Siren's Code

The Siren Legacy Book Three

Helen Scott

Contents

Copyright

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

About the Author

The Siren’s Code

Book Two of The Siren Legacy Series

Copyright © 2017 by Helen Scott

Cover Design © Natasha Snow

Editing by Courtney Umpress

All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author, except for the brief use of quotations in a book review.

This book is intended for adults only. The sexual activities represented in this book are a work of fiction intended for adults. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are used fictitiously by the author. Any resemblance to actual places, events, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

To my family. Thank you for supporting me through this wild and crazy journey!

Chapter 1

“She slipped through our fingers!” Mr. Fields was livid. Robin had never seen him so angry. It practically shimmered in the air around him, like heat coming off tarmac. “You were supposed to get her and your brother and get out of there. Why the hell did you join the fight?” He poked his finger at The Scout’s chest.

“You seemed to be in trouble,” The Scout muttered.

“Me? In trouble? Ha! No, all that happened was you letting our most valuable asset go. Where are we going to find another seer, huh?”

The Scout looked at her, his eyes begging Robin to intervene, but she couldn’t.

The memory of what she had done made her feel physically ill. She had exchanged herself for the life of an oracle and her rescuers. She didn’t—no, couldn’t—draw any more attention to herself.

“I’m waiting for an answer, Norman!” Mr. Fields yelled, making Robin’s ears ring.

Even through everything going on, the fact that The Scout’s name was Norman surprised Robin. It seemed so old school and ordinary. Surely a professional kidnapper should have a name that sounded as dangerous as he was.

“I don’t know, sir. I can—”

“Damn right you don’t know! You and your sadistic brother are more trouble than you’re worth sometimes.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Don’t just stand there—go find your brother and find me another damn seer!”

“Yes, sir!” Norman muttered before he made a hasty retreat toward the elevators.

Robin stood plastered against the wall, praying Mr. Fields didn’t notice her. She watched as he sat at his desk and pulled a bottle of scotch and two glasses out of the bottom drawer.

“Come have a drink, and we can discuss the change in the terms of our agreement.” He didn’t even look at Robin when he spoke, but she knew that if she didn’t comply immediately, there would be hell to pay.

“Yes, sir,” she breathed, her heart kicking like a mule as she approached the desk.

When she sat opposite him, he shoved a glass toward her, the dark amber liquid sloshing to the point of almost spilling. She wrapped her hand around it as if it was her safety net. Mr. Fields’ eyes were on her; she could practically feel them skating over her skin, taking in her disheveled appearance. If she didn’t look up, he might just let her sit for a moment before she discovered the hell that her life was going to become.

“Ms. Murphy, you have been under contract for me for how long now?”

“Nine years, sir.” Her eyes flashed up and took in his face, briefly showing her the swath of jet-black hair that resided above equally dark eyes. A self-satisfied smirk momentarily resided below them before he raised the glass to his lips, sipping the aromatic liquid.

“Is it nine now? Well, time certainly has flown by. Your original term was set to be over in another eleven years. Is that correct?”

Robin nodded.

“So you were contracted to me for twenty years.” He tapped the edge of the glass against his mouth. “And now you’ve offered to take Katerina’s place for a year so you could save the lives of two worthless hybrids?”

She nodded again.

“Why?”

“You seemed so much more powerful than them. It didn’t look like a fair fight. I couldn’t just watch you kill them.” The surety in her voice surprised her.

“So you root for the underdog. Interesting.”

Robin got the distinct feeling that everything she said was going to be used against her later.

“Are you rooting for yourself? You are clearly the underdog in this situation.”

“No, sir. I know what I have to do, and I don’t need anyone stepping in to take care of it for me.” She didn’t know where this courage was coming from, but she knew she had to put up a strong front now. Otherwise, his threat of breaking her would be accomplished all too easily.

“And what do you have to do?” He quirked an eyebrow at her.

“Whatever it was Katerina did for you.”

“Do you know what that was?”

“I have a pretty good idea.”

“Well, then. Are you expecting me to use you for sex? Is that what you think she did for me?”

“Among other things.”

“Occasionally, but only if she wanted to.” He stared her down. “I’m not a rapist, Ms. Murphy, and I certainly don’t have to pay for sex. If you want to take it to that level, that is something we can talk about, but for now, I just need you to follow orders.”

She felt unstable, like her seat had one leg shorter than the others. Katerina had wanted to have sex with him? She had always just assumed it was part of what he paid her for.

Unwilling to back down from her newly discovered courage, she asked, “Then what are my orders?”

“For now, go and sleep. Rest and recover from the events of the past few days. I will send a new wardrobe for you with instructions on what to wear and when.”

A slow smile spread across Mr. Fields’ face as she downed the last of the scotch and got up to leave.

“Oh, and I am still going to sponsor you for the Order of Talos.”

Robin’s blood ran cold. She knew that whatever magic he’d been using to fight with had come from his connection with the Order. She also knew, with complete certainty, that she wanted to stay as far away from that organization as possible.

“Very well, Mr. Fields.” There was no question. He wasn’t asking her if she wanted to join anymore. Now he was telling her.

“When we are alone, I want you to call me Randall.”

“Very well, Randall.” She wanted to spit the words out, but antagonizing the man she had just agreed to take orders from was not a good plan.

As she walked out of the office toward the elevators, she felt the flash drive she had hidden in her bra shift. There was nothing she could do other than put up with it poking her in the boob for the rest of the trip back to her room. The flash drive was the most precious thing to her right now.

During her stay at The Farm with Randall, she had copied every single file they had, unbeknownst to them. When she was back at her workstation, she was going to dive into it and try to get it into the right hands.

The image of the guy whose life she’d saved popped into her mind. He was huge and basically looked the way she had always imagined Thor—tall, with long hair and muscles. He had been there to rescue Aster, the seer or oracle or whatever, from the torture they had planned for her.

She knew she had to get the information out as clearly as she knew Randall would be dragging her down the path to the Order of Talos. But maybe she could get information out to someone like the guy she’d been calling Thor in her head. Either way, she now had a plan, at the very least. She would take them down, all of them, piece by piece if she had to, and they would never see her coming.

Chapter 2

Robin went straight into the bathroom and turned on the shower, carefully undressing so she didn’t lose the flash drive. The small chunk of plastic and metal sat in her hand as the rest of her clothing fell to the floor. She needed somewhere to hide it until she went back to her desk tomorrow.

She’d have to place a purchase order for a new laptop since Randall had forced her to leave hers at The Farm, and that was before it went up in flames. There wasn’t a chance in hell of getting it back now.

Standing on the edge of the tub, she used a nail file to unscrew the vent just enough so she could slide the flash drive inside. With that taken care of, she really did want to shower, and the water would be the perfect temperature of almost scalding hot by now. She stepped into the water and let it wash the tension from her, at least for a moment.

As she washed, more dirt and grime came off her than she’d expected, but she still didn’t feel completely clean. She hadn’t felt completely clean in nine years, though, so it wasn’t a new feeling. It was as if living and working in this place, and for that man, left a residue on her very soul. She would never be clean again.

When she came out of the bathroom with one of the few towels she had wrapped around her, a rack of clothing waited for her, along with Randall Fields sitting on her bed.

“You look lovelier than I thought you would after a shower.” His voice was low.

This was the Randall Fields who scared her. The one who invaded her privacy, let himself into her room. This was the one she knew wanted her in the most sexual way possible. It made her skin pebble with goosebumps, even though she still stood in the heat from the bathroom, with the scent of her lavender body wash lingering in the air around her.

“Come and look at your new clothes.” He waved to the rolling rack. “I need to see what I like and which designers work best on your body before I get more.”

“Yes, sir.” Her voice still didn’t tremble as she walked to the rack of clothing. It was all blacks and blues with the occasional emerald green thrown in. Skirts. Dresses. Blouses. And lots of skimpy lingerie. He claimed he wouldn’t force himself on her, but the wardrobe told a different story. Her spine stiffened. Had he just been trying to get her to lower her guard?

“Try this one on.” He handed her a black dress.

Robin started to head to the bathroom to change when she felt his hand on her arm.

“Here.” Randall looked at her expectantly.

“Sir, I—”

“It wasn’t a request.” He adjusted one of his cuff links before looking back up at her with flinty eyes.

Robin’s stomach rolled, and her skin felt slimy all over again. They’d done this song and dance before. He wasn’t about to turn, and she wasn’t allowed to leave.

She took a deep breath and dropped the towel, quickly pulling the dress on over her head. The slinky black material slid along her skin, fitting her like a glove. What she hadn’t realized when he’d handed it to her was that there were sections that were just mesh—a lot of them. Two large sections covered her breasts and butt, but the rest was all stripes of material with mesh in between.

She didn’t feel exposed, exactly, but she also knew that much more of her body was visible than she would like.

“Turn.”

His eyes raked over her. The dress was almost too tight, as if it was a size smaller than she was used to, but it fit her like a second skin. She barely felt like it was there at all; only the high neckline scratching her collarbone made her really think about what she wore.

“Good.” Randall stood and ran a hand down her arm. She had to fight not to move away from him. “Now this one.”

He handed her one of the emerald-green dresses. From the hanger, it looked like there was a lot of material there, but Robin suspected there was a surprise attached to it, just like the mesh on the dress she was wearing. She shimmied out of the black dress and pulled the green one on. There was a slightly musty smell to it, as though it had been in storage for a long time.

The satin fabric was soft and cool against her skin, sliding over it like water. The dress was elegant, definitely evening attire, which had Robin on edge. There was no reason she should need a dress like this. The long skirt hid her pale legs but clung to her hips before arriving at the lowest V-neck she’d ever seen. It went way past the bottom of her breasts, almost to her navel, and made her feel as if she couldn’t move without experiencing some slippage.

“Sir, why do I need a dress like this?” She tried to mask her fear by clearing her throat.

He paced away from her. “Walk toward me.” He brushed her question aside.

She did as she was commanded, only to be horrified to find two very high slits in the front. Every time she took a step, the dress billowed out behind her, leaving each leg out in the cold respectively.

“You are to accompany me next week to a charity gala. You will wear this dress and be charming, or you will pay for it the next day.”

The air suddenly seemed too thin. Robin was not only going to leave the high rise again within weeks of leaving it for the first time since she started working for Randall Fields, but it was to go to a charity gala. That was something she had never experienced before. She had always been the one cleaning up after the gala, if she was lucky. Usually she just read about such extravagant events online, wishing she could be a princess for a day so she could attend one, but that was the dream of a child.

“Which charity?”

“Does it matter?” He arched a thick black brow.

“No.”

The terse exchange left her feeling more on edge than she was before. She just knew the night wasn’t going to be over until he had seen her try on all the clothing he’d brought down for her.

* * *

Hal couldn’t get comfortable. Every night for the last week, he had dreamed of the red head from the farmhouse. The way she had saved him really pissed him off.

He was supposed to be the one doing the saving. That was what he and his brothers did. Well, that and track down magical objects. He hadn’t had anyone save his skin like that in centuries.

Except Ellie, but he wasn’t in mortal danger at the time.

He shook his head, trying to clear the thoughts and get some sleep. It was impossible. Sleep had become a figment of his imagination the last few days.

He’d catch small cat naps here and there, but a full night’s sleep had eluded him for a while now. And when he did nap? She was there, waiting for him, sacrificing herself for him and Thad, giving in to that asshat of a suit, agreeing to who knows what.

It tortured him.

If it wasn’t that scene, then it was her in his house, well, his private house, the house not even his brothers knew about, and she was so happy to be there. He would wake up expecting to find her curled up against him in bed, only to be disappointed at the cold, empty sheets that surrounded him.

It was strange to sleep in the main house. He hadn’t slept here in years except for the brief fling with Hecate. If she wanted to stay over, then he slept here. Overall, though, he preferred his cabin, which was small and unassuming. The big house was built to impress. It was where he and his brothers had lived while they constructed their own houses. Some of their oldest pieces of artwork and what would be considered antiques to the rest of the world resided in the walls of that house.

When he was there, he always felt like a bull in a china shop. Terrified of ruining a family heirloom or something equally valuable by accident because he forgot his size. Again.

The cabin was small, big enough for him, but still small, and sturdy. He could run into the walls and knock himself out without endangering anything.

He couldn’t imagine anyone else being in the cabin with him, which was why he’d never told his brothers about it. They would want to see and visit and use it themselves, and that was the opposite of why he’d built the thing. It was precisely why the dreams of the redhead being there with him were so unnerving. He screwed his eyes shut, demanding that his brain turn off.

The sound of a woman crying drifted through the walls. He hadn’t known what to do with Aster the last few days. When Thad told him Cin was still alive and safe at his place, Hal thought they would take Aster to go live with them.

That didn’t happen, though. Cin’s powers were still too out of control. Anytime something made her the slightest bit angry, she went full fury. Not to mention she still wanted to kill the guy they had locked up in the training room. Sure, he’d tried to kill her first, and he’d tortured Aster, but they couldn’t just let her kill him. They still needed information only he could provide. They needed to find out what the Order of Talos was and why mortals, plain humans, could work magic. This psychopath was their only resource as of now.

Hal tossed and turned in bed, but the sound of Aster crying rang in his head. He wondered if the redhead was crying like that right now. Aster quieted for a moment, and Hal hoped she had fallen back to sleep. When he heard her in the kitchen, though, he couldn’t ignore the problem anymore.

Wrapping a thick flannel robe around himself, he padded out toward the noises. The light from the refrigerator door highlighted Aster’s slight frame. Hal watched her, trying to gauge how upset she was. One of his talents, along with healing with water, was being able to sense emotions, at least on certain people.

Aster sighed and closed the door empty-handed, pacing to one of the windows in the kitchen.

Hal cleared his throat as he entered the kitchen, trying to make soft noises to let her know he was there without startling her.

“Doin’ okay?”

“Not really, but you already know that, don’t you?” Aster looked at him over her shoulder, her long blonde hair glowing in the moonlight.

“Had a hunch.” He shrugged. “Want to talk?”

“No.”

“Okay. Want company?”

If he hadn’t been watching carefully, he would have missed her slight nod.

Hal sat on the arm of the couch closest to her. It groaned under his weight.

“Why am I still here?” Her voice was soft as she spoke, though she didn’t even glance at him.

“So we can keep you safe.”

“Is Cin safe?”

She looked at him now, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

“She’s safe, but she’s still learning. If you want to go stay with Alec and Ellie, you can, or Demetrius even. It’s up to you.”

A blush rose on her cheeks at the mention of Dem, piquing Hal’s curiosity. Was Aster attracted to Dem?

“You mean stay with the couple who has trouble keeping their hands off each other, or stay with the guy I—” She caught herself just as she was about to admit something. “I want to stay here. I just don’t want to be a burden.”

“You’re not a burden.” He tried to console her.

“And I don’t want to be treated like a child.” She looked at him pointedly.

“Okay, okay.” Hal held his hands up defensively. “Listen, I know you’re not a child. You’re only a year or so younger than Ellie and Cin, so it’s not as if we intentionally treat you any differently. My brothers and I are simply concerned about the ordeal you went through.”

Aster turned away from him.

“You haven’t talked to anyone about it yet. You need to; otherwise, it will eat you up inside.”

“Too late.”

Hal wasn’t sure whether she’d meant for him to hear that or not.

“Want some hot chocolate?” It was all he could think of that might soothe the broken soul that stood before him.

“That’d be nice.” She looked at him. “Thanks, Hal, for everything. I’m sure I’m not easy to be around right now.”

“You are a pleasure to be around.” Hal bowed his head slightly. “You can stay with me as long as you would like, or if you want some space, I can stay somewhere else and you can have this whole place to yourself.”

“Right now, it’s nice to have you around, like a big grizzly bear to protect me.” A sad smile appeared on her face.

Chapter 3

Hal ran his hand through his hair, which was getting long, even for him, as he waited for his brothers to show up. The dreams had to stop, and he knew only one way to get that to happen.

He needed to go back for the redhead.

Guilt fueled the dreams, so if he stopped feeling guilty, the dreams would stop. He’d decided it was time to meet with his brothers.

Dem appeared first, giving Hal a shock, as usual. He grunted in hello, and Hal could swear he saw him sniffing the air. The scowl on his face was even harsher than usual. Before he could ask what was wrong, Alec and Thad popped in, one after the other.

The drinks he’d placed by their usual seats were still cold, and there was food on the table, which Dem had immediately jumped into. He was already halfway through his first burger before anyone else could even touch the food.

“I’d like to rescue the redhead who saved Thad and me from being murdered.” He had never beaten around the bush about these types of things, and he didn’t see why he should start now.

Dem almost choked on the bite of burger he had been focused on inhaling. “You what?” he managed after his coughing fit.

“There was a redhead at the farmhouse who saved me and Thad from biting the big cosmic bullet. She struck some kind of deal with the suit, and he whisked her away through that freakin’ portal. I could tell how terrified she was before she left. She needs rescuing, and no one else is going to do it!”

“So you want to poke the bear?” Dem said, setting his burger down.

“Her name is Robin.” Thad’s voice cut through the vitriol of Dem’s.

“Robin?”

“Yeah, I saw her in the vision I had before we went to the farmhouse, and her boss, the suit, called her Robin.” Thad took a deep breath before continuing. “And you’re right; we should rescue her. I saw a small glimpse of what her life was like, and let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. I’m sure if she had to strike a bargain to allow us to leave alive, then it was only going to get worse for her.”

“We don’t have the resources to go up against an organization like that, especially if they can do magic as well. We have to know what we are up against before we step in,” Alec said.

“I agree.” Dem usually sided against whatever Alec wanted, mainly out of spite, so the fact that he agreed meant that they had a lot of concerns about this idea.

Hal sighed. He knew he would have to explain why he wanted to go after her if he were to have any chance of winning them over. “I’ve been dreaming of her. It’s torturing me. I haven’t had a full night’s sleep since we got back.”

Three pairs of concerned eyes stared at him.

“Well, let’s force our resource to talk. If we can get more information out of him, maybe we can put it to good use and rescue your Robin.” Thad was always the most rational and logical of them all, except when it came to his soulmate Cin.

“She’s not my—” Hal sighed. “Okay.”

He knew it would be pointless to try to dissuade them from the idea that Robin was somehow his. All he wanted was to clear his conscience. That was it. He would happily let Robin go about her life after he rescued her from whatever hell she’d put herself in to save his sorry ass.

* * *

Robin tried to pull the skirt of her dress down a fraction more so she felt less exposed, but it didn’t work. The dress picked for today was a short gray number with a beaded bodice that, for all intents and purposes, had no back. The length and lack of material covering her back made her feel mostly naked, which, judging from the look on Randall’s face this morning when she’d come up to the office, was exactly what he wanted.

He purposely kept her off balance, using things that made her uncomfortable and forcing them on her. Slowly wearing down her confidence. He had promised to break her. So far, she’d held strong, but she knew he would win eventually. He had too much to hold over her head, like the lives of her parents and little sister, and besides, as he kept reminding her, she had agreed to this.

When she had offered herself up in Katerina’s place, she’d thought it would just be sex. She could handle that. The monotonous act of him thrusting until he reached his release. She wouldn’t have enjoyed it, but she could’ve handled it.

This, whatever it was that he was doing, was driving her mad. He showed up in her room when she least expected it. He picked out clothing for her, chose her meals, ordered massages, facials, pedicures, manicures, and all kinds of other spa treatments for her. And all while he was sequestered in his penthouse. She didn’t understand his end game; she couldn’t tell what his goal was with all of this.

She was stuck waiting for the other shoe to drop.

For now, she just wanted a longer dress. She couldn’t bend over in the one he’d picked out the night before, and when she sat down, she could feel the scratchy fiber of the seat cushion on the sensitive skin on the backs of her thighs.

Taking a deep breath, she focused on what her goal was today—getting the data from The Farm uploaded to the server her hacker friends maintained. The all-new computer system she’d put together was super fast, which would be helpful when she started the upload.

It was too bad it had taken so long to get all her unofficial programs on it, or she would have been able to upload the files already. Instead, for the last few days, she’d been bringing the new system up to date with the system on her old laptop, which was now a melted blob somewhere north of them.

The files had all been encrypted, and she locked them with a password just to be extra safe. Robin knew her friends could crack her password and probably decrypt the files as well, if they wanted to, but she also knew that they respected her privacy. Honor among thieves and all that.

Her only problem was figuring out what to do with the files after she’d uploaded them. She needed to get the information to people who could use it, who could help her take Eclipse down, even though she was stuck on the inside.

The group of hackers she was friends with might be able to help, but they all had their own goals, and she didn’t want to bring this kind of trouble down on them. If she really thought about it, she didn’t think they would survive the reign of terror the Order of Talos and Eclipse would bring to their doorsteps.

The media was a possibility, but they’d probably think it was a hoax, as would the government. She needed someone who knew what was up, who knew that there was magic and supernatural creatures in the world. After racking her brain for the last few days, she had only been able to come up with one answer.

The people who helped Aster escape.

Robin had no idea how to contact them, or even what their names were. She was staring at a mountain of hay, and she knew there was a needle in there somewhere, but she had no clue where to start looking. If she didn’t get this done soon, she felt like the opportunity would pass. She needed to strike while the iron was hot, while Randall was still a little off his game.

She knew he didn’t think she’d noticed, but she had. He was exhausted after they got back from The Farm. There had been the initial blaze of anger at The Scout, or Norman, as Randall had called him, but after that and the fashion show she’d put on for him, he had disappeared up in his penthouse for the last two days, and when he came back down, he looked as if he’d been on a bender.

He had appeared in her room while she was getting ready for bed in the bathroom. When she saw him, she gasped. He looked thinner than he had before, and there were bags under his bloodshot eyes. It was as if something had drained him of all his life force. He’d ignored her reaction, picked out a dress, and left. Now, she was in said dress and waiting for him to call for her from his office.

She may as well have been waiting for a balloon to pop. Tension hummed through her as she typed up a report of the incident at The Farm for the insurance. It was much more ordinary and bland than what had really happened, but she doubted the insurance would cover magic portals and torture of magical creatures.

An e-mail from Randall popped up on her screen, requesting her presence in his office. Finally, the balloon had popped. Robin stood and tugged her dress down as much as she could before heading into the office, notebook and pen in hand.

“You asked to see me, Mr. Randall?”

“Come and sit, Robin.”

“Yes, sir.”

As she sat down in the chair, the leather of the cushion plastered to her thighs. She hated the dress.

“I need you to accompany me tonight.” Randall watched her, his dark eyes assessing her every movement. “I have to present myself to the Order, and I need to be sure nothing untoward is going to happen. If you’re with me, then I at least know whether I’m going to die or not.”

“Where is the meeting? Do I need to call for a car?”

“No, we have to take a portal to get there.”

Robin felt herself pale at the thought. When they had taken the portal away from The Farm, all of her organs had felt like they were being mashed up inside her body. It was not a sensation she looked forward to experiencing again.

“That’s not going to be a problem, is it?” Randall’s eyes seemed to bore into her, as though he was trying to read her mind, just waiting for her to snap.

“No, sir.” She ground the words out even though she wanted to run as far away as possible from him and his damn portals.

