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“First, you must kiss me here.” She pointed to her nipples. “I’ll show you how.”

Climbing onto his lap, she ran her fingers through his hair. He could hardly breathe through his lust.

“Suckle gently, Cerberus.” She pulled his head to her breast. “Don’t stop until I’m satisfied.”

“Yes, my queen.”

The familiar taste of fruit coated his tongue as he latched on. She moaned and stroked his hair. When the flavor faded, she directed him to her other nipple.

“Very good, walker. Now kiss me here.” She pointed to her mouth, but when he leaned forward, he lost his balance. His vision blurred as one Lilias became four.

“Something is amiss…”

“Shh…” Her fingers fanned through his hair, sending a tingle of pleasure down his spine as she eased him onto the bed. “Lie back.”

He looked up at her, confused. The candlelight blurred, forming a halo behind her copper curls. The recognizable clink of armor had him slowly turning his head to the door.

“Who…” Words became too difficult for his numb mouth to form. His body suddenly weighed a hundred stones.

“Is it working?” a male voice asked.

Lilias rose from the bed. “See for yourself.”

Rage ignited inside of him as the blurry figure of a man stepped beside her. Not a man, an immortal male. It was then he understood his mistake. “You…poisoned me?”

“It’s only temporary. You’ll sleep for a few days, and then you’ll be fine.”

“We need to move,” the armed immortal warned, already leading her toward the door.

“I’ll find you,” Cerberus growled, aggravated by how weak the threat sounded to his own ears as he lay paralyzed by the poison. “You have my blood?—”

She pressed a finger over his lips. “By tomorrow, I’ll be bound to my mate, and his blood will be the only thing in my veins. It’s time to let me go, Cerberus.”

Impotent furystill simmered in the deepest part of Cerberus’s hollow heart. Unlike ordinaryimmortals, ancient Nords could not be called. His kind was born of the sea and sky with salt in their bones and the dragon's fire in their blood. Lilias’s species was of a different order, divined by the cosmos and ruled by the other half of her soul.

Cerberus had no soul.

Glancing dispassionately at the dead mortal on the floor, his lip curled. The corpse had already started to rot. He needed more durable toys.

Fanning out his senses, he scanned the surrounding areas for Adriel. Lilias had paid dearly for her betrayal, but now her daughter owed a debt of her own.

She was out there somewhere. Sooner or later, he would find her.

CHAPTER 15

“It’s a church.” Juniper frowned at the vaulted spires, certain they were in the wrong place.

“An awfully fancy church.”

She glanced at Adriel. “Maybe I did the spell wrong.” If Dane was here, he wasn’t the sort of guy she thought he was. “He didn’t strike me as a big churchgoer.”

Adriel scanned the area and frowned. “Did we make a wrong turn?”

“It doesn’t work that way.” Juniper once again looked at the folded map. The Indian ink made of soot, wood oil, and mineral water from the gorges was supposed to lead them directly to Dane. She’d been certain she’d done everything correctly.

“Maybe you mispronounced a word.”

“That’s possible.”