★★★★★ Repercussions

Smoke Bitten

Patricia Briggs

So, before beginning Smoke Bitten, let's take stock. We just got out of a huge Werewolves vs witches+zombies fight (Storm Cursed). Also, in Fire Touched Mercy, on behalf of Adam's pack, took on the responsibility of keeping the Columbia Basin safe from supernatural threats. Then Adam's pack, and subsequently the government of the USA concluded a pact with the fae. Marsilia's Columbia Basin vampire seethe secretly agreed to cooperate. In Silence Fallen Mercy and Adam shut down a challenge from Bonarata, the vampire lord of Europe.

Well, that all sounds great! Time to kick back for a little R&R, no?

No.

Adam is not in a good place. As America's Most Photogenic Werewolf, he has to be be perfect all the time. Adam has lived with heavy demands for much of his life -- the alpha of a werewolf pack cannot show weakness. But Adam has a weakness: his wife Mercy, who persists in putting herself in danger. Adam knows, intellectually, that Mercy can take care of herself, and he cannot forbid it. But the wolf in him cannot accept his inability to protect her. What's more, Adam personally executed his former friend and colleague, the witch Elizaveta Arkadyevna, because she had betrayed him by going Black. That's not a thing you get over in a day.

Also, something is wrong with Marsilia's second-in-command Wulfe. As part of the witch+zombie banishment, Mercy caught up and dissolved all the life threads of the dead in the final battle at Elizaveta's home. Vampire sorcerer Wulfe was in that battle and it appears that Mercy accidentally cut his strings at the same time. He's not been destroyed, but he's damaged. (Based on the publisher's blurb, Wulfe's condition is likely to become important in Soul Taken, coming out 23-Aug-2022, three days from today.)

Then there are the fae. It is in their nature to be restless, and it is becoming clear that there are factions who are not altogether thrilled with the deals that were made with the US government and the Columbia Basin pack. J.R.R. Tolkien famously wrote "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger." A version appropriate for the Mercyverse might be "Do not meddle in the affairs of the fae, for they are deceptive and heedless of harm."

No spoilers yet -- I've only told you things you should know from reading the last three books of the Mercy Thompson series. But I'm cheating a little bit, because the things I just reminded you of will become important in Smoke Bitten. The publisher's blurb tells us that something dangerous has escaped from Underhill. Underhill, I will remind you, was formerly the hidden land of the fae. But Underhill is also a person, Tilly. Since she shut most of the fae out, her relationship with them has not been great. And she seems to have let something out.

So, no. No R&R for Mercy and Adam.

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