He winced. “And she’s had to live with that every day since. If she did not tell you before, it’s because she was afraid of losing your love.”
Eden looked at him from under dark lashes. “How do you know that?”
Miru-kai didn’t answer at once, but stared across the ruined amphitheater with its strange, fragrant vines. Images of the white blooms shivered in the dark pond, the water stirred by a breeze too faint to feel upon his skin.
“Because I’m very old, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Many were for selfish reasons. As I said, I was a pirate. A thief. Then I became a warlord. Those are occupations where mistakes are catastrophic. I don’t imagine being a young witch is any simpler, with powerful magic and the wildness of youth in one’s veins.”
“What she did was wrong.”
“Of course it was. But how does your anger fix anything at all? Does it make her a wiser person? Does it bring your grandparents back to life?”
“She should have told me.”
“She probably thought you were too young to understand. Perhaps she has not forgiven herself, and so finds it hard to ask forgiveness.”
“Why?”
“That’s something, sadly, you will learn in time. Think about it. If you were in your mother’s place, what would you think of yourself?”
Eden hugged herself, looking small and frail amidst the ruins of the hall. “No wonder she always seems so sad.”
“She’s a prisoner of those memories. Perhaps telling her you forgive her will set her free.”
Reynard drew his Smith & Wesson and fired all in one motion. A vampire head exploded. Two of the other vamps fired their weapons. Reynard dropped to the ground, tucking into a roll that took him backward. With four on one, room to move was essential.
He came out of the roll and into a crouch, bringing up his weapon again. Blam!
The corridor rang with the noise, hell on vampire ears. He missed, but they flinched. Blam! Another head exploded.
Three on one now. Reynard ducked into another roll and scrambled to take cover where this corridor crossed another. A bullet chinged on the stone near his ear, sending prickles of alarm in waves down his neck. Reynard jerked back from the corner, gripping his gun and pulling in a breath of stale air and cordite.
A small blue fey zigzagged down the corridor, wings humming. One of the vampires fired at it, sending sparks flying off the stone wall.
Silence, then a hum of magic. Reynard felt it crawl over his skin, vibrating in his back teeth. Carefully, he peered around the corner.
Just in time to see a portal close behind Belenos and his last two henchmen.
Damn and blast.
He had heard from Mac that Belenos had a key. Unlike the guardsmen, who could open a portal at will, a vampire would have to activate the key’s magic—chant a spell or do a dance or however the blazes the keys worked. Reynard had never needed to use one, so he didn’t know the specifics.
But that answered why the King of the East and his minions were in this deserted corridor. Belenos had probably been looking for a quiet place to make a door and get away—a bit of a challenge with the Castle guard in pursuit, but he’d just managed it. Damnation!
Reynard clicked the safety on his gun and slipped it back into the holster beneath his jacket, reciting a litany of curses compiled over several centuries.
The skirmish had been over in less than two minutes.
As he would after any of his daily battles in the Castle, Reynard checked for injuries—bruises, but nothing noteworthy—and carried on. He would report the fight to Mac as soon as Eden was safe.
Unfortunately, the skirmish had cost energy. As he pulled out Holly’s crystal and resumed his search, Reynard’s feet felt heavy, and an odd ache beneath his breastbone began pulsing with every heartbeat. He pushed himself, hurrying as fast as he could manage. He was running out of time.
The trail led him to a familiar room, one nearly destroyed by a cataclysmic battle last autumn. To one side, his silk garments an exotic splash against the stone, sat Miru-kai. Across from him, Eden perched on a lump of rock, looking hunched and tired. Reynard’s heart bounded at the sight of the girl.
Silently, Reynard pocketed the crystal, sending a prayer of thanks for Holly’s magic. Then he pulled the Smith & Wesson again.
“Miru-kai.”
The prince looked up, his face tightening as he saw who had interrupted his conversation. “Well, old fox, it seems you’ve sniffed us out.”
Eden’s head whipped around. “Captain Reynard!”
She leaped up and streaked across the room, thumping into him in an ecstatic hug. The force of it nearly made him stumble. “You’ve come to take me home!”
Reynard put a hand on the dark curls, the child’s warmth so vibrant against the cold, dead air of the prison. His strength was ebbing fast. His knees were shaking with fatigue. It felt odd, for one immortal. He’d forgotten what illness was like.
That memory was coming back with a vengeance.
But he’d meant it when he said Eden came first. He hugged the girl and pushed her behind him, putting his body between her and Miru-kai. She grabbed the back of his shirt, as if she was afraid he’d vanish. Then one hand slipped into his.
He kept the gun trained on the prince.
He didn’t mind the anchor of Eden’s grip. His head was clear, but his gut was a solid knot of apprehension. In a weakened state there were too many things that could go wrong. “I’m taking Eden back to her mother.”
“Are you sure?” said the prince, his eyes a mix of anger and amusement. “You look like you’re about to fall over. What did you do, wrestle every troll between here and the Castle door?”
“I ran into a group of Undead. We’d no sooner become acquainted than one of your fey buzzed past. A little blue fellow. Are the fey in league with the Eastern vampires now?”
The amusement vanished. “No. For one thing, we had a falling-out over the girl.”
“The fey never give up their prizes,” said Reynard, his tone pure acid. “Not once you’ve won the game.”
The prince gave him a sharp look. “It’s not in our nature.”
“And you always play by the rules.”
“Precisely, when they’re rules we like. However, young Eden was in Belenos’s tender care. He didn’t seem to be daddy material, whatever his delusions, so I liberated her.”
That was interesting. But was anything Miru-kai said ever true?
“And now I liberate her from you.” Reynard meant to simply turn and go, but his vision narrowed, darkness eating away at the edges of the world. Cold sweat stuck his shirt to his skin.
Miru-kai flashed a brilliant but cold grin. “And you are a more able caretaker? I am a fey prince, and you are one guardsman looking a bit tattered around the edges. You offend me, Reynard.”
Then, without warning, Reynard’s legs gave way. He fell to his knees, sprawling forward. The gun clattered on the stone, slipping from sweat-slicked fingers.
“Captain Reynard!” Eden grabbed his sleeve. “Captain Reynard, are you all right?”
Miru-kai rose from his seat in a whisper of heavy silk robes. “Reynard?”
He didn’t respond, instead shaking his head to clear it. He thought he could hear guardsmen in the corridors, calling orders and running. He thought he heard Ashe’s voice calling him, and his heart raced with terror and love. His own existence had gone so very wrong, and this was the one thing he could do to make Ashe’s better. Except he wasn’t quite finished. He really had to get up and take care of loose ends.
Where was he?
What had he just been doing? Memory was flickering in and out of focus.
Oh, yes. He started to climb to his hands and knees, but melted to the right, losing track of his hands and
