they flooded in… he wasn't sure he would survive them, wasn't sure he would even try.
'Saetan?' Jaenelle hovered near the open study doorway.
'Lady.' Protocol. The courtesies given and granted when a Warlord Prince addressed a Queen of equal or darker rank. He'd lost the privilege of addressing her any other way, of being anything more.
When she entered the room, he walked around the desk. He couldn't sit while she was standing, and he couldn't offer her a seat since the rest of the furniture in his study had been destroyed and he hadn't allowed Beale to clear up the mess.
Jaenelle approached hesitantly, her lower lip caught between her teeth, her hands twining restlessly. She didn't look at him.
'I talked to Lorn.' Her voice quivered. She blinked rapidly. 'He agreed with you that I shouldn't go to Terreille – except the Keep. We decided that I would create a shadow of myself that can interact with people so that I can search for Daemon while my body remains safe at the Keep. I'll only be able to search three days out of every month because of the physical drain the shadow will place on me, but I know someone I think will help me look for him.'
'You must do what you think best,' he said carefully.
She looked at him, her beautiful, ancient, haunted eyes full of tears. 'S-Saetan?'
Still so young for all her strength and wisdom.
He opened his arms, opened his heart.
She clung to him, trembling violently.
She was the most painful, most glorious dance of his life.
'Saetan, I-'
He pressed a finger against her lips. 'No, witch-child,' he said with gentle regret. 'Forgiveness doesn't work that way. You may want to forgive me, but you can't do it yet. Forgiving someone can take weeks, months, years. Sometimes it takes a lifetime. Until Daemon is whole again, all we can do is try to be kind to one another, and understanding, and take each day as it comes.' He held her close, savoring the feeling, not knowing when, or if, he'd ever hold her like this again. 'Come along, witch-child. It's almost dawn. You need to rest now.'
He led her to her bedroom but didn't enter. Safe in his own room, he felt the loneliness already pressing down on him.
He curled up on his bed, unable to stop the tears he'd held back throughout the long, terrible night. It would take time. Weeks, months, maybe years. He knew it would take time.
But, please, sweet Darkness, please don't let it take a lifetime.
Surreal walked down the neglected street toward the market square, hoping her icy expression would offset her vulnerable physical state. She shouldn't have used that witch's brew to suppress last month's moon time, but the Hayllian guards Kartane SaDiablo had sent after her had been breathing down her neck then and she hadn't felt safe enough to risk being defenseless during the days when her body couldn't tolerate the use of her power beyond basic Craft.
Damn all Blood males to the bowels of Hell. When a witch's body made her vulnerable for a few days, it also made every Blood male a potential enemy. And right now she had enough enemies to worry about.
Well, she'd pick up a few things at the market and then hole up in her rooms with a couple of thick novels and wait it out.
Stifled, frightened cries came from the alley up ahead.
Calling in a long-bladed knife, Surreal slipped to the edge of the alley and peeked around the corner.
Four large, surly, Hayllian men. And one girl who was barely more than a child. Two of the men stood back, watching, as one of their comrades held the girl and the other's hands yanked her clothes aside.
Damn, damn, damn. It was a trap. There was no other reason for Hayllians to be in this part of the Realm, especially in this part of a dying city. She should just slip back to her rooms. If she was careful, they might not find her. There would be other Hayllians waiting around the places where she might purchase a ticket for a Web Coach, so that was out. And riding the Winds without the protection of a Coach might not be suicidal right now, but it would feel damn close.
But there was that girl. If she didn't intervene, that child was going to end up under those four brutes. Even if someone 'rescued' her afterward, she'd be passed from man to man until the constant use or the brutality of one of them killed her.
Taking a deep breath, Surreal rushed into the alley.
An upward slash opened one man from armpit to collarbone. She swung her arm, just missing the girl's face, and managed to get in a shallow slash across the other's chest while she tried to pull the girl away.
Then the other two men joined the fight.
Diving under a fist that would have pulped one side of her head, Surreal rolled, sprang up, took two running steps and, because no one tried to stop her from going deeper into the alley, spun around.
A dead end behind her, and the Hayllians blocking the only way out.
Surreal looked at the girl, wanting to express her regret.
Smiling greedily as one of the unwounded men dropped a small bag of coins into her hands, the girl pulled her clothes together and hurried out of the alley.
Mercenary little bitch.
Surreal tried hard to remember the other girls she'd helped over the past five years, but remembering them didn't diminish the overwhelming sense of betrayal. Well, she'd come full circle. She'd come up from living in stinking alleys. Now she'd die in one, because she wasn't about to let Kartane SaDiablo truss her up and hand her over as a present to the High Priestess of Hayll.
The men stepped forward, smiling viciously.
'Let her go.'
The quiet, eerie, midnight voice came from behind her.
Surreal watched the men, watched surprise, uneasiness, and fear harden into a look that always meant pain for a woman.
'Let her go,' the voice said again.
'Go to Hell,' the largest Hayllian said, stepping forward.
A mist rose up behind the men, forming a wall across the alley.
'Just slit the bitch's throat and be done with it,' the man with the shoulder wound said.
'Can't have any fun and games with the half-breed, so the other will have to learn some manners,' the largest man said.
Thick mist suddenly filled the alley. Eyes, like burning red gems, appeared, and something let out a wet- sounding snarl.
Surreal screamed breathlessly as a hand clamped on her left arm.
'Come with me,' said that terrifyingly familiar midnight voice.
The mist swirled, too thick to see the person guiding her through it as easily as if it were clear water.
More snarls. Then high-pitched, desperate screams.
'W-what-' Surreal stammered.
'Hell Hounds.'
To the right of her, something hit the ground with a wet plop.
Surreal tried hard to swallow, tried hard not to breathe.
The next step took them out of the mist and back to the welcome sight of the neglected street.
'Are you staying around here?' the voice asked.
Surreal finally looked at her companion and felt a stab of disappointment immediately followed by a sense of relief. The woman was her height, and the body in the form-fitting black jumpsuit, though slender, definitely didn't belong to the child she remembered. But the long hair was golden, and the eyes were hidden behind dark glasses.
Surreal tried to pull away. 'I'm grateful you got my ass out of that alley, but my mother told me not to tell strangers where I live.'
