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I picked up my menu and laughed at his honesty. To me, his admission was major progress in our working relationship.

* * *

I leftan exhausted Rasmus climbing into his cage cot after asking Katie for some extra bed clothes and a pillow. I also left the cage door open but spelled both windows and the door. There was a half-bath down there.

If he tried to leave the building, the spell would let me know it. I informed him of what I did and why I did it. He grunted indignantly but didn’t seem to truly mind. My first-time kidnapping someone had gone much better than I could have hoped.

I returned to my room and found Conn curled up in a small ball of misery on my bed.

Sighing softly, I set down my purse and walked to perch next to Conn. The last time I saw him like this, Conn had revealed himself to a human woman who’d run away from him screaming. He’d had to chase her down and mindwipe her to keep her from babbling the truth to everyone she saw.

I’d barely known him then, but the pain of his rejection had been relatable. I’d fallen for a non-magickal person or two before Jack entered my life.

I ran my hand over the short fur on his doggie back. He raised his head and looked sadly at me.

“Who is she?” I asked, not wasting time dancing around things. We both knew it had been the second demoness that sent him into this spiral. Conn was well used to my directness and it saved us tons of time.

He rolled over and changed into the brother form. We could talk telepathically, but I didn’t like it much. I preferred using my mouth over my mind, and that was a statement anyone who knew me would agree with.

“Lilith was the first woman I ever loved, and before the Great Rebellion, I had intended to make her my queen. After I was bound to The Dagda, I asked her to come with me. He would have given her the same powers and we would have served his family side-by-side. Lilith refused. It was years before I accepted it was not me she had wanted, nor was it more power. She only wanted the status of being married to the king. Now she carries a child that isn’t mine—a child that might be half human and in violation of demon laws, if your hunter is right.”

I put my hand on his arm. “I’m sorry ya’re suffering, Conn. I’m sorry for whatever dreams ya had about the two of ya that never came true. Did she marry a king after the Great Rebellion?”

“No,” he said. “Lilith got mortally wounded when the rebellious demons fought The Dagda and the rest of theTuatha de Danann. My sacrifice was meant to spare her and my kind. The gods obliterated her with all the others who refused to honor the bargain. After she exploded into dust, I assumed I’d never see her again for a thousand years.”

“Ya paid a noble price for yer people, Connlander of the Fir Bolg. It must be hard knowing it was never fully appreciated.”

Conn sighed in resignation. “Lilith regenerated much faster than I expected her to. I guess it doesn’t always take a whole thousand years. She looks exactly the same as she did.”

But when she placed the compulsion, she hadn’t been pregnant. Or at least, she hadn’t been very far along. Her visage looked too normal.

“I thought yer demoness was exquisite, Conn. Do ya still love her?”

Conn rolled to his back and put his hands behind his head. “Not the way I loved Sarah, but Lilith will always hold a place in my heart. We cannot be together because Lilith sided against me in the Great Rebellion. She made a mockery of my sacrifice. No trust is possible between us. This is why a person should never live in the past. Both women I loved are beyond me now.”

Sarah had been the only woman I ever heard Conn call “wife”. They’d been together for a century or more before she died. I know she was a magickal, but not what kind. He never talked about her to me and I honored his silence. It had always been my policy to allow him as much privacy as I could.

I cleared my throat to force out my next question. I didn’t want to even ask it, but we needed to be realists. “Do ya think Rasmus is the father of her child?”

Conn blew out a breath. “I honestly don’t know. I understand why he believes it. Lilith can be very convincing when she wants to be. And she’s one of the highest of royals.”

“Finding the compulsions seems to have broken some of the power on Rasmus. I have my original doubting sidekick back, and yet he’s not quite the same arse as he was before. I’m sure I’ll be fine if ya want to sit the rest of this mission out.”

Conn snorted. “Do you consider me weak for not wanting to confront her?”

I smirked at him. “Do ya consider me weak for doing everything in my power to avoid Jack? Everyone keeps telling me that all he wants from me is a chance to talk. We both know that a bunch of BS. So, no, I don’t think we’re weak. I think we’re both avoiding murder.”

Conn laughed at my summary. I smiled down at him.

“The demons are using the hunters,” he said. “It could be a game they’re playing, or it could be the beginnings of a war, Aran. I can’t let you face them without me, but I will walk in the shadows until needed.”

“War crossed my mind when Rasmus was telling us his version of his capture,” I said, rising from my bedside perch. “I’m here if ya want to talk more about Lilith. I have always wanted to know what ya were like before ya came to serve The Dagda. It doesn’t seem fair that ya signed on to serve him for eternity. If I could free ya from yer forever bond, I would.”

“My bondage was the only answer, and I entered it with no regrets. Freedom is an illusion. We all serve something or someone, even if it’s just our own egos. At least I serve something greater than myself. My people remain as free as I could bargain them to be.”

“Which is honorable. Jack serves only his own ego,” I said.

“Yes, he always did.”