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The guardians had no idea that in carrying out their fancy manipulations, they’d gotten rid of the version of Rasmus I cared about and given me one I had no feelings for at all. I wanted to scream and nearly did. Orlin’s hand raising stopped me.

“It was necessary for him. Conflicts between you and a full-guardian Rasmus would have made a peaceful cohabitation impossible.”

I glared at him in disbelief. “Ya can’t know that for certain... and that’s the beauty of making choices. At any point, ya can accept or reject what’s happening in yer life. That’s why a relationship worked between me and Rasmus. We had many problems with each other’s thinking but we kept accepting each other anyway.That’show love works for humans, Orlin. No wonder Da didn’t want anything to do with ya.”

My guardian grandfather stared at me and sighed in disappointment. He had no right to feel that way when he was the one who’d caused these problems.

“Perhaps I should have anticipated how upset you might be at his changes. Rasmus chose this path to return to you with no limitations on living among humankind as one of them. The level of transformation he underwent meant temporarily giving up being a guardian. When you die, Aran, memories of his origin will be returned to him. One of us will help him with his grief and to adjust to your loss. It was what my brethren would have done for me if I could have returned to Murieann. Others have done this successful and experienced a mostly normal human life. ”

I rubbed my forehead. “It’s like ya killed the real Rasmus and are offering me a consolation version because ya regret doing it. Goddess, ya’re no better than the human scientists I insisted on stopping.”

Orlin shook his head. “Rasmus wasn’t erased, not in the sense you mean. Just like your human scientists didn’t erase him either. His essence remains a guardian but he’s taking a sabbatical from his duties as one. Give it some time. I know you’ll adjust.”

I stiffened at his words. “Ya might think ya can read my thoughts, Orlin, but millions of those pass through my gray matter in a single hour. Yer kind was wrong to do this to him. Rasmus was wrong to ask for it. And both of ya were wrong not to talk to me first because I would have told ya not to bother. There are plenty ofnormalhuman men that would have made me a suitable mate for the rest of my life.”

“I’m sorry you find this so disturbing, Aran. Would it help you to know that we didn’t send him back to you powerless? He specifically crafted his humanity and kept certain powers to serve the same causes you choose to serve. He asked us to shape him into your equal as much as we could.”

“But what about his free will, Orlin? Isn’t he just some kind of robot being now? What if the new him doesn’t like me? Rasmus and I had some serious differences about how he saw things, but we also had deep debates about life. Now, ya’re telling me that man I worked so hard to get to know is gone forever.”

“I promise you this level of change was his decision, but I agreed with him that it was the wisest course of action to take.”

“Well, think what ya want about it, but I will never forget the old him. Plunking a new Rasmus down as a stranger here will never work the way ya think it should. That’s a quandary about free will that ya should have taken into consideration. Ya just took all his free will away and he let ya. That was something I never would have done to him... or to any of ya. So who’s being neutral here?”

Orlin frowned and dropped his gaze to my clenched fists. “This would have been so much simpler if I could have banished all memories of him from you. But it’s impossible to completely erase the memories of powerful being like you, Connlander, and the Wu Shaman. Jack will remember him in some capacity, and so will some of the demon hunters. We manipulated the circumstances for most of you the best we could to ease his return. You’ll simply have to trust that it will all work out.”

I didn’t spare him my glare or my swearing. I ranted under my breath until I ran out of words. “That’s an opinion I will never share with ya. And right now, I’m finding it impossible to like ya...Grandpa.”

“I can see your strong emotions have affected your reasoning,” Orlin said, releasing my hands. “That means it’s time for me to give you space to digest all this. It’s done, Aran. If he finds out what he truly is, his memories could return in some tormenting manner that would only make his human life harder. It also would make his sacrifice of no value to you or him. Please keep the truth to yourself and accept him as he is now.”

It was their sheer arrogance about thinking they were right that irked me the most. Did Rasmus keep that personality trait in his new form? I hoped he stayed away from me if it was true.

My dilemma was exactly what I once told Mulan it was. Could I wake up every day with someone who believed he was my superior so strongly that he dumbed himself down to be with me? Turning forty was supposed to begin ‘part two’ of my life where I found someone better than Jack, who’d also thought I was too naive to figure him out. I refused to put up with some watered-down version of the most interesting male I’d ever met.

I shook my head. “No amount of digesting, accepting, or anything else will make me happy about this . I’m actually gobsmacked that Rasmus thought it would be okay. It makes me want to have nothing to do with either of ya ever again.”

Orlin stood. “Maybe it’s best if I come back another time to share the other two things. Both are as important as what I shared about Rasmus, but they can wait a while longer.”

I watched as Orlin walked away from me. The guardian was smart to put some space between us. Depending on how shocking his other two things were, I wasn’t sure if I could trust myself not to launch into a screaming rant that would wake the neighbors.

But I also didn’t want to waste time all night wondering what else he wanted to tell me. That left me only one choice.

I threw up both hands. “Just tell me the rest of what ya came to say and get it over with. You might as well give me the whole gamut of guardian decisions to fret about until morning.”

Orlin stopped walking to stare at me. I’m not sure he got my sarcasm, but politeness was beyond me.

“Fiona has been chosen to care for the Seal of Solomon. She inherited your father’s special talents. Those among my kind who know my connection to you sent the ring’s protectors to see me.”

“What talents in Fiona are ya referring to? What talents did Da have that he never shared?”

Orlin shook his head. “The being responsible for protecting the ring will visit your daughter when the time is right for her to take over its care. He or she will explain everything to Fiona then. It’s forbidden for others to know the information—even her mother. I know this may be upsetting as well, but they wouldn’t share it with me either.”

If Orlin thought Fiona wouldn’t tell me, he didn’t know my daughter. We shared everything even when we shouldn’t. “I guess ya expect me to continue watching the ring until Fiona’s time comes.”

“The protector said the ring likes you. He said it feels safe on your hand.”

I rolled my eyes in the dark. “Fine. I’ll guard the ring. What’s the last bomb ya plan to drop on me?”

“You need to remove the demon compulsion from Jack so he can properly heal.”