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Aida’s condition stabilized. Lucienne asked Nurse Mary to check on her nanny every half hour before walking out of the special-care patient room in Sphinxes’ medical facility.

She went to look for Vladimir. She hadn’t seen him for over a week, ever since she left for Nirvana.

Standing on the east tower of the castle, Lucienne looked over her island.

The sunny sky was an electric blue; the beach endless ivory; the sea a quiescent gem.

She walked down the broad stone stairs. The trees around the castle were lavish, their green foliage swaying in the breeze.

It would be a nice picnic day, but Vladimir wasn’t available. He’d been avoiding her.

“Ziyi,” Lucienne called into her Eidolon phone, “where’s Prince Vladimir?”

“Tracking him now,” Ziyi said. “Huh, he’s in the fencing room this time. He’s been using the recruits as punching bags in the training room. I don’t even want to be in the same building with him. The man’s been like a foul beast all week. He isn’t fun anymore.”

“Thanks for the updates,” Lucienne said, ready to hang up.

“Wait, Lucia,” Ziyi said. “I need to talk to you about some boy issues.”

“Boy issues will need to wait. Tell me at breakfast tomorrow.” Lucienne hung up, heading toward the gym in the west wing. Her finger punched Kian’s number, and Kian picked up on the first ring.

“Who poisoned Aida?” Lucienne asked.

“We believe Hauk is behind it.”

“So my half-brother finally crawled out of his hole. ”

“We expected sooner or later he’d reconnect with his old ties in the Red Mansion,” Kian said. “We already knew Rick Lam was a traitor.”

“Take him out.”

“But we decided to leave your cousin for now.”

“We have men inside the Sealers’ cult,” Lucienne said.

She had planted one of her loyal cousins in the enemy’s lair before she had been crowned Siren.

“We must send our message, and I want whoever hurt my nanny dead.” Her eyes grew hard.

“I’ll join you in hunting down Hauk Lam once I take care of the Ashburn business. It won’t be long.”

“I’m leaving for Chicago tomorrow to handle Rick personally,” Kian said.

Lucienne sighed. She would have to go back to the Red Mansion for another war, if she wanted to secure her and her people’s future. When Jed passed away, she had shown mercy to her enemies, most of them her uncles and cousins. And now they had regrouped.

“I’ll triple the security when you come,” Kian added.

“You’ll triple the security now! You know they want you as much as they want me.”

“They can’t get me. Worry no more.”

“Promise me you’ll keep the best men around you. Take Orlando, Duncan, and the others with you. I have Vladimir here.”

“I already have the best men with me,” Kian said. Lucienne heard in the background his men approaching him and briefing him, and Kian answering with grunts. Then he said into the phone, “I’ll talk to you later, kid,” and hung up.

Lucienne arrived at the training area. She changed to a silver saber jacket and gloves and entered the pine-floored fencing room.

Tac ta. Tac ta. Sabers clashed and then separated. Vladimir, in a black saber jacket and mask, launched an attack at lightning speed. Duncan, one of the best swordsmen, was forced to step a few feet back .

“Leave us, Duncan,” Lucienne said. “And report to Kian McQuillen.”

Duncan bowed slightly and took off his mask. “Yes, Lucia.” He threw a sympathetic look at Vladimir and hurried off.

Vladimir removed his mask and stared at Lucienne.

She stared back without a word. A lock of his wheat-colored hair dangled on the corner of his eyes.

In them, she saw concealed joy at the sight of her, until hurt surfaced.

Following the wounded look was a spark of anger.

It didn’t take long for his anger to darken the amber fire in his eyes.

Lucienne wanted to brush the stray hair from his eyes and nestle against his hard chest, but he would just push her away. So, calculating and coolly, Lucienne drank him in. He hadn’t had a haircut since she’d last seen him; neither had he shaved.

Trying not to let Vladimir’s wild beauty deviate her from her purpose, Lucienne evened her breath as she went to select a saber amid the fifty varieties that lined the wall. And she took her time.

Holding the hilt of a saber, she walked back to him, stopping five feet before him. Vladimir stood like a hard statue, his jaw set like cold stone, stubbornly holding onto his anger—his righteous weapon against her.

Lucienne flashed her saber in his face. The best way to get his fury out was to provoke him. “Do your worst, you arrogant buffalo!” She had called him names when they first met at Desert Cymbidium. Of course, he had taunted her first.

A spark flashed in Vladimir’s dark golden eyes, quelling the fire of anger in them. “Only your best, delicate pumpkin butt, and see how long you last!”