“Good.” He smirked. “Now—”

Before Randall could continue, Norman came bursting through the doors of his office.

“I can’t find him!” His hands wrapped around his head and squeezed. His hair was longer than his brother’s and gave him more of a casual, wealthy playboy look, but the way he held his head made it stick out through his fingers at awkward angles. “He’s not answering anything; he’s not at any of his usual spots. I can’t even find him with help from the Order!” He paced back and forth frantically as he spoke, making Robin nervous.

“Could he have been caught in the fire?” Randall’s voice was calm, but there was a blade of anger underneath.

“No! I know he’s still alive! I can’t explain it. I just know!”

“Okay.” Randall sighed, his left hand flexed into a fist. He released it when he noticed Robin watching him. “We are going to the Order tonight. I can see if any of the other members would be willing to help you look for him.”

“But I’ve already asked the Order for help!”

“The request hasn’t come from me, and I’m a higher rank than you. They may give me resources that they wouldn’t share with you.”

Norman’s shirt was rumpled, and his tie barely hung on around his neck. She wasn’t sure that Randall’s words were going to have an effect at first, but as soon as Norman heard the Order at Randall’s level was getting involved, he calmed down.

“Now, go and get yourself cleaned up. You’re filthy.” Randall turned away, clearly dismissing him.

Norman seemed confused. He started to leave and then stopped. “So I’m not coming with you to the Order?”

“I think that would be unwise given your current state, don’t you?”

“But how will I know if they are going to help?”

“I’ll tell you! Now go home!”

He looked like he wanted to say something else, plead with Randall to let him come along, but he also recognized that he wouldn’t win that argument. At least, Robin assumed that was what he realized, since he left. He still looked slightly bewildered as he exited, but he didn’t make Robin nervous anymore.

“You should go and change.” He looked at her appraisingly. “Wear the blue dress with pockets and a V-neck. You’ll know it when you see it. I’ll have some food sent to your room. You’ll have an hour to change and eat and come back up here so we can leave. Do not be late.”

“Yes, sir.”

Robin knew when she was dismissed. As she made her way back to her desk, her mind made a desperate plea for escape by giving her an idea of how to get the files to the guys who rescued Aster. She logged on to her new set-up quickly and uploaded the files. Her nails nervously tapped on her glass desk as she watched the files transfer.

While that was going on, she made her way through to the printer she’d hacked at the beginning of this whole thing, and sent a message off. She hoped it got to the right hands, because she was running out of time. Randall was clearly grooming her for something, and she had a feeling she didn’t want to find out what it was. Once the upload was complete, she logged off and discretely removed the flash drive before heading to her room.

* * *

Hal stood in front of the cage and stared at the man who sat inside. His dark hair and almost black eyes made his skin look even paler than it should. They had been keeping him in here to get the very information he now sought out of him. So far, the man hadn’t batted an eyelash out of concern.

That was about to change.

Aster had wanted to come down with him, but he refused. There was no reason for her to see this asshat, no matter what kind of vengeance she was after. It could only end badly.

He was thankful that Thad had persuaded Cin to stay behind as well. She was brand spankin’ new to being a fury. He didn’t want her to get in trouble with Hades just yet, and if she killed or tortured someone who hadn’t been cleared, she’d be in a heap of trouble with Hades and the other furies.

“Are you just planning on standing there and staring at me all night, big man?”

“Haven’t made up my mind yet.”

“Well, I vote you leave. Let me get my rest.”

“You’ve been resting for the last few days. What could you possibly need rest from?”

“Dissecting you lot can be quite arduous at times, especially when they put up a fight, like the little blonde did, not to mention that blue-haired bitch. It never works, though. I always get what I want in the end.”

“I see.” Hal knew he was being baited. “Did you want your entire lab to burn to the ground? Every last inch turned into ash?”

Confusion clouded his face, followed by rage.

“You’re just trying to bait me. I see through your tricks.”

“You were stumbling around a building that was burning to the ground when we took you. How would I bait you with something you already know?”

“I only started a small fire to keep that psycho fury contained. I don’t know what happened to make it all explode like that.”

“That would be your boss, the one who left you for dead.”

The guy didn’t look convinced.

“Look, at least tell me your name, and I’ll tell you what happened.”

“Leonard, but most people call me The Surgeon.”

Hal didn’t want to think about the implications of that name and what it might mean about Aster’s stay with that man.

“Your boss opened a portal that torched the back of the house and doubled the size of the fire you originally started. By the time we were about to leave, you showed up, and the house was pretty much gone. We left it burning. I would be surprised if anything in it survived. It felt as if it burned hotter than a natural fire, but that could just be because two idiots were playing with forces they didn’t understand.” Hal hadn’t realized he was so angry. It was only that his speech went from normal to shouting that gave it away.

“So my life’s work is gone. Just like that. Do you have any idea how many lives were sacrificed to get the data that was stored there?”

“You were murdering people! Not to mention being an idiot for not backing up your data in more than one place.”

Leonard looked frustrated. “It was backed up in more than one place, but they were all at The Farm.”

“Well, looks like you’ve lost everything, then, huh?” Hal sighed and sat on a chair one of his brothers had pulled over. “So, why can’t you do any of your fancy magic now?”

He didn’t bother to tell him that the cage made any magic impossible. Alec couldn’t jump out of it when they’d locked him in there, and they had designed it that way on purpose.

“I don’t want to.” Leonard acted like a petulant child.

“Bullshit. Do it and I’ll let you out.”

“If I do it, then take me back to Boston.”

“Deal.”

Leonard’s eyes widened in surprise, which made Hal laugh.

“Look, man, I’m not you. If I say I’ll do something, I’ll do it. If you prove me wrong right now and do magic, then I’ll take you to Kalamazoo, if you want.”

“Fine.”

Hal took a moment to tie his hair back. It had been getting longer and more unruly for a while now, but he kind of preferred it that way. In any case, he didn’t want it to catch on fire from whatever pathetic sparks this guy was going to dish out.

Leonard watched as he settled in the chair as though he was about to watch a show. It was only when he became still that the guy began to speak.

“Order of Talos, hear my plea. Grant me access to my power. Order of Talos, lend me your strength. Order of Talos, lend me your speed. Order of Talos, lend me your fire.”

He flared his hands, and one itty bitty little spark flew, but nothing else happened. Nothing that would make Hal believe the man could truly do magic.

“Jazz hands? Is that the correct term? That’s what you use to cast a fire spell?”

Leonard went back to pleading for power from the Order of Talos. All Hal wanted was to know who the hell they were and how he could get Robin out of there. Her name sounded like bells in his mind. He hadn’t really connected the two before Thad had shared that tidbit of information with him, but now it was as if a cello had joined a violin, and the beauty had just doubled.

“It’s not like you know magic. You’re just winged demons that your gods didn’t want to look at anymore.”

“Oh, really?”

Leonard chuckled. “If you knew magic, you would have made me talk a long time ago. It’s clear from the behavior exhibited by yourself and your brothers that magic is not a weapon you have the ability to wield.”

Hal summoned his siren voice, the voice that made anyone do anything he wanted, but could also potentially turn them into his mindless slaves, unable to breathe, eat, walk, sleep, unless he told them to. This was an acceptable risk. “Hop on one leg.” He only used just a touch of his power; it was more of a garnish than an actual command. Nevertheless, Leonard began hopping on one leg.

“What the—”

“We do have magic. We are just smart enough to know when to use it and when to hold back, unlike yourself and your boss.”

“Can I stop hopping yet?”

“I don’t know, can you?” Hal smirked. His brothers had come down here all sound and fury, with the exception of Thad, who hadn’t been down here at all since he got Cin back. All Leonard needed was someone to challenge his place in the world, or at least what he saw as his place.

A growl of frustration sounded from the man in the cage.

“Tell me to stop hopping!”

“No.”

Hal watched as his expression went from astonishment to indignation. He was willing to bet that Leonard hadn’t had many people tell him no in his lifetime. If he was honest with himself, it gave him some obscure joy to be one of those people. Leonard understood violence too well; he needed to be undermined, to have someone destroy that cocky attitude, and then he would talk.

Over fifteen minutes later, Leonard cracked and yelled, “Dammit, tell me to stop hopping!” His voice had changed to one of desperation.

“Will you talk to me? Tell me what I want to know?”

“Yes.”

“Swear on your own grave.” Hal didn’t trust anything that came out of this psychopath’s mouth.

“I swear.”

“Stop hopping.” The relaxation in Leonard’s body was immediate. Hal hoped his relief would serve in encouraging him to answer the questions honestly.

“Thank you,” he gasped out as a coughing fit shook his body. Leonard was severely out of shape. He wasn’t fat, but he had no cardiovascular strength.

“Now, tell me who your boss is.” Hal figured he would start with something easy that he already knew the answer to.

“Randall Fields.”

“Good. And what is the Order of Talos?”

“An ancient organization that believes everyone worthy should have access to magic, not just those chosen by the gods or fate. We seek power and the ability to guide the world on the correct path, to save the world from the corruption of magical beings.”

“And where is Mr. Fields based out of?”

“The Eclipse headquarters in Boston.”

“So that’s why you wanted to go back to Boston, huh?”

“Yes.”

“And how could I break into the Eclipse building?”

“You can’t. It’s barometrically locked. At least, any of the floors you would be interested in.”

“Can you draw me a floor plan?”

When Leonard nodded, a smile spread over Hal’s face.

Chapter 4

Robin shimmied into the dress. The dusty blue fabric slid down over her, and as she zipped it up, she knew it was going to be skintight. Not that this was a surprise. She felt like a desperate housewife, or was it a Stepford housewife? She could never remember. A vicious longing in her whipped around, demanding she put on some sweatpants and an oversized T-shirt. It had been her uniform once upon a time, when she worked from home as a cyber security engineer.

The deep V of the dress’s neckline meant that her breasts were front and center again, which she didn’t understand. It wasn’t like she was blessed in that area. Growing up, her mom had told her to stuff her bra if she wanted to get boys to notice her. Trouble was, Robin didn’t want boys to notice her, which her mom didn’t understand at all. She was quite happy to be quiet and pursue her passions, no man necessary.

She shook herself out of her thoughts and straightened the dress in the mirror. Even she had to admit that the blue brought out her eyes. She tried to examine the dress without prejudice. The neckline was high, aside from the deep V in the center, and the cap sleeves were actually quite nice. The piping that ran down her torso flared at her hips, making them look bigger than they were. There were pockets, exactly as Randall had said. They were teeny tiny, though, and couldn’t really fit anything. Robin was tempted to bring the flash drive, just in case there was something for her to tap into, but she also knew it could be a big risk in this situation.

When she slipped it into one of the pockets, the outline was clearly visible, making it impossible to sneak anything anywhere in that dress. She sighed and slipped into her heels. She would have to stash the little piece of plastic that was her life boat before she saw her boss. A last once-over confirmed that the flash drive wasn’t visible before she headed up to Randall’s office, with a pit stop at her own.

She knew the rumors about her were getting worse. Whenever she passed someone in the hall, they openly sneered at her now. It took all her self-control not to beg them to take her place, but she knew that would only get them both in trouble and nothing would change. At least, not for her. Plus, depending on Randall’s mood, he could be quite vindictive.

She’d heard the whispers about the assistant before her—the woman had tried to make a run for it. She didn’t make it. Not only that but she was never seen again, and that made Robin hold her tongue.

Randall would see anything she did to get away from him as a betrayal; he’d said as much when they’d first got back from The Farm. If he was angry at her and there was someone else involved, he was more likely to take his anger out on that person than on her. She was lucky that way. Yeah, right.

By the time she walked into Randall’s office, he was standing at his desk, waiting for her. She had never been more thankful that he couldn’t see her desk from his.

“Right on time, just the way I like it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, rules. Going forward, only speak when you are directly spoken to. No ‘yes, sir’ or ‘yes, ma’am’ unless someone is specifically requesting an answer. Don’t flash your tits at anyone, except me, of course.” He leered at her when he spoke. If Robin didn’t know better, she would say he was tipsy. “And try not to be too surprised by anything. Although, I should warn you, what you are about to see will blow your mind.”

“Yes, sir.”

Randall’s gaze drifted lazily down her body. “By the old ones, I can’t wait for you to ask me to bed.”

He didn’t seem to realize that he’d spoken aloud, so Robin thought it was probably in her best interests to ignore it.

“Ready?” He smiled, and for the first time, she could see how women found him attractive. When he was playful and slightly tipsy like this, there was something endearing about him. Not that she still wouldn’t bolt if given half a chance, but at least she could see where they were coming from a little more now.

His hand was outstretched, waiting for hers, and as she took it, he pulled her much closer than she needed to be. One arm was a steel bar around her back, pressing her against him, and the other was making strange gestures at the wall. She could smell the liquor coming off him in waves.

Fire blazed in front of her eyes for a few seconds before turning into the sweeping black hole she had seen at The Farm. Out of instinct, she started to push away from him. More than anything, she didn’t want to go through that thing. The memory of what it felt like before was too fresh in her mind.

“Stop struggling.” The liquor on his breath surrounded her.

“I don’t want to go through there.”

“You don’t have a choice.”

She pulled and pushed against him, until he gave up and swung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“Here we go!” he said as he smacked her ass.

The blackness crushed in on her, making it impossible to draw breath. She felt like she was being peeled, as though someone had put sandpaper to her skin. Her blood boiled and her body melted, and just when she was sure death was imminent, it all stopped.

“Here we are.”

As Randall set her down, she had to turn away to retch.

“Well, that’s just lovely.” He almost hiccupped. “I used to be like that. Now, I just have a few glasses of gin and I’m fine.”

She took a step forward and ended up almost face-planting on the floor, not that it could even be called a floor, really. A floor implied a certain level of flatness, at least to Robin, and this was not flat. She felt like she was walking on the rubble from an explosion. They were underground—that much was obvious—but how far underground, she had no idea. She couldn’t see any other way into the tunnel they were standing in, except for the portal, which had conveniently just closed. An eerie light spread through the passageway. It was just enough for them to see with no indication of where it came from. It was almost as if the rocks themselves were emanating light.

“Come on. This way. If you follow my footsteps, those are the best places to walk.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, before mumbling to herself, “Not wearing heels would have made this easier.”

“For you, yes. However, then your ass wouldn’t look the way it does, and with that dress, it needs a little perking up. Now, remember the rules.”

His comment stung. And she hated that she cared.

Randall seemed to be sobering up, which was good, because they were approaching a massive doorway. Two giant statues flanked the keyhole arch. On the left was a virile young man, clearly just over the cusp of adulthood, and on the right was an old man hunched over his cane. As Robin drew closer, she realized just how big the statues were. They towered over her, her head just coming to the knees of each sculpture. The detail in the stonework was phenomenal. Passing under the archway, Robin realized it was more of a tunnel. At the end was an intricately carved door, which stood at least four times as tall as she was. As they approached, the doors swung open.

An ambient light filled the revealed area, not that Robin could see the source of it, because the ceiling was so high. She couldn’t even see the edges of the room. There seemed to be a mist or haze covering everything more than twenty feet away from them. As they walked forward, voices drifted toward her, all kinds of accents, men and women, old and young. A set of stairs became visible in front of them where the room narrowed into a tunnel. They climbed to a central platform, which opened up into an area that was more like a cavern than a room. The walls were lined with figures that had been carved out of the stone itself. Each figure had a solemn expression, and its eyes were directed at the center of the platform, which was, of course, right where Randall stopped.

Not only did Robin feel completely out of place but now she felt like the statues were judging her, as well. She tried to focus on the people in front of her, rather than the giant stone heads a couple hundred feet above her.

It was as if she had just crashed a swanky cocktail party and everyone knew she wasn’t supposed to be there. The whispers. The looks. It was all making her skin crawl.

Randall’s possessive hand on the small of her back didn’t help, either. All she wanted to do was shake it off and move away from him, but in this crowd, who knew what that would mean.

“Randall, darling, introduce us to your new protégé,” a slender woman called from the side. There wasn’t a hair out of place. She was perfectly coiffed and practically reeked of money. Robin had to clench her hands together to prevent one from going up to her frizzy red locks.

“Brothers and Sisters, this is Robin Murphy. I bring her before you today to offer my sponsorship to bring her into our family. She has many distinct talents that will greatly benefit our organization and our goals.”

“I can see a couple talents from here!” a low voice called out, but Robin couldn’t see who had spoken.

“How long has he been boinking you, darlin’?” another voice joined in.

Heat rose on Robin’s face. They thought she was his toy. The latest in a long line of playthings.

“Brothers, you know I would not bring sullied goods before you. Robin has been in my care since she was a young girl. I have nurtured and protected her from a family who would have brought her nothing but pain. She has blossomed under my care, and I feel that her talents can now be put to use by the group.”

She felt completely humiliated. Shame stained her cheeks red even though she had nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, Randall didn’t know what he was talking about. She may have been young when her father had made the deal with him, but she was old enough to have lost her virginity. Ken Brown, at a friend’s birthday party. It hadn’t been anything romantic, more just the both of them wanting to get it over with. Either way, her maidenhead was long gone.

“Robin, has Brother Randall inappropriately laid a finger on you?”

She shook her head no.

“I bet you want him to, though, don’t you?” a woman’s voice called, clearly wishing she was in Robin’s shoes.

She vehemently shook her head no again. Why were they talking to her as if she was a child? Did they think just because she’d been under his employ for a few years she was mentally stunted?

“What are the skills you possess, my dear?” An older woman came forward and stood in front of Robin, holding glasses up to her face as if she was attending the opera, as she looked Robin up and down. Her wispy gray hair was done up in a chignon, and her long sapphire dress drew out the color of her eyes, just as her own dress did.

“I’m good with computers, ma’am.”

“Is that all? Turn for me.”

Robin glanced at Randall, who shook his head ever so slightly, probably only noticeable to her since she was turning toward him, putting herself on display for this strange old lady. Her banshee side was to remain his secret weapon.

“Good strong genes there. She’d make a good wife.”

“Sister Harriet, she is not here to be matched with someone. She’s here merely to gain approval to begin the joining process.” Randall sighed.

“Be that as it may, my comment still stands.” The woman sniffed at Randall, turned on her heel, and faded into the sea of onlookers.

“Does anyone have any objections to me moving forward?”

“What is her parentage?” The old lady called from her place in the crowd.

“Drunken father and absentee mother.” Randall waved his hand. “They aren’t important. She’s been mine for a while now.”

He seemed to wait for further questions. When none arrived, he seemed stuck.

Robin glanced around. Everyone stared at her as though they were trying to see into her very soul. It felt as if they could sense there was something supernatural about her, but they couldn’t put their finger on it. The tension in the room increased with every breath she drew.

“I don’t trust her. She doesn’t belong.” A young man walked toward them, his three-piece suit mostly hidden by an overcoat that came down to his knees, flapping behind him. When he arrived in front of her, his gray eyes studied her face. “You can see the fear in her. She’s tense. Scared. Yearns for her freedom.”

Randall sighed as murmurs rippled through the crowd.

“She is simply nervous. This is a big day for her; meeting all of you can be quite intimidating.” He chuckled, and the tension dissipated slightly.

“And where are Brothers Norman and Leonard? Usually they accompany you, no?”

“They are indisposed,” Randall said as he looked back at the crowd.

“Brother Randall, you know lying in the circle is frowned upon.”

“I am not lying.” He ground out each word, his fingers digging into Robin’s back. As she looked away from her boss, she realized that they were in fact standing on a large mosaic circle. The crowd obscured the image, but it looked like the tattoos she had seen on Randall’s arms at The Farm.

“Well, you are withholding something, then. You’re easy to read, Brother, especially for those of us who know you.”

His fingers clenched, pulling her dress even tighter, his nails digging into her skin through the fabric. She tried to lean slightly away from his hand, but it didn’t work. He had her locked in place.

“You are hurting your ward,” Gray Eyes said in low tones.

Randall’s hand immediately loosened as he glanced at her. She hadn’t felt a kind touch since she started working for Randall Fields, yet it still surprised her when he managed to bring tears to her eyes.

“Tell us what’s going on.”

“Leonard has been taken, and Norman is looking for him but has been unable to locate him so far.” He sounded like a sullen child.

She was surprised Gray Eyes had been able to extract a confession. It must have shown on her face, because Randall scowled at her.

“And?”

She looked at the man speaking. He was younger than Randall, or at least appeared that way, so why was Randall giving in to his questioning?

“The Farm has been destroyed. All the data has been lost. Leonard was not prepared for the eventuality of a fire.” Gasps of horror sounded all around them, as though the data was more important than the torture and the loss of life that occurred at the facility.

“There it is. That’s what’s been eating at you since you walked in.” Gray Eyes sighed. “How was it destroyed?”

“We were attacked by supernatural forces, who kidnapped one of the test subjects. During the attack, a fire was started. I’m not sure what caused it, but it destroyed the building and everything inside, including at least two security officers.”

Gray Eyes nodded thoughtfully. “Do we know who exactly attacked us?”

“Not yet. However, I have people looking into it.”

“And were you going to tell us any of this voluntarily?”

“Of-of course. I simply wanted to get the matter of Robin out of the way first.”

She had never seen him stumble over words before. Gray Eyes threw Randall off his game. The only question was, why?

“The Farm is gone. There is no more we can do about that. How do you plan on correcting the problem?”

“We will rebuild. Expand our facilities and keep them more secure. Maybe somewhere underground like this? I haven’t decided yet. The plan is in motion, though.”

Robin scoffed in her head at the idea. There was no plan in motion. He was simply trying to survive this meeting. The meeting may have been about her to begin with, but now it was all about Randall and his screw-up.

“We will need to see plans for the new facility as soon as they are ready. At least three of us must approve the proposed location. And you will bring Brother Leonard to us as soon as he is found. We will advise him appropriately on how to back up data in the future.”

Something about the way Gray Eyes said “advise” made Robin’s skin break out in goosebumps. She knew Leonard would be punished.

“Yes, High Brother.”

Now it all made sense. Gray Eyes was the leader, or at least higher ranking than Randall within the group. She hadn’t seen anyone outrank him since she had started working for him. It felt as if the world had tilted on its axis.

“Brother Randall, you and your initiates will need to make these losses up to the group. We cannot overcome the threat of the supernatural without the resources The Farm had provided.”

Panic flooded Robin’s system. They were against the supernatural, yet they used magic. What would happen if they found out she was a banshee? Nothing good was probably the answer. She needed to escape. Soon. As soon as they got back to the office, she would send out a second message. It was her only hope of finding anyone who could take on Randall Fields and stand a chance of winning.

“I have no objections to your ward becoming an initiate. Does anyone else?”

Gray Eyes looked around the room. When all the other guests remained silent, he nodded at Randall.

“Thank you, High Brother. Your benevolence is always appreciated. I will contact you as soon as the plans are drafted.”

“Do that.” As he walked away, he addressed the group. “With the news of the attack on The Farm, I want you all to check in on your Keys. Make sure they are still contained and stable. I expect a report from each of you by the end of the day.”

He opened a portal in the middle of his path and disappeared in an instant. The tension in the room vanished with him, and people began to chatter all around them.

