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I grinned at his apology. “Everyone forgot me while I was in prison. I’m going to have to do this several times before word will get around again not to mess with me.”

The Dagda chuckled. “Well, ya seemed to be up for the challenge despite yer many years of ignoring yer duties.”

I glared at him. “I never ignored anything. And I am definitely up for the work. Were ya up for yers?” I asked.

The Dagda grinned at my teasing. “Well, I had to talk the woman into watching the wolves for ya, didn’t I?”

Grinning now, I lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “Yer sacrifice is greatly appreciated, Lord Dagda.”

“Yer cheekiness about how I conduct my business isn’t,” he answered.

I waved my hand at the mess I’d made. “Can ya help me send the demons away? I was going to leave their decapitated bodies to make a point, but that seemed too morbid.”

“If ya go wash that blood off yerself, I’ll help ya,” The Dagda said.

I looked down at my mantle. “I need to stay bloody. It sends a direct message.”

“Do ya think Zara will care one way or the other?”

Shaking my head, I smiled again. “No. She’s a cold-hearted murderer, so the blood won’t impress her. But I think seeing me like this will make her second-guess her conclusions.”

The Dagda rolled his eyes as he waved a hand. Only patches of blood-soaked ground remained when he was done.

Fresh demon blood sucked the life from lesser organic things like grasses and plants. It would have taken me twenty minutes and significant power to send all the severed demon parts into the void where they could begin the process of repairing themselves.

Showing no tiredness from the task, my king and mentor walked calmly into the house.

When the air shimmered with a power I’d learned to dread being near, I knew my time had run out. Zara landed in the yard, wings spread wide. Apparently, the elder guardians had given her some of the same advantages they’d given Rasmus.

“Where are my wolves, Aran?”

I blinked at her. “They’re not here.”

“I knowthat,” Zara said snidely, folding her wings back inside her body. “I don’t feel them.”

“Ya’re asking the wrong person,” a voice from behind me said.

I glanced around to see The Dagda walking toward us.

“Hello, beautiful,” he said to Zara, his gaze running over her from head to toe. “Ya’re looking as fine as ever.”

The man who’d moments earlier had left another woman’s bed looked at her like he hadn’t been with a woman in a decade. His sexual appetite was legendary, but it had been a long while since I’d witnessed it. If I wasn’t so worried about what Zara intended, I would have blushed at their exchange.

Zara narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re forbidden by the creators from interfering with my human life.”

He smiled at her. “I’m not interfering with anything. I’m just saying hello.”

“Why are you here, Dag?”

He waved a hand at me. “I’m here to support my progeny, of course. Aran is one of my descendants. Helping her is not interfering with ya in any way. Especially since I happen to agree with her that turning those women into wolves didn’t make them yer property. That’s not following the guardians guidelines of allowing every being to exercise their own free will.”

“I made them, which means I’m their creator. Aran stole those wolves from me, and I’ve come to get them back. If she doesn’t give them up, I intend to kill her.”

The Dagda chuckled. “Do ya think ya’re going to succeed in that? She’s wearing The Dagda Stone now. What will ya do if she absorbs yer magick and becomes one of ya? How will the elders view ya then?”

“We don’t know how it will work because the theory has never been tested.”

He tilted his head down to stare at me. “Mother Danu was pretty clear when she explained it. She cautioned me to pick only the sanest of my descendants to carry on my work.”