Chapter 21

Emory, Washington

The queen of the McNeil Coven, Birdy Penrose, walked away from the meeting with Althea with her jaw aching with the effort to hold in the sudden rage that blossomed after Althea had revealed what she’d been up to.

The two coven leaders had known each other all their lives. They had played together as little girls. Flirted with the handsome crafter boys as teens. Gone through the thirteen harsh levels of the magic training together—but it still shocked her when each of them came to different conclusions when faced with the same information. Now, with the seers predicting the coming chaos of the Manna Surge, those differences, once tolerated, now became unbearable.

Althea was out of control. Instead of attending to her coven duties, she was freelancing in Oldtown, of all places. Her meddling was sure to attract the attention of the Sidhe.

Three months ago, the covens had barely escaped the attention of two faeries who had been playing with their emotions like some mad fiddler. They had finally convinced that mother damned Red Queen from the ruling convocation that there was nothing to see here—and now Althea started another adventure. She just didn’t seem to realize just how lucky they were to avoid the blood-witch disaster.

Birdy bitterly regretted her decision to lure Lachlan Quinn to Emory three months ago. Like Althea, she had a foolish thought that they would easily handle the boy. Unlike Althea, she soon realized that hope was a smoke dream. The covens had to deal with a novice keeper with a naïve world-view and poor impulse control. A dangerous young man who had good reason to hate and distrust the covens.