"Well, whatever you intend do with the dogs’ souls, the sword maker kept his end of the bargain," she said. "I will take his sons back to the human world."

"I don’t bargain with Shifters." Kieran snapped his fingers. "You. Bring the Shifter’s get."

Two attendants disappeared and returned holding the squirming cubs, wrapped in nets, in their wildcat forms. Both attendants were cursing as they dropped the bundles to the ground.

"They refuse to shift to human form, Your Highness," one attendant said, breathing hard.

Alanna knelt next to the net-wrapped cubs, keeping herself out of reach of their flailing claws. "Your father sends his love," she whispered. "He says to tell you he’s proud of you."

The small cats eyed her in suspicion and kept snarling.

"Let us test the blade on them, shall we?" Kieran said.

Alanna rose to her feet. "You said it wasn’t a killing blade."

"No, but it will likely do some damage--they are small, and I imagine their souls will be--

cute."

Alanna reached to stop Kieran, and at the same time, a huge Fae-cat tore through the clearing and leapt at them both.

Niall . . .

He’d followed her. Alanna watched in panic as the men at arms and attendants attacked him.

Niall fought hard, but there were ten Fae to one Shifter, and they quickly overwhelmed him. The men at arms bound him in a net, but Niall went insane, fighting and clawing the ropes, foam and blood flecking his mouth.

Kieran ran at Niall, rage on his face. "I’ll test the blade on its maker instead."

Alanna froze in fear, but Niall raged and fought so hard through the net that Kieran couldn’t get near him. The men at arms advised their prince to abandon the attempt.

"Tell him to shift back," Kieran shouted at Alanna. "He shifts back or I kill his cubs."

Alanna folded her arms, still striving to pretend she supported him. "Why would he listen to me? I’m Fae. I hope you’re happy. He was foul as foul can be the whole time. Shifters disgust me."

Niall roared, the sound booming through the clearing. His children fought and yowled, encouraged by their father’s wrath.

"I’ll shoot the bastard, instead," Kieran snarled. "Good target practice."

Alanna touched her brother's arm, trying to keep her tone cool. "Why don’t you show the Shifter smith what the sword was made for?"

Kieran stopped, and a feral smile creased his face. "Sister, you will make a fine Fae yet.

Watch, Shifter. Let me show you how I can reach into the past and hurt you in the present."

The prince flicked back his cloak as he strode to the closest mound. He lifted the gleaming silver sword above his head and drove it, point down, straight through the mound.

Light flashed up the length of the sword, and a shower of dirt shot from the grave. A swirl of smoke erupted from the hole in the grave and coalesced into the misty shape of a Fae-wolf.

Kieran laughed. He went to the next mound, and the next, releasing the essences of the Fae-wolves, who formed then floated insubstantially over the places where their bones were buried.

Kieran flourished the sword. "Behold the souls of those who slew my grandfather." He turned to them and opened his arms. "You will surrender to me, and do what I bid. You will kill the Shifter Feline and his cubs."

The figures swirled around him, mist trailing behind them like rags. Alanna held her breath, fingers at her mouth.

This was not what she’d expected to happen. She'd changed the spells as she'd slid them into the sword, repurposing Kieran's magic with her own. She was a good enough mage to do it, to trick him, and she knew it. She'd changed the spells to that a thrust of the sword would release the souls, not enslave them. The wolves should have dispersed, their souls free for all eternity.

Instead the ethereal Lupines lingered, like wolves gathering around prey.

Prey . . .

"Kieran!" Alanna shouted. "Drop the sword. Run!"

Kieran ignored her. He swept the sword blade through the ghostlike creatures. "Obey, wraiths. Now you are mine."

The wolves circled him, their eyes glowing yellow through the mist. As one, they attacked.

Kieran cried out as the pack swept down on him in wild glee, and then he began to scream.

Chapter Seven

Niall shifted to human form, watching in amazement as the ghostly wolves ripped into Kieran. They were mist and smoke--they shouldn’t be able to touch him--and yet the wolves tore at him. Kieran's pristine white cloak turned scarlet. His men at arms and attendants, instead of rushing to protect their master, turned in terror and fled.

The sword flew from Kieran’s hand, as though it propelled itself, and landed at Niall’s feet.

Kieran screamed again.

The wolves ripped the prince's body apart, snarls feral as they used teeth and claws to kill.

Alanna hugged her arms to her chest, her eyes wide, as her brother slowly died. His screams turned to pleas for mercy, but the wolves did not care.

One wolf finally wrenched out his throat. The Lupine stood back, muzzle covered with blood, triumph in his eyes. At the wolf's feet, Kieran's bloody body folded in on itself and crumpled to dust.

The wolves padded in a circle around the prince’s remains, then they lifted their heads and howled. It was a faint whisper of a howl, eerie and hollow, but it held a note of triumph.

The wolves shifted into a dozen men with broad shoulders and flowing hair, with the light blue eyes common to Lupines. They gave Niall and Alanna a collective look of

acknowledgment, shifted back into wolves, and vanished. Wisps of smoke spun high into the sky and faded away.

Alanna ran to the fallen sword, caught it up, and rushed to Niall and his cubs. The sword sliced swiftly through the net binding Niall, and then Alanna moved to cut the ropes binding Piers and Marcus.

Both wildcat cubs shifted into boys and ran to Niall, throwing their arms around him. Tears wet Niall’s face as he knelt and gathered them in.

