Most of Pagiel’s warriors could handle one-on-one physical or magical combat with the Willow attackers, so I focused on the monsters and spirits. A lot of them I could dispatch with shamanic magic, keeping my distance and ousting them before they even realized what was happening. I traded my athame for my wand. It was a real wand, not the homemade contraption from the Yew Land—though I had kept that as a souvenir.

Some of the spirits sensed what I was doing and attacked me directly. It occurred to me then that I hadn’t really been involved in a true fight for a while. Despite all the dangers we’d faced on the Yew Land journey, there’d been very few physical confrontations. The closest had been when I freed the monarchs, but even then, my storm magic had kept most of them at bay. I hadn’t gotten down and dirty in a while.

Like so much after the birth of the twins, I was excited to see that I really had recovered. Part of my fear when pregnant had been that my body was lost to me forever. Time had healed everything, and I was just as fast and effective as I used to be. Sure, I got a few bruises and burns from the spirits (this group had an acidlike touch), but I took it in stride and fought my way through.

Our group was making good progress when a group of Oak Land warriors, led by Dorian himself, came charging down the road. That pretty much cinched the odds for us, and in a very short time, Maiwenn’s people were either dead or had fled.

I wiped sweat off my brow and put away the wand as I rode over to Dorian. Having come at the end, he looked remarkably fresh and energetic, though I saw blood on his sword. “Well, well,” he said. “What’s all this?”

I grimaced. “Ambush. I found Pagiel in Arizona and convinced him to come back with me to see you. Then these guys showed up. Kiyo acted like he’d be hunting Pagiel, but my guess is he knew I’d have better luck and simply had Maiwenn’s forces stake out likely places we’d return.”

Dorian glanced around, a small frown creasing his features. “Where is Pagiel?”

“He’s right—” I turned around and stared. There were all of Pagiel’s riders, alive and well. But no Pagiel. “Where the hell is he?” A moment later, I noticed something else. “Where’s Jasmine?”

His disappearance was as much a surprise to his followers as it was to me—well, most of them. A couple exchanged knowing looks, and I could see mild guilt on their faces.

“What is it?” demanded Dorian. “What happened?”