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“What kind of hex is this?” Zachary demanded, desperately trying to regain control of his horse.
“No hex,” I said. “It means your horse is smarter than you are.” I sighed. “And here I thought you understood animals better than anybody.”
Zachary lost control of his steed. The horse turned and bolted back through the crossroads with the unlucky hunter clinging to its neck, yelling commands. He was wasting his voice; the horse was too panicked to listen. I felt bad for the animal, but it would be fine once it put distance between itself and the perceived danger—me.
Kane chuckled. “Did you see his face? I feel a little bad for him.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t like him. He called me adorable.”
The demon nodded sagely. “Note to self: never call Lorelei adorable.”
“Would you have?”
His mouth lifted at the corners. “I much prefer stunning.”
An arrow whizzed overhead. I grabbed Kane by the sleeve and pulled him to the ground.
“What did you do to Zachary?” the archer demanded.
The hunter circled us, keeping one eye trained on me and the other on Kane.
“You might want to rethink this,” Kane warned. “We let your friend off easy, but we don’t need to extend you the same courtesy.”
“That’s okay. I like my odds.” He raised his bow and notched another arrow.
A thick vine snapped into action; it wrapped around his bow and pulled it to the ground, taking the archer with it. Sinewy roots erupted from the ground around him as more vines slithered across his ankles and wrists.
“What is this?” he shouted.
More roots climbed the air, forming a cage to contain my attacker. He thrashed against his earthly prison, but the hunter’s struggle to free himself was in vain.
A familiar figure stepped into the clearing, twirling a branch like a baton.
“Brody!”
The nature mage swaggered toward us. “I heard a rumor that the Wild Hunt was descending upon this quaint little town,” he said with a wink at me. “How could I leave you twisting in the wind?”
The hunter’s lips parted, presumably to call for aid. A fat stick slammed into his mouth and muffled the sound.
“Brody, you remember Kane Sullivan.”
The visitor dipped his head in recognition. “Aye. I’m unlikely to forget a prince of hell.”
“You couldn’t have come at a better time,” I said.
He motioned to the cage. “I can see that. Apologies for not arriving sooner. T’was in Canada and took the first available train.”
“Dare I ask what you were doing in Canada?”
His mouth split into a grin. “Plenty of nature to experiment with and very little oversight.”
A fair answer. Brody’s specialty was fashioning weapons from the natural materials around him. He could turn a tree branch into a broadsword, or he could simply manipulate roots and vines to create a cage.
The mage glanced at me. “I heard Magnarella’s dead. Is it true?”
“Yes.” We’d met when vampire mobster Vincenzo Magnarella hired Brody to kill me. The nature mage made a formidable foe. I was relieved when he turned out to be too honorable for the vampire and chose to switch teams.
“Was it you who did the deed?”
