“Maili doesn’t get that about being Alpha, does she?” Rika glanced at Sionnach. In their mock-fight, his jacket had gaped open. She stared at the dried blood on his shirt and at the fresh blood seeping around it like a flower blossoming. “Shy, you’re—”

“Fine.” He waved her concern away.

“Maili wouldn’t understand, not like we do. We have a duty to them, and with you beside me, we can succeed.” He nodded at faeries who had crept out to watch them and pulled his jacket closed again casually. Then, in a low voice he added, “But I think that’s what you want to explain to her.”

Rika shook her head and chastised, “It is, but you need to stop hiding things from me.”

“I am trying.” Sionnach linked his arm with hers. “Come now, princess. Run with me?”

“Where?”

“Let me lead you there, and you can handle the fight.”

She nodded, and they raced toward a crevice in two rock walls. Rika knew that he held on to her in part because he was still healing from being stabbed, and that only served to increase her anger at Maili.

Sionnach flashed Rika a smile. “Shall we knock?”

“No.” She stepped in front of him and disappeared into the opening.

“There’s my princess,” he said as he followed her into what appeared to be a roofless cavern.

Inside were four faeries, including Maili. Rika wasn’t sure how to start. Part of her wanted to simply launch herself at Maili, beat her for her selfishness and the pain she’d caused as a result of it. The rest of her knew that wasn’t the answer.

Sionnach whistled, and when the faeries looked his way, he raised a finger and shook it at them like he was scolding a child. “Stay out of it, or share Maili’s sentence.” Then he gestured Rika toward Maili. “She’s all yours, Rika.”

Maili tilted her chin up in a defiant posture. “I don’t need help fighting her.”

“Pretty to think so,” Sionnach muttered. He knew that Rika could handle the disobedient faery even if she wasn’t angry, and right now, she was still holding on to both anger and hurt over the situation Maili had caused. The fight could only go one way.

The other three faeries stepped back, and Sionnach nodded at them approvingly before clambering up the side of a rock wall and crouching on a ledge. The solitaries were a fickle lot sometimes. They saw the way the winds shifted, and their allegiance shifted with them. It was a large part of why being an Alpha was difficult.

Maili looked at Sionnach appraisingly.

“It would be best if you left the desert,” Rika told her, drawing her attention away from Sionnach. “We’re willing to let you go if you leave now.”

Maili laughed.

“Go.” Rika advanced slowly toward Maili.

“When Keenan comes here, you won’t be so—”