He looked over their heads at Alanna, who stood behind them, sword clenched in her hand, her dark eyes wild.

"Alanna," Niall said, trying to stop his voice from shaking. "What happened? What did you do?"

Alanna lifted her chin. "Kieran commanded me to make a soul-stealer, but I spelled the sword to be a soul releaser. Instead of binding the souls of those Shifters, driving it through their remains set them free." She drew shuddering a breath, looking white and sick. "At least, that’s all I meant to do. I did not realize the Shifters would decide to take their vengeance on Kieran like that. I did not know they could."

But as horrifying as Kieran’s death had been, Niall couldn’t be unhappy that the cruel Fae who’d abducted his children and would have murdered them was gone. "If they hadn’t killed him, the prince would have killed all of us."

Alanna nodded. "Me, certainly. I'd hoped that while he attacked me, you and your cubs could get away."

Niall shot to his feet. "That was your plan? For me to run away while you died? ’Tis not what Shifters do for mates, lass."

"It’s done, Niall. You must leave now. If they find you here, they will hold you responsible.

Kieran’s cousin, his heir, had no love for Kieran, but he might appease his followers by making an example of you."

Niall hugged his boys close. They were scared, but unhurt, resilient lads. "And what is to say they won’t come after me and my cubs into the human world?"

"Because most Fae had no love for Kieran, either," Alanna said. "I doubt any of them will be willing to risk entering the human world to avenge his name."

"But you can not stay here, either, lass. They’ll blame you too."

Alanna gave him a long look. "Perhaps, if you exchanged your steel knives for bronze ones, I could better serve you breakfast?"

Niall’s heart thumped fast and hard. He reached for her, pulled her into the circle of his family. "You saved my boys, and me. You stay with me as long as you damn well please."

Her scent wrapped around him, fresh and graceful and beautiful. Niall wondered that he could have ever disliked it. Her scent was wrapping around his heart as well as the warmth of a new bond that had started to forge.

Alanna held the sword up to him. "This belongs to you."

Niall closed his hand around the hilt. The sword felt right in his palm, as though he’d made it especially for him to hold. And maybe he had. "A soul releaser?"

"I spelled it so that when a Shifter’s soul is in peril of being bound to its body or to another’s will, this sword will release it in peace. The Lupine souls that had been cursed to linger at their graves have at last gone to the Summerland."

Niall studied the lines and runes that ran and down the blade and the hilt. "Why did you do this? Why help Shifters? You’re Fae."

"Because many of the Fae are noble people. Some like Kieran, or our grandfather, or the ones who made and enslaved the Shifters in the first place, were cruel--even we consider them cruel. Fae have long lives, and we now live remote from the human world, which makes us view things differently. Kieran’s vengeance was that of a child pulling wings from a fly that annoyed him. I could not let him succeed."

The boys were looking at the sword too, with the bright gazes of lads fascinated by a pretty weapon. Niall saw long days ahead explaining to them why they couldn’t touch it.

"Why didn’t you tell me, lass?" he asked. "When we made the sword together, why didn’t you tell me what you were doing?"

"Because when I walked into your forge, you made no secret that you hated Fae. Why should you help me? You are Shifter. And to be honest, I simply didn’t think you’d believe me."

"And you’d have been right, love. I wouldn’t have." Niall’s heart squeezed as he thought of the danger she’d walked into, taking the sword to the Fae realm and knowing her brother would discover what she’d done. "But you should have told me this morning what you intended."

"I intended to have your children back to you before you woke. I never thought you’d be daft enough to follow me to Faerie."

"Daft, am I?" Niall tilted her face to his and pressed a brief kiss to her lips. "Who was the one who came here alone, intending to sacrifice herself? But we can argue about who's most foolish later. Let’s be going, before your brother’s keepers return for us."

They went, through the mists and the standing stones, back to the freezing wind from the wild sea, the light dancing on the waves and the green of the Great Island across the strait. The wind tossed Alanna’s hair, which streamed like gold.

They returned to the cottage, where Piers and Marcus ate ravenously and regaled them with their adventures with the enthusiasm of boys no longer afraid. Niall hung the sword point downward on the wall, the blade gleaming softly.

"Keep it well," Alanna said from his kitchen table. "And wield it well."

"There are so many Shifters," Niall said. "I can’t be everywhere in the world waiting to see if a Shifter is in danger of losing his soul."

"Then we will make more. We will forge enough swords so that every Shifter clan will have one, and then your work will be done. You aren’t the best sword maker alive for nothing."

"I’m so glad you believe in me, love."

Alanna rose from the table, stepped into his arms, and kissed his lips. Piers and Marcus snickered, children laughing at their elders.

"Of course I believe in you," she said. "But do you believe in me?" Her voice lowered to a whisper. "Have you found the answer to the question you asked last night? Can a Shifter love a Fae?"

Niall cupped her face and looked into her beautiful dark eyes. "If that Fae was you, I think I could. Can you love a Shifter who's covered with soot and smells of iron?"

"I can love you, Niall O’Connell."

"Of course I won't be home much, lass, if you expect me to forge a sword for every Shifter clan in existence."

Alanna gave him a smile that showed him her strength as well as her compassion. "We’ll do it together. Every piece, every hammer stroke, we’ll forge them together."

"Sounds like bliss, that does. Or a lot of bloody work."

"But worth it?"

"Aye, love." Niall sank into her warmth, took her mouth in a long kiss, ignoring his sons’