgin was not frightened away by Gemma’s terrifying glare.

“Are you going to answer me?” Balla demanded.

She wasn’t and proved that by focusing on Ainsley.

“And you,” Gemma snapped, turning toward her younger sister. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Her sister stood tall, indignant. “That’s all you have to say to me?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“How about commenting on my beautiful bow work? I made every shot count. Each one a kill. You should be proud. Instead, you just complain.”

“I haven’t complained.”

“You’re complaining with your eyes.”

“You’re right. I am.”

Quinn, who’d abruptly walked off, returned with his siblings Laila and Caid in tow.

“Holy shit,” Laila gasped out when she saw the carnage. “What the fuck did she do?”

But Caid simply snarled and galloped back the way he’d come in search of Keeley. At least that’s what Gemma was guessing.

“She didn’t tell you about this?” Gemma asked.

Laila shook her head. “Not a word.”

“How did she even know? Because trust me, Laila, she knew that attack was coming. The question is how did she know and why didn’t she tell anyone else about it?”

“She told me,” Ainsley piped in.

“Oh, shut up.”

“You shut up!”

“Ainsley!” Gemma snapped before focusing again on Laila. “Any idea how she knew?” Gemma pushed, which she immediately regretted.

Because she realized what the answer would be, and she immediately knew what would appear. And they did appear, as if purposely timing their appearance for maximum damage to her reputation.

The priests noticed them first.

“What unholiness is that?” Aubin demanded, brandishing his black spear.

Keeley’s demon wolves inched closer to the dead, sniffing them while keeping their eyes of fire on the humans that still lived.

“If you hope to keep the queen’s favor, Priest,” Quinn warned, “you’d best put your weapon away.”

“If you hope to keep your life, you’d best put that weapon away,” Laila muttered.

Balla stepped back. “What haven of ungodliness have you brought us to, War Monk?”

“I think they’re adorable,” Adela announced. She moved closer to one of the wolves but it snarled and snapped at her.

The Abbess laughed. “Even pure evil wants nothing to do with you, witch.”

The witch hissed in warning at the nun and Gemma began to rub her forehead. But her skin was sticky from all the blood her sister had splattered on her.

She pulled her hand away just as each of the wolves began to drag off a body to devour on its own. A couple of the younger ones fought over a sorceress, tearing her into pieces and charging off with an arm and a leg. That’s when their little travel party turned to stare at her in mute horror. She didn’t blame them. Gemma also decided she didn’t have to put up with it.