CHAPTER 61

The time worn pages crinkled as Rune carefully opened the ancient tome. Soft light from Hell's ever-twilight sky streamed in from the floor to ceiling window behind him. He rubbed his fingers over the center of his forehead. He'd combed through every book and scrap of parchment that predated Saith and found nothing to bring him closer to Faye's race or altar.

We should seek our queen, the Ra'Voshnik said, impatiently prowling the edges of his mind.

Rune's thoughts wandered to his night breeze. How she bound his wrists and climbed onto his lap. The memory of her soft lips lingered with him. She focused his attention to a razor's edge and in those moments all he could see was her. Rune smiled, recalling the feel of her nails scoring his chest. He would lean into her proclivities, explore her desires. A pleasant experience she would associate him with.

The creature purred its agreement.Bring her into your mind, we could both tend to our queen.

Do not frighten her.

She won't be screaming with fright.

Do not press the issue, we see to her desire. Not yours.

Sadi appeared beside his desk, wearing typical Familiar fashion. A tight corset over a shirt with billowing sleeves, paired with a skirt with slits that ran the length of her legs. Her thigh-high, belted boots completed her outfit. She took a seat on his desk and rested her feet on the arm of his chair. The panel of her skirt falling between her thighs.

Get her legs away from us, or I will present her head to our queen as a gift.

She leaned forward to rest her forearms against her knees and said, "You're courting her."

"I am," Rune answered, getting to his feet to shelf books he had yet to read.

"Have you forgotten your blood debt? Alister will come for her." Sadi said, pivoting on his desk to watch him at his bookshelf.

He never imagined the cost of his arrogance would extract such a deep price.

The frail-blood will die before we surrender our queen,the Ra'Voshnik growled.

Be silent,Rune grated as he slid a book into place.

The unofficial title he bestowed upon his day-blood brother ushered in a tide of pained memories. The wounds he hid didn't scar with the passage of time. They festered, guilt feeding off his every misdeed.

"Should I collect his head?" Sadi dragged the metal tipped claw of her ring over her bottom lip, excitement lighting her eyes.

"No." Alister's path hadn't crossed Rune's in eight centuries. Alister was no threat, his older brother didn't have the strength to challenge him. Faye would remain safely at his side, under his protection.

The light faded from Sadi's eyes as she let out a long breath. "I looked into her line. She's ancient, her line is tethered in the Darkness."

Faye's winged double told him as much. "Will she be immortal when she invokes her blood?"

"You need to tread lightly with her. She's dead. I can't see it, but I can feel it."

His night breeze was on her ninth life, her previous deaths didn't drag him to the Darkness. Rune suspected the eternal part of her safeguarded his life. "I am quite difficult to kill. Did you find anything useful in her line?"

"Her line is strange. It took me days to walk it. During the past eight centuries her life has been constant. When she dies, she's immediately reborn, the magic takes root in an Anarian woman near birth. It sits in the child and kills the mother."

"That cannot be shared with her." Knowing she caused her mother's death would cripple Faye.

"She looks like me during her repeating lives. Then her line goes dormant. It's quiet during Saith's life and the Great War. Then her lives are peppered along her line again. There's no pattern to it. She's always a woman but her appearance varies in her older lives." Sadi's throat worked. "She dies young Rune. In every life."

Rune turned toward Sadi as worry and protectiveness clawed through him. "How does she die?"

Sadi shook her head. "I can't witness it. A blinding light and pain are all I see."

Dread crept up Rune's spine. "How old is she when this happens?"

"Twenty-five years to the day."

Rune cursed in High Tongue. "Faye is in her twenty-fifth year." His night breeze was young and fragile. He would protect her. His gaze met Sadi's. "Thank you."

She tapped her nails on his desk and stood with feline grace. "Be careful with her. If she escorts you to the Darkness I'll find her in each life. Her death will be a drawn-out thing of beauty."

The Ra'Voshnik's roar echoed through his mind the same moment Rune caught her wrist as she turned to leave. He bit out, "You will not touch her."

Kill her!The Ra'Voshnik's fury roiled through him, bleeding into him.

Sadi's gaze lowered to his hold, then flicked back up to him. "My loyalty runs to you, not her. You want her safe? Stay alive."

He allowed her to pull her wrist free and vanish from his study.

She threatens our queen, and you let her live?The Ra'Voshnik bellowed.

Calm yourself. She's Familiar. She believes her vision to be true and moves with our interests in mind.

The Ra'Voshnik growled but ceased its argument. Rune collected the books he'd been reading and returned to his desk. Faye's line disturbed him and weighed heavily on his mind. He craved her presence, needing to remind himself she was under his care and safe.

The creature purred, agreeing with his sentiment.

Rune pushed his senses over his estate searching for her. He phased into the outer gardens in the event she was soaking in what she deemed, Hell's hot spring. Faye was on her knees, collecting leaves from her garden. She spent so much of her time on these concoctions for little return.

Rune silently strolled to her. "Good afternoon."

She jumped at his voice and jerked in his direction, her expression promising violence.

The Ra'Voshnik raged to the surface wanting to clash with her, excited by her temper. Rough play was common among vampires. Had she stabbed him with the letter opener under different circumstances he would have pinned her and made her lick the blood from her weapon. Then take other things to those lush lips.

Rune dragged the creature beneath the surface. Imaginings were pleasant enough, but his night breeze was no vampire. She needed to be comfortable with herself before he could introduce his darker impulses.

Faye pointed her little garden knife at him. "I'm going to tie bells to your shoes so you stop sneaking up on me."

He glanced at the knife, then back at her. "Apologies." She turned her back to him, continuing her collection. Rune canted his head. "How long have you sold your potions?"

"Nine years. I started before I moved out with Sparrow."

So much of her young life was wasted on this tedium. He wanted to provide her with whatever she desired, but he needed to word it in a way Faye wouldn't take offense to. "I could inquire about a storefront in Necromia to sell your potions if you wish."

She turned toward him. Her brows drawn down, as she said, "I don't want a store."

He spoke a dozen languages fluently yet could never speak the right words to her.

Take her to buy more plants for her garden. Or books!Rune silenced the Ra'Voshnik and asked, "Why do you sell your wares each month?"

She shook her head and returned to her gardening.

Rune sat beside her, resting an arm over his bent knee. "I am making an effort to understand you so I may court you with some degree of success."

Faye gave him a sidelong glance and said, "I can't explain something you have no concept of."

"Then teach me."

She set down her basket and knife and looked him up and down. "You're too old to learn new tricks."

The corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk. "I would be willing to learn a trick or two if you were to instruct me."