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The rattle, clang, and bang of the rusty wagon wheels eventually comes to a stop outside the stables. While Cambion and Dragan take Theren to the mages, I stay behind to see to the horses with the stable boys. Our loyal mounts deserve as much respect as the other members of our rebellion.

***

THEREN

Mercenary Stronghold

I stand over a blood-soaked, trembling, naked girl. She’s not much younger than me, but the men laugh as my father spits at her. Eilish is her name. It’s beautiful. She’s beautiful. Much like the crystal blue gaze brimming with tears that stares at me as though trying to tell me something.

I don’t speak her language. She isn’t from our kingdom.

“A pitiful succubus,” my father sneers. “She’s just as useless as the rest of the whores at the brothel.”

But she doesn’t look like the succubae I’ve read about in books, not with her white hair and her bright blue eyes. She looks like… an angel.

I fear this is my fault. I was the one who tracked her to a small camp.

A group of men had attempted to take advantage of her, so I fought to save her—but now, my father and his men seem no better a fate for the young girl.

I swallow down the bile in my throat as she reaches a hand toward me only for my father’s boot to step on her fingers. She screams out in pain and fear.

That’s when I realize I know her... she’s the same girl I see in the forests when I sneak out of the palace. The same girl I’ve watched from among the foliage so many times. Even back then, I was enraptured of her as I am now.

Knowing her name somehow makes her seem more precious.

And even though I’m responsible for her capture, she doesn’t look at me with hatred.

She’s a fighter, this girl. When my father’s boot lifts from the ground a second time, she rolls onto her hands and knees, glaring up at him with a seething hatred, apparently careless to the fact that she’s as naked as the day she was born.

And it’s only then that I realize the same.

I look at her exquisite body and at the idea that these assholes would force themselves on her… I can’t complete the thought.

“You killed my men,” Father says. “And you will pay for that, whore.”

She sits back on her heels and lifts her chin defiantly. Her voice is thick, accented in a way I don’t recognize, but she speaks our language easily.

“I shall slit the belly of kings who rain their fists on me. And I’ll wash in the blood that spills like the River of Sorrows until you gasp for your last breath.”

Her words cause me to shiver. Not a monster, but deadly, nonetheless. The Unseelie soldiers seem taken aback by her brazen oath, though they’re much larger and older than she.

Eilish meets my gaze once more.

“You dare look into the eyes of a prince!” my father yells at her.

I bite the inside of my cheek as my father’s hand slaps the girl across her face. She lifts her chin again and he rears his arm back for a second blow, but I shove him aside before I have time to consider my actions and decide against them.

My father spins on his heels and grabs me by the throat. I see the magic dancing in his eyes, the bloodlust that causes his nostrils to flare. He would like nothing better than to kill me here and now, where my mother can’t intervene…

“Please,” I gasp. My father drops me as if he’s bored with squeezing the air from my lungs.

He strips me of my gear and orders his men to tie Eilish and me to a tree.

Of course we are both helpless as there are far more of them than us.

We might fight against them, but eventually they win.

The only difference in our treatment at their hands is that they touch her breasts and the flesh between her legs. My father among them.

“I will be back for you later,” he tells her as he eyes the triangle of white hair between her legs. He sickens me and I hate him. Detest him.

Though our night is filled with tears of pain and shivers from the cold, it’s the start of a beautiful friendship.

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, I manage to free myself and I free Eilish, in turn.

And from that moment on, I return to the Delendren Glade each day, visiting the girl with the broken smile and the heart on her sleeve.

She’s near once more. I feel her presence like a siren’s call and look up at the ceiling where a drop of water falls from a crack in the stone.

I was asleep for most of the journey to the mercenary stronghold, so I don’t know its location.

But the warmth that radiates from the terracotta tells me it’s in a place washed in sunlight.

There are no windows in my cell. I don’t know if it’s day or night, but I stand up without much pain in my body.

At least, not as much as there should be. I don’t know whether it’s the work of exceptional healers or simply time that’s healed my wounds, but I’m grateful.

“So, you’re awake.”

My gaze shifts to the dark corner near the stairs.

Baron.

He stands and unlocks the cell, but I make no move to leave just yet in case this is a test. I imagine it probably is. The vampire chuckles and gestures for me to follow.

