“Most men are not like him.” She looked me up and down. “You have power of your own. I can sense it. It won’t be enough though. He uses the old ways and dark, dark magic. He cannot be defeated.”

I seemed to remember being told something vaguely similar about wraiths and look how that had turned out. Still, know thy enemy. “What does he look like?”

“Not as handsome as that one.” The Batibat jerked her head behind me. Assuming she was talking about either Larkin or Max and not wanting to take my eyes away from her, I didn’t bother turning around. “I might even keep that one alive for a while as a little toy. It can be rather dull waiting around here.”

I ignored her pointless threats. “What exactly are you waiting for? What’s he planning to do?”

Her lips turned down at the edges, fat heavy creases appearing in the folds of her cheeks. “How do I know? He wants the power of the land and will do what he can to get it. Many of these trees have been around for hundreds of years. He knows ways to take their life-force and use it. For what I have no idea. But you should be afraid.”

I ignored the implied threat. “So he’s behind the planned demolition? He’s going to cut down the trees to drain them of their natural power? Why bother pretending to build something in their place?”

“I would imagine he needs some kind of cover story for the humans. They can be annoying when they get involved.”

I thought about what Atlanteia had told me. “Has he done something to stop protestors from coming here? The humans who would stop the trees from being cut down?”

“Wards do many things,” the Batibat grunted cryptically.

I chewed my lip. “So break the ward here and break whatever magic he is using and that will stop preventing people from coming?”

She made her unpleasant version of a laugh again. “You can’t break the ward. He’s too powerful. You need to understand,” she said, leaning forward, “you cannot beat him. He knows too much and can do too much. And if you free her body, then he will come here and destroy you all.”

Bring it fucking on. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t going to know what had hit him. And when I broke his ward, he was going to get a tiny taste of exactly what I was capable of. I turned back to the dryad.

“If you’re going to continue with this foolhardiness, then let me have a little taste of your friend first,” the Batibat called. “The one who seems fixated on you. He looks angry. I’ll probably be doing you a favour.” Her voice deepened. “I like the strong ones. It’s more fun when they struggle.”

This time curiosity got the better of me and I flicked a glance over my shoulder. Oh. Corrigan was standing there, in a dark grey suit that looked completely out of place in the middle of a wood. His arms were crossed against his broad chest and he looked mightily pissed off. Even from this distance I could see the emerald green of his eyes flashing sparks at me.

Hey Corrigan. My Voice bounced against something that felt a bit like cotton wool. Corrigan’s expression didn’t change. Interesting. That meant that the barrier was blocking the usual shifter telepathy, which indicated why he’d not bothered announcing his arrival. It also meant that it was a fucking strong ward. I gave him a little grin and a wave instead. His frown deepened.

“Is he your husband?” inquired the Batibat.

I let out a bark of laughter. “As if.”

She exhaled loudly and happily. “Then I can take him off your hands for you.”

“That won’t be necessary.” I watched as Solus, clearly completely recovered now, made his way towards the Lord Alpha. Whereas the mages were carefully keeping their distance from him, and Aubrey seemed to be hiding behind a tree, the Fae felt no such compunction. He reached Corrigan and punched him lightly on the shoulder as if to say ‘hey, buddy’, before turning to me and blowing a melodramatic kiss. Then he joined his index fingers and his thumbs together to form the shape of a heart and held it out in my direction. Corrigan’s arms dropped to his sides, his fists clenching. It was time for me to wrap things up before either of them created some other kind of stupid inter-species war.

I turned back to the Batibat. “I’m going to finish bringing her body down. Then I’m going to destroy your tree and break your nameless dude’s ward. It’s up to you if you stick around or not.”

She stared at me. “You can’t break the ward.”

“Watch me,” I growled.

I flicked out a jet of fire towards the remaining branches that were holding Mereia in place. This time practice clearly made perfect as I hit the right ones first time around, and her body immediately began to fall to the ground. I ran towards her, catching her corpse before it thudded down, and then carried her gently away from the tree and laid her down at a safe distance at the edge of the ward. I didn’t look at Corrigan or the others again.

“He’s going to be angry,” shouted the Batibat, her previously calm tones, now sounding panicked. “He’ll…”

Her shout drifted away as I returned back to my previous spot, lifted up both hands and sent out twin spikes of fire towards the tree, this time not caring what I hit. I was dimly aware of her jumping backwards and hissing, but I completely ignored her, concentrating instead on the total destruction of the scene of the dryad’s death. This, at least, I could do properly.