“That went well,” Randall said as he exhaled. He smiled at Robin. “Time for you to meet our Key.”

Chapter 5

Robin had no idea what Randall was talking about with this Key business, but he seemed very excited, and that made her nervous. Portals flared open all around the cavern, each one making her stomach clench tighter. She knew they would have to go through one to get home, but she hoped whatever Key he wanted her to meet was somewhere around them already.

As a portal opened in front of them, she knew she was out of luck.

“Just go through it. Don’t fight me.” Randall looked tired.

It wasn’t as if she had a choice. What was she going to do, stay behind in this cavern with no way out, no food, and no water? If she cooperated now, it might gain her some leeway in the future.

Stepping forward, Robin simply said, “Okay.”

She followed Randall as he took her hand and led them both to the destination. The same sensations hit her as before, making her want to scream and cry, but as soon as it started, it was over.

They were in an opulent house, standing at the opening of a staircase. Randall began descending, and when she didn’t immediately follow, he stopped and looked up at her.

“Everyone in this house works for me. So whatever you’re thinking, whatever plan of escape you are hastily trying to hatch, just give it up now. They won’t help you.”

Robin chastised herself for being so open with her body language. “I was actually just wondering where we are,” she lied.

“We are in a house.”

She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Fine!” Randall threw up his hands, clearly hitting his limit of things he would put up with today. “We’re on an estate in England. The Key is under the house.”

He sounded as if he was talking in some kind of code. The Key is under the house. The crow flies at midnight. It almost made her want to laugh. Almost.

She descended toward him, still a little unstable in her heels, and clutched the railing. The stairs just kept going, around and around and around. Finally, after what felt like forever, they arrived at the base of the stairs. They must have been at least a few floors underground. The air had become damp and smelled of moss. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine being outside in a forest just after it had rained. The smooth stone floor scuffed against her heels, and her eyes snapped open. She could hear water somewhere, a gentle lapping of waves on a beach.

“You won’t be able to enter immediately, so just stand at the door, and when I know it’s safe, I will open the wards to let you in.” He sounded so matter of fact as he spoke, as if she should understand what all this meant.

The pathway sloped downward as they walked. When they came to an archway, Robin could see a lake beyond it. There was a lake underground, under the house she had just been standing in. She’d never seen anything like it. Randall walked through the stone archway, and as Robin went to follow, it felt as if she’d smacked her face on a glass door of some kind. She stumbled backward and tripped on her own heels, twisting her ankle as she fell. A pained grunt escaped her as she landed.

“I warned you,” Randall called over his shoulder as he walked away from her.

“I didn’t realize it was right there! You never said where it was!” Anger and pain made her voice sharper than she intended.

He was in front of her in an instant.

“You need to pay more attention.” He spat the words at her as anger rolled off him. Standing over her like that, he looked huge. He was the Randall of her nightmares.

She shrunk away from him and tried to make herself small, avoid the punches and kicks that would come if he was anything like her father.

“Stand up and dust yourself off.” The words were low and quiet, all anger gone, just frustration now. That was at least something she could handle.

Pulling herself up using the edges of the rocks on the wall, Robin made herself stand, but she couldn’t put any weight on her ankle. At least, not yet. Her body healed faster than the average human’s, but it wasn’t as fast as some of her family. That was one thought that had always amused her. Randall had no idea that she was not the strongest banshee in her family, a fact for which she would be forever grateful. The last thing she needed was to involve anyone else in this mess.

Randall walked out toward the edge of the water, the rocky shore proving no problem for his sensible shoes. She sighed, envying the ease with which he crossed the terrain. If she had to go out there and her ankle still hurt, then she would probably fall on her ass again.

As she watched, the mist over the lake seemed to coalesce into a solid form. A woman walked forward, the water freezing under her feet with each step. She was beautiful. Power seemed to emanate from her even at Robin’s distance. It was as if the air was somehow laced with alcohol—it stung as she breathed in, but then she felt light and floaty.

“Brother Randall.” The woman inclined her head, her long silvery-gold hair slipping over her shoulders.

Her necklace winked in the light. It wasn’t just a necklace, though. The more Robin looked at it, the more she realized it was a chain that covered her entire body. It connected to a band around her neck, along with bands around her arms and wrists, and the chain went straight down her middle, connecting to the bands around her legs.

Random scraps of fabric made up a dress of some kind; the white material all seemed to go together but was many different pieces all at the same time. The top of the dress was connected to the band around her neck, with two strips coming down, covering her breasts but leaving the chain exposed. The material wrapped around her waist and hung from her hips, hiding everything that Robin hoped it would while still leaving the bands and chains that covered her body exposed.

Robin felt as though she shouldn’t be looking—it was almost as if the woman was in her intimates—but at the same time, her eyes were drawn to her. She was magnetic. Glancing at Randall’s face, she could tell he felt the same way. The goofy smile plastered to his face was one she’d never seen before and knew would vanish as soon as they left the woman’s vicinity.

“My lady.” He bowed low, sweeping his hands to either side of his body as if he was a bird spreading its wings.

“Why do you come here?” Her voice was musical in its rhythm, gentle and lilting.

“I have to make sure you are secure.”

Suddenly Robin’s mind connected the dots. She was the Key.

The woman spread her arms so the chains and bands were more visible than before. She looked like a prisoner, shackled and chained. It sent chills down Robin’s spine. Running his hands along the chains, Randall checked all the cuffs and bands around her arms, legs, and neck. When he was satisfied everything was secure, he looked over at the doorway and made some weird hand gestures. There was a slight pop, like a balloon bursting in the distance, but other than that, nothing happened.

“You can come in now,” he called to Robin.

She hobbled in through the doorway, and as she made it to the edge of the rocky beach, she stumbled and fell again.

“Brother Randall, would you allow me to assist her?”

“Of course, Nimue.”

The name ran through Robin. She knew it from somewhere but couldn’t put her finger on it at that moment. A delicate hand with long, elegant fingers appeared in her line of sight. As she placed her hand in Nimue’s, Robin felt a rush of power. She could smell roses and hear the birds calling as they flew over the lake, none of which was happening. The knowledge was intellectual, but the smells and sounds of a time she had never lived in overpowered her senses.

A banshee? Interesting choice of companion. Nimue’s voice flooded Robin’s mind.

I’m not his companion. More like his servant, she thought, not expecting Nimue to respond. When she did, Robin had to stifle a gasp.

Ah, I see. You have chains, but they are not visible like mine. He does not know that I can talk to you like this. I am his prisoner, and was a prisoner of his master before him and so on. I have been trapped in this cave for centuries. Can you help me regain my freedom?

I’m sorry, I don’t think I can. Robin’s mind flew for a moment, assessing possibilities as they picked their way across the beach, with Nimue supporting a lot of her weight. I may know someone who can help, but I have to achieve my own freedom in order to enlist their help.

I see. Is there any way I can help you achieve your freedom? I could distract him while you escape.

Everyone in the house above here works for him and would stop me, not to mention he would have my family killed.

I will remain hopeful for your escape once you are gone from this place. I would be in your debt if you could help me escape.

Robin’s heart broke at the disappointment in Nimue’s voice.

I will do everything I can. I promise. She truly wished that she could help and that they could both escape right now, but there was too much at risk for her to do that. Once she had a way out, she would do everything she could to help Nimue.

“Ladies.” Randall bowed his head, and as Robin was handed over into his care, she felt her connection with Nimue start to fade.

I won’t forget! I promise! she thought at Nimue. All she got back was the feeling of a smile as the connection was completely severed.

“Nimue, this is Robin. She is my ward. Robin, Nimue is our Key, the one whom we draw magic from.”

“You take her powers?” Robin couldn’t keep the horror from her voice. It was as if they were siphoning Nimue’s life force.

“Some, yes, but some is also just general power that I can channel into whatever I want, like a portal. Your first lesson as an initiate is the binding. Each Key has a binding collar and bands that are linked with a chain. All of them are enchanted in such a way as to confine them within a certain boundary and give us access to the power contained within the Key.”

“So she’s stuck in this room, and you take her power, her very essence?”

“Don’t look so horrified. It’s been going on longer than either of our families have been alive, and she’s still kicking, aren’t you, Nim?”

The woman glared at him, and Robin joined her. This was barbaric.

“So when you called for your power during the fight the other week, it drew from her life force?” She called out a specific example partially to see what Nimue’s reaction would be and partially to try to make Randall feel guilty.

Nimue’s eyes narrowed at him, as though she was trying to set him on fire with just her gaze.

“Yes. But she’s fine, see?” Randall waved his hands up and down, indicating at Nimue.

“So if she were to break the chain or a band, she would be able to leave or access her power?”

“No. Someone else would have to break it, and since the room is protected, no one can get in to do so. Plus, they are all individually enchanted. Clever, right?”

Robin shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Would you like me to heal her ankle?”

“That’d be great, Nim. Thanks.”

Nimue knelt, and Robin got an eyeful from the gaping fabric, but as the woman placed her hands on the painful area of her ankle, the burning pain receded. A cool numbness took its place, and Robin couldn’t help but sigh in relief.

“Thank you so much, Nimue,” she said, trying to let all the emotions she felt at that moment show through her eyes. There was no way she could let something like this go on, not to mention that if each of the people in that room had Keys, then there were magical beings trapped just like this all over the world. She would escape, make sure her family was safe, and then recruit whomever she could to help bring this organization down.

“One last thing before we go. You need to be marked so everyone knows you’re an initiate of the Order of Talos.”

“Marked?” Robin’s heart tried to climb her throat.

“Nimue?”

“I’m sorry, Robin. This is going to hurt.” Nimue’s hands wrapped around her wrists, and as Robin tried to pull free, the woman’s power rushed into her, but this time it hurt. Her whole body felt as if it were on fire, and all she could do was scream.

This will help when you come back.

The one thought made it through the searing pain that climbed Robin’s arms and crawled into her chest. She knew there had been more said, more to it than that, but everything else was drowned out by the white-hot pain.

When Nimue released her arms and the power vanished, it was as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over her. Robin sank to the ground, shaking. She felt a scar forming along her spine, running down her back. Her hand shook as she reached around to the back of her neck, tentatively feeling the area. The intricate symbol was full of curly ques and lines that meant nothing to her. Randall seemed happy with it as she looked up at him with tears streaming down her face.

“You could’ve warned me.”

“Nim did warn you.” He shrugged. “Come on, time to go.”

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Robin.” Nimue’s voice floated to her as the woman’s figure dispersed and became mist once more.

“You too.”

The portal that opened in front of her looked like hell, and she knew that was what it was going to feel like, but it would get her one step closer to freedom.

Chapter 6

Robin wiped her mouth, as the heaving finally seemed to have stopped. Something about what Nimue did and the portal made her stomach very unhappy. As she’d run to the ladies’ room, Randall had called after her. He wanted her to check on something or another once she was feeling better. Just what she needed to hear while she was trying not to vomit in the hallway. She thanked her past self for keeping a bottle of mouthwash in her desk. At least she could get the taste out of her mouth before doing whatever mundane task he had assigned to her.

Back at her desk was a note on her keyboard.

Meet me in the penthouse. Elevator code 5149. Bring any work that needs to be done by tomorrow.

Her belly clenched. He couldn’t be trying to seduce her, not if he told her to bring work. She needed to get her message out to the tattoo shop. She crafted a quick message and reactivated the backdoor program that let her into the printer in the first place. If they had replaced it, she would have to spend time hacking into that one, and time was something she didn’t have right now.

When the printer came online, she breathed a sigh of relief and sent the message through. She used the network to access the security camera in the store and could verify that it had printed while the owner was in the store. Aster’s sister was nowhere to be seen. Robin wondered if they had left, if she had lost her connection to the men Randall had fought at The Farm. A knot formed in her stomach at the thought.

She had never been happier to have such a fast Internet connection. Grabbing her laptop, she made her way to the elevator and punched in the code. The ding of the elevator made her flinch, and as the doors silently slid open, she was so tense she could snap. She tried to practice her breathing, but watching herself in the mirrored walls of the elevator didn’t help her. She needed to mentally prepare for what might happen, even though her stomach turned at the thought of Randall laying a hand on her.

As the doors slid open again, what Robin saw stunned her. The penthouse was full of antiques and ancient tapestries. Definitely not the style she would have imagined. Randall was waiting with a glass of wine as she exited.

“I hope you like pinot.”

“I do.” She’d tried different wines in the cafeteria a few times.

She took the glass from him, thankful to have something to help calm her down. One glass wouldn’t impair her judgment, but it would allow her to relax, which she desperately needed right now.

“I had some food delivered. Feel free to set your laptop up wherever you would like. The dining room is just around the wall there.” He gestured to the wall that jutted out into the open space like a spare rib. The scent of something delicious reached her nostrils, and her body realized it was famished.

Setting down the laptop on the coffee table, which looked older than her grandfather and was probably worth more than her father’s gambling debt, she followed Randall around the corner.

The big mahogany table had clawfoot legs and was covered in takeout containers.

“I didn’t know what you liked, so I got a little bit of everything.”

“Thanks.” This was beyond awkward. She didn’t want to look at him, let alone eat with him, but she was also too hungry to resist the tub of lo mein that sat there calling her name.

“I took the liberty of bringing some of your things up. They are in the guest bedroom. Feel free to make yourself at home in there.”

“Am I staying up here permanently?”

“You don’t have to, but it would be nice if we could spend more time together. I would like you to get to know me before you take Katerina’s place.”

She had saved the lives of the two men who’d attacked Randall at The Farm, by bargaining to take Katerina’s place. She just wasn’t sure what that involved anymore since Randall had said Katerina voluntarily slept with him. She knew there was something rough and cruel involved, though. She had seen the poor woman leaving his office with ripped clothing, blooming bruises, and split lips. The role was not what she’d thought, but she was also terrified to find out what it was. He had never been especially kind to her, so this new development of a glass of wine and dinner made her nervous.

“I see.” She took a sip of her wine and shoved more lo mein into her mouth. The two didn’t really mix well, but she didn’t want to have to make conversation with him. At some point, she would have to get the things she’d stashed in the vents out before he moved her out of her room completely, but for now, she was just hungry. She watched out of her peripheral vision as he picked up some sushi and began eating. Takeout sushi was not what she expected to see him eat. This night was just getting weirder and weirder, but weirdest of all was when he walked away and went to bed. She’d been expecting him to come on to her, or at least try something. Relief overwhelmed her later that night as she finally lay down to sleep, alone. At least for the moment, Randall seemed content to let her adjust to the new situation.

Chapter 7

“There you are!” Thad’s voice echoed throughout the gym.

It had been two days since Leonard had started talking, but Hal still wanted to get more information out of the guy. He knew it was in there, and he wanted it. Fortunately it seemed he intimidated the man, so he’d been working out down there. His theory was that if Leonard could witness how strong he was, then he would be even more intimidated, which would lead to more talking. The added benefit was if he tired himself out enough, he didn’t dream when he slept—at least, not for a while—so the sexy redhead dreams were banished for a few hours every night.

“Hey!” Hal panted as he jogged on the treadmill.

“There’s something you need to see.”

Thad’s tone made Hal’s stomach clench. Something was wrong. He grabbed the towel and water bottle and followed his brother into the hall.

“What? Don’t want to share with the class?” Leonard’s voice called out as they walked away.

When the door shut behind them, Thad finally explained what was going on. “We received a message from Tony. Looks like the hacker who alerted Cin to Aster’s kidnapping has another message for us.” He pulled up the photo on his phone. “Dem is working on decoding it right now, but it looks like it’s a cry for help.”

“The hacker was the redhead?”

“Robin. Yeah.”

“Shit. I knew we would have to go get her. Didn’t I say it?”

“You mean, didn’t you ask us to help you go get her? Yeah, you did. We just needed more info from the jerk in the cage.”

“You know what I meant.” Hal bristled at Thad’s tone. Sure, he’d asked, and he’d told them about the dreams, but none of that meant anything. She’d saved his life and Thad’s. The least they could do was save hers.

“Oh, I know.” Thad chuckled.

Hal followed his brother upstairs as they went to meet up with Dem. He had a good head for ciphers.

“So another code, huh?” Hal made sure his voice was devoid of emotion as he spoke.

“Yeah. It’s one she’s used previously, so this is easier than the first time.” Dem scratched out the message as he spoke.

Within a few minutes, Dem had decoded the whole thing and demanded the laptop.

“Holy . . .” He let out a low whistle.

“What are we looking at?” Thad leaned over his shoulder, studying the screen. “Is that what I think it is?”

“What is it?” Hal’s patience was wearing thin.

“It’s the research they had been doing at the facility Aster was being held at.”

Hal’s brain shorted out for a moment. If they had lost that data in the fire, then maybe the brothers could use it to get a couple steps ahead of these wackos. His brain launched itself into overactive mode. “What did the message say?”

“It gave the web address and log-in for this site, and something about a charity.” Dem shoved the notepad toward him.

His chicken scratch was hard to read, as always, but thankfully, after centuries of deciphering it, he could at least read it without getting a magnifying glass out now.

I have important information that I can’t put here. Meet me at the CANF gala.

That was all it said, other than the website and log-in information.

Hal didn’t know what to make of it. Did she need rescuing? Was she just passing along more information? Did she even want to leave? The questions bounced around in his mind. With his brothers preoccupied with the data, Hal pulled out his phone. A quick search told him that CANF was an Alzheimer’s charity, and they had an annual charity gala, which was tomorrow night. Of course it was. Things could never be easy. Hal went to buy tickets to the gala. He knew at least a couple of his brothers would go with him.

It was almost completely sold out.

All the lower-priced tickets were gone. It looked like he would be shelling out a cool ten thousand dollars per ticket. The charity would be grateful for the purchased tickets, as it helped their cause, and he would get to save the girl. Seemed like a win-win. Besides, it wasn’t as if he didn’t have the money. He and his brothers were all very comfortable. If they were ever short on cash, they could just sell something they had acquired over the years and they would be fine.

“Who’s coming with me to the gala?”

Dem and Thad both turned and looked at him blankly.

“I just bought three tickets at 10k a piece.”

“I’ll go,” Dem offered, while Thad remained silent.

“Okay, I guess I’ll go bug Alec, then. Oh, and it’s black tie, by the way.”

Dem groaned as Hal left to track down his other brother.

* * *

“Stop fidgeting with your dress.” Randall’s harsh whisper cut through Robin’s sense of embarrassment at what she was wearing.

The emerald green dress was beautiful; she just hated how low cut it was. The long skirt and long sleeves didn’t make up for the neckline that descended past her breasts. She had been advised via a note on her keyboard that morning to report to the spa located in the building.

Her hair and makeup had been done for her, and she hadn’t looked less like herself her entire life. The woman who had curled her hair into vintage Hollywood waves had returned with her to help her into her dress. She had been taped into the dress. Literally. And she was wearing pasties over her nipples that lifted her breasts into a better shape for the dress. Something she didn’t even know existed until a few hours ago. The pearl earrings and heavy gold necklace were just the icing on a crappy situation, and don’t even get her started on her shoes.

She was so far removed from who she was right now, it was as if she was living someone else’s life.

Every time her fingers drifted to her neckline, or to the dual slits in the skirt of the dress, in a subconscious attempt to cover herself, Randall scolded her.

Robin was meant to be his arm candy tonight. While she would admit that she looked decent now that she was all dolled up, she was definitely not comfortable.

He escorted her around the room, picking at canapés while he bid on seemingly random items. She watched him schmooze. He pulled off the charming but humble young CEO effortlessly. The women he spoke with tittered with excitement at his attention, occasionally shooting jealous glares at Robin. She knew they wanted to be in her place, but they didn’t know the half of it. If she could trade with them, she would in a heartbeat.

Randall’s behavior was different from normal, more attentive and jovial. It had taken her a while to figure out what was going on. Robin had the distinct feeling that he thought this was how a woman was supposed to be seduced. That pretty dresses and jewelry and spa treatments would get her into his bed. None of that worked for her. Ever since she’d put it together, though, she could see the excitement bubbling in him. The bounce in his step, the enthusiastic handshakes, and the glances and smiles he showered on her.

Maybe she gave him the wrong impression. Sure, she smiled and talked to people who talked to her, but it wasn’t as if she could tell people she was being held against her will. Technically she wasn’t. She’d signed a contract. She was his employee; it was just a change in the terms of their arrangement.

Her stomach rolled at the thought of how far he was willing to exploit her humanity. She hadn’t wanted to see people murdered. Was that so wrong? Plus, there was her family to think about. Sure, she could escape—this was probably the best opportunity she was going to have—but then her family would pay the price.

“Randall, do you mind if I go get a drink?” She pitched her voice, trying to make sure she sounded as innocent as possible. She really did just want to get a drink, or two. Maybe three.

His eyebrows drew down, as though he was evaluating the flight risk of her going to the bar. It was only when the people he’d been talking to cleared their throats that he seemed to realize how odd this looked.

“Of course not, sweetheart. Could you bring me back a glass of Cabernet?”

“Sure thing.” She smiled, but it felt so forced, she was worried that she looked slightly crazy.

He patted her hand and gave her shoulder a hard squeeze, reminding her of her place. As Robin walked away, she was able to take a deep breath for the first time in what seemed like days. The urge to disappear into the crowd was stronger than she had expected it to be.

Glancing over her shoulder, she found Randall’s eyes on her. He was going to watch her like a hawk. At least, until the crowd swallowed her. She gave him a little smile before turning in the direction of the bar. Skirting the cocktail tables and winding around the groups of people, she finally spotted her target.

The long sleek black surface only had a few openings. Other than that, people were packed around it like the watering hole it was. Robin took her place, and one of the bartenders gave her a nod to let her know he’d seen her. While she waited, she glanced around the room. A steady flow of people passed the tables that ringed the edges of the room, each one displaying items to bid on. In the corners of the room were a few more formal tables where people could sit down and talk, but this wasn’t really that kind of event. Everyone seemed focused on networking and being seen spending money.

“This spot taken?” a deep, melodic voice sounded behind her.

“No—” Robin’s voice broke as she turned to look at the man who had spoken.

Chapter 8

It couldn’t be. Thor, the man from The Farm, was standing there. Everything slipped away as she looked at him. He was alive and looked amazing. His long hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but the blond and brown streaks were still visible. He stared down at her, as though he was waiting for a response, but she hadn’t heard him speak. Her eyes took in the amazing sight before her. The three-piece suit looked like it had been tailored to fit him exactly, which made sense since he was not the kind of guy who could just pull a suit off a rack and wear it. The material itself was a black-on-black pinstripe, and the fact that he wasn’t wearing a tie let her have a peek at a little slice of skin before the white shirt covered it.

“It’s Robin, right?”

She nodded mutely. Her heart kicked. The chatter from the people around her flooded her ears while the smell of booze and overly floral perfume filled her nose as the world rushed back in, breaking the spell.

“Robin, is there somewhere we can talk?” His melodious baritone thrummed through her as he leaned down to whisper in her ear. Goosebumps broke out all down her arms.

“Not really. Staying at the bar is for the best. I’m supposed to be getting drinks.”

