“Stop!” a deep male voice shouted.

Faye looked over her shoulder. “Dammit, two fae. We need to keep going.”

I was going to take her word for it, and I was also going to ignore the fact that she wasn’t even out of breath. “They will catch up,” I gasped out as we entered the wooded area. “We have to take them out.”

Faye stopped suddenly, eyeing my location and how far behind her I was. “You’re right.”

Looking around, I slowed down and then stopped. There wasn’t even time to hide for an ambush. We had to face them. “I’m killing this time,” I warned, glancing over at her. “It’s too risky not to.”

Her jaw was set in a hard line, but she nodded.

One of the fae reached us ahead of the other. It was the male who’d been in the room the first time I’d fed, the one who had been on his phone. I sprung forward, thrusting the dagger out. He spun to the side, narrowly avoiding my stab. Anger twisted his features into something animalistic. He swung on me and I dipped as Faye caught the other fae, a female, by the waist and drove her to the ground like a linebacker. Damn.

I knelt, avoiding the next blow. On the ground, I kicked out, taking the male’s legs out from under him. Leaping up, I came down on him, bringing the iron dagger home. I lifted up as he sucked into himself, earning a one-way—hopefully—ticket back to the Otherworld. When I looked up, I saw that Faye had broken another neck.

I heard rustling and spun around, praying to God an alligator didn’t try to eat me. Scanning the area, I didn’t see anything. Thank God for small—

“Ivy, watch out!”

I spun around and gasped. Valor was less than a foot from me. I jumped back, but that didn’t help. He caught my arm and I went flying across the driveway. Barely able to brace myself for the impact, I hit the soggy ground on my side and rolled into a bush. Pain arced across my back, but I pushed through it as I sat up.

Faye was tossed aside. She smacked into a tree and hit the ground face-first. She didn’t get right back up, and I hoped she was okay.

“Shit,” I muttered, pushing myself up. I still had that dagger and I was sort of proud of my mad skills there.

“What were you two thinking?” Valor demanded as he stalked toward me, crossing the driveway. “Did you really think you could escape?”

“Uh. Yes.”

“Stupid,” he growled. “And because of your actions, she will die and you will wish you had been smart enough to know better.”

I didn’t feel necessary to point out that my actions hadn’t driven Faye to do this. I waited until he was a foot in front of me and then feinted to my left. Valor fell for it and darted in that direction. I spun out, delivering a kick to his right side. He stumbled and threw a punch. It connected with my jaw, stunning me for a second as tiny bright lights burst across my line of vision. I knew I had to fight hard. I had to get him down and not give him a chance to use any of his special ancient abilities or to get the best of me, because I knew taking down an ancient wasn’t going to be easy.

Kicking out again, I hit his right leg and then straightened, jabbing the dagger deep into his side. He grunted and swung, but I anticipated the move and dipped under his arm. Now in front of him, I caught him in the chest again with the dagger, and immediately brought my leg up, kneeing him in the nuts.

Valor doubled over, and I caught his shoulders, shoving him down with my weight. He went, clutching his poor boys. He rolled onto his back, and I saw the opportunity. I had to do some major damage to keep him down.

I dropped to the ground next to him, the damp soil soaking through my dress. He rolled onto his side, grabbing my left arm and yanking hard enough that I worried he’d pull it out of its socket. He shouted, and I didn’t think about what I was doing, because it was so gross. I just did it. Slamming the blade down, I went for the eye, and I hit my target. His roar was cut off and his arms dropped limply. Dark blood and other liquid I didn’t want to think too closely about, because it might make me puke, spurted into the air, hitting my face and chest.

The hit wasn’t going to kill the dumb son of a bitch, but I figured it would keep him down for a while.

“Ivy!” Faye shouted, up and apparently alive. “Let’s go!”

Yanking the iron dagger out of Valor’s eye socket, I stood up and took off, darting across the street, following Faye’s moonlit form. We ran for several more yards, twigs and fallen branches tearing at my feet. Small rocks dug into my skin, but I kept going. My heart felt like it was going to pound right out of my chest, but this was my only chance. If I didn’t get away now, I was never getting away.

Feet pounded behind me. Sparing a look over my shoulder, I saw the ancient I’d just stabbed in the damn face tearing through the woods, dark liquid pouring down his face. Jesus, he was like the Terminator Ancient. I dug in, giving it everything I had.

But it wasn’t enough.

Air exploded out of my lungs as he crashed into me from behind, taking me down. The impact knocked the dagger out of my hand, and his weight drove me several inches into the mush where I got a mouthful of soil and grass. Dirt clogged my nostrils, and for a moment I couldn’t breathe.

Spitting the mess out, I dragged in gulps of air as Valor grabbed a handful of my hair and jerked my head back.

“You fucking bitch,” he spat. “I could snap your neck in a second.”

My fingers dug into the soil as I reached for my dagger. “I don’t think your prince would be happy about that.”

Valor flipped me onto my back and loomed over me, one hand still tangled in my hair. His face was a mess—really not a pretty sight. “Do you think that will stop me? He’ll find another halfling. You’re not the only one.”