Storm Cursed

“That which doesn’t destroy us . . .”

“Leaves us scratching our heads and saying, ‘What’s next?’”

The beginning of the story felt rather "normal" in the world of Mercy since claiming the Tri-Cities under the pack's protection. She's called out to a farm where a goblin, who is a suspect in a murder, has been spotted. Then Larry (yep, a Goblin King named Larry) is called for support and things start to get really interesting.

“Coincidences sometimes happen,” Sherwood said heavily.

“But when they happen around witches, they aren’t usually coincidences.”

When Mercy tries to contact their witch on retainer, Elizaveta Arkadyevna, she's told by a stranger, is

"all tied up..." and ya know that's not in the 'she's in the middle of a book and she'll get back to ya soon' kinda way.

“But I am a coyote and apparently stupid lucky.”

While I'll agree that Mercy does get lucky at times, she's learned from her past and makes smart decisions. She has friends that continue to offer support when needed. I especially enjoyed more of Zee and his son Tad. Fans of a Stefan will be pleased when these two reconnect as well. In this installment, Mercy's not only dealing with a murderous goblin but also miniature goat zombies and twisted black witches. All while Adam and his security company are trying to help facilitate meetings between the government and the Gray Lords.

It'd been about 26 months since reading [b:Silence Fallen|30687916|Silence Fallen (Mercy Thompson, #10)|Patricia Briggs|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1468500884s/30687916.jpg|44701525], which I'm guessing is why it took me a beat to reconnect with these beloved characters. I'm thrilled that we've learned more about Sherwood and Wulfe, who've both been intriguing from the start.

Both series - Mercy Thompson and Alpha & Omega - seem even more interconnected, which is why I highly recommend those who haven't read one or the other make a point to do so.

I dragged my feet on starting this one - it has sat on my Kindle for a few weeks. Not because I was worried I wouldn't like it, but because the Mercy books are some of my favorite things, and starting it meant that I'd be ending it. Isn't that weird? I'm weird that way.

I loved it. As always. I love Coyote, and how he tugs threads into place to help Mercy, even though her abandonment issues make it hard for her to acknowledge he's helping her (she has the same issue with Bran). I love Adam. I love that the pack stands as protectors. I love Zee and Tad. I love Stephan, and I love Wulfe even as he scares the crap out of me and I don't really trust him. I'm curious to see how the events of this book change him going forward.

And Bran remains my favorite character, but he really wasn't in this book. That made me a little sad.

I liked feeling like the threads of multiple books are coming together - this witch family manipulating things, a thread that we saw play out in the Charles/Anna series too.

My only quibble is that we didn't get to see the fae / government meeting. I feel like ... Mercy should have played a key role there, just as she's really played a key role in everything regarding the fae. And I'd like to see the government eat a little crow, after how horribly they fucked things up with the murder of Beaufort's daughter. But I suppose Mercy did play that role, with the Senator and Ruth ... she made them open their eyes a little, and that's all to the good. Like Coyote, Mercy plays a subtle role, tweaking threads to land where they need to.

I suppose another quibble is

how unavailable the pack was - and Adam was - to help Mercy with this. It felt a little unrealistic that they were always not only gone, but with phones off, when they know the witches are targeting the pack. That said, I feel like we got hints from Coyote - like him with that picture of the president and Warren - that he manipulated things to keep the pack away while Mercy dealt with the situation. Which makes sense, because these witches could control werewolves with just their voice. They were incredibly dangerous to the pack, and had they been around it would have hamstrung Mercy, not helped her.

I don't think I'm capable of not loving the Mercy books. And I'm sad to have gobbled this one down so fast - I have literally done nothing else today - but I couldn't help myself.

Re-read July 2024

I think I didn't, in my original readthrough, properly grasp the awesomeness of the threads from old books pulling together to point at the Hardesty witches - there is very good reason to believe they've been behind a lot of bullshit in the series overall.

It seems like their overall goal is the decimation of the other supernatural factions - vampires (Frost was a member of their family, turned into a vampire with the goal of exposing them to humans in a terrifying way, so humans would wipe them out), werewolves (setting up the pack kidnapping to force Adam to murder a Senator, so that humans would wipe out the werewolves), fae (trying to shut down talks between humanity and the fae, so there can be no peace) - so that they (witches) stand as the sole power on Earth (or at least in the US - we don't know of any plans that have been enacted outside the US, aside from Frost first turning up in Italy). It's a huge, ambitious plan, and the threads of it that we've seen so far have been interesting because they're set up in a win-win way. Frost wasn't a known connection to him, so even if he didn't ultimately succeed, he'd be wiping out some Master Vampires, weakening seethes, sowing discord...and planting some spies in seethes across the world. They win whether he brings the vampires out to the public or not, and no one realizes that their family was the overall master of the plan.

We've got a couple major characters in the series that are witchborn with unknown ancestry: Bran, Sherwood, Wulfe. I have to wonder if we're eventually going to find out that Bran's mother (witch who turned him and Samuel into a werewolf) is one of the ancestors of this witch-family line. Sherwood seems to not be - in this book Mercy repeatedly makes the point that his magic feels different, wilder, with that element of song ... that it's hard to imagine he'd be a relation. Wulfe, as well ... Mercy was shocked that his magic was pure, white, beautiful ... which doesn't seem like it is kin to the Hardesty witches. But then again, perhaps all those elements change when a witch slides into dark magic, tainting their magic into this greasy, stinky awfulness that taints everything. Given that Wulfe has been tangled into a lot of the Hardesty witch threads, it wouldn't be surprising if he is also of that family ... though he could also be from a rival family.

He certainly knows a lot about them, and had no problem holding his own against two of their strongest in this book.

Overall, though, Wulfe is a fascinating, terrifying character - he's so broken that he's often unpredictable, though I've long-suspected that he plays that up to suit him. He knew what was up with Frost, and he was clearly aiding Marsilia in that fight (and Mercy - he stopped someone from getting her at least once in that book). In this book, he implied that he knew Frost was a witch, maybe even a Hardesty, and needed to be stopped. To that same end, he played the situation with Bonarata exactly right in the last book, pointing him at Mercy. I think there is a clever, calculating man in there who uses his brokenness as a smoke screen. So, as I said, he's both fascinating and terrifying. :)

This book launches Mercy into a bigger stage, as humans start meddling with powers and politics they don't understand. She offers her pack's protection to her city, and with that comes a huge responsibility.

But Mercy is up to everything and anything; she is a survivor and unlike any other protagonist in urban fantasy.

I love when Coyote shows up to play, and this time he has a lot to say. Mercy is tuning in more to her coyote nature, and even though she dislikes its wildness and chaos, Coyote and other Native American figures always work out in her favor in the end.