“If you need rescuing, order a beer for me, okay?” he whispered as the bartender approached.

“What can I get you?” His nasally voice was like nails on a chalkboard after listening to Thor speak. She should probably ask him his name. Otherwise, she was going to accidentally call him Thor out loud, and that would be embarrassing.

“I’ll have two glasses of Cabernet, a shot of vodka, and a beer for my friend.”

“Something dark, please,” Thor said over her shoulder.

“Coming right up.”

“I can get you out of here, if you trust me.”

Robin’s heart was in her throat, possibly making a bid for freedom via her mouth. “I want to—you have no idea how much—but he’ll hurt my family.”

Thor’s face clouded, and she could see the anger brewing within him. “We will rescue them too, if you want. You can stay with him, but when you saved my life at the farmhouse, you clearly put yourself in a position you weren’t happy with, and now I want to help get you out of it, if I can.”

“That’s very generous of you.” The vodka arrived in a cute little glass that was clearly meant to please the scotch and whiskey drinkers in the crowd. She downed it in a matter of seconds, earning a surprised look from Thor. She winced at the sting of the alcohol on her tongue. The bartender hadn’t given her the good stuff, or at least, what she understood to be good stuff, but then, she hadn’t asked for it. “I don’t even know your name.”

“Halcyon, but you can just call me Hal.”

“Okay.” The two glasses of wine and a bottle of beer now sat in front of her.

Hal hunkered down, leaning heavily on the bar so he was hidden between the crowd instead of towering over them. “Robin, you don’t have to stay with him. We can save you and your family.”

“We?”

“Me and my brothers.”

Robin’s heart raced, and she could feel beads of sweat running down her spine. Could she do this? It was a huge risk. “How will you get to my family before he does?”

“We have our resources.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound creepy at all.”

“Come on. Think of me as your own personal security team, or bodyguard.”

She picked up the two glasses of wine and took a deep breath. “I’m scared,” she whispered.

Hal’s hands twitched in her peripheral vision, and she braced for whatever was coming. When he just put them in his pockets, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m not going to force you. We thought this was what you wanted with that message.”

“I know. I do want it.” She sipped her wine. “More than I can put into words. The idea has been so far out of my reach, I never thought it would happen. I never thought you would actually get the message. I never thought you would be here. You’re like a dream that’s suddenly come to life. It’s a little hard to accept at first.” She looked up at him, and the intensity with which he was watching her was almost unnerving.

“I won’t lay a finger on you if you don’t want me to, and neither will my brothers. If it helps, one of them is engaged and the other isn’t interested in women right now. We just want to help, if we can. That’s it. If you want to stay and tell us where your family is, then we can go and make sure they are safe first. Then the next time you are out of the building, we can get you too. We can work this however you would like.”

“I am not allowed to leave the building without Randall.”

Hal sighed and tried to run his hand through his hair, forgetting it was in a ponytail. Now it was all bumpy and mussed, almost making Robin smile if she hadn’t been so tense. He was the polar opposite of Randall, which was almost enough in and of itself to make her run away with him.

“Can I talk to your brothers?” If they were the ones going after her family, then she wanted to be sure she trusted them.

Hal leaned further into the bar and nodded to one end of the bar and then to the other. The two men who appeared behind him had very little family resemblance, and yet she could tell they were all brothers. Maybe it was the way their body language was similar, but something on a gut level told her they had all known each other a long time. The short one had strange blue eyes that seemed to change color depending on where he was looking, and the tall one was super intimidating, with a foreboding air about him. Robin had never seen eyes as dark as his that were still obviously blue. They both looked like they had worked in the military, or at the very least security. They were constantly on alert, which was oddly comforting, but she wished they would hide themselves better in the crowd the way Hal had.

“Robin, this is Alec and Dem.”

They both nodded at her, followed by a pair of “nice to meet yous.”

“Hi.” She sounded tiny and scared to her own ears, and it pissed her off. “I can’t leave without my family being protected. Can you two do that?”

“Yes. We can move them to a secure location until this dies down, or we can set them up with new identities.” This was from the short one. He was the more relaxed out of the two. The tall one was still very much on watch.

“When we get out of this, I’m going to need to know just who the hell you all are.”

“So you want to leave?” Hal said, looking down at her.

“Yes. Let me take this drink to Randall, and meet me by the ladies’ room.”

“I don’t think you should go back over to him.” Hal’s thick caramel-colored brows had drawn together, making his forehead wrinkle. He was still handsome even like that, not that her attraction impacted her decision at all. She simply knew she had to get away from Randall, especially before he got her home tonight.

“If I don’t, then he’ll be looking for me a whole lot sooner. He’s probably starting to look for me already. I shouldn’t have been gone so long.”

“Fine. I’ll meet you by the ladies’ room. If you’re gone longer than ten minutes, I’m coming to look for you.” Hal stared down at her again. His eyes were so sincere that it hurt. Robin knew that he really would come looking for her. Who knew if he would find her, though. Everything depended on her getting away from Randall again and making it to the ladies’ room without her boss following her.

“Thank you.” She squeezed Hal’s arm, or at least, she tried to. He was solid muscle under that suit. She picked up the two glasses of wine and walked away. Her feet felt like they were cement blocks. Each step was an enormous effort that got harder the closer she got to Randall Fields.

As soon as she rounded the last cocktail table, she felt his eyes on her, like an ice cube traveling over her exposed skin. She made eye contact with him and raised the two glasses so he could see she really had gone to get drinks. His face relaxed and the frown he had been wearing disappeared, replaced by that neutral mask she was used to.

“Here you go,” she said as she handed him the full glass of Cabernet.

“Thank you, darling.” He smiled at her, what may have been one of the first genuine smiles she’d really seen from him. He had thought she was going to make a break for it, and since she returned, he felt like he’d won. Well, he was going to be sorely disappointed in a few minutes.

She smiled at him, trying to project an air of serene acceptance. He didn’t bother to introduce her to the people he was talking to, and she was glad for it. It meant that she didn’t have to fake being interested in the conversation.

All she had to do was finish her wine and go to the bathroom and she was free. Her stomach wasn’t full of butterflies; it was full of eagles. Each sip of wine tasted sweet as she mused on her impending freedom.

Robin knew it would be limited, but at least she wouldn’t be confined to the office and her room all the time, or worse—the office and the penthouse. The few nights she’d been forced to stay up there with him, she’d slept in her clothes, not knowing whether Randall would try something during the night or not.

Sure, they’d had a couple meals together, but it wasn’t out of choice. Plus, every time he put his hands on her, everything in her body revolted at the touch. He was not the man she wanted touching her, especially when she hadn’t really had any human contact for years now. She drained the last of the wine from her glass. The fact that she was about to leave Randall and his insanity behind made her feel lighter than air.

“Randall, I’m just going to go to the restroom.” She said it quietly, forcing herself to touch his arm.

He looked at her, his serious eyes revealing the monster she was much more familiar with than the man who had been schmoozing tonight. “Go ahead.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back,” she lied.

Robin set her glass down on a waiter’s tray as he passed by, and then she set off in the direction of the restrooms. She was a few steps away when she saw him. The Scout, or Norman or whatever he went by, was here, and he was watching her. Her steps faltered slightly, but she continued on.

“Hello, Robin. Nice event, isn’t it?” He fell into step next to her.

“It is.” Her heart felt like it was beating an odd rhythm as she tried to focus on getting to the restrooms.

“You didn’t really think he would let you wander around unsupervised, did you?”

“No.” It was the truth. She’d been shocked when he had allowed her to go and get a drink alone. Oh no. If Norman had seen her at the bar with Hal, then it was all over.

“Good. You need to remember your place. I saw those two guys hitting on you at the bar. How do you think Mr. Fields would react if I told him? Hum?”

Robin looked at him. Her heart caught in her throat. He could only mean the brothers, but had he seen all of them, or just Dem and Alec? His black eyes bore into her like a laser. His normally messy hair had been slicked back, making him even more menacing. She could see every inch of his wealthy upbringing on display tonight, even the fraction of human nature that he had left. Everything about him made her want to run.

“I’ll tell you how he would react. He’d have me track them down and kill them, and I would enjoy every second of it. My brother isn’t the only one who has a dark side.”

“I know,” she whispered as his arm draped around her shoulders.

To anyone looking at them, it probably looked like a nice conversation between two of the younger people in attendance. If they could see her eyes, they would know the truth of the situation, though. Panic clawed at her throat as she tried to shrug his arm off her shoulders.

“So, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to go to the restroom. I’ll wait outside, and then I’ll walk you back to Mr. Fields. Oh, and if you’re in there longer than a few minutes, I’ll come in after you. Sound good?” He didn’t wait for her to respond before adding, “Good.”

As they approached the bathrooms, Robin saw Hal waiting at the edge of a crowd close by. Norman stiffened next to her.

“What the hell—?” he muttered under his breath.

Removing his arm from Robin’s shoulder, he seemed to switch off the little bit of humanity he had as he prepared to fight.

She had to do something. Although now that Hal had seen him, she felt like stopping them would be like stopping an oncoming storm. Quickly, she whispered, “You can’t fight here. You’ll make Mr. Fields look bad.”

“I can lure him outside, though,” Norman said through gritted teeth.

“Then who would watch me pee?” she asked innocently.

“Mr. Fields would rather I take him out than guard you.” He jabbed a finger in Hal’s direction. “He’s partially responsible for losing the seer, not to mention my brother, and the death of some security guards. He needs to be punished.”

“Okay, I’ll just be on my way, then.” She knew letting him in on the fact that she was planning to escape was risky, but so was letting Hal and Norman fight.

“God dammit, Robin. I can’t stop you right now if you run, but if you do, he will never stop looking for you. You will be hunted to the ends of the earth. Out of all the people he employs, you should know how serious that threat is, how much money he will throw into it. It will be impossible for you to hide anywhere.”

“If you’re not going to stop me, then it’s a chance I’ll take.”

“You know if he catches you, he’ll make your life a living hell.”

“Can’t be much worse than it is right now.”

He laughed. “You’re his princess right now. He would turn you into his slave.”

People were starting to look at them as Norman’s voice became more insistent. They could feel the tension spilling out from him as he pointed and gestured, trying to convince her to let him fight. She didn’t mind them staring. If anything, when she ran, it meant people would get out of her way and hopefully stop him.

“I’m already his captive,” she snarled. “You think I chose to wear this?” Robin gestured to her dress. “Hell no, but I was forced to. Just like I’ve been forced to wear, eat, sleep, do whatever he asks of me. At some point, he’ll lose patience and take what he wants from me. You think I want to stick around for that?” Her voice had become louder than she intended.

“Excuse me, miss, is everything okay?” Alec asked as he approached her.

“Everything’s fine. Back off,” Norman growled, without removing his eyes from Robin.

“It doesn’t sound like it is, friend. Why don’t you let the lady go on her way?”

“Listen, friend.” Norman spat the word at Alec. “The lady is with me, and that’s the way it’s going to stay.” He grabbed Robin’s wrist.

“Ouch!” she squeaked.

“Is everything okay over here?” This was from an older gentleman she hadn’t seen before.

“It seems as if this young man is harassing this woman. I was asking the same thing myself,” Alec said.

“Young man, I suggest you let the young lady go.”

“Screw you, Grandpa. Robin, we are leaving right now.”

The old man’s jaw dropped in shock.

“No! I don’t want to go with you!” Robin let her voice get loud, and more people started to turn and look at them. “You can’t take me back to him. He’ll hit me again.”

“What’s this?” The old man butted in again as a few other people walked over.

“I just want to leave. Please let me go.”

“Let the lady go.” Alec’s voice became low and dangerous, enough that the old man reassessed him.

“Young man, I will call security if you don’t release her this instant!”

“Gentlemen, calm down.”

Robin’s heart turned to ice at the sound of Randall’s voice.

“If he lets the young lady go, everything will be fine.” The old man wasn’t giving up, and she wanted to hug him for it.

“This is my date for the evening. She’s fine, aren’t you, Robin?”

“No, I’m not!” Her voice was shrill, finally letting the panic she’d been feeling out. “And I’m not your date! I’m your employee.”

“Robin, calm down, sweetheart.”

If she didn’t turn the crowd against Randall, then she could be forced to go back to him, and this escape attempt would be the last time she ever saw the outside world. She needed something drastic. “He’s the one who hit me. I’m his employee, and he forced me to come here with him like some kind of prostitute.”

Gasps sounded from the group of people watching the drama unfold.

“That’s an exaggeration.”

“I suggest you both step away from the young lady and let her leave if she so chooses.” Alec’s calm voice made him sound like the most reasonable person in the world.

Norman didn’t release her.

“Let her go, or I’ll call the police,” the old man said, his voice just as calm and firm as Alec’s as he reached for his phone.

Robin saw Norman glance at Randall from the corner of her eye. All he got was a barely perceptible nod. Robin risked looking directly at her boss. His face was contorted with rage. She’d seen him look like that a few times before, and he always took it out on Katerina. While he may not have hit Robin, he certainly hit her. She’d seen the woman leave with fresh bruises enough times to know what was going on. The thought of Katerina, and the fact that she’d promised to take her place, made her want to jump for joy that she was forcing their hands to let her escape.

“Fine.” Norman’s voice was scathing as his hand released her wrist.

Robin rubbed the tender skin and backed away from the two of them.

“Can we call you a cab, miss?” The old man stood there, his hand outstretched as though he was going to touch her shoulder but thought better of it.

“I’ll find my own way. Thank you, though. Thank you so much.” She let her gratitude show on her face, and tears stung her eyes. She couldn’t cry now, though. They were still in harm’s way.

“My pleasure. It’s not often an old fogey like myself gets to rescue a beautiful young woman.”

She smiled at that. “I don’t see any old fogeys around here.”

“That’s kind of you, my dear.”

She started to back away from the crowd. As she glanced at Randall, she knew he’d spotted Hal. His eyes burned with anger, and his nostrils flared. They had to get out of here now, but she didn’t want them seeing her leave with Hal, so she turned to leave, ignoring Hal and Alec. Walking past both of them, she made a beeline for the exit. When she saw Dem waiting by the doors out of the event hall, she walked straight past him. If Randall and Norman were still watching, she didn’t want to give them any reason to go after the three of them, not that they needed another one. They were going to go after Hal no matter what now that they had seen him again.

Once the doors closed behind her, she was flooded with emotions. Laughter bubbled up and tears threatened to fall all at the same time, but she couldn’t. Not yet. Once she and her family were safe, then she could indulge in her emotional roller coaster. She watched the doors, waiting for the three brothers to come out. Finally, after what felt like forever, Hal came out, with Alec and Dem exiting a few moments later.

“Ready to get out of here?” Hal’s deep voice thrummed through her as he spoke.

“More than anything.” She turned to Alec and Dem. “Let me write down my parents’ address for you.”

Alec handed her his phone, and she opened the map, pulling up her parents’ address.

“Please keep them safe.”

“Safe as houses.” Dem smiled down at her.

“Thank you. You have no idea what this means to me.”

“Our pleasure,” Alec said.

She turned back to Hal. “Ready when you are.”

“This is going to be a little weird, but if you trust me, it will get us away from here faster than those two in there could ever chase us.”

“Okay.”

Hal held out a hand, and Robin slipped hers inside. It was huge and warm and slightly rough. And it felt amazing. It was the first gentle touch she’d had in over nine years. Then, without warning, the world went black and she felt as if she was flying.

It was similar to the portals that Randall took her through, but much less painful. Something inside her clicked, and she knew this was how travel was supposed to feel and that the portal was a corruption of this that had been twisted to work for humans. This power was clearly natural for Hal.

The blackness faded away, and she saw that they were standing in a clearing in a forest as the sun set. The salty ocean breeze stung her nose as she looked at a sky painted with oranges and reds. She gasped as noise rushed back. Birds chirped and sang, waves hit a shore somewhere not too far away, and she could hear music coming from somewhere.

Robin had no idea where she was, but for right now, she was outside and free, and that was enough. It was paradise.

Chapter 9

Hal watched as Robin took in her surroundings. She looked like a kid at a theme park, eyes wide with excitement. The mane of red hair was swept up by the wind as he watched her take deep breaths of the fresh ocean air.

The sense of peace that had fallen over him when he took her hand to jump them here was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It made him not want to let go, but he also knew that she needed her space, and a strange man holding on to her hand was as far from giving her space to heal as he could get.

“Shall we go into the house? You can relax and have some real food. That stuff they were passing around was hardly enough to count as a snack, let alone a meal.” He was hungry, and he hoped she was too. She looked like she hadn’t had a good meal, or a good night’s sleep, in a while. He wanted to give her both. Hell, he wanted to give her everything she wanted. There was something immensely captivating about her that made him unable to turn away.

“Sure.” Her voice was low and steady, but there was a quiver of something in it. Excitement, maybe? Or relief?

“Follow me.”

They walked to the main house. It was the first house they had built on the island, and it was massive. It had been built that way on purpose since it had to house all four of them, and they weren’t exactly small. As their time on the island progressed, Alec, Dem, and Thad had all built their own places.

They all met in the main house. It was where Hecate had stayed when they had their brief dalliance, and where he had been staying with Aster so she wasn’t alone.

Robin’s presence behind him was a constant battery against his senses. He was warm and relaxed, like standing in front of a fire. It just so happened that the fire was a woman.

“So what are you guys?” Her question didn’t surprise him, but he did wish she hadn’t asked quite so soon.

“We’re sirens, well, half sirens.” He never lied. It was something that he just couldn’t do. When he tried, he always turned beet red and stuttered, giving the game away completely.

“Really? Wow. I had no idea you guys still existed.”

Hal stopped and turned to look at her. “You know what we are?” Again, he evaluated the woman standing in front of him. Gods, she was tiny. He needed to get some burgers in her.

“Well, sure. I didn’t exactly have much of a social life the last nine years, so I read. A lot.”

“Oh,” Hal said, unsure how to respond to that statement. He wanted to know everything about her, but right now he wanted to kick himself. Who just said “oh” like that? Thankfully they were at the house, so he could use his stupid mouth to actually tell her where she was.

“We don’t have to talk about it now, but I’d love to hear some stories about where you guys came from and what you’ve been doing the last few centuries,” she said, interrupting his line of thought.

Hal nodded. He didn’t know what to say to her. She had completely upset what he thought was the normal rhythm. Alec and Thad both had to go through the whole introducing the guest to the supernatural side of life. He guessed it wasn’t such a normal rhythm, after all, since Robin seemed to be very well informed.

As they walked up to the front door, he watched her face out of the corner of his eye. She didn’t seem impressed with the house, which was different from Ellie and Cin as well. They had both been amazed at the structures the brothers had built. In fact, she’d seemed happier when they were away from all the houses and in the middle of the forest.

“This is the main house on the island.” He took a deep breath as he opened the door. “Please go on in.”

“Thanks.” She walked past him into the entryway.

Hal’s eyes couldn’t help but take in the dress she was wearing. He had been doing his best to ignore it, but now that he was home, his guard dropped. It didn’t leave much to the imagination, but at the same time, the amount of fabric that made up the skirt portion swirled around her as she walked, pale skinny legs jutting out from the slits with each step. She was mesmerizing.

“So this is the entryway. Through there you can see the living room, and off there is the kitchen. We have a small gym off to the left here, and then a movie or hangout room next to that. Upstairs there are four bedrooms. I’m in one, Aster is in one, and the other is yours for now, until we figure out how to keep you safe. The kitchen has everything you could want or need. There is a butler’s pantry and a wine cellar. We are pretty well stocked, so help yourself to anything you want.”

Hal’s phone chimed as he finished speaking. He pulled it out and was relieved to find that Dem and Alec had moved Robin’s family to the apartment above the store that Ellie ran.

“Your family is safe. Do you want me to take you to see them?”

“Not yet. I need to change and eat. Knowing they’re safe is enough right now.” Her hand landed on his arm, and a charge went through him, as if he’d stuck his finger in a plug socket. “Thank you.” She beamed at him, and his heart just about melted.

“My pleasure. Come on, let’s get you some food.”

As they walked through the house, he kept an eye on Robin. She’d been through more than any one person should, from what he could tell of her life. The fact that she was still kicking ass impressed the hell out of him.

The living room was his least favorite area. It was crowded with antiques and things that were well past the realm of antiques and more like historical marvels at this point. One of his greatest fears was knocking something over in here that caused a chain reaction, destroying all the family heirlooms.

She wrapped her arms tightly around herself. Something was off. She’d been fine outside, but now, in what most people considered a beautiful home, she was uncomfortable and maybe even scared. Hal didn’t know what to do. All he knew was to keep putting one foot in front of the other until she told him to stop. And right now, the next step was food. She relaxed slightly in the kitchen. Her hands didn’t have the same white-knuckle grip on her arms as they did a moment ago.

“I’ve got some lasagna that Thad made—he’s a really good cook—some salad stuff that Aster likes, or some leftover pizza. It’s meat lovers, so, um, sorry if you’re vegetarian.” He held open the fridge door as he examined the contents. He really should get more food in here. He’d forgotten how much different feeding two people was instead of one, and now if he was feeding three people, he really would need to go grocery shopping.

“Pizza sounds amazing. Is it deep dish?” Her eyes lit up at the question.

“No, sorry, but it’s handmade and has a nice yeasty crust.”

“Sounds good.”

Hal busied himself reheating the pizza. He figured starting her off with two slices was good. He didn’t want to make her feel bad if she wanted more and he only gave her one slice, but he also didn’t want her to feel like a pig if he assumed she wanted three or four slices like he was having. Gods, he was thinking about this too much. It was just pizza. With a beautiful woman. Who just escaped from captivity, so not exactly on the market. He sighed as the timer for the microwave went off.

“Here you go. I figured two slices could get you started, but feel free to have more, if you want.”

“Thanks.”

Hal threw his own plate into the microwave and watched as Robin blew on the hot pizza. She took a big bite and sighed as she chewed. “This is amazing,” she said around the mouthful of food.

“Glad you like it.”

He retrieved his plate from the microwave and set it on the table. “I’m just going to offer Aster some food. I’ll be right back.”

Her eyes widened, and her face paled. “Okay.”

Hal went toward the movie room. It was where Aster had been spending her time recently. He suspected that she wanted to escape reality, and his large collection of movies and TV shows certainly allowed her to do that.

“Aster? You hungry?”

He found her snuggled up on the couch, covered in a big blanket, fast asleep while some buddy cop movie played. Squatting down in front of her, he gently shook her shoulder.

“Aster, sweetie, wake up.”

A groggy eye opened and peered at him. “Hey,” she croaked.

“You hungry?”

“Starving.”

“You forgot to eat again, didn’t you?”

“I fell asleep. It’s not like I did it on purpose.” She sounded insulted, but he knew it was just how she was right now. She had taken the whole being abducted and tortured thing pretty badly, plus her sister, Cin, wasn’t exactly around to help, through no fault of her own. The woman had just found out she was a fury and had to be a contract worker for Hades. It was a lot to deal with, for both of them.

“Come on, up you get. I’ve got some pizza with your name on it, if you’re interested? Oh, also, Robin’s here. I hope that’s okay?”

