“Stop!” Maili snarled as she snatched hold of Rika and jerked her to her feet with the manacles that now bound Rika’s wrists.

Rika slammed her head upward as hard as she could, catching Maili under the chin.

“I said stop!” Maili wrenched the chain downward, causing Rika to stumble.

It took concentration not to wince from the metal burning her skin or to fall from the limited movement still allowed by her bound ankles. Rika shook her hair out of her face, dabbed at her bleeding mouth with her upper arm, and stared directly at Maili. “You get stupider by the week.”

The other faeries shuffled nervously.

“I told Shy I wouldn’t attack you.” Rika kept her voice almost conversational as she took a somewhat steady step toward Maili.

Foolishly, Maili didn’t back up. The others, however, did.

“Do you honestly think I’ll forgive this?” Rika asked.

Maili still didn’t move.

“You shouldn’t get involved,” Rika said, looking briefly at the other faeries, hoping that they had the sense to leave. She could still take Maili, but not all of them, especially not bound. She kept her voice level and said, “Stop backing her, and I’ll forgive you. I understand boredom.”

No one spoke, but they grew even more still, a thing Rika wouldn’t have thought possible many years ago.

“If you cross me, if you cross Shy,” Rika continued hopefully, “you won’t be staying in my desert much longer.”

At that, Maili laughed. “Your desert?”

“Mine,” Rika reiterated.

Maili made a disgusted sound—and shoved a syringe into Rika’s arm.

When Rika woke, manacles still restrained her. Her wrists were red, and one was bleeding from her resisting even while only semiconscious. She looked around and realized that she was in an alley. Several rusted fire escapes jutted out from the buildings, and she was now suspended from one of them. Her feet dangled down to brush the ground, but she had very little slack in the chains.

“Are you blind?” Maili’s voice drew her attention. The faery who’d trapped her was sitting on a wooden crate out of reach. In her hand she held the end of a cord that was attached to the chains holding Rika. “Shy is playing you.”

Rika ignored the attempt at conversation and tugged her arms forward, causing her wrist to bleed more freely. “This is stupid—even for you.”

“Do you think he’s any different than the Summer King? They both use their charms to make you pliable.” Maili jerked on the cord, pulling the chain taut. The steel cuffs jerked Rika’s arms back over her head. “At his request, I helped him push you toward the mortal.”