Page 71 of The Laws of Nature (Heirs of the Empire #3)

DAMON

Damon opens his eyes disorientated. Is he really here? Is he truly lying in a bed chamber in Sanglora. Under his wolfskin bed cover. With Lyr’s head on his chest, and Lyr’s long hair lain over his skin like an offering. Every morning for a moon’s turn he has woken to this. A blessing and a curse.

He takes a breath. What a strange path Zai has led him on.

Someone is knocking at the door.

He stiffens. If Lukas thinks Damon will soften because he makes his demands in the middle of the night, he is wrong.

“Who is there?” Damon says.

Lyr stirs against him as Inez’s voice outside the door says, “Husband?”

Damon hopes Lyr did not hear that. He will have to find a way to tell Inez she must not call him so.

“Inez,” Damon says, pulling up to sitting, rolling Lyr’s sleeping form off himself and hiding him somewhat with his body. Protecting Inez a little from the sight of him lying abed with his male slave lover.

The door opens. Inez’s pale face is drawn and tight. “You must come,” Inez says. “There is someone here to see you.”

Damon climbs from the bed. He swallows as he does. A sour taste in his mouth. “Someone knew I was here?”

But Inez does not answer, simply moves back so he can step into the small attic room.

Behind Inez stands a man. A man alone. A man Damon does not recognise but is sure he has heard described.

He is tall, although not as tall as Damon.

He wears strange black and silver clothing that covers him from neck to heels.

His slender legs are clad in tight leather and equally tight boots. Silver jewellery glitters on his hands.

As Damon looks at the man, another door opens. Elric stands in the doorway, sleep mussed and bleary-eyed — his scruffy dog winding between his legs. He says, “Lukas?”

Damon looks to him. If Lukas is not with the Lordling, where is he?

But before he can ask, the strange man says to Elric, “Ah, how nice to see you again Damon.”

Damon glances at the man in confusion. He has quite certainly addressed Elric, but he called him Damon. Is it Elric the man has come to see?

Elric colours, flashing a guilty glance to Damon. “That’s not actually my name,” he says.

“Oh, I know that,” says the man.

Damon frowns, but he supposes whatever that was about can wait. He says, “Can I help you?”

“Yes. I am afraid this is an urgent matter. Things have moved faster than I anticipated and I need you to come with me right now. ”

“Come with you? Who are you? For what purpose?”

“My name is Perl and the purpose is your brother Kerik.”

“Kerik?” Damon had not expected to hear Kerik’s name on this man’s lips. “You know where Kerik is? Kerik has been missing for five years.”

“He was not missing. He was being kept safe. By me.”

“He was with you,” Damon frowns at Perl “ You took Kerik?”

“Yes, but please. We do not have time. I was keeping Kerik safe but I… I no longer have him. And the only person that can get him back is you, Damon Darekul.”

Behind Damon a soft voice says, “Damon who is this? What is happening?”

Damon pulls Lyr to him. The feel of him, his slender body in his thin nightshirt is sweet. It is sweet in this moment to touch something real.

“Lyr,” Damon says, “this is Perl. The man who helped Elric and Lukas in Lunatum.”

Lyr takes one look at the man standing before them and whispers, “No,” before passing out in Damon’s arms.