Aster’s eyes lit up. “Really? That’s amazing!”

Hal hadn’t expected that to be what motivated her to get off the couch, but whatever worked. He watched as she ran her hands through the bird’s nest that was her hair and pulled her yoga pants and T-shirt straight. She wanted to look somewhat decent for Robin, and he was happy to see it. Maybe if Robin stuck around for a bit, she’d be able to help get Aster out of her funk.

Aster bounded into the kitchen with a spring in her step that he’d never seen before. “Hey!” She waved at Robin. “I want to hug you. Is that weird?”

Robin wiped her mouth with a paper towel and smiled at Aster. Hal looked at the two of them. They had to be fairly close in age, given their appearances.

“A hug would be nice,” Robin said as she stood and came around the side of the table.

“Dayum, girl. Look at you all dressed up. You look good. Like whoa, good,” Aster said as she wrapped her arms around Robin.

“Oh, uh, thanks.”

Robin tucked some hair behind her ear and sat back down to finish the second slice of pizza.

“I’m so glad the guys were able to get you out. I can’t imagine what your life must have been like living and working there.”

“How did you . . . ? Never mind. Are you recovering from everything?”

Aster took a huge mouthful of one of the slices he’d warmed up for himself. Hal sighed and went to the fridge, grabbing a few more slices and putting them into the microwave. His mind wandered as he listened to them talk. Aster explained what had been going on since Robin had rescued her.

The conversation seemed too one-sided to Hal’s ear, but they were both eating. Robin was just so different from Aster—quiet and thoughtful instead of extroverted. The beeping of the microwave pulled him from his thoughts.

“So you worked directly for the guy who owned the company?”

Robin nodded. Her face seemed paler than it had been a moment ago. Hal sat in between the two of them and inhaled his first slice of pizza. He was hungrier than he’d thought.

“Did he treat you okay? When we were all in the office together, he seemed okay, but he was also trying to sweet talk me.”

“Yeah.”

Hal’s neck prickled. Something was wrong. Robin had gone down to nonverbal or one-word answers.

“Aster, give her room to breathe.” Hal smiled at the petite blonde woman. He’d heard her talk more in the last ten minutes than he had since she’d been living with him.

“Sorry, I’m just excited. Plus, I feel like now I can do something to really thank you for getting me out of there.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Robin smiled at her, but it was forced. Hal could see the strain behind her eyes, the thinning of her lips. He tried to send out calming energy into the room, but it didn’t seem to help. “Hal, would you mind showing me where I’m sleeping? I’m more tired than I thought.” She smiled softly at him.

It wasn’t forced this time, but there was something immensely sad lurking behind her eyes. He knew he would have to get her to open up if he wanted to help her heal, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

“Of course. Come on.”

He stood and held his hand out to help her up, not that she needed it. He was honestly surprised when she took his hand. That charge ran through him again, followed by the sense of serenity. He would have to figure that out as well.

Once she was on her feet, he let her hand go and led her up the stairs and to the bedrooms.

“The one at the end of the hall is mine, and Aster is in the room next door,” he said, pointing to the door at the end of the hall. “You can pick whichever room you want. I think they are both fairly clean.” He hadn’t thought about preparing a room for her. Getting her out and safe had been his focus for the last few days. Anything past that he hadn’t even considered.

“There’s this one.” He opened the door to what used to be Alec’s old room. The walls had been painted a navy color and were dotted with framed photographs that Alec had taken. They were some of his favorites.

“And there’s this one.” He opened the door to Thad’s old room and immediately wanted to kick himself. He’d forgotten just how many books Thad still had here. Apparently his brother must have been looking for something recently, because there were books everywhere. They covered every surface, including the bed.

“Uh, sorry. I didn’t realize it was messy. I can clean it, if you want?”

“No, that’s okay, I’ll just sleep in the other room.”

Hal nodded. A secret part of him was pleased, having wanted her closer than Thad’s room. He berated his selfish side for wanting to keep her close. More than anything else, he should want her to be comfortable, and he did. He just also wanted her to be comfortable close by.

“Do you, ah, do you have something I can borrow to sleep in?”

“Let me grab something of Aster’s. Hang on.”

Hal ferreted around in the bag of clothes he’d just bought for Aster. There were some shorts and a T-shirt that looked comfortable enough.

“Does this work?” he asked, coming back into the room to find Robin sitting on the bed with tears rolling down her face.

Squatting in front of her, he tossed the clothes onto the bed and tried to meet her gaze. “Everythin’ okay?”

“Yeah. I just can’t believe I’m here.” She seemed to shake herself. Her hands rubbed over her face, smearing makeup all around her eyes. A moment later, she looked at him, and his heart wanted to break from the pain that shimmered under the surface of her gaze. She forced a smile. “I’ll be fine.”

“It’s okay. Take all the time you need. You’ve got your own bathroom there, if you want to shower or something. There are towels and some stuff in there.”

“Thanks.”

“If you need anything at all, if you can’t sleep, if you have a sudden craving for waffles, if you want to go see the Statue of Liberty, just knock on my door, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I mean it. I’m here for you, Robin. If I can help, let me.” She nodded at him as he stood and went to leave. “You want this closed?”

“Please.”

He smiled and closed the door behind himself as he left. Gods, he just wanted to hug her and tell her that no one could ever touch her again without going through him first, unless she wanted them to, of course.

Back downstairs, he finished his pizza alone. Aster had vanished, probably back in the TV room. He didn’t mind being alone—in fact, he usually preferred it—but right now, he just wanted to be with Robin, to make sure she was safe and okay. It was taking all his willpower not to go and sleep outside her door, because that would be creepy, right?

Chapter 10

Robin sat on the edge of the bed, stunned by the turn her life had taken. Sure, she’d asked for it, but she’d never really expected it to happen. Now, here she was, rescued by a man who looked like a Norse god, but was actually more closely related to Greek gods, or at least their monsters, and her family was safe. The tears came again then. She’d barely been able to keep them in check in front of Hal. She was sure he found her super attractive now that she’d blubbered in front of him. Not that she should be worrying about that.

She wanted to slap some sense into herself. Maybe a shower would help. At the very least, it would get the stench of Randall and Eclipse off her skin.

Grabbing the clothes Hal had thrown onto the bed, she went into the bathroom. It was much bigger than she’d expected. She flipped the shower on and began to peel the dress off her skin. The tape painfully pulled at the sensitive skin on her breasts. She glanced in the mirror to try to get a better angle, only to find herself even more embarrassed by the state of her face. Thick black streaks of makeup were smeared around her eyes, and the gold glittery eye shadow was now more of a face shadow. She sighed. Hal probably thought she was a mess, which wasn’t far from the truth at this point.

The steam billowing from the shower was calling her name. She just needed to get these damn pasties off, and then she could let the hot water do its magic. They took the top layer of skin with them as she removed them. How women did this voluntarily she would never understand, but then again, she had never been that kind of girl.

Stepping under the stream of hot water, she finally relaxed. The water sluiced over her body, washing away the painful touches, the unwanted attention, the woman that she’d been made to be for the last nine years. The product washed out of her hair, leaving just the coarse red mass she was used to.

Slowly, her sense of self started to emerge like the sun after a storm. Right now it was just one ray of light peeking through the clouds, but she knew with the right encouragement, the clouds could thin and the sun could shine through once again.

Wrapping a big fluffy towel around herself after the shower, she quickly dried off. Robin began to pull on the shorts and the T-shirt without dropping the towel, only to stop when she remembered where she was.

Dressing without ever allowing herself to be completely naked was something she always felt she had to do at Eclipse, since she never knew when the cameras had moved or new ones were installed. The only time she’d been completely naked was when Randall wanted to play dress-up as if she was his personal doll. It had been about eight years since she’d looked at herself without any clothes on. Cautiously, she let the towel drop and set the clothes on the counter.

She was skinnier than she’d ever been, but that was the strict diet she’d been kept on. Her breasts were still disappointingly small, but her hips flared nicely. She looked somewhat womanly. Turning, she examined her butt and legs. Nothing had drastically changed there. Her bum may have been a bit more rounded prior to her employment with Eclipse and Randall Fields, but she had also been a teenager when she’d started, and it was almost ten years later.

Anger, followed swiftly by despair, flooded her at the thought of all the time she’d lost. Who would hire someone who couldn’t give them any previous work history? Hell, she couldn’t even use her real name. If she wanted to live out in the world and not lock herself away, Robin would have to become someone else. It wasn’t hard; she could do that kind of stuff in her sleep. What bothered her was more the idea of it, giving her identity up so she could live.

The thought of dating skittered across her brain, and she wanted to shut down that line of thinking, but it was already there, laid out in front of her. If she ever wanted to build a relationship with someone, it was going to be based on lies from the very beginning. Her stomach soured at the thought.

Enough.

She pulled on the shorts and the T-shirt. They were skin tight. She hadn’t thought Aster was that much smaller than her, but maybe she’d been wrong. The clothes left her feeling just as exposed as the dress had. Crossing her arms over her chest to shield her sensitive breasts, she went back out into the main bedroom.

Finally, she realized what had been bothering her about the house since they’d first approached it. Everything reminded her of Randall. The navy walls in the bedroom were the same color as his favorite suit. The pictures on the wall were similar to the ones that dotted the penthouse. Then there was the rest of the house, all the antiques and old-school furniture. It all reeked of Randall Fields. At least the stuff here was genuine, unlike his.

Settling under the covers, Robin tried to close her eyes and rest. She hadn’t lied to Hal when she’d said she was tired, but it was more that she wanted to get away from the questions Aster was posing. She just wanted to go twenty-four hours without thinking about Randall Fields. Honestly, she wasn’t sure it was possible, but she was going to try, and the first step was not being interrogated about her time at Eclipse.

It felt as if he was all around her. His navy suit pressing in against her, trapping her against her desk as he had done so many times when he would kiss or fondle her. She knew he would have taken it further if she had stayed. It wouldn’t have been her choice, either. Eventually, he would have lost patience and used her body for his own pleasure. That thought made her want to vomit. The whole room made her want to vomit.

Throwing the covers off, she got out of bed and padded over to the bookcase on the far wall. There weren’t as many books here as in the other room, but surely there was something she could read to distract herself.

Her eyes scanned shelf after shelf of books. Most of them were in languages she didn’t know, or about technical subjects she didn’t even have a basic understanding of. Robin could see why these were the books that had been left behind. The thin copy of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde caught her eye, but even the thought of that reminded her of Randall at the gala tonight. In some ways, he was similar to Jekyll and Hyde; one side was charming and suave, the other monstrous and self-serving.

The only other book she would even consider picking up was Frankenstein. Someone loved their classic monsters. As she pulled the book out, the cover revealed the monster’s face, and the memory she had from reading the story the first time was sympathy for the monster and the incredible loneliness it felt. She shoved the book back into its place on the shelf, frustrated by the loneliness she felt within herself. All the years she’d worked at Eclipse, she’d managed to keep it at bay, and now that she was free, the feeling overwhelmed her.

She paced back and forth in the room.

Everywhere she looked, she felt as if Randall was watching somehow. Everything pricked at her memories, highlighting things she’d refused to think about, since it would just cause her pain. Now those thoughts were asserting themselves and making up for lost time.

She sighed.

Either she wasn’t going to sleep tonight or she could ask Hal to take her to a hotel or something. Somewhere that wouldn’t drive her crazy.

The exhaustion pulling at her demanded that she get some sleep. The thought of waking Hal up made her cringe, but she needed to rest more than she needed to worry about his sensitivities.

Cracking the door to the bedroom, she peered out. The house was quiet. There were faint noises coming from Aster’s room, but while she appreciated that they had both been through something crazy together, Robin knew Aster wouldn’t be able to help her. She crept down the hall to Hal’s door.

She knocked gently before she could second-guess what she was doing. When there was no response, she knocked a little louder. Eventually she heard the sound of footsteps approaching the door. Her stomach immediately tied itself in knots.

As the door opened, her brain emptied of all thought. In front of her was an expanse of olive skin that wrapped around well-defined muscles. Her eyes drifted lower only to find that he only wore boxer shorts, which were strangely covered in flamingos. Her mouth went dry at the gorgeous example of masculinity in front of her.

“You okay?” Hal’s baritone voice hummed through her.

Her eyes snapped up to his face, blush staining her cheeks. His sun-bleached hair was tangled and framed his face in a way that should be illegal. She had no idea it was so long. When she’d seen him, it had always been up, but now it hung just past his shoulders. His green-blue eyes watched her with a mixture of amusement and concern.

“Everything okay, Robin?”

She cleared her throat. “Uh, yeah.” Wait. That wasn’t right. She’d come to him for a reason. “I mean, no. I can’t sleep. Could you take me to a hotel? Or is there somewhere else I could stay?”

“You can stay with Dem, if you want, but Alec and Ellie are kind of glued to each other at the hip, and not in a quiet way, if you catch what I’m saying, and Thad and Cin are dealing with some stuff right now.”

Suddenly, the idea of being further than fifty feet away from him seemed unbearable. He had been the one who’d saved her, who had given her a chance and promised to protect her. Hal was her safety blanket.

“Will you stay at Dem’s with me?” Her voice was small, and she felt silly for asking, but right now a safety blanket was a good thing to have around.

A smile slowly spread over his face, and for a moment, she thought he was going to make fun of her. When his dimples showed, she thought she might just faint. Lord, this man was handsome.

“Dem and I don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. If you want to go to a hotel, we can, but that might raise some questions, and if Eclipse has any way of tracking you, then that would be bad.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, looking down.

Robin let her eyes travel over his mane of hair again. He looked as if he should have a surfboard somewhere within reach, or about to hurdle down a snowy mountain on a snowboard. She wanted to touch it, to run her fingers through something that had obviously spent so much time in the sun. She’d almost forgotten what the sun felt like before Randall took her to The Farm.

“If you want, I can take you somewhere only I know about.” His voice was quiet, as if he couldn’t quite believe the words he was saying.

“Does it look like the bedroom I was staying in?”

He raised an eyebrow at her, speculation filling his eyes, before he simply said, “No.”

“Then let’s go there.”

“Okay. Grab your stuff while I get dressed.”

He turned back into the room, and Robin saw a beautifully intricate tattoo that covered his spine. There were all sorts of different symbols. At the center were four crossed tridents, surrounded by traditional Greek patterns. Her eyes skated down to a firm round ass. If she had a fan, she would be using it. Her heart pounded in her chest as she wrenched her eyes away from the globes that were flexing and releasing as he walked. She would love to examine him more closely. The tattoo. She would love to examine the tattoo more closely. He looked over his shoulder at her then. Her blush came back tenfold.

“I don’t really have any stuff to grab,” she muttered.

“You’ll want to put some shoes on, unless you want me to carry you?” He cocked his eyebrow again, and something tightened within her.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll get my shoes.”

“Okay.” He smiled again with those dimples, and completely disarmed her. “Meet me in the kitchen when you’re ready.”

Hal turned away from her then and rounded a corner into what she assumed was a bathroom. She breathed out heavily. If she was going to be spending more time around him, she needed to get herself together. Back in the room, she slipped on the only shoes she had and went downstairs.

“We need to get you some clothes and shoes tomorrow,” Hal said as he glanced up from the note he was writing, his gaze lingering on certain areas of her body. The tightness inside was back again, and this time it brought a warmth with it that she’d only felt a couple times before. Her eyes raked over his body. Clad in sweats and a thin T-shirt, he looked mouthwateringly good. The sweats hung low on his hips, allowing the waistband of the flamingo boxers to peek out as he moved.

“That would be nice.” She smiled, more at the amusement she found in his choice of boxers than the idea of going shoe shopping. The idea of being surrounded by people wasn’t super appealing right now.

Hal nodded. “Come on. We’ll walk slowly so you can manage in those ridiculous shoes.”

“Hey, it’s not as if it was my choice to wear them,” she said, walking beside him as they made their way out of the house and headed in a different direction than the one she had come in from.

His eyes cut sideways to her. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t you dare pity me. I had good reasons for what I did. In fact, one of those reasons was your life, buddy, so you should be thanking me.”

“I never did, did I?”

“What?”

“Thank you. You did save my life, and for that, I owe you a great debt.”

“You don’t owe me anything. You got me out of hell. That counts.” She took a deep breath. “That counts for more than I can express.” A knot formed in her throat, but she refused to allow herself to cry again.

They walked in silence for a while, the beam of the flashlight swaying back and forth with Hal’s gait. The path was steeper than she’d expected, and her gaze was focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Her shoes were totally going in the trash after this, along with that wretched dress. It was amazing how Robin already felt a difference just being out of the house. There was nothing out here that could remind her of her time at Eclipse.

She glanced up to see where they were heading, but the way was obscured by trees, not to mention how dark it was. The window she could look out of from the office showed the city off at its finest, but that also meant she never saw the stars. There was just too much light pollution. Her eyes crept skyward, just to see if there were any stars in the sky. What she discovered made her gasp. Glittering diamonds of stars punctured the velvet of the sky, and they were everywhere. She felt so small and yet so at peace.

Her foot landed funny just then, and the shoe gave out under her. She landed on a knee, but that only lasted for a moment before she was on her hip on the ground, the sharp rocks of the path digging into her sensitive skin.

Hal was there before she even fully realized what had happened. “You okay?”

“I think so. I must have just stepped funny.”

“I knew I should have just carried you.” He winked, letting her know he was teasing.

“I wouldn’t have let you,” she said with a smile. The way he made her feel at ease was beyond comforting. It soothed something deep within her, a pain that had become so familiar, she’d forgotten it was pain at all. It had been there so long, it had become normal.

“Up we get.” Hal held his hand out and pulled her upright. His touch elicited feelings in her body that hadn’t been there in years. She blushed furiously.

“Thanks.” She dusted herself off and went to take the next step, but her foot went out again, the stabbing pain in her ankle letting her know that the way she’d landed before was not good.

Hal caught her before she hit the ground this time. His arms were thick warm bands around her. “Looks like you’re off walking duty for now.” He smiled. “I can carry you, if you want, or you can hop along, but I have a feeling that will end badly.” He tried to stifle the chuckle at the end, but wasn’t successful.

“If you’ll just lend me an arm to put weight on, I’ll hop.”

“If you want, but it’s another mile or so.” He shrugged.

“What?” Robin had to have misheard him.

“I can just teleport us there, but you seemed to need the fresh air.”

She couldn’t argue with that. The fresh air was amazing; if she could sleep outside right now, she would. “I would like to stay outside. Are you sure you’re up for carrying me a mile?”

“Sweetheart, I carry weights heavier than you to work out. I think I can manage.” His dimples flashed, and warmth spread through her.

“Okay.” Her voice was husky with emotion.

“Up we go.” Hal placed an arm around her back and hooked another under her knees, bringing her up to rest against his chest. She felt awkward and stiff in his arms. “Relax, love, I’m not going to drop you.”

It was when he began walking that she realized how slow they had been going for her. His legs seemed to lengthen underneath him as he stepped out. Calm suffused her body as he fell into a steady rhythm. Robin’s head was so heavy, she didn’t think he’d mind if she rested it on his shoulder for a moment.

His scent tantalized her nostrils. He reminded her of something, but she couldn’t quite remember what. That fuzzy memory combined with the fresh scent of the air that seemed to be embedded in his hair, along with something inherently masculine, invaded her senses, making her want to purr like a cat. Lordy, was she in trouble with this man.

The mile that he’d said they still had to cover to get to wherever it was they were going seemed to fly by. As they came up the last rise, Robin could see a structure in the distance. There were no lights on, but she could tell it was a cabin of some kind. The silhouette of the building was highlighted by the lake that it perched on. Water glittered in the moonlight, making Robin itch to jump into it. She hadn’t gone swimming since she was a kid, and the idea of doing so made her ecstatic.

Her parents never had enough money to take them anywhere, thanks to her dad’s love of gambling. Every time he came home, she could tell whether he’d won or lost by the way his footsteps fell. The fast tapping of a man excited to tell his wife he won was rare, though. Most of the time, it was a shuffle, a drunk shuffle, to be specific. He never wound up drunk when he won, but when he lost, she could smell the alcohol on him a mile away.

He was the whole reason she was in this mess. He paid off his debts with the life of his banshee daughter. She would never forget the horrified expression on her mother’s face as he told her. It was quickly followed by screaming and crying. She and her younger sister hid in the bedroom closet, waiting for it to be over. It usually only lasted an hour or two, but this time it went all night, until her mother was hoarse from shouting.

Robin pushed the memories aside. They were sullying the beautiful view. As they approached the cabin, she could see exactly how gorgeous it was. The lake and the cabin were set in an alcove just below the top of the hill. Looking out, she could see all the way down to the ocean. Lights glimmered in the distance. She assumed they were the other brothers’ houses, since there were no lights anywhere else.

“Like the view?”

Leaning against Hal as he spoke was an experience. She felt the vibrations of his voice go all the way through her, like leaning against a washing machine or dryer, but there was almost a texture to his voice that seemed to wrap it around her, filling her head with promises of safety.

Sighing, she said, “It’s amazing. Did you find this place yourself?”

“Yeah. Built it by hand too.” He gestured with his head to the cabin.

“No way. The whole thing?”

Hal chuckled. “The whole thing.”

The path sloped upward toward the front door, which was covered by an awning that seemed to be supported by some tree trunks and decorative branches. Her jaw dropped as they got closer. He had built a log cabin. The man was talented. The wooden door had a window at the top and a metal frame toward the edges. Hal dipped her down as he reached for the door handle.

When it swung open, the scent of him overwhelmed her, rushing out from inside the house. She knew this must be where he spent most of his time. He sidestepped them through the door into the main room and flicked a light switch.

A warm glow spread throughout the space, and as her eyes adjusted, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. When he said he’d built it, she thought the inside would be basic, overly simple and rough. This was anything but that. The living area was cozy, with a couch and an oversized armchair. A small dining table with chairs off to the other side was covered in papers and a laptop. Behind that was the most beautiful kitchen, other than the one at the house at the bottom of the hill.

The black granite countertops combined with the pale wooden cabinets to make the place feel bigger than it was. He had a stove, a microwave, and if the silver doors she could see were a refrigerator and freezer, then it was the biggest one she’d ever seen. There was even a small section of cabinets that formed a breakfast bar.

There were two doors coming off the side of the kitchen that she assumed led to a bathroom and bedroom, next to which was a set of stairs. Her gaze followed the stairs up to find a loft-type area. Her mind raced at the ideas of what was up there.

“You like it?”

“It’s incredible. I can’t believe you built this by hand.”

Her eyes wandered over everything again. He began to walk her over to the couch as he watched her take it all in.

“Do you think you can rest here?”

“It’s nothing like anywhere I’ve ever stayed before, so I can’t see why not.”

He set her down on the couch as gently as he could. It was only then that she noticed the wall of windows opposite the couch, punctuated on one side by a stone fireplace that made up the corner of the room. Hal went over to it and moved some logs into place, along with some kindling. Before she could even ask how he knew what to do, the fire was roaring and warmth spread throughout the cabin, licking at her toes.

It was by far the coziest place she’d ever been. The rich red fabric of the couch seemed to echo the warmth of the fireplace, and when he brought a blanket over to cover her, she thought she could stay here forever. Not that she would, of course.