“Where are we going?” I ask quietly, as though I’m required to whisper when walking down a dark corridor.

“You’re going to bathe and get dressed into something that doesn’t reek of sweat, blood, and whatever other bodily fluids you were spewing up before we found you. You look like hell, by the way. Those pretty elf features don’t hide the blood magic that’s wafting off you. Makes my stomach turn.”

Baron shudders in mock repulsion as he leads me out of what appears to be a barracks of sorts. He’s changed. Of all of them, Baron was always the most compassionate, the most understanding and the slowest to move to anger.

This man before me might wear the same face but he’s different. I imagine being killed and brought back to life will change a man, most likely for the worse.

The walls are sturdy, and the training grounds are swept clean of debris. Dummies line the left side of the corridor, next to a door I’m assuming leads to an armory.

Guards walk along the walls and patrol the streets.

The flickering lights inside the windows look like thousands of stars that blend with the night sky.

Baron leads me along the cobblestone road that unites the boroughs of the stronghold, to a place that bears the crest of the Vindication on the gate.

Eilish has already made her mark here. I wonder what she can do with the world at her fingertips. I hope I’ll find out.

The vampire opens the gate and escorts me into the main building. Inside, my surroundings have a warmth to them, despite being the headquarters for a rebellion, as if someone designed this space to be a home rather than a place to discuss war.

The bedchamber I’m given is beside Cambion’s. Its walls are lined with wood and a stone hearth sits along one wall, unlit even in the chill of the night. The bed is large and draped with emerald linens. Black silken blankets, along with plush pillows, cover the mattress.

“This is more than I deserve…”

“Yes, it is.” The vampire turns to leave but hesitates at the door. “Eilish is across the hall, if you wish to talk.”

“Talk?” I repeat, surprised by his information.

He nods and I can see the hatred he has for me in his eyes. “You owe her your gratitude, at the very least. If not for her, you’d be rotting in that cell on King Galmer’s orders.”

“I will be sure to give her all my gratitude,” I say.

“And if you try to hurt Eilish, I’ll gut you where you stand.”

“Will you?”

“I’d have to first fight Aima for the chance.”

“Understood,” I answer.

***

An hour or so later, I’m freshly bathed and dressed in new clothes that fit me well enough. I’m not fully healed but I feel night and day better. Now that I’m feeling presentable, I don’t wait before approaching Eilish’s bedchamber.

I need to prove to her that I am the man I say I am.

I won my battle for dominance against Morrigan.

I’m truly free of her influences now. But Eilish will need to be convinced.

That, and she and I have much to discuss.

My heart beats ravenously in my chest as I lift my hand to knock.

The door swings open at the softest touch and I find myself face to face with a house brownie.

“If you be looking for the angel, Mr. Theren, she be in her tent,” the little brownie named Noni says. She then leads me to a tent not much different than the ones around it. I’m not surprised Eilish chooses to sleep near the refugees waiting to be sorted into their new homes. Ever the outsider.

I push open the flap and step inside to see her leaning over a small desk with a quill in her hand. The feather flicks back and forth as it scratches the paper.

Eilish doesn’t look up at me, but I know she senses my presence. “Are you feeling better?”

“I am now that I know you’re safe. When they told me you were going after your father, I was worried about you,” I admit. “But you’ve always been the one to stare danger in the face. Some things never change.”

“Not always. Without my memories, I wasn’t much of anything, other than a burden.”

I move closer, dropping to my knees in front of her. I notice she still won’t look at me and so I reach out, gripping her chin and turning her head so she’s forced to look at me. I push her hair back from her face so she can’t hide from me.

“What happened?” she asks. It takes me a moment to realize she’s referencing the scene she and the others came across in the glade.

“Morrigan was in the glade. I knew she’d go after you if she could, or at least use you as bait to get to Silvanus,” I explain. “So, I fought her. I fought her to free myself and to make sure she couldn’t use you anymore.”

“Forever my protector,” she says but her eyes are narrowed, angry.

“Forever,” I say as I brush my lips against her temple, surprised she allows me. I wrap my arms around her and inhale her floral, feminine scent.

“Eilish,” I start.

“Shh,” she interrupts and drops her head to my chest. “Just don’t… say anything.”

She’s stiff in my arms, and I know we have a long way to go in order to return to the way we once were.