Even worse, Jace was again taking it. Like she always took it before that final time when she’d snapped and fought back—and he’d killed her.

But this was before that. Before she’d stood up for herself. Before she’d met Skuld. Before she’d become a Crow. When she’d still felt trapped and alone and desperate. So very desperate.

She was sitting at the kitchen table and he was leaning in, saying such horrible things to her in the softest way possible and she was wondering how much more she could take. How much more she’d be forced to take before . . . before . . .

She heard the crow outside their perfect little house in the Valley. It cawed at her from the window. Cawed and slammed its tiny foot at the window. It cawed again and slammed its foot again. Its eyes became red with rage and it cawed and cawed and . . .

Jace was suddenly back in the present, her hands around the Mara’s throat and her raging screams competing with the Mara’s screeches.

The rage poured out of her and Jace let that rage come. She let it explode through her body and she tightened her hands on the Mara’s throat until she felt bone crack beneath her fingers. She unleashed her talons so that arteries were severed. And Jace screamed. She screamed and screamed so that the world would know exactly how pissed off she really was.

They tried to drag Kera to the flames, to bury her head in the fire. But Vig grabbed two of the Mara and yanked them back and Kera punched the third off and got to her feet.

She lifted her hammer with both hands, brought it down on the Mara trying to get back up, and crushed her skull.

“Go, Kera!” Vig ordered as he fought off the other Mara.

Kera saw that the flames the Mara had unleashed had reached the house and had begun burning what appeared to be a ballroom entrance. She could hear the screams of the people trapped inside.

Hoisting her weapon, Kera jogged over to the big doors, lifted the hammer over her head with both hands, and brought it down. The glass cracked, so Kera took another swing. It was the third strike that destroyed the doors, and smoke poured through the opening.

People began running out, coughing and panicking.

A few of the Mara tried to grab some of them, but the Crows and Ravens were there to stop them.

Kera tried to peer into the ballroom, through the thick black smoke billowing out. She had almost turned away when she saw a familiar figure, crawling toward her on her hands and knees.

“Brianna!” Kera ran over to the girl, trying to help her to stand until she realized that her hands and ankles were tied together with duct tape.

Kera reached down and picked her up, taking her away from the fire as quickly as she could. She laid a coughing, hysterical Brianna down on the ground, pushing her hair out of her face and removing the tape.

“It’s okay,” she tried to soothe. “It’s okay. Just breathe,sweetie. Brea—”

“You stupid bitch,” the Mara leader snarled at Kera. “Do you think you’ve changed anything? Do you think you’ll really stop her from coming into this world? Do you think—”

That’s when they descended on Shona-sari like a horde of rampaging darkness, swarming her, mobbing her. They ripped at her face and body, tearing at her with their talons and beaks.

Not Kera’s sister-Crows, but the birds. They’d come down from the trees and attacked the Mara like they just wanted her to shut the fuck up.

Maybe they did.

With a roar of rage, Shona-sari turned to white smoke, and was gone. And this time she was really gone. Kera could feel it because the air around her seemed to lighten. She could breathe with ease again even with the fire nearby.

The crows turned their attention to the few remaining Mara, but they soon followed their leader. Apparently, it was one thing to fight humans, but pissed-off birds was more than they could stand. Not that Kera blamed them.

Kera walked across the grounds until she reached the home owner. Most of her rich friends had made a run for it, leaving her to face the Crows and Ravens on her own.

Simone was on her knees, coughing and wheezing from all the smoke she’d taken in when Chloe joined them, crouching down in front of the woman, waiting until the pretty blonde looked up at her.

And that’s when Chloe said, “Soooo, neighbor, about that lawsuit . . .”

Vig checked on his brothers. They were mostly fine. A few wounds, some future scars they could brag about to some hottie in a bar.

“You all right?” Vig asked Siggy as he helped him up.

“Yeah. My head hurts, though.”

“Did the Mara touch you?”

“No. I fell into a tree.”

“Of course you did. Tessa?” Vig asked the Crow. “Can you check Siggy’s head? He fell into a tree.”

Tessa nodded. “Of course he did.”

Kera walked by, her gaze searching.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m looking for Betty’s assistant. She was here.”

“Betty? Betty Lieberman?”

“Yeah.”

“She always has the hottest assistants,” Stieg said. “I love Betty.”

Vig didn’t even bother to reply to that and instead asked Kera, “Why the hell was Betty’s assistant here?”

“I don’t know. She had duct tape on her legs and hands. I assume they were holding her captive.”

Stieg yawned and asked, “Should we go after the other rich assholes who were trying to raise a god?”

“Why?” Vig asked.

Kera gawked at him. “What do you mean why? What they did was wrong.”