“Want me to fix you a drink? Tea? Whiskey? Water? Whatever sounds good.”

“Tea would be nice, thanks.”

“Coming right up.” He winked at her, and she turned into a pile of mush on the couch.

Robin was torn between watching the fire and watching Hal move about the kitchen. Hal won out. He moved with a fluid grace that she didn’t expect from a man his size. Her mind snapped back to the feeling of being in his arms. She watched his muscles flex and release as he reached for the kettle. His T-shirt rose slightly as he grabbed the box of tea from the top shelf of a cabinet.

She must have made a noise, because he looked over at her then. All she could do was offer him a weak smile. He grinned at her and went back to making tea. She had the sneaking suspicion that he knew she’d been watching him the whole time, and was putting on a very subtle show for her.

A mischievous thought ran through her mind. She could tease him just as much as he teased her. Was she ready for that, though? She’d only just left Randall and Eclipse. Could she be so carefree after that? What if when he touched her, it felt like Randall? The questions knocked around in her head as she stared at the fire. The likelihood of Hal feeling like Randall was very small, but it sent a shiver of ice down her spine.

The last thing she wanted to do was corrupt her safety blanket.

Robin looked over at him again, only to find he’d been watching her.

“I haven’t been in front of a real fire in years,” she offered as a way of distracting herself from the thoughts going through her head.

“Well, you’re welcome to sit in front of it as long as you want, but you should probably get some sleep soon, or you might pass out on me.”

She smiled at that, and he handed her the mug of tea he’d brought over before sitting in the armchair.

“Can I ask you something?” She stared at the fire as she spoke while the warmth from the mug seeped into her hands, making her realize just how cold she’d become.

“Anything.”

“How come you don’t think Randall will find me here, but he will at a hotel?” She glanced at him at the end, unable to keep her eyes away.

“The island is warded against anyone searching for it. Planes and boats all move around it without ever realizing it’s here. The gods can’t come onto the island without one of us escorting them. Neither can anyone else, for that matter. We set it up to be a private area for us, where we wouldn’t have to worry about people who were tracking magical objects coming to steal them, or Zeus dropping by unannounced. Things like that.”

“Wow. Okay. So you know Zeus?”

“Kind of. We aren’t friends or anything. Sometimes we are more like his employees, but we have spoken on occasion.”

“His employees?”

“We keep mankind safe from the dumb shit the gods do and have done. Plus, their kids are just as reckless. We spend most of our time cleaning up their messes, or wrangling Objects of Significance away from people who try to use them without fully understanding them.”

“Like Randall’s portal.”

“Maybe.”

“Traveling with you has a certain amount of synergy or harmony with wherever you are or are going to. Randall’s portal, I don’t know if you were still conscious when he opened it at The Farm, but his portals feel as if the universe is trying to crush you and flay you alive all at the same time. His seem to be working against the world. They create friction and offset the energies of the planet.”

“That makes sense now.”

“There is a lot more I need to tell you and your brothers, but I would rather just do it all at once, if that’s okay?”

“No skin off my nose.”

Robin lost her thoughts in the hypnotic dance of the fire once more while she sipped on her tea.

“Do you want anything to eat?”

“No, thanks, but don’t let me stop you if you’re hungry.”

They sat in silence for a while, both watching the fire and occasionally glancing at each other. She had never felt so relaxed or content in her life. It was as if she’d finally been allowed to draw a deep breath, and now she was almost dizzy from all the oxygen. Or maybe it was because the kindness Hal had shown her since he’d rescued her left her breathless.

Chapter 11

Robin woke up in a bed, but she had no idea where she was. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and the scent of Hal filled her nose. Her pulse slowed, and she rolled over in bed, luxuriating in the super soft sheets and the weight of the comforter on top of her. She knew she should kick it off because she was overheating, which was probably what woke her up, but it smelled delicious. Her brain deviated from her normal wake-up routine and was laser focused on what Hal would look like in bed, sheets pushed down so they barely covered his hips.

Her mouth went dry at the thought.

She remembered coming to the cabin and having some tea, but she must have fallen asleep on the couch downstairs before she was somehow transported to the bed. Stretching, she realized just how soft the mattress was. The single bed that she’d been given at Eclipse barely even moved when she sat down on it. She pushed herself up on her elbows and took in her surroundings. Well, she tried to. Her contacts were drier than the Sahara right now, and she was fairly sure that Hal didn’t have any contact lens solution hanging around.

Blinking furiously, her eyes began to water, and the contacts unstuck themselves from her eyeballs. She could not wait to get her glasses back. Seriously, she was never going to wear contacts again.

Now that she could see what was around her, she realized she was up in the loft of the cabin. The bedroom opened out onto the living area below. She could look straight out of the windows and see the sun starting to rise on the horizon. The light was that weird gray where shapes faded into one another, and she couldn’t distinguish anything without really concentrating on it. She knew that soon enough there would be pinks and yellows and oranges slicing up over the water, heralding the oncoming sun.

She was tempted to stay in bed and watch the sunrise from this vantage point, but she had to pee, so that wasn’t really an option. She slid to the edge of the bed and quickly pulled the blankets off, suppressing the inevitable shiver that shook her body when the cooler air hit it.

Swinging her feet down, she tentatively put some weight on her bad ankle. It wasn’t good news. She looked down at it more closely and realized it was swollen, with a lovely purple bruise spreading from the base up and around the arch of her foot.

Great. This was just what she needed.

She pushed herself up, balancing with most of her weight on her good ankle, and hobbled over to the railing of the balcony. Reassessing the layout of the loft, Robin realized that there wasn’t a bathroom up here. It was just a bed, albeit a huge one, and a couple closets. Downstairs it was. She looked over the railing, only to find the vision that her brain had presented her with when she had first woken up almost completely recreated on the couch below.

Hal was sprawled out across the cushions, his legs sticking up and hanging off the armrest on the far side. His smooth oh-so-touchable skin was bared to the night, with a scrunched-up blanket around his hips. Hair was strewn all around his head as though he had been tossing and turning. The position he was in combined with the slight part of his mouth made him look so at peace, she almost envied him. Robin didn’t want to wake him up, but she also had to get downstairs.

Hopping down the first two stairs almost led to her falling on her face, so she sat and slowly slid from one stair to the other while holding her leg out in front of her. The only trouble she had was when the stairs turned. She did an awkward crab-walk-hop thing that got her around the bend. Of course, she hit her ankle a couple times, barely able to hold in the grunt of pain that shot through her as her heel made contact with the ground.

Finally, she was on the ground and pulling herself back up into a standing position. The bathroom had to be one of the two doors to the side here. The trouble was, there was nothing to really hang on to between the bottom of the stairs and the doors. She hopped over as best as she could, but she almost lost her balance and had to put weight on her ankle.

A sharp gasp from the pain escaped her.

She froze, praying she hadn’t woken Hal up. When she didn’t hear any movement, she continued her hopping to the first door. Cracking it open, all she found was a workout room. A quick glance showed her a heavy-duty treadmill, a punching bag, a rowing machine, and rows upon rows of free weights going up to sizes she’d never seen before, which was saying something since the gym at Eclipse was professionally stocked.

The second door yielded her goal. She hopped into the bathroom, silently closing the door behind her and turning on the light. The room was bigger than she’d expected. A large shower was next to a sauna and a monster-sized tub. The only bathtubs she’d seen outside of movies were the kind that had the walls built in for the showerhead to sit up top. This was not that. It was big enough for Hal to lie down, and stood on massive clawed feet. A big vanity and a mirror were positioned opposite.

She had no idea how he’d built all this himself. Sure, the appliances and the tub weren’t his, but the chairs in the dining area, the table, the bar stools, and the vanity cabinet had the same feel of craftsmanship to them. Robin would bet the clothes she wore that he had made it all by hand.

As she finished up and hopped out of the bathroom, an awake Hal greeted her. All her effort not to wake him up had failed.

“Hey, sorry I woke you.”

“No worries. I’m an early bird, anyway.”

She began to hop toward him but didn’t even make it three steps before he was there swinging her into his arms once more.

“A girl could get used to this.” She smiled up at him.

His dimples popped out as he grinned at her. “I’ll carry you wherever you want, my lady.”

“The couch would be good for now.”

“That’s where I was going. I want to take a look at that ankle.”

“I think it’s sprained.” Looking at it now, she realized it was the same ankle that she had twisted when Randall had taken her to see Nimue. Maybe her fix had only been temporary? Or maybe the initial injury was worse than Nimue had thought.

Hal set her down and lowered her carefully to the couch before sitting on the cushion next to her and pulling her leg into his lap. His fingers delicately explored the swollen skin of the joint, pressing in certain places, none of which hurt, surprisingly. As he explored her foot and up her calf, her skin broke out in goosebumps. The touch was luxurious.

It had been so long since she’d felt a kind hand that it made her feverish for more. His light gentle touches were like feathers on her skin, and she wanted the whole damn bird. Each time his fingers traced the joint, the flames of her need for his touch rose higher. Her heart rate had skyrocketed, and she struggled to keep her breathing under control. She didn’t want him to stop touching her, but both her emotional and her physical reaction to his touch scared her and excited her all at the same time.

“I can heal this, if you want.” His voice rumbled through her.

Robin didn’t realize she’d closed her eyes and let her head roll back. As she refocused on the world in front of her, she saw the naked desire in his eyes, and it turned her fever into a full-on inferno. Belatedly, she realized the position she was in had her breasts pointing skyward, straining against the thin fabric of the T-shirt. A blush suffused her cheeks.

“How?” She managed the one word without her voice betraying her too much. The need he had created in her was so strong, it was like its own living thing thrashing about inside the confines of her body.

“My brothers and I inherited some of Poseidon’s powers from when he blessed our father. Mine manifested partially as using water as a healing tool, so I can fix your ankle. If you want, that is.”

Hal’s eyes were dark, and while she didn’t doubt the words he said, she also knew on some instinctual level that he was enjoying watching her reactions to his touch. The curiosity in his gaze was only matched by the lust she saw there, and when that was combined with the huskiness of his voice, she was unable to resist.

“Yes, please.” Her voice sounded throaty to her own ears, causing even more blood to rush to her cheeks.

The lust and need vanished then, replaced by concentration and diligence as he pulled water from a glass sitting on the coffee table. Robin marveled at his control. She’d known people with these kinds of powers existed in the world, but she’d never seen one in person.

The water formed a barrier around her ankle, and the cool liquid pressed against her skin, slowly sinking into her. At first it hurt; not as badly as the scar on her back, but enough that it was uncomfortable. The pain slowly narrowed to a small pinprick right on the outside of her ankle. She felt a slight pop, and then the pain was gone.

“Good as new.”

“Thank you.” She wasn’t exactly sure what to say.

“Try and put some weight on it.”

Robin stood slowly, waiting for the pain to hit, but it never came. A smile spread across her face. “That’s incredible!”

Hal beamed at her as she walked around a bit, doing a little happy shuffle; at least, until she tripped on the rug and landed on Hal.

Chapter 12

A big boom of laughter escaped him, startling Robin. “I think you might be clumsier than I am.”

“I promise I’m not usually this bad.” She laughed as she tried to push herself off him.

When her hand slipped and almost ended up somewhere embarrassing, he held out his own hand to help her up. After an awkward moment, she was finally on her own couch cushion. The trouble was, she didn’t want to let go of his hand. Looking at the massive paw of a hand that engulfed her own, she tried to remember the last friendly touch she’d received. Her sister? Her mom? It definitely wasn’t her dad, since he’d pushed her into Randall’s arms as she screamed and tried to cling to him, before he turned and walked away.

“Do you know I can’t remember the last time I felt a kind touch?” Her voice sounded far away in her own ears, as if someone else was speaking.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Robin.”

Her name sounded like magic on his lips, a secret promise meant just for her. She let his hand rest on her thigh and traced the lines that crossed his palm.

“Before you, I think it was my mother, Tamara.” She breathed deeply, lost in the memory, while her finger mapped his hand. “She’d thanked me for doing something for her—I can’t even remember what anymore—and given me a hug. When my father, James, made the deal with Randall, my mother started treating me as if I didn’t exist. She wouldn’t look at me, wouldn’t touch me, wouldn’t respond to me. My sister cried the whole time. The night my father took me to Mr. Fields, my mom had taken my sister out shopping or to see a movie or something. I will probably never know what, but no one was home. No one fought to keep me. I fought for them. I fought to stay. I fought against my gut that told me to run away because I knew they would be the ones who paid the price. I wonder if my father ever told them that Randall killed two men in front of me?”

She felt Hal’s palm twitch as though he wanted to say something but didn’t want to interrupt her. “When we arrived at the meeting point, it was a dark warehouse, industrial-park-type area. Randall was standing next to two men. I knew who he was right away because he was so well dressed compared to the other two. I have no idea who they were to this day. As soon as we got out of the car, the scream started. It built inside me with the force of a wrecking ball, getting bigger with each step my father forced me to take. By the time we were halfway to the three men, the scream tore out of me, wrenching my jaw open and bellowing out into the world.

“I saw the exact scene we were standing in while I screamed. I knew Randall was going to shoot the man on his left with a smile on his face. I fainted then, but fortunately my future employer had planned for that and provided my father with a container of ice water, which he promptly threw over my head.

“I woke, and Randall smiled at me as he pulled the trigger. It had been a test. He wanted to make sure I had the skills my father claimed, but it also served as a warning. I got to see how easy it was for him to kill. He demonstrated how little human life meant to him that day. The thing I didn’t expect was the second scream. It tore out of me faster than a racecar and just as powerful. This time it wasn’t a vision. I watched in real time as he shot the man on his right.

“Then my screams became normal. The vibrations in my voice changed from the shriek to something more human. When I started begging and clinging to my father, he only sighed and pushed me into the murderer’s arms. From that point on, the only touch I felt was Randall’s.” She almost laughed. “There was another employee who hit on me a few times, but the only time he’d been about to touch me, Randall appeared and beat the guy. The word that no one was allowed to touch me spread like wildfire throughout Eclipse. But people stopped talking to me and looking at me as well. I was an island in the hurricane that was Randall Fields, and all I wanted to do was survive.”

As she finished speaking, Robin had no idea why she’d said all of that. It was like word vomit; once she’d started, she couldn’t stop. Not that she’d ever had anyone to talk to about it. Maybe that was why. She glanced up at Hal through her eyelashes, trying to gauge his reaction. She realized she’d been crying. Her lashes were wet, and when she touched her face, she could feel the tear streaks on it.

Hal handed her a tissue in stony silence.

She wasn’t sure what to make of his reaction. Maybe he didn’t want to talk about personal stuff, or maybe crying freaked him out. She had no idea.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to put all that on you.” Robin felt more self-conscious with every passing second of his silence. She went to pull out of his grip to stand, but he held fast.

“What you went through . . . no one should have to go through that. I’m so, so sorry, Robin.”

“It’s fine. It’s in the past.” She looked down at their entwined hands.

“It’s not fine. You’re not fine. You haven’t been given the opportunity to deal with what happened to you in a constructive way since you’ve been so focused on survival. May I brush your hair away from your face?”

Robin startled at the question, but appreciated it more than she could express. She simply nodded.

His large hand came up and gently brushed a lock of her fire-red hair away, tucking it behind her ear. A shiver went down her spine at the touch, breathing new life into the fire in her belly from before.

“Don’t stop.”

The words whispered through her before she could censor herself. A slight chuckle came from Hal’s direction, but she’d closed her eyes already, enjoying the strokes of his fingers on her hair and occasionally her skin. Each touch was a balm, soothing the emptiness she’d felt for so long.

She wanted to touch him back, to feel his skin under her hands.

“May I?” she asked, opening her eyes and pointing to his hair. The sun-bleached brown tresses were still messy from his sleep.

“Sure. Whatever you want.”

Her hand came up, and her fingers ran through locks of hair that were so drenched in sun, it was as if she could still feel the warmth coming out of them. They were soft and coarse all at the same time. The tangles would need a comb to get out, but she pushed the tresses away from the eyes that studied her with fascination.

It was almost as if each eye contained a whole nebula. They were mystifying. As she looked closer, she could see that yellows and golds shot through the blue-green irises. Her hand drifted down to the surprisingly soft stubble that covered his face. She’d expected scratchy, painful hair, but, while coarse, it was soft under her hand as her fingers ran down the side of his face.

When Hal’s hand shifted from her hair to her face, she leaned into the warmth and the sense of safety that came with it, something she hadn’t expected to feel again for a very long time. She scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder as she’d done when he had carried her. The hand caressing her face moved down to her arm, rubbing up and down gently, as though he didn’t want to overwhelm her.

Her body thrummed with energy, but a serene energy, as she pressed against Hal. One of her arms wrapped around his middle as she hugged him.

“Robin . . .” His voice was uncertain.

“I just need to touch you for a while.” She looked up at him, his eyes captivating her. “I need to know you’re real.”

Something shifted in his gaze, and the heat there intensified.

“I need to feel alive again,” she whispered. It was the secret she’d never told anyone, and why it popped out now she didn’t know, but it was the truth.

She pushed up slightly and let her lips graze his, her stomach full of butterflies as she hoped she’d read him right.

His hands stilled as her lips pressed his again.

Her heart was in her throat. Why was she suddenly so bold? Because it was Hal, and she knew she was safe with him. He made her feel real, feel alive, again. She could hear her blood rushing in her ears as he kissed her back ever so gently.

Hal’s hand ran up her arm, causing her to shiver and break out in goosebumps once more as her mouth connected more surely with his soft lips. Her tongue swept along his bottom lip, and he groaned under her.

Robin pulled away. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Hal’s eyes focused on her. “Hurt me?”

“The noise you made sounded like you were in pain.”

A low masculine chuckle emanated from him. “Not quite.” His hands dropped to his lap. “It felt good. That was a noise of pleasure.”

“Oh!” Robin’s eyes took in his hands and how they were resting over his groin, and blushed furiously. For a moment, she considered turning away, unsure how far she should go and what he expected out of this encounter. Just the thought of it made her feel like she was turning away from the sun, and she’d been in the dark too long.

She pushed up on her knees and kissed him again with more confidence. He’d liked what she had done with her tongue before, so she did it again, earning another groan of pleasure from him. This time his mouth parted under her and his own tongue came out and tangled with hers. It might have been a few years since she had been kissed, but she was pleased to know she hadn’t forgotten how.

His stubble was slightly scratchy on her skin, heightening the softness of his lips. Her tongue danced with his as she clung to his shoulders, pressing herself ever closer against him. The position was awkward, though. She was kneeling and leaning into him; plus, having her weight on her knees was starting to hurt.

Briefly she pulled away from him, breathing heavily as she made a decision. She threw one leg over his lap so she was straddling him.

“Robin, I—” Hal’s voice cut off as her body centered itself over his. The fire that had started in her belly was now focused lower as her body tightened with need. She rested on his lap for a moment, holding eye contact with him. She hadn’t done anything so intimate in, well . . . ever. Scooting forward ever so slightly, she felt his manhood press against her. With just his boxers and her shorts separating them, it was the most erotic thing she’d ever felt. His head fell back against the couch, and his hands gripped her thighs. She froze, unsure what he was going to do next.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, bringing his head up. He’d clearly sensed her reaction. “I won’t do anything you don’t want me to. If there is somewhere you don’t want me to touch, I won’t. If you want me to stop touching you altogether, I will. This is your show, Rin. You’re calling the shots.”

Her head cocked at the nickname. She’d never had one before. “Rin?”

“Sorry, just slipped out.” He blushed ever so slightly.

“I like it.” She smiled and leaned in to kiss him.

It was like setting a match to a flame. Her hands came up and tangled in his hair as her mouth molded to his. She was conscious of his hands moving slowly up her hips to her waist, where they rested on the open slice of skin between her T-shirt and shorts. He was hot, not just sexy, but everywhere he touched, it felt like a lick of flame going over her skin. When it was just her arms and legs, it wasn’t a big deal, but his hands on the skin of her stomach drove her to a fever pitch. She rocked back and forth slightly in time with their kisses while little sounds of pleasure escaped her.

Hal’s hands drifted from her waist around to her butt, one on each side, cupping the flesh there, some of which was exposed by the shorts. His long fingers wove under the edge of the shorts, resting against her skin, making the fire inside her blaze even brighter.

He pulled her against him as she rocked, and she gasped with satisfaction as the part of her that ached for his touch was now more firmly connected to him. She realized she must have just been resting on the edge of his cock before, because now she could feel the whole shaft throbbing against her.

As she rocked again, he groaned and his head fell back as his fingers squeezed her ass, pressing her against him as close as possible before he removed them and ran them up her sides under her T-shirt all the way to the edge of her breasts.

It hurt.

White-hot pain streamed out from the scar on her back, and it consumed her whole world.

“Rin? Rin, I’m sorry! Tell me what to do!” Hal’s voice was frantic as she fell off him to the side, curling in on herself. She felt his weight get off the couch and could make out the sound of him pacing back and forth. The pain was starting to recede slightly. She took a deep shuddering breath.

“Rin?” Hal’s face appeared in front of her, concern pinching his features.

“I’m okay.” She took another deep breath. “It’s the mark.” Instinctively she knew it wasn’t just because Hal touched it, while that didn’t help. It felt like something triggered it inside her.

“The mark?”

She turned away from him and pulled up her T-shirt, exposing the scarred area of her back.

“What the hell?”

“It’s part of what I wanted to talk to you about with your brothers. The Order of Talos apparently marks its initiates and full members, not that I got a choice in the matter. I don’t even know what it looks like, but from what I just felt, it seemed like it was fresh again. I’m wondering if they can use it to punish or track or do something to its members. Kind of like a fail safe.”

“Well, it is glowing slightly, so I would say, yeah, that’s some magic shit right there.” Hal sighed in relief. “By the gods, I thought I’d hurt you.”

“I don’t know that it’s fully healed. It only happened a few days ago, I think. I don’t even know what day it is, to be honest.” She sighed and let her T-shirt fall as she turned to face him. “Sorry I scared you.”

“Don’t worry about me.” He grinned at her. “You wanna talk about what that was on the couch?”

“I, uh, got a little carried away.” She wasn’t sure what he expected her to say. The truth was, it had been amazing. She’d never felt that connected to someone in her whole life.

“Feel free to get carried away with me anytime you want.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.

The tension she’d been feeling since she had started talking about the mark disappeared, and she laughed harder than she had in years. Tears began streaming down her face, and she struggled to breathe.

“It wasn’t supposed to be that funny!”

After another fit of giggles, Robin managed to get her breath back. “Sorry, I just . . . I feel like I’m finally free, and all I want to do right now is be free with you.”

“That sounds good to me.”

Robin sighed. She wanted to jump into his arms and kiss him until they were both gasping for air, but that spell had been broken with the pain of the mark or scar or whatever it was.

“Coffee?” she asked, not knowing how to express the flurry of emotions blowing through her right now.

“Coming up.” He smiled as he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. The peace she’d experienced before was back, and she gladly sank into it.

