Jack    I hate alliance negotiations.But compared to Mom’s daily freak-outs over my mates’ ceremony at T minus three days and counting, they look like child’s play.Let me say this in her defense: she did not lie to me.Not in the least.I remember distinctly her warning at the Luna’s induction into Candlewood, that she would make my triumvir mate’s ceremony twice as large as she had for Darby, and she has lived up to that times two.Because that’s really the problem, right? I have two mates.And this triumvir mate ceremony has gone from being a downright shitshow to being a legendary downright shitshow.“We can’t change the date,

Ian    Even with the rain, the triumvir mates party is still raging in the plaza, but Sean, Jack and I, along with our mates and Anna’s family, retreat to the packhouse after Anna’s astounding reveal. Though the medicine man declines, returning to his room to meditate on the coming of a thunderbird, the rest of Anna’s family socializes in the dining and family rooms, Townsend’s staff attending to everyone’s needs unobtrusively and efficiently as usual.Sean disappears briefly after sunset, and I suspect he’s checking in with our malodorous vampire contact who has turned out to be remarkably reliable and resourceful. When he does turn up again, he avails himself immediately of my best Oban, and on the same pretense, I approach him at the wet bar, leaving Darby chatting with Anna’s sister on the sofa.

Sean    For as small as this town is, I have to hand it to the medical personnel and non-medical allied health staff in Candlewood. They take patient privacy and protected health information seriously. Not a peep, or a rumor or a whisper anywhere in town gets back to me about Ian and Darby visiting Dr. Myers for a fertility consultation. In fact, by the time I start wondering about Darby’s recurring atypical headaches and mood swings, and the subtle but potent change to her scent, then use Big SIS to hack into the hospital’s information system again, she’s been taking the medication for over two weeks.It’s an estrogen blocker Darby’s taking, a drug to stimulate ovulation. “I should have known,” I whisper to myself in my office. After Ian’s medical visit, it was only a matter of time.

Sean    It takes the valley four days to stop burning, and by that time, nothing there is left alive.“Sweet Arianrhod,” I whisper, following Jack as we sort through the rubble of the cottage for anything salvageable or that Darby may want or need, but there’s nothing. The few pieces of intact stoneware we unearth from the kitchen pulverize to powder as soon as we try to move them. The stone knives splinter to razor shards. The supernatural fire was so hot even the glass is fused into brittle, glistening drips and puddles, the mortar between the cottage’s stones baked into choking dust.A few charred tree trunks twist skyward in pained supplication like the shriveled, blackened hands of the damned, all that remains of the once achingly beautiful orchard. Of the younger, smaller trees, only piles

Darby    “You have wings? Not just the airy sylphid form, you can fly?” Incredulous, Sandy gapes at me.Nodding, I pass Thomas back to Lili so she can change his diaper before swaddling him snugly again, then tucking him into the sling across her chest he likes to sleep in. “Yes. I gather you don’t.”“No. Must not be my element.”That comment attracts more than just my attention. Though her hands continue her work, Lili’s eyes are focused on Sandy.“What is your element then, soulshine?”There’s a hint of the siren voice in Lili’s question and I watch Sandy carefully for her responsiveness, but I needn’t have. Like nearly everyone else, she responds immediately, though