“How dare you call me that again!” Lucienne suddenly lunged. A sharp thrust went directly toward Vladimir’s throat. Vladimir stumbled back as he parried.

“You insult me, and then you attack me by surprise?” he said .

“I warned you. I said, ‘Do your worst, you arrogant buffalo.’ Didn’t I?”

“You offended me twice now!” Vladimir struck back, his saber rising and falling with remarkable speed. And then it went for Lucienne’s heart.

Lucienne parried, and then counterattacked, the pair matched in every way. They lunged and withdrew. Both executed moves with grace, control, and precision. The two sabers crashed again and again in perfect arcs.

“We know each other’s weaknesses and strengths too well,” Vladimir sighed. “We can go on like this forever until one lies down.”

“Then you’ll be the one who lies down, pretty boy,” Lucienne purred with a husky voice, gazing at Vladimir through her thick lashes. Her rich, brown eyes became expressive, turning all honey and wine, and only for him.

Vladimir opened his mouth, his eyes melting into a soft fire of gold. Lucienne could feel his heartbeat picking up as his breath hitched. The heat was in the air. She felt it. Seizing the advantage, she struck mercilessly. The tip of her saber found an opening in Vladimir’s heart and went for it.

Before Lucienne could claim victory, Vladimir moved with incredible speed. The opening was a feint. In the next heartbeat, he disarmed her, holding her saber in his hand. “The Lam lioness always knows how to take advantage of her opponent’s weakness,” he said. “I fell once, but never twice.”

But Lucienne recovered faster than Vladimir expected.

They were inches apart, so she punched him, turning their match into a street fight.

Vladimir threw up his hand to cover his eye, stunned.

Lucienne kicked the saber out of his hand.

She caught it, tossed it to the ground along with her gloves, and swung her long leg toward him.

“But I hoped you’d always fall,” she said.

“Maybe it’s just a silly girl’s fantasy. ”

Vladimir turned his palm vertically and blocked Lucienne’s vicious kick. “You’re not playing by the rules, Lucienne Lam!”

“What do you mean?” Batting her eyelids, Lucienne didn’t hesitate to throw another punch.

“I disarmed you, so you should admit defeat and lie down!”

“I’m not that easy.” With an amused smile, Lucienne ducked a savage kick from Vladimir. “And when did you ever play by the rules, Blazek?”

“When it comes to you!” he said, grabbing her hand with iron strength. His gaze was so intense that Lucienne felt her knees going weak. “What did you say? That you hoped I fell for you twice or something?”

“You heard me, and denied my wish, obviously,” Lucienne said. Crystal liquid flowed in her eyes. It could have been tears, but in an instant, it was gone.

“I’ll fall for you a thousand times, if that’s what you want,” he said. “And I’m still falling for you, but does it matter to you? You’re not here anymore.”

“I’m here now.”

“Your body is here.”

“And what isn’t?”

“Your heart.”

“How can you assume where my heart stays, or where it belongs?” Suddenly furious, she tried to slap him.

Vladimir caught her wrist, and she tripped him. He let her, but dragged her down with him. She fell on top of him, as he moved his hips to pin her under him. She maneuvered her hips and legs, countering his moves and fighting to stay on top. At last, she straddled him.

“Now you lie still,” she ordered.

“I saw how you looked at Ashburn Fury,” he said, his eyes spitting sparks of dark fire. “And all I wanted was to strangle the life out of him with my bare hands! ”

Okay, now the cat is out of the bag. He fears that I’ve given up on him, on us .

She couldn’t blame him for his suspicions.

She had tried to pull away from him, even after the Eye of Time was secured.

She had left for Nirvana without him; and in Nirvana, she sought out Ashburn as often as she could, bordering the point of obsession. It was only business. Or was it?

“Ashburn’s my asset, just like the Eye of Time. That’s all,” she said.

“You can do better than lie to me,” Vladimir said. A weary, cynical smile twisted the corner of his mouth. “I almost took BL7 to Nirvana to end his life when I saw how he made you laugh like that.”

“It wasn’t a good laugh, you idiot,” Lucienne said.

“It was an angry laugh, a very irritated one.” She sighed.

She had to tell him this so he would trust her.

“There is nothing else I can do when I’m tickled.

Aida is the only one who knows I’m horribly ticklish.

I have no idea how Ashburn knew . . . Oh—” Something registered.

Ashburn stored everyone’s memories but hers, which meant he had Aida’s memories.

That was how he knew. “I need to talk to you about—”