Watching Hal in the kitchen was a thing of beauty, and she hoped she would have many more opportunities to do it, but the sun was rising. Robin grabbed the blanket Hal had been using overnight and went out onto the porch, sitting in one of the wooden chairs out there.

The thing that kept puzzling her whenever she thought about his cabin, which was supposed to be oh-so-secret, was why he had so many chairs. Surely if it was just him here, then he would only need one chair at the table, one bar stool, and one chair for the porch? So why had he made so many? She hoped it was because he was going to share this place with his brothers one day. It was beautiful. Watching the sun rise over the ocean from the top of Hal’s mountain was one of the most peaceful things she’d experienced in a while.

She wrapped the blanket close around her, pulling her feet onto the chair itself so they could be covered too, and breathed in the fresh ocean air. Pink and orange streaked the sky as Hal came out holding two cups of coffee.

“This place is magical.” She smiled up at him, gratefully accepting the warm mug of coffee.

“I’m very glad you like it.” He smiled at her as he sat in the other chair before staring out to sea.

“Why do you have so many chairs?”

“Huh?”

She chuckled. “You said this was your super-secret hideaway that was just for you, so why do you have so many chairs?”

“Ah.” Hal ran a hand through his hair, shoving it back from his face, exposing the strong jawline that was softened by the stubble. “Well, I make them, and sometimes I don’t like what I make, so I do it again. I guess . . .” He sipped his coffee. “I guess I’m hoping one day I’ll find someone who wants to share it with me. Alec and Thad both found their soulmates, and I had never thought it was an option until recently, but now that I know, I just keep hoping that I’ll meet that person one day. Sappy, I know. My brothers would tear me a new one if they heard me talk like that.”

She smiled at him as he lost himself in his own thoughts.

“You know, at some point I think I’d like to have sex with you, if you’re interested,” Robin mused.

Hal spit out the sip of coffee he’d taken. “If I’m interested? You mean you couldn’t tell back there if I was? I should really work on that.” He smiled at her, but there was a seriousness to his eyes. “You know there is no rush, right?”

“I know, but you have to see it from my perspective. I feel like I’ve been living in a low-oxygen environment for the last nine years, and now I’m finally able to take deep breaths again. I trust you. Don’t get me wrong—I know we barely know each other, but we rescued each other. You came back for me even when you could have looked the other way. That means a hell of a lot to me. Plus, I’m having a hard time keeping my hands off you. So, there’s that.” Robin usually wasn’t so frank about her wants and needs, but after wasting almost a decade of her life at Eclipse, she didn’t want to stall anymore.

“I appreciate that, and believe me, the sight of you in nothing but a T-shirt and shorts has been distracting me since you knocked on my door last night, but that doesn’t mean we need to rush this.”

“You like my current outfit, huh?”

“Well, I think it shows off your, ah, assets to the best of its ability. Who am I to argue with that?” He winked at her, and the melting sensation was back.

“I guess my plan to ask if I could borrow some of your clothes is badly timed, then, huh?” She smiled and sipped her coffee.

Chapter 13

Aster heard Hal and Robin leave during the night. She had no idea where they were off to, but she could take a guess what they were going to do. The sexual tension between them was almost tangible, and it kinda made her want to barf.

She had her own sexual tension going on, anyway, not that anyone had picked up on it. Unlike some people, she knew how to keep her emotions to herself. When she’d been rescued and brought back to the island, the last person she’d expected to see was the guy she had hooked up with at the bar a couple weeks ago.

Just thinking about that weekend made her hot and shivery.

Which was precisely why she refused to think about it.

They hadn’t talked to each other since she’d been on the island, and it was starting to piss her off. Did he regret the one-weekend stand? She didn’t. Sure, it wasn’t her usual style, but she felt an undeniable pull to Dem. She had ever since the first time she saw him. Plus, the visions she’d been having were full of dark and deadly stuff, so letting loose was her escape. Now, though, it felt awkward, and she wasn’t sure how to react around him. She knew Cin would be pissed if she found out. Her sister had always been so protective of her. It was almost suffocating.

She sighed as she tossed and turned in bed, knowing she should get up, but not quite ready to face the day. It had been like this ever since they’d brought her to the island. First, she’d slept, and then she’d broken Cin out of her funk and pushed her to Thad, not that she regretted that, but then they kinda disappeared. She’d felt like she was pretty much on her own ever since.

There was just too much energy in her body, but she didn’t want to do anything about it. Aster felt safe in this house, with the slightly awkward giant taking care of her, surrounded by things that weren’t hers, which was kind of funny.

She would’ve thought that she would feel safer at home, surrounded by her own things, but she didn’t know if she could go back to that, to her old life. It had been forever altered by the abduction and torture. Although, she couldn’t bear to look at how it had altered her; at least, not yet. She simply knew that it had.

Most people would be relishing life, grabbing the bull by the horns, so to speak, but all she wanted to do was escape reality and live here somehow, where there were plenty of people to protect her, and no one could even get to her if she didn’t want them to. The single shining flaw in this was Dem.

He was constantly on the edge of her thoughts, almost as if her brain could feel how close he was.

Thinking about him frustrated her. She desperately tried not to, but every time she closed her eyes, there he was. The image always morphed between the nights they’d spent together and the shock and embarrassment on his face when he’d realized who she was.

Who the hell was he to be embarrassed?

She ripped the covers off and stood. Today was the day. She was going to go talk to him, and they were going to get over whatever awkwardness this was. If Hal was out with Robin, then no one would know she’d gone over there except Dem, which suited her just fine.

Her shower had been brief but needed. She felt more alive because of it, so now her brain and her body were buzzing with energy. The clothes weren’t exactly her first choice, but since her wardrobe had been left at her apartment, which she would probably never see again, she was just grateful for what was provided. Her leggings and sweater combo seemed out of place for the tail end of summer, but on this island, the weather could shift in an instant. It didn’t help that she hadn’t really been able to get warm ever since she was taken.

The boots went on over her leggings, and even though they were a little big, she liked them. She had always been immaculately put together before, something her mom had instilled in her. Heels, hair done, makeup done, the whole nine yards. Now, she was about to leave this house without a scrap of makeup on her face, and her hair pulled back haphazardly into something resembling a bun. Her mother would be so disappointed.

She grabbed a snack from the fridge and saw the note.

Aster,

Robin is having trouble sleeping here. We are finding somewhere more appropriate. Will be back tomorrow, just not sure when. Call if you need me.

Hal

Well, that was just fine with her. She was happy to be alone, and happy to have Hal out of her hair, even though the place was uncomfortably quiet without him moving around.

Stomping out of the house, she realized she wasn’t sure where exactly Dem’s place was. She did know where Thad’s place was, and Hal’s, obviously, so that only left two options. She would find it. Besides, going for a walk would be nice. Right?

Two hours later and she was finally standing in front of Dem’s house. She wasn’t sure how she knew it was his house, but she knew. Every fiber of her being hummed with the sense that he was just beyond the weird glass door. She wasn’t sure what she expected from his place, but the number of windows and their size were surprising.

She was going to knock.

Any second now.

When Dem walked past, holding a book and crunching on an apple, her heart leaped into her throat. He paused and looked up at her. Awkwardly, she raised a hand in a half wave. She tried a smile, but it felt more like she was bearing her teeth than anything else.

He cautiously approached the door, pushing on one side to open it.

“What are you doing here?” His voice was reproachful.

“So polite, as always. I wanted to come and clear the air.”

“There’s no air to clear.” His massive frame blocked her from entering.

“Can I come in? I’ve been looking for your place for way too long, and now I’m frozen.”

“Does Hal know where you are?”

“No. He wasn’t home when I left, and he’s hanging out somewhere with Robin.”

“He left you alone?” Dem’s eyebrows pinched in concern.

“What? Like someone’s going to kidnap me from a secret island that they can’t even get to without an escort?”

“That’s not what I was worried about.” He sighed. “Come in.”

The door pushed all the way open, swinging on the center hinge, so instead of a flat pane of glass that matched the rest of the house, it turned perpendicular to the walls. Aster had never seen a house designed like this, except for in the movies.

“You want some coffee?”

“Sure.”

Dem walked away from her. She wasn’t sure whether she was expected to follow or not, but if she did, then she got to watch his fabulous behind move under some jeans that a man with his physique had no business wearing. He should be in shorts, permanently. Or one of those tiny swimsuits that male swimmers wore at the Olympics.

That thought made her face warm. She knew exactly what that scrap of swimsuit would contain, and she wasn’t sure that it would be able to actually contain everything.

As he put the coffeemaker on, Aster watched. His movements were jerky, as if he was irritated, which in turn made her frustrated.

“Look,” she began, before he cut her off with a stony glare.

“Let’s have some coffee and go sit.”

Thankfully, it was one of those individual coffeemakers, so they each had a warm mug of dark coffee in their hands within moments. She followed Dem again in silence as he led her to the other side of the house where the living room opened into an indoor-outdoor pool. Her jaw fell open at the sight of it. Who had something like that in their house?

Sirens. That was who.

Crazy immortal idiots who didn’t know what they were doing most of the time, from what Aster could tell.

They sat in two comfy, overstuffed chairs. Dem carefully kept away from her. She could see it in his movements. Adjusting his legs so she didn’t brush them as she walked by, retracting his arm from the side of his chair that butted up against hers.

“So . . .” Dem began, as if he was going to say something meaningful as he stared down into the depths of his coffee, “clear away.”

“We slept together. It wasn’t a big deal.” Crap, she was making herself sound slutty. “I mean, it’s not like I do things like that all the time, but I just wanted you to know that I don’t expect anything to come of it since we have been forced into each other’s lives again.”

“I see.”

She waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, her frustration threatened to boil over. “That’s it?” Her voice was sharper than she intended, but maybe that was a good thing.

“What do you want me to say, Aster? You called me by the wrong name the whole time, but I didn’t care because I couldn’t bring myself to leave you alone? Or how about I felt awful walking out in the morning while you were still sleeping, but I did it because I didn’t have a choice? Oh, or this—I have found you captivating since I first saw you, but since I knew there could never be anything between us, I didn’t give in except for that one weekend? Do you know why any of these thoughts crossed my mind? Because I had to lock the last woman I cared for up in an asylum after Zeus drove her mad. Literally.”

Aster’s mouth worked, but no sounds came out. She was speechless for probably the first time in her life.

“I’m not trying to be mean. The night we spent together was fantastic, but I’ve already lost one person because of a jealous god. I’m not about to risk anyone else. I don’t care how many of my brothers have found their soulmates. I lost mine a long time ago, so there is no point to any of this.” His coffee was sloshing in his mug by the time he was done talking, and he was still refusing to look at her.

“Dem, I—”

“If you say you’re sorry, then I’m walking out right now.”

“I didn’t realize I was calling you by the wrong name. I honestly thought you said your name was Don. And for the record, I didn’t want you to leave me alone. That weekend was amazing. Seriously, like I can’t think about it because otherwise I get all flustered.”

His eyes cut across to hers, wary and full of pain.

Before he could interrupt and shut her down, she continued. “All I was trying to do was clear out whatever awkwardness was between us before your family, or my sister, noticed. I understand you’ve been through hell, and I’m not asking you to go through it again, but I want you to know that I don’t regret our time together at all, no matter how awkward things are now.”

“I don’t, either.” His voice was so quiet, she almost missed it.

Dem had gone back to staring at his coffee now that she was done talking. She desperately wanted him to look at her again, for those rich midnight eyes to explore her own. They didn’t budge from the mug of coffee, though, and she had to stifle her disappointment.

Aster knew why she’d picked today to come talk to Dem. She just hadn’t wanted to admit it to herself. Today, with Hal being gone, was perfect for this exact situation, so once they were done here, she could go back to the house and cry without that gentle giant hovering over her.

She’d known in her gut that Dem was going to reject her, but part of her had held out hope that the time they’d spent together was just as amazing for him as it was for her, and that it could possibly happen again, and again, until they were finally satisfied. She hadn’t wanted him to respond this way. She’d suspected he would, but it didn’t make it sting any less.

* * *

Aster was still looking at him. He could feel her warm amber eyes on him. She unnerved Dem. Whenever he was around her, his heart decided to beat out of time and his brain went fuzzy, like static on the TV. She wanted more from him, more words, more looks, more everything, but he couldn’t give it. If he did, he might not be able to stop.

When he’d seen her standing on his doorstep, his brain had flashed images into his head of the night they’d spent together, and it hadn’t stopped since. All he could think about was her blonde hair splayed out underneath her in golden waves, highlighting her liquid-gold eyes as he claimed every inch of her flesh as his own. She was his own personal siren, but the rocks by her shore would be deadly for him. He couldn’t risk getting attached.

He stood and started pacing, unable to quiet his mind as every cell in his body yearned for him to touch her, to take her. Dem had already calculated exactly how far away the bedroom was, which was why they were drinking coffee out here. It was as far away from his bed as he could get in the house. If she hadn’t been wearing a sweater that looked a few sizes too big for her, then he wouldn’t have been able to resist her.

She was so opposite from his Isa that it was almost comical. Isa had been tall and elegant, with legs that went on for days and stick-straight ebony hair. Aster was short and blonde and a ray of sunshine in his otherwise gray life. He didn’t know what to do with her—well, that wasn’t entirely true. He did know what to do with her, but he didn’t know how to handle this emotionally. Something he would never admit to anyone except her, mainly because he believed she had a right to know.

“I want to be friends. Is that okay?” Her honeyed voice shocked him out of his thoughts. If he hadn’t spent time with her already, she would have sounded insincere, but he knew that her voice just sounded like that. She had yet to say anything to him that she didn’t mean; at least, that he could tell.

“Of course.” He turned to her then, her eyes piercing his own with their fear and disappointment.

He’d known it was a risk telling her the truth, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie to her.

“I should get back. If Hal comes home and I’m not there, he’s going to worry.”

As she stood, she shoved her hands into the kangaroo pocket of the sweater and gnawed on her lower lip.

“Okay.” His desire for her was liable to get the better of him if she didn’t leave soon, anyway.

Aster brushed past him, smelling of lavender and something sweet. His hand had connected with her upper arm before he even knew he’d reached out. She stopped and turned to him, her amber eyes gazing up at him as his breathing increased.

He leaned down and brushed his lips to hers. She readily accepted. His tongue was out and claiming her mouth while his hands tangled in the hair at the nape of her neck.

Gods, she kissed as if this was her last wish. Every ounce of her body pressed against him, her nipples poking through the fabric of the sweater as he crushed her against his chest.

“Dem . . .” She sighed his actual name this time, and it went straight to his cock. How could he resist her?

As their tongues danced and their bodies moved against each other, he knew he should stop before he took her to bed and made her his. He just didn’t want to. When her hands reached around and grabbed his ass, pressing him tightly to her, it was his turn to groan.

“By the gods, Aster, if you don’t stop, I’m taking you to bed.”

“So don’t stop,” she breathed against his lips, her breath a warm caress.

“I have to. I shouldn’t do this,” he said in between kisses. “We can’t do this.”

She pulled away from him as if he’d slapped her. Guilt crawled over his skin.

“Why did you start, then?” She put her hands on her hips, accentuating the small frame hidden under the sweatshirt.

“Because I can’t resist you. It’s why I’ve been staying away, why I haven’t come to talk to you about this.” He gestured between them.

“Screw you, Dem. Oh wait, I already did.” Venom dripped from her voice. “Don’t start shit you can’t finish. And this,” she said, mimicking his gesture, “will never happen again, so don’t worry.”

“Aster . . .” he called out to her as she started to walk away.

“I don’t know how long I’m going to be on the island, but while I’m here, let’s just stay out of each other’s way, okay?”

She didn’t turn around as she spoke and was out of the door before he could even think of a way to respond. Usually he didn’t suck so badly at communicating. His brain just couldn’t work around her.

Chapter 14

Hal was exhausted. He’d jumped from the island to a number of different stores and back again to pick things up for Robin. The woman had nothing, not a shred of clothing, that she could call her own. He just hadn’t been able to leave her like that. So he’d spent the morning shopping for her, unwilling to risk taking her off the island.

Now, she was in front of him, ensconced in one of the oversized armchairs, clad in the jeans, T-shirt, and hoodie he’d picked out for her. It gave him a strange sense of pride to know she was happy with his choices, that they fit her personality and she wasn’t repulsed by them.

The glasses he had gotten for her were the biggest achievement. He had picked out a couple different frames and hadn’t told her which were his favorites. The soft, almost pink-colored frames were rounded and made her look like a sexy but elegant librarian. They were slightly too big for her face, but she said she loved them, which made his heart swell with honor. The frames were perfect for her, and they had been his favorite all along.

He’d noticed that they’d both calmed down once she’d had some clothing that covered her better. She had surprised him earlier with how up front she was about what she wanted. He wasn’t used to it, but he appreciated it. As someone who felt as if he was constantly missing part of the conversation, he valued honesty above all else.

As his family started to trickle into the living room, Robin put her book down, evaluating each one of them. He watched her in turn, noticing the slight adjustments she made with her body, seeming to indicate whether or not she was comfortable. Aster was close by her side but jumped up as soon as her sister walked in. They exchanged a brief but intense hug before sitting next to each other.

It had taken Hal a while to get used to Cin, especially after she became a full fury. While her outer temperament hadn’t changed, he could feel the side that sought justice battering against his senses. The need to leave the room was almost unbearable, but this was too important to be derailed by his sensitivity to intense emotions.

Finally, Dem skulked in to prop up a wall, with Alec and Ellie just behind him. The petite, curvaceous woman sent a warm smile in Robin’s direction. Hal had always liked being around Ellie. Maybe it was the Fae in her, but the vibes she put out were always pleasant and calm. Alec’s hand never left the small of her back. Jealousy flared within him. He’d wanted something like that for so long. Could it finally be within his reach? Or were the fates just teasing him?

“So, everyone, this is Robin.” Hal gestured to the wide-eyed redhead in the armchair and did a quick round of introductions for her benefit. “Now, she has something she would like to share with us.” As he spoke, Hal walked over and sat next to her in the spot Aster had vacated, resting a hand on her back for encouragement.

“Hi!” She gave a little wave as she glanced around with eyes so wide, they bordered on panic. “Um, ok, so, here’s the thing.” Robin tucked an errant lock of hair behind her ear before continuing. “The Order of Talos is huge. They have very powerful people all over the world. Not only that but they are tapping into magic from different magical beings. Before you guys rescued me, Randall took me to a meeting of members of the Order. Apparently they were giving their approval for me to be an initiate, not that I had a choice.” She raised her hands defensively as a couple of his brothers took breaths to speak.

Hal glared at them until they shut their mouths. This was her show.

“So they were all mad at him for what happened at The Farm. It completely spooked them and made them concerned about the safety of their Keys, which I thought was weird. Anyway, after the meeting, where I was treated more like livestock than anything else, he took me to an estate in England that had a cavern deep underground where his Key resided. The crazy thing is, the Key is a person, and not just any person.”

Hal couldn’t help but smile as she became more animated as she spoke.

“I’m ninety percent sure that Randall’s key is the Lady of the Lake, Nimue. I couldn’t remember where I knew the name from at first, but once I had time to think, I knew it was her. The thing that is mind-blowing is that she has been held prisoner down there for centuries, and the member of the Order who is assigned to her can siphon power from her, basically using her life force to power whatever they want.

“So, when Randall fought Hal and Thad at The Farm, he used her magic to make himself stronger and faster, and then again to open the portal. As a side note, I want to try and rescue her. I know we should wait for Randall to cool off so he’s not suspicious, but I would really appreciate your help with it. Oh, and the other crazy thing is that each member of the Order has a Key. I’m not sure if they are all as powerful as Nimue, but they are all magical beings.” She put air quotes around the word “Key” as though she wanted to emphasize that she didn’t like the term.

The whole room remained silent when she finished speaking, as though they were waiting for another bombshell to hit. She glanced up at Hal with questioning eyes. He nodded and rubbed her back.

“That’s a lot to take in,” Thad said eventually, with a quiet voice.

“Tell me about it. You guys got all the data from my server, right?”

“Uh, yeah, that shit is nuts. We haven’t downloaded it all yet, but we’ve taken a look at it,” Alec pipped up.

“I need to download it and get it somewhere secure. You have no idea how far Eclipse’s reach is.” She hugged her arms around herself briefly. “They have a finger in every pot, in every type of business. Everything from donating to political campaigns, to sponsoring startups, to backing breakout artists. I mean, even real estate. They literally have an investment in every aspect of your lives.”

They all watched Robin with wide eyes. She had so much insight she could offer that they might actually be able to do some damage for once, instead of just rescuing individuals. When Ellie gasped, their heads collectively whipped in her direction.

“Eclipse is who had tried to buy the shop. I never put the two together until now.”

“Someone tried to buy the shop?” Hal didn’t remember Ellie mentioning it before.

She nodded. “Before I came over to the US, I received an offer to purchase Speak o’ the Devil, but it had certain conditions that I couldn’t live with.”

“Like what?”

“I couldn’t take any of Granddad’s personal effects from the store. If I agreed, the sale would have taken place immediately, locking me out forever.” She got a little choked up toward the end.

Alec reached out and tugged her into an embrace.

“That’s exactly the kind of stuff Randall does. He works to acquire magical items, places, and, of course, people.” Something chimed over by Thad and Cin, but Hal ignored it and focused on Robin. “Nothing is sacred to him, and I think, from the brief bit of data I saw while at The Farm, they are working on other ways for humans to access that magic.”

Hal watched as Robin’s face fell, her eyes searching everyone in the room. The beautiful red color bled from her hair; the silvery white hair that remained was like moonlight on a lake, pale and fragile. Dark circles bloomed around her eyes, and her face paled as it seemed to sink in on itself, before she curled herself into a ball and released the most godawful sound he’d ever heard. He could practically hear it clawing its way out of her, like she had no control over her body.

All his brothers were staring at Robin and glancing at him as though they expected him to know what was going on. Nothing could be further from the truth. When he looked around the room to see if he could figure out what was causing it, he realized Cin had gone almost completely fury. Her wings were still folded behind her back, but her eyes were completely black and her tattoos shifted on her skin.

“Uh, Thad?” Hal nodded toward Cin.

As soon as Thad turned around and saw his soulmate, he went into full battle stations mode. He stood and pulled Cin along with him, dragging her out the door as her focus remained on Robin, who was still screaming. It wasn’t a normal sound. Hal’s ears felt like they wanted to burst or bleed or do something equally painful. Kneeling in front of the noise was almost like taking a bullet, but he needed to get Robin to focus on him.

Finally, when her eyes met his, he realized they were completely black as well. That wasn’t quite an adequate description, though. When she looked at him, he could feel death, a cold hard hand around his heart as he fell into the bottomless pits of her eyes. Terror washed over him, making his skin cold and clammy. What was it with the men in his family and freaky women?

Just as quickly as the screaming had started, it stopped. The darkness receded, and Robin was crying.

“Hey, you okay?” Hal kept his voice low and soft.

“Yeah, yeah, I think so.”

Hal raised an eyebrow as he looked at her.

“I’m a banshee. I scream when I sense death.” Her whole body deflated. “It was why Randall liked having me around. I was his personal death detector.” Her breathing hiccupped as she got the words out.

