As soon as its teeth released her arm, she flung the head all the way across the arena. As quickly as it had healed its spine, she wanted no chance that it would repair the damage she’d done.

The body buckled unexpectedly, and Anna lost her balance at last. She rolled right underneath the feet of the chestnut horse, who reared and bolted away to join Portabella, who was standing, head down, on the far side of the arena.

Brother Wolf landed on the fae’s body and began savaging it. All that she could feel through their mating bond was a red haze. The other wolves were getting up, none too gracefully. Joseph didn’t move.

About that time, Mackie sat up and began to scream. Anna managed a half run, half hobble toward her. She wrapped her arms around Mackie and turned her, gently, because one arm was bent wrong, so that the child was facing away from the monster who’d tried to steal her away and the other monster who was trying to destroy the corpse.

“Charles,” she said, but the wolf continued his attack on the dead fae. “Brother Wolf? I need you.”

The wolf froze, let out a single savage growl, and then changed. Charles stood atop the dead thing’s body looking as clean and collected as he had when they’d left the house this morning. He wasn’t. She could feel his white-hot rage, his need to destroy. That he’d come to her call while feeling like that …

Well, she loved him, too.

“I have Mackie,” she said. “You need to check Joseph.”

Anna had come. When she cut off the abomination’s head, he and Brother Wolf would have howled in pride and triumph. But he didn’t regain his ability to do that until the deed was already done.

Brother Wolf thought the creature might still live. Very old fae could live for quite a while without their heads. He was determined to make sure that it didn’t survive its beheading. Charles let him out to do what he wanted.

That thing had killed all of those children. They’d died horribly and very, very slowly. If the spirits of the dead joined Brother Wolf’s savagery, he was inclined to allow it.

Until Anna called him.

She sat in the sand holding Mackie against her.

“Check Joseph,” she said.

First he went to her. She’d taken damage, but the wound in her arm was already healing over.

“I’m okay,” she told him. “Mackie will be okay. Listen to her healthy lungs. Go check Joseph.”

Charles knelt beside Joseph. To his surprise, the old man was still breathing.

“Dead?” Joseph asked in a breathy whisper.

“It’s dead,” Charles told him. “You severed its spine. It won’t be killing any more children.”

Joseph’s eyes closed and he concentrated on breathing, not that it was doing him much good.

“Maggie?”

Charles closed his eyes, too. When he opened them, Joseph was looking at him.

“Thought so,” he said. “Will see her soon. She’d be happy to die for our girl.” A half smile crooked his lips. “I hear she’ll be fine.”

“Good lungs,” acknowledged Charles. Mackie was still screaming.

“Better’n mine,” agreed Joseph with a smile. “Give knife to Max.”

“I will,” Charles said.

“Show him. Show.”

“I’ll show him how to use it. As I showed you.”

Joseph nodded. “Good. That’s good.” He took another painful breath and then grinned. “It was fun to be … to be me again.”

Charles sat beside him, holding Joseph with his eyes while his ears told him that Hosteen and a whole slew of other people were accumulating in the arena. Mackie quit screaming. Kage sat on Joseph’s other side. Joseph couldn’t talk anymore, but he held out his hand and Kage took it.

Charles had known this moment would come, ever since he’d understood that Joseph had no intention of becoming a werewolf like his father. Every moment spent in his company had been a moment closer to this. Had it been worth it in the face of Joseph’s death?

He thought of all the experiences they’d shared. He felt the huge hole that Joseph’s death was carving in his spirit, a hole that was even now filling with pain. Had it been worth it?

“I am so grateful to have had you as my friend,” he told Joseph. He would not have given up any of those times to avoid this pain of separation, let alone all of them. Yes, it had been worth it.

Eventually the arena got quieter. Max came and said good-bye. Kage got up, put an arm around his son, and left. Hosteen sat down in his place. Anna came and sat close to him.

Joseph tried to say something to Hosteen, but he didn’t have the voice. The hand that Charles held was very cold.

Hosteen said, “I love you. I will miss you. I am so proud to have been your father—and prouder to have been your friend. You have enriched the world with your spirit, my son. Don’t be afraid to let go.” He kissed his son’s forehead, and then, like Charles, settled in to wait.

Night fell.

Joseph took one breath. Let it out. And then he took no more. Charles opened his mouth and let Brother Wolf howl his grief.

CHAPTER

15

There was no funeral. Charles and Anna loaded the dead fae into the trunk of Ms. Edison’s car and tucked the dead fae’s head into a box and put it in the backseat. They drove it to the day care parking lot, locked it, and drove away. Then they called Leslie and told her where to find it.

She wasn’t happy with them, but she called back after they’d retrieved the body. “Better you than us,” she said. “That body is going to keep Leeds happy for the next five years.”

“Better him than me,” Anna told her.

“Be well,” Leslie said.

“You, too,” Anna told her. “Give your husband a hug from me. I expect we’ll see each other again. Charles thinks that there will be worse to come.”

“Cheerful, isn’t he?” Leslie said grimly. “I expect that you both are right. However, I, for one, intend to celebrate this victory. There may be all sorts of horrible fae in our future, but this fae isn’t going to be killing any more children.”

They stayed a few days more. There was no funeral, but the family mourned and they were willing to share their grief with Charles. It seemed to help him, but he was more uncommunicative than usual, so Anna couldn’t be sure. Anna baked, babysat, and did anything she could to make things easier for the rest.

Bran came and he brought Moira the witch and her werewolf Tom. Moira came to help Chelsea and to make sure Amethyst was free of the fae’s magic. Anna was pretty sure that Tom came because no one wanted to tell him to stay home, not even Bran. Anna and Charles flew back to Montana ten days after they’d left.