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“Conn, take care of her,” Rasmus ordered. I watched as black wings sprang from his back before he launched himself into the sky.

Do not fear death, Aran of The Dagda. We can heal you. The ancient one knows that.

I nodded to the voice speaking in my head as Conn scooped me up. I couldn’t find my way past the pain to think clearly enough to answer. “The stone says it can heal me, Conn. Try to stop the blood flow if ya can, though. I’m growing weaker because of it.”

Conn growled in anger as he carried me to my bedroom. Mulan muttered something to herself in her native language before dashing ahead of him to fetch towels from the bathroom to protect the bed covers. I wanted to laugh at her worry about sparing the blankets when I was so close to dying on top of them, but it hurt too much to smile.

“Did ya see what he was?” I asked weakly as Conn eased me down onto the towels. Mulan reached around him and put a thick, folded one under the back of the wound.

“I saw wings. They looked like guardian wings. But he spoke without harming us. It was all irritated cursing when he discovered his aim hadn’t sent the arrow through your heart,” Conn said, his sharp demon fangs grazing his bottom lip as he talked.

I reached up and pecked on one fang with a fingernail. “Rasmus went after him. Let the guardian figure this one out. Take care of everyone else, Conn. Please do this for me.”

“I would have done so without you asking,” Conn said flatly.

“I know. Ben... his problem... I...” I tried to say more, but speaking became too hard. I couldn’t get my breath any longer.

Conn growled again as I stopped trying to speak and let my head roll to the side.

Closing my eyes at that moment seemed to be an excellent idea, so I let the approaching darkness take me.

Chapter Four

When I woke from my nap, I found myself alone in a cave. Or at least it looked like a cave. Was this a dream?

Curved stone walls and a dirt floor fit well with my theory. The flicker of torches casting shadows on the stone added more ambiance.

I strolled through the cave, thinking it felt like a medieval castle hallway. Where in bloody hell was I?

I put one hand on my chest over where the stone lived in my body, only I couldn’t feel it like I normally did. My fingers nervously explored my skin in a frantic attempt to find the sacred artifact that I had fused with to stop these situations from happening.

“Hello, beings of the stone. Are ya hearing me?”

I pounded my chest several times with a flat palm, but the stone still didn’t respond. Nor did I find it with my fingers. As impossible as it seemed, I felt like someone had ripped the Dagda stone out of chest.

Was I dead?One of my trembling hands reached out in panic to grip the nearest stone wall. A shooting pain tore across my upper chest. When my wounded shoulder gave out, the rest of me fell against the cold rock wall.

My body obviously hadn’t yet recovered from being shot.

I pushed myself away from the wall with my good arm and continued walking. There was a bend in the stone hallway, and I followed its curve into a large, open space. It was part library and part magical practice room. A small cauldron hung in the fireplace that contained a small wood fire.

I felt quite at home until I saw the two still bodies stretched out on rock beds. There was one man and one woman and they looked actually dead. Someone had put them there and then folded their hands over their stomachs like ya saw when a person lay in a coffin.

I stood staring at them until I heard footsteps behind me. Swinging around, I tried to draw a sword, but the energy wasn’t there for me.

Goddess, this was worse than when Hisser captured Conn. I felt nothing inside my body except my fragile humanity. Plus, my physical injury was too great to protect myself.

A man wearing a cloak Merlin might have worn walked into the space and raised a hand palm out to me. Feeling no magic in myself, it was good that my presence alone worried him. I hoped this was just a really vivid dream and not some astral event.

I cleared my throat. “Where am I? How did I get here?”

“Let’s start with introductions,” he said. “I’m One of The Three.”

My gaze returned to the prone people lying on the stone blocks. “Are they the other two of yer set?”

His gaze followed mine. He looked as if he’d never seen them before. “Yes. They are with me but not in my form. It was a kindness that The Dagda allowed them to sleep at the same time.”

“So The Dagda did this—created this?” I asked.