I slid my arms around the women at my sides.

The men (obviously save Apollo) closed in at our backs.

Valentine and Lavinia moved in toward Circe.

Franka, Derrik and Noc moved in next to Finnie.

My eyes went to Apollo when I heard him give a sharp whistle and my breath caught in my lungs when the wolves slunk out of the woods.

Hundreds of them.

Maybe thousands.

I was right yesterday.

Helda was f.u.c.ked.

He twisted to look at Valentine.

"Wake her," his deep voice growled.

"As you wish, cheri," Valentine replied then threw out her hand in an idle gesture.

I looked back to the witch in the snow.

She was pushing up on her arms, looking around.

But I didn't have much time to pay her attention.

Apollo was speaking.

"Justice be done," he stated, and without delay, turned his back to the witch, his cloak flying out behind him awesomely, and he sauntered our way.

The wolves also didn't delay.

As one, they pounced.

She got out one shriek.

Then nothing but growls, snarls and the sickening sound of moist tearing.

I swallowed.

Apollo, fortunately blocking my view of the carnage, walked right to me.

When he stopped in front of me, I drew in a deep breath and tipped my eyes to his.

His were still p.i.s.sed.

He again thought he'd lost me and he didn't like that much.

I had to do something about it.

So I offered him part of what I had to offer him.

"Are the children okay?" I asked.

"Yes," he grunted.

"All of them?" I pushed.

"Yes," he repeated tersely.

"The guys? Are they all right?" I queried.

"Yes," he bit off.

Hmm.

It seemed all was okay and he was still p.i.s.sed.

"All of them?" I pressed. "Frey's guys. Lahn's guys-"

"Yes, Maddie," he clipped out.

"Okay then, do you think there's time for me to put on my kicka.s.s dress and attend the gale? It'll be boring, what with no intrigue afoot, but I'm thinking I'd like to try my hand at dancing."

He stared down at me.

He did this for a while.

Then his hands shot out, grabbed hold of me and I slammed into his body as I watched him throw back his dark, handsome head and burst out laughing.

I wrapped my arms around him and smiled.

My job was done.

Epilogue.

A Bag Filled with Hope Needless to say, once the dome of protection went down and the Winter Palace was attacked by hewcrows and something called toilroys (the troll-like creatures I saw on Specter Isle), and seeing as all the windows had been blown out and not all of them had yet been boarded up, pretty much everyone was freaked so the Bitter Gales had been postponed.

Thus, my kicka.s.s dress was still hanging in my room and I had my fingers wrapped around Apollo's arm as he guided us behind Tor and Cora, who were behind Circe and Lahn, who were following Frey and Finnie to a sitting room in the Winter Palace.

We entered and I saw Valentine and Lavinia sitting next to each other on a couch. Derrik was standing beside the fireplace. Queen Aurora was sitting in a chair. Franka was in a corner, looking like she wanted to be anywhere but there. And Noc was standing at the boarded window, the other Circe not too far from him.

All eyes had come to us as we entered. Seeing as the room was huge, there was fortunately plenty of seating so I was able to take a much needed load off when Apollo claimed a chair, seating me on the arm and curling his arm around my hips.

I wasn't sure who was in charge of the operation. I just knew when he spoke that Apollo was going to take charge of the debriefing.

"You first," he ordered, his voice curt, his eyes on Derrik.

"I infiltrated Specter Isle," Derrik replied.

"I could guess that part," Apollo returned.

Derrik turned more fully to Apollo and crossed his arms on his chest.

"It was not difficult to convince them there was a reason I was angry and would turn traitor," Derrik stated confusingly.

"I can imagine not. The question is, did you turn traitor?" Apollo inquired.

Derrik's face got hard. "Don't ask that, brother."

"Uh...just to say," I quickly put in to this baffling exchange. "When the rescue mission commenced, Derrik was all over incapacitating Helda."

Derrik's face got soft as his eyes turned to me.

"Your purpose in doing this?" Apollo queried and Derrik looked back to him.

"Being with them, I could not know your plan and I could not get away to share theirs. All I knew was that both of you would have them. And I would be in the position to do something when they played out. I couldn't do much. But in the end, I was able to do something."

"This is true, mon loup," Valentine put in. "Our Noctorno of my world was sent there to dispatch Edith, as well as incapacitate Helda. This last was the difficult part that made it quite risky for him to go. However you wanted her alive. I daresay those three didn't consider firearms entering the picture, or our handsome other world Noctorno. But I suspected it would not take long for them to recover from the death of Edith. The elves had to focus on resurrecting Lavinia so they could use her as the conduit to Specter Isle and then drain Minerva. It was most fortunate your man was there. It made things easier on us all."

Wow.

Lavinia had actually been dead.

And the elves resurrected her.

They were powerful.

Apollo turned his attention to Valentine. "Right, then, as you've explained that, it's clear you had this plan in place, a plan you did not share, when we already had a plan in place."

"You did, cheri, and it was a good one. I did not see it failing. And I did not wish to cause alarm by suggesting that it would. But you must admit, it is always wise to have a backup plan, no?"

I looked to Apollo's profile and saw a muscle jump in his cheek.

That meant it was wise, he just wasn't going to admit it out loud.

"Were you aware the witches could beat your enchantments and our women would be in danger?" Frey asked and Valentine looked to him.

"Was I aware they were that in danger?" She shook her head. "No. Again, I did not see the protections on this palace beaten." Her eyes went languid when she stated, "I am rather good at what I do." Her lips tipped up. "But I did know they carried great power so I asked Noctorno to be on call, just in case."

"Uh, just to say, no one calls me Noctorno," Noc stated, sounding irritated.

Valentine's lips tipped up further and she glanced his way.

"How did you do it?" I asked and Valentine looked to me. "They said you couldn't use your magic there. How did you?"

"You, ma colombe, and your sisters broke that enchantment," she answered. "This, I had hoped you would find your way to do. And you did."

"But I don't have magic," Cora remarked.

"I don't either," I said.

"Neither do I," Finnie added.

Valentine looked among us. "We women all have the capacity to carry magic. We just need the motivation. And love is a powerful motivation, don't you agree?"

Well, that couldn't be argued.

"Regardless," she went on, "Circe has magic and she was the channel to pull up yours. It was, as I'd hoped, quite powerful. Alas, I could not send your men or battalions of soldiers there for even with their protections down, the triad was still at full strength and someone might have been harmed in the ensuing fray. The instant they saw any of us, they would pull up defenses, vickrants, toilroys, etcetera. Therefore, once I could transport someone there, I sent someone they would not see as a threat, Franka, instilled by a spell to open a line for the elves to get to Lavinia as well as to create a diversion for"-she glanced Noc's way-"Noc to arrive and finally make it safe for myself and the men to come, without the tedious bother of dealing with armies of creatures."

Tedious bother.

This woman was something else.

"So Franka has magic?" Finnie asked, looking Franka's way.

"She is, of course, a woman. A woman with her own motivation," Valentine murmured.

I was looking Franka's way too.

She was avoiding everyone's eyes.

Even so, I said, "Thank you."

Her head jerked and she looked to me.

"Thank you," I repeated. "That took a lot of courage and I...well, I appreciate it."

"I didn't do it for you," she stated coldly.

"Maybe not, but in the end, you still helped us and I'm still grateful," I returned.

Apollo's arm around me gave me a squeeze.

Franka's mouth got tight as she held my eyes for long moments before she looked away.

"Are you okay, Lavinia?" Finnie asked and my gaze went to the witch.