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"What about the things they did before joining the clan? If they raped, slaughtered, and pillaged, is all of that just going to be forgiven because they'd turned over a new leaf?"

He hesitated before answering. "I don't think that they did any of those things. Kalugal was always different, and he chose the right kind of men for his platoon, freeing them from Navuh's brainwashing and keeping them assigned to places where they were just regular soldiers."

Fenella snorted. "Right. Nice story. Do you have proof of their so-called innocence?"

"I don't," he admitted.

She threw her hands up in the air. "Why are good people always so bloody gullible? You think that because you are good and would never do such horrible things, everyone else, with the exception of a few monsters, is motivated by the same principles? That's simply not true. There are entire cultures that are built on evil underpinnings, and the few good people are the exception."

Din smiled as if she'd just proven his point. "Then you admit that there are exceptions, and even an evil society like the Brotherhood can have a few good people who are worth saving."

He got her there, but she was not willing to concede defeat yet. "Sometimes there are none to be found. Take Sodom and Gomorrah as an example. That story is told just to warn naive people like you that some places are so rotten that they are beyond redemption."

He stopped walking and turned to face her. "I understand your anger and frustration. What was done to you was unforgivable. If I ever get my hands on the one who hurt you?—"

"You'll what?" Fenella challenged. "Kill him? He's already in your clan's dungeon, being pressed for information."

His eyes blazed with inner light. "I hope they take their time with him, and when they are done, I'll ask Kian's permission to finish him off."

The vehemence in his voice gave her perverse satisfaction. It seemed he understood the depth of what had been done to her, and she appreciated that he didn't try to minimize it or suggest she should forget it and move on.

"That's nice of you, but you'll have to take a ticket and stand in line. Max said the same thing. He wants revenge for what the monster did to Kyra."

Din bared a pair of impressive fangs. "I'm willing to share."

Finally, he was showing his true colors, the kind that Fenella could feel good about. She didn't like the reserved professor. She liked the warrior hiding under the thin veneer of civility.

"That's very gallant of you." She threaded her arm through his, surprising him. "Shall we continue?"

Looking down to where her arm rested on his, he nodded. "There's a viewpoint a few minutes' walk from here. If it's not taken, we could sit on the bench and watch the sunset."

"Sounds lovely."

The viewpoint was beautiful, even though it was just a patch of grass with a bench, a few trees that provided shade, and several shrubs. What made it special was the unobstructed view of the ocean in the distance.

"I'm surprised that no one claimed this spot," she said as she sat down. "Now that I know it's here, I will try to make it every day at this time to see the sunset."

He looked at her with that intensely focused look again. "I will join you for as long as I'm here."

"Oh, that's right. You need to get back to the university. How long is your vacation?"

"I took two weeks off, claiming a family emergency, but I can always call to say that the emergency continues, and I can't return yet. It's not like I depend on that job for a living. It's just something I enjoy doing."

That was a concept she couldn't wrap her head around. Everything she'd done during her adult life had been about survival, about earning enough to pay for food and a roof over her head. It would be nice not to have to worry about mundane things like that. It would also be boring. No wonder that Din chose to keep himself busy doing something he liked.

"Tell me about your work," Fenella said. "Is there more to it than having easy access to a horde of beautiful young girls?"

A smile lit Din's face, transforming his serious features. "My young students are a nice perk, but that's not what drew me to archeology. There's nothing quite like unearthing something that hasn't been touched by human hands in thousands of years and then trying to piece together the information that can be deduced from it. I see it as a connection across time, and for an old immortal like me, it's especially significant because so much of our past is guesswork."

"With how old you are, you've lived through so much of human history. You must know things no one else knows." She leaned closer to him. "We all know that what's written in the history books cannot be trusted. So much of the information has gone through the sieve of the writers' prism. None of it is objective."

He nodded. "My life might seem long to you, but I've witnessed a mere sliver of human history firsthand." He shifted on the bench, inching closer to her. "Last year, I led a dig in northern Turkey, and we uncovered a series of clay tablets with a writing system no one's been able to decipher yet. Pre-dates Linear A by at least a thousand years." His eyes had taken on that distant look people get when talking about something they're passionate about. "There are entire civilizations, entire languages that have been lost to time. Sometimes I think about all the stories that will never be told, all the knowledge that's simply gone."

"That's depressing," Fenella said.

Din chuckled. "I suppose it is. But it also makes the discoveries all the more precious."

The breeze ruffled his dark hair, and Fenella had a sudden, inexplicable urge to smooth it back into place. She clasped her hands in her lap instead.