In the first of Piper J. Drake’s Mythwoven series, Wings once Cursed & Bound, Marie, a witch, is helped by two nine-tailed foxes while she is a part of a team rescuing Peeraphan. We know them only as Fox Number One and Fox Number Two, but that very short scene also reveals that they work with a morally grey organization called Babel, they took part in Peeraphan’s kidnapping and then regretted it when they learned the purpose, and they are very, very impressed with Marie. It was enough to make me hope that Marie would meet them again and have no need to choose between them. I am very pleased to say that Marie’s book, Fangs So Bright and Deadly, is exactly what I was hoping for.
Marie Xiao’s supernatural job is working with the Darke Consortium to keep dangerous magical artifacts out of human hands. Her ordinary world job is designing green spaces in office buildings in Seattle. The ordinary job can be a cover and gets her access to buildings that may be holding magical artifacts. As the book opens, Marie is meeting with a new client, Socrates Industries, and quickly finds plants that have no business being in an office building and a man wearing an unusual amulet. As she leaves the building she’s observed by Kuro and Joe (Foxes One and Two), who are also watching the building. When the three meet and chat on the street, things get weird as an undead man walks by. Now the three agree to team up for work, but Joe and Kuro also hope for a more personal team-up.
As the three try to figure out what’s happening at Socrates Industries, there are further complications when Joe and Kuro’s boss decides to send a message and contracts some pain witches to put a Ladyhawke curse on Joe and Kuro. I appreciated this facet of the story for a couple of reasons, it gave Marie time with Joe and Kuro individually, it solidified them as a united front against Babel and Socrates Industries, and it was a nice dash of Gen X nostalgia. If you haven’t watched Ladyhawke, you should.
I loved the care that Drake takes with her story and her characters. Without going into so much detail that the plot bogs down, she weaves in enough information that we understand Kuro and Joe as different fox spirits, a kitsune and gumiho. Marie, as a green witch, has a very different she nurtures her magic. That same care goes into building Marie, Joe, and Kuro into a throuple. Joe and Kuro are an already established couple. They’ve worked through integrating their differences. Marie has been in a poly relationship before, so it isn’t new to her. The common enemies allows the tension to be primarily external to the relationship.
I’m looking forward to more books in the Mythwoven series.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.