The dry branches, under the onslaught of all the fire I could muster, didn’t take long before they lit up and caught. The flames gnawed their way along the dead wood, turning it as black as the surrounding ground. Burning twigs and branches began to fall to the ground as if in slow motion. The heat coming off the now skeleton-like silhouette was extraordinary, and my eyes began to water from the smoke. I didn’t stop, however. The tree became a pyre, crackling and sending out sparks that made the Batibat yelp and back away further. I upped my fiery voltage and pelted out everything that I had. In the absence of the fucking embodiment of evil that had done this, I was going to take out my vengeance on the already dead tree. Let the wanker come and see what I’d done. I wasn’t afraid of him.

When I was satisfied that I’d done enough to completely destroy the corpse of what had probably once been a magnificent example of nature’s goodness, I left it burning and looked over at the Batibat, satisfied. She was slumped some distance away, the heavy crooks of her arms folded over and around her body, hugging herself. I didn’t know whether the tree had originally been home to her or home to Mereia and I didn’t really care. The dryad no longer needed it, and I couldn’t give a flying fuck whether the Batibat was now homeless or not.

I called out to her. “If your lord and master comes calling, tell him that Mackenzie Smith did this. I’ll be more than happy to deal with his complaints.” I stared at her, hard. “Did you get that?”

She sent me a sullen look, filled with hate.

“Mackenzie Smith.” I repeated. “And you can let him know that I’m not done, not by a long shot.”

I walked over to the edge of the ward, briefly examining the wound on my palm for a moment. I dug my fingernails into it, wincing slightly at the pain, but smiling grimly as fresh blood oozed out. Then I scooped up Mereia’s body, trying to ignore the cold feel of her dead skin, and gently cradled her almost weightless form against me, holding her in place with my free hand while I reached out against the ward with the other, smearing my blood against it. I was confident, given my past experience, that my Draco Wyr genes would be enough to break through it. There was a tiny part of me that doubted, considering the Batibat’s assertions regarding the strength of the ward, but I needn’t have bothered. As my blood came into contact with the barrier, the entire perimeter appeared to glow. Then there was a loud bang as it snapped open.

I stepped through, savouring the return of fresh, untainted air. Casting a quick glance behind me, it was clear that the Batibat had chosen to vanish to somewhere else. Suited me.

Lucy was standing by Corrigan’s side, staring. “I thought you didn’t want to break it in case it set off some kind of alarm? Is it not going to trigger something off?”

I felt all of the group’s eyes on me. I shrugged, my mouth set into a grim line. “Oh, it’ll have triggered something off. In fact, I hope it’ll have triggered a screaming alert to the fucker that did this so that he comes running. Because I’m going to fucking destroy him.”

Chapter Fifteen

If I’d been expecting some kind of dramatic drum-roll at my emphatic statement regarding what I was going to do to the Batibat’s apparent boss, then I didn’t get one. The not-so-merry band in front just watched me as if expecting the architect of the ward to immediately materialise so that I could make good on my promise. There was the rumble of a small plane overhead but, other than that, the entire area remained as silent and still as it had before the magical barrier had been destroyed.

Corrigan’s eyes were narrowed at me, flecks of hot angry gold visibly displayed across their green depths. He broke the atmosphere by walking forward to take the dryad’s body from my arms, but I side-stepped away from him. My movements clearly didn’t do much to improve his mood.

“I need to take her to her kin,” I said, by way of explanation. “I doubt they’ll show up if you do it.”

He snarled at me. “What exactly is going on here?”

I looked at him calmly. “Walk up with me and I’ll explain. I assume you couldn’t hear anything that went on inside the ward?”

He shook his head, not taking his snapping green eyes off me for even a second.

“Great!” exclaimed Solus, brightly. He stepped over and planted a wet noisy kiss on my cheek. Unfortunately, with Mereia’s weight somewhat hindering me, I wasn’t able to move away in time. A muscle throbbed in Corrigan’s cheek.

The two mages frowned in unison. Max spoke up. “You can’t just wander off with those two. If you’re telling the shifters and the faeries what happened, then you have to tell us what happened also.”