“I tried to take power from the weaker faeries, those not fit to hold dominion here.” Maili’s gaze darted to the faces of the faeries around them, seeking support.

The faeries weren’t responding. Some glared at her; some looked sorry for her. A few seemed gleeful.

“There is a correct way to take power: you challenge the Alpha. You do not conspire and endanger those the Alpha protects,” Sionnach reminded her and all there. “Challenges are fine; treachery is not.”

“You’ll be going to the court of the Winter Queen to serve your sentence.” Rika shuddered. “You’ll be surrounded by the cold. . . .”

Maili looked horrified for a split second, and then she launched herself at Rika.

Sionnach caught her before she could move very far, effectively stopping her forward momentum. It was an awful thing, the cold that she’d be facing, but she’d plotted to take away freedom from solitaries and had struck her Alpha. Her punishment had to be harsh.

Rika moved close enough that Maili could reach her.

Predictably, Maili swung; Rika blocked her punch.

“It’ll ache every day,” Rika whispered. “You’ll beg for it to stop.”

“You can’t . . .” Maili looked stricken, increasingly panicked.

“You broke mortals for sport after Sionnach told you to stop; you stabbed him; you offered me to Keenan . . . you offered them”—Rika gestured at the faeries in the street—“as pawns to him.”

Sionnach tightened his grip on Maili’s topknot. “Do any of you want to speak for her? Ask mercy? Offer yourself in her stead? Challenge us?”

The faeries shook their heads, and some said “no.”

One of the faeries who was Maili’s cohort previously asked, “What terms mercy?”

Rika gave Maili a pleading look, hoping to convey what she couldn’t in words without undercutting her own authority and Sionnach’s too. If Maili tried to adhere to the terms before her, she could end her punishment sooner; doing so only required humility and admission of wrongdoing. “Listen well to the Winter Queen,” Rika urged. “She has the power to set you free. Since she is my regent, I must listen to her decisions. If she decides you are suitably punished, you can come h—”

Maili’s snarl cut off Rika’s words.

At Sionnach’s gesture, several faeries stepped forward and took Maili.

“Take her to the edge of the desert,” he said. “Rika’s queen will have an escort waiting for her.”

And at that, Maili was led away.