The tears streaming down her face made him feel like an idiot. He didn’t know how to help her.

“Do you know who’s going to die?” Dem’s gruff voice sounded over his shoulder.

It took everything Hal had not to stand up and sock his brother in the face, not that it would do any good.

“I don’t think anyone is going to die, but it was like death was here in the room with me.”

“There’s no way Thanatos or the Keres could have been here,” Dem growled.

“I don’t know who they are, but something related to death was in the room.”

“Listen, we don’t have to talk about this right now. Do you want to go and lie down or something?” Hal rubbed her arm, still squatting in front of her.

“No, it wasn’t a bad one. The last time it happened was for the two guards who died at The Farm, and that made me pass out. I’ll just go get a glass of water.”

“I can get it for you.”

“I’d rather get it myself.” She pushed herself off the chair, and though she stumbled a little at first, she righted herself and made it out the door. Hal had a feeling she just didn’t want five sets of eyes on her for a moment.

“Did you know?” Alec’s voice was quiet.

“Not exactly.” Hal shrugged, taking Robin’s chair. “She’d mentioned something about screaming before, but I wasn’t sure that was what she meant.”

“D’ye think she ken-knows she’s Fae?” Ellie seemed to catch herself from using Scottish terminology. It made Hal sad to see her trying to correct something that he thought was beautiful.

“Fae?”

“Aye, banshees, or washer women, are often thought to be part of the Fae lore. I’d be verra interested in havin’ a wee chat with her, if she’s interested.”

“I’ll ask her later. Why don’t you guys head home? I don’t want to make Robin uncomfortable.”

“Sure thing, Brother. Let me know what you find out.” Alec took his fiancée’s hand, and they walked out, perfectly at ease with each other.

“If someone’s going to die, I want to know who.” Dem scowled at him. Waves of anger and frustration washed over Hal before his brother teleported out.

Aster sat on the couch and looked at Hal.

“Well, I have nowhere to go, so you’re stuck with me. Also, I think it was Cin who brought on the scream. She got a text on her Hades-only phone and went fury before your lady friend started shrieking her head off. Not that anyone asked.” She got up and walked out.

Aster was a good head shorter than Robin but was packed with twice as much sass. Hal didn’t know how to help her. She seemed angry all the time, but even more so today. Was it because he’d been away with Robin? Or was it just more noticeable because being around Robin was a balm on his senses?

He put his head back, resting it on the back of the chair. Closing his eyes briefly, he imagined Robin sitting in the kitchen, drinking water, her delicate throat moving as she swallowed, her pale skin going back to its naturally pinkish state. Wrenching his mind away, Hal made himself stop there. If he continued, it would just turn him on, and then he’d be no good to anyone. He’d felt drawn to her as soon as he’d heard her at The Farm, and then she saved his life. Ever since that moment, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head. Hal thought it would get better once he knew she was safe and away from her tormentors.

It didn’t.

Now, he was faced with the desire to touch and taste her every time he even thought about her. And when he did? Her skin was as soft as silk, and she tasted of honey on a warm summer day. He couldn’t get enough. The tight feeling in his chest persisted, growing ever tighter the more time he spent with her. He was certain it would snap at any moment. What happened after that was anyone’s guess.

“Can we go back to the cabin?” Robin’s hoarse voice shocked him out of his reverie.

“Yep. Do you want me to jump us there?” He wanted to go to her immediately, to comfort her, to erase the exhaustion that showed in how she propped herself up at the doorframe and the way her shoulders sagged.

“Sure.” Her eyes drooped as though she could fall asleep right there.

Hal stood and scooped her into his arms, a completely unnecessary gesture, but it helped quiet the urge he had to protect her against whatever was attacking her. He took a deep breath. His lungs filled with her sweet scent, something like honey and lavender, as he wrapped the filaments of the universe around them and moved them to the cabin, directly to the bedroom.

“Take a nap. You look exhausted,” he said as he caressed her beautiful red hair.

“I am. The scream always takes it out of me.” She pulled the hoodie off and unbuttoned her jeans. Hal turned away, trying to protect her modesty. He didn’t know if she wanted him to see this or not.

Everything in him screamed at him to turn around and take her to bed, but that wasn’t who he was. This was her show. For now, he was happy to play a part, and then maybe, once she had recovered from her ordeal with Randall and the Order of Talos, he would take the initiative. Maybe.

“You can turn around, you know.”

“Are you decent?”

“No, but I’m not shy anymore, either.” Hal turned slightly but kept looking out of the windows at the front of the cabin. He’d never been more grateful that he’d built the bedroom as a loft. Movement made his eyes strain to figure out what was going on in his periphery, but he refused to look.

“Hal, less than a few hours ago, I told you I wanted to have sex with you. You’ve practically seen me naked, anyway, with what you gave me to sleep in last night. Why are you being such a prude now?”

“Because you haven’t even had a chance to process what happened to you. Plus, if you’re naked, I don’t know that I’ll be able to keep my hands off you, and that’s not fair to either of us.”

“I’m not naked.” A laugh hid in her voice, and Hal got the feeling she hadn’t had much to find humor in for the last few years.

Turning glacially slowly, he found her sitting in bed, wearing a white T-shirt, her red hair spilling over her shoulder like a waterfall, while her soft gray eyes watched him intently. Unbidden, his eyes traveled over her body, drinking in the way her breasts strained against the T-shirt, her nipples poking against the fabric, hardening under his gaze, the darker skin standing out under the thin cotton.

She had circled the blue comforter around her hips, making her look like she was sitting in water. His hands itched to touch her delicate thighs peeking through some of the folds. The neckline of her shirt had slipped off one shoulder, exposing her pale skin to him. Freckles dotted her shoulder, running up her neck and further under the T-shirt. One day he hoped to catalog each and every one of them, but for now, his eyes moved upward, taking in the soft pink of her lips begging to be kissed, before meeting her dusky gray eyes.

“Glad you’ve got something on. I’ll head downstairs and let you sleep.” His voice was husky with need even to his own ears.

“Stay.” Her voice was soft as she looked at the bedspread, fiddling with the border. When he didn’t respond, she looked up, her gaze piercing him, making it almost impossible to stand his ground. “I’ve been alone for so long that I can’t stand it anymore.” She sighed. “That’s not quite true. I can’t stand to be away from you. When I was in the kitchen, all I could think about was going back into the room with you, but I didn’t want to start screaming again if whatever triggered it was still there. I feel safe around you, Hal, and I would sleep better if you were here with me.”

“I don’t know that it’s a good idea.” He rubbed his face, trying to get his brain to focus on anything but her or the raging erection he had.

“Please.” She whispered it so quietly, he wasn’t sure whether he’d really heard her at first, or if his brain was just hearing what it wanted to.

When he looked at her, he saw the sentiment in her face. Even if she hadn’t spoken aloud, she was still asking him with her eyes.

“Fine. You are under the covers. I’m on top. That’s the rule. Clear?”

She bobbed her head, her red hair shimmering like fire in the late afternoon light.

As they both lay down, Hal could swear he felt his heart beat toward her, like his whole being was drawn to her. She curled on her side and watched him, her slate eyes scanning his features.

“Why did you come for me?” she asked softly.

“Because you came for me. As big and strong as I am, against two smaller, faster opponents, I don’t tend to fare well. You stopped them from killing my brother and me. I owe you for that. Plus, you were so damn brave.” His chest tightened as the scene replayed in his head. “Standing there offering whatever it was you were offering that scared the pants off you just to save two strangers—it was amazing. You are amazing. I couldn’t stop thinking about you the whole time you were back there. Then when Tony got your messages, it was like the path to Mount Olympus was clear, and I knew exactly what I had to do.”

“Tony?”

“The guy who owns the tattoo shop.” Hal chuckled. “He said he was going to start charging us rent if we were planning on using him as a messenger service. Not that he ever would, big softy.”

“He seems like a nice guy, from what I know of him.”

Hal quirked an eyebrow. “What do you know of him?”

“Probably a lot more than he wants me to. The man doesn’t know how to set a secure password if his life depended on it. When I first tried to contact Cin, I hacked into everything that shop had to offer, and then I hacked into her apartment. It’s cake if you know what you’re doing, but it does mean I often find out things about people they don’t want me to know.” Her whole face was animated as she talked about hacking into this and that.

Hal didn’t really know the first thing about computers. That was more Alec and Thad’s department. He knew how to heal, how to mend the broken things in people, both physically and emotionally. If he had to guess, he’d say that was why Robin was so drawn to him. One day soon he was going to have to offer his services to her, but then she would see him for exactly what he was—a siren who could use water to heal, and not much else, since people didn’t really enchant things anymore. It killed him that he couldn’t use his gift on just anyone, but they couldn’t risk exposure. It felt so selfish to him, but there wasn’t a way around it.

“I’m not sure I want to know any more about Tony than I already do,” Hal said, bringing his mind back to the topic at hand.

“I feel that way about most people.” She looked down. The hand that wasn’t tucked under her head played with the edge of the comforter. “Not you, though. I’d like to know more.”

When she said more, it turned into a big yawn.

“Well, maybe after your nap. Right now, you need sleep more than you need to know anything else about me.”

Her eyes closed, and she snuggled slightly closer to him, still not touching, but close enough that he couldn’t resist running his fingers through her hair.

“That’s nice,” she mumbled as he brushed some strands behind her shoulder, exposing the pale skin around the neck of the T-shirt. The burst of freckles he had noticed earlier started at her shoulder and traveled up behind her ear. He’d never seen anything like it. A deep wave of contentment washed over Hal, and he relaxed onto the bed beside Robin.

Chapter 15

Robin went to readjust her sleeping position, but something warm and heavy lay over her stomach. She cracked her eyes open to find Hal’s arm wrapped around her and one of his legs between hers while his other arm scooped over their heads. He protected her even when he slept. Her heart beat a little staccato rhythm at that thought.

She’d been attracted to him when she had first seen him, even though at the time, she was also scared out of her mind. His fighting skills and stamina against Randall had been jaw-dropping, as well as his devotion to his brother. When Thad went down in the fight, Hal had drawn Randall and Norman away from his prone form, protecting him the only way he could at the time.

He was massive at her back. It was like there was a wall there, not another person, and the heat radiating off him was intense; it explained why they were now skin to skin instead of having the comforter between them like he’d wanted. She wanted to roll over and face him, but that would probably wake him up, and then a bedspread would replace his skin, which was the last thing she wanted.

If he thought she was too traumatized by the recent events in her life, then as far as she was concerned, he was wrong. She’d been living at and working for Eclipse and Randall for most of her adult life. It wasn’t so much trauma at this point as it was just something she wanted to move on from. She knew it would always be part of her, but she finally felt alive again, as if being at Eclipse had all been a dream. Of course, she knew better, but the more she thought about it, the less she felt about it.

His leg hiked up, nudging her thighs further apart and scattering the thoughts in her head. Apparently at some point he’d taken the jeans and T-shirt off that he had been wearing when he lay down next to her. The hairs on his legs tickled, but she relished the contact. She sighed. Being around Hal was like constantly being in a bubble bath, or at least, what she remembered bubble baths to be like. Warmth and relaxation flooded her body, along with desire whenever he touched her.

Winding her fingers with his, she brought his hand up to her mouth and kissed his knuckles. The size of his hand compared to hers made her want to laugh. She wriggled down so her butt was against his groin. The hard line of steel that she felt there made her heart flip-flop in her chest and her body coil tight and hot.

“Robin?” Hal’s sleepy voice came from just above her head.

She pressed her hips back against him with a little shimmy, and a low groan sounded from him, vibrating through his chest into her, stoking the flames of her hunger for him. Now that he was awake, she rolled to face him, throwing a leg over his hips so he pressed against her.

“Hey there, sleepyhead.” Her hand ran up his side, delighting in the soft golden skin that she could touch.

“Robin.” He cleared his throat. “If you don’t stop, I won’t be able to, either.”

“Good. I don’t want you to.”

His greenish-blue eyes stared down at her, hooded from his own desire. His head bent to hers in what felt like slow motion. When his lips finally brushed hers, it sent a shockwave through her body. Her body melded to his as she kissed him back. The kiss wasn’t delicate or nervous; no, her kiss was a devouring, undeniable beast, and once loosed, it couldn’t be reined in until it had what it wanted. She let go of her restraints, letting her mouth and hands do as they wanted. Her tongue swept through his mouth, tangling with his own as her hands gripped his shoulders before going in search of those squeezable butt cheeks she’d seen earlier.

Without realizing it, she had rolled herself on top of him. Now his hands were the ones at liberty to explore. He was tentative at first, but as he began to relax, his hands slid down to her own butt, cupping and squeezing in a way that made her feel like her blood was on fire. She made encouraging noises into his mouth as she continued to kiss him silly. Pulling herself tightly onto his hips, she could feel every part of his erection pressing at the panties and boxers that separated them. His hips ground up against her, and she gasped with pleasure, her brain shorting out every time he did so. Her hands sought out his nipples and found them hard and waiting for some attention. Each time she ran her fingers over them, his body jerked deliciously underneath her and he grunted his enjoyment.

His hands traveled up, coming around and holding her breasts, which felt heavy and overly sensitive under his touch. The moment he mimicked her movements, running his fingers across her nipples, her body spasmed and she found herself grinding against him, her panties getting in the way of what she really wanted. If nothing else, she wanted to get rid of the T-shirt she was wearing, so she sat up as his cock pressed against her even harder, making her want to laugh with pleasure and scream with frustration at the same time. Whipping the T-shirt over her head, she looked down at Hal. A look of adoration was plainly on his face, making her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.

Hal sat up to meet her. She wrapped her legs around his back as he dropped his head to lick her nipples. Little bolts of lightning shot through her every time he rolled a nipple with one hand and sucked on the other. The pleasure was exquisite, especially when paired with the gentle rocking he was doing as his erection rubbed against her core. Her breathing had turned into panting as her body became tight with need.

He flipped them both over again so he was on top, kissing his way down her body. The stubble on his cheeks scratched lusciously against her inner thighs as he kissed his way up to her hips. She couldn’t believe what he was doing. Her heart beat in her throat at the thought of what he might do next. When his kisses followed the edge of her panties, she thought she might black out from the pleasure, and then his mouth landed directly over her hot center, leaving her dizzy with enjoyment.

A low sound emanated from Hal. “Robin, I could eat you up, if you’d let me. Your scent is intoxicating.” He nipped at the band of her panties.

She reached down and began pushing them down, trying not to think about the words that he had just spoken, since it might push her over the edge. He took the hint and pulled the scrap of clothing all the way down, fingers trailing behind it along her legs. Finally she was free, naked and bared to him. She had never felt anything so erotic as Hal looking at her, lust naked on his face.

“Take your boxers off.” Her voice sounded like it belonged to someone else, rough and deep.

He smiled at her then, and her heart almost gave out. One man should not be allowed to be so irresistible. The boxers were gone before she even noticed what color they were, and his erection now stood proud and free. She gulped. True, she wasn’t a virgin, but she hadn’t had sex in just over nine years. While her body demanded it, she also knew that she would be tight, and judging by Hal’s cock, it was going to be a close fit. Her eyes skated all over his body, unable to stay in one place for too long because he was moving toward her. The tattoos on his thighs ran up to his waist, and she couldn’t wait to study them in detail. But just then, his face filled her vision, and his eyes captivated her.

She had never seen anything like them before—the greens and blues swirled together in a way that made her want to stare at them for hours. His head dropped and his hands gripped her thighs, spreading her open to him. As his stubble scraped her inner thighs once more, she held her breath in anticipation.

The first kiss was the softest thing she’d ever felt, so gentle and delicate, she had to look down to make sure it was still Hal. His eyes met hers, burning with desire, making her skin feel hot. She watched as his tongue came out and licked her most sensitive area, circling her clit maddeningly slowly. Blinding pleasure flowed through her entire body as her head fell back down onto the pillow. She couldn’t even control the sounds she was making as he continued to lick and suck on her. Robin could barely register anything other than the sensations of Hal’s tongue on her body, and then he eased a finger into her, and her world threatened to explode with joy.

Before it could, everything came crashing down. Pain burst out from the scar on her back, and her whole world was nothing but pain. She could feel herself screaming once more, and Hal’s urgent pleas to tell him what was wrong. She couldn’t form words, though, couldn’t even form thoughts that could become words. Everything was searing pain, which focused to a single point on her body—the scar on her back.

Chapter 16

Robin was screaming again, and Hal had no clue what to do. Again. Frustration whipped through him sharper than a knife.

“Rin! Robin, talk to me!”

He could tell she was trying to form words, but the pain was too overwhelming. Standing, Hal pulled on his boxers and jumped downstairs, grabbing ice and wetting a towel with cold water. If nothing else, he could try to ease the pain. Last time, it had been the markings on her back that hurt; he was willing to bet the same thing was happening again. Whatever it was, it seemed to happen when they were close to having sex, or just being intimate with each other.

She wouldn’t have been able to see them, or at least, not very well, with the markings being on her back, going up into her hairline. Hal was going to take a damned good look at them once the pain subsided and try to figure out what was going on with them.

Hal jumped back upstairs. Robin’s scream had quieted into groans as she rocked herself, trying to soothe whatever was happening inside her.

“I’ve got some ice, Rin. I’m going to put it on your back to try and help, okay?”

She nodded, although her eyes were still squeezed shut.

He gently rolled her onto her stomach and laid the towel-wrapped packet of ice over the mark while running the cold, damp towel over her forehead. Fraction by fraction, he could see her muscles relax, the tension that had gripped them while she was in pain fading away before his eyes.

A weight he hadn’t realized was there eased off his heart. He hadn’t expected the fear. He was usually pretty clear-headed in a crisis, but when it came to Robin, he was swamped with emotions he never expected. At that moment, it was fear that he would lose her when he hadn’t even had a chance to help her live again now that she was free.

Eventually, after a few incredibly long minutes, Robin’s face turned toward him.

“Thanks,” she croaked out.

“Any time, although I would rather this not happen to you at all.”

“Me too.” She laughed, but with how raw her throat was, it sounded almost like a cough instead. She took a few deep breaths and sat up to face him.

Even now she was stunning. Hal had to keep his mind focused on the mission, and currently the mission was to find out what the hell was happening to Robin. “Do you have any idea what’s causing it?”

“It’s something to do with the mark.”

“I figured that much, but why at those specific moments?” Hal rubbed the back of his neck. He was getting a bad feeling about this.

“Your guess is as good as mine. The only thing we can do is find Nimue. I’m hoping that since she put it on, we can get her to take it off. I promised her that when I escaped, I’d find a way to go back for her. I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. I figured Randall would be more guarded when I ran away, but now I don’t care. Screw being cautious—I want to rescue Nimue and get this damn mark off my back.”

“Right. Find the Lady of the Lake. Shouldn’t be difficult. It’s not like people have been searching for her for centuries or anything.”

This time Robin did laugh, and her whole body shook with it, which was incredibly distracting since she was still naked.

Hal focused his mind on the task. “Would you mind if I looked at it with my healing abilities? I probably can’t fix it, but it couldn’t hurt to try.”

“If you think it can help.” She nodded.

Jumping downstairs, he grabbed a glass of water before jumping back to Robin. Calling his powers forth, he could feel the water all around him. Each droplet, each speck, everything. The moisture from Robin’s breath, the rain threatening to fall above them, the waves lapping in the lake behind the house. If he focused, he could find water almost anywhere. He centered on the water in the glass, bending it to his will, pulling it upward and around to her back.

The cool water lay across her skin, showing him in his mind’s eye the shape of the mark. What he had first thought was one single scar was in fact layers of scars on top of one another, each one slightly different from the last, appearing to contain symbols eerily familiar to him. He couldn’t place them, but he knew they were familiar. If he saw them again, he would know.

Hal pulled the water together under her skin, trying to heal the scar; after all, it was only a few days old, if that. They were something only magic could create. Doing something like this without magic would be excruciating and would take much longer, years probably, since the skin would have to heal before the next markings could be made. The fact that the Lady of the Lake had done this in moments spoke to her power. If they could wrest her from the grasp of the Order of Talos, that would be a severe blow to them.

Knitting the skin together didn’t work, and neither did trying to heal the skin around the scarring.

Pulling the water off her back and putting it into the glass once more, Hal sighed. “You’re right. If we want to get this fixed, we will need to get Nimue.”

Robin nodded. The only problem was they had no idea where the estate was.

* * *

Anger was a living, breathing thing within Dem. It had been ever since Aster had yelled at him. His mind swirled with images of Isabeau and Aster. Two vastly different women, yet both had drawn him. They were irresistible and inescapable. The trouble was, Dem had been down this road before. Isa had been the light of his life, and she had been taken away.

Her ebony locks were always at the corner of his sight, but when he turned his head, she was never there. Zeus had made sure of that.

The big Z-man had tormented her into madness. At first, it was little things—talking to her without taking physical form, moving objects around the room. Over time, she began to spend more and more time with Dem, since that was when she didn’t hear the voices. The few times that Dem wasn’t around, Zeus often took his form, seducing his lovely Isa, or yelling at her, tearing at her emotions like tissue. When he realized what had been happening, Dem had confronted Zeus himself.

It didn’t go well.

Zeus had warned them all a long time ago not to get attached to mortals or they would face the consequences, but Dem couldn’t resist Isa.

They had met on a train while he was tracking down one of Dionysus’ cats. A leopard, or maybe a panther. Either way, he couldn’t rely on teleporting to a location, so he had to take the train, which was frustrating. At least, until he saw Isa. She sat next to a window, her hair glowing in the sunlight. Her light-blue eyes had been lined with black and a dark eye shadow smudged on the lid. He remembered so clearly because she was one of the first women he had seen so made up. Her cherry red lips had captivated him, making it impossible not to introduce himself.

It was all downhill from there, though. The closer they got, the more Zeus interfered, the more he played mind games with Isa.

Dem shook his head. He couldn’t let himself get lost in the what-ifs of his relationship with her. They were together for as long as they could be, and then he took care of her as best as he could.

Aster was a different story.

He paced up and down his home, trying to think of anything but the petite blonde who had infused his life with confusion. When they had first met, they both knew it was supposed to be a single night of passion. It wasn’t as if he had hidden that from her. They had both agreed, but that single night had turned into a weekend, and even then it was a challenge to drag himself away.

Seeing his family expanding was a punch in the gut. Why now? How had Zeus’ powers deteriorated so much in the last two centuries?

First it was Ellie, and then Cin, and now, if he was judging his brother’s expressions correctly, possibly Robin? Each of them were nails in the coffin of his heart. But then, Aster seemed to be right behind them, pulling the nails out again. Light and energy suffused any room she stepped into, making him crave her like the warmth of summer after a long winter.

He didn’t remember jumping, but he was standing in Hal’s kitchen, looking at a surprised Aster.

“What the hell, Dem?” Irritation flowed through her, making her amber eyes glow.

“Sorry. I—”

He took in the scene completely, and for a moment, his heart stuttered in his chest. Her skintight leggings and sports-bra-clad body made his brain blank out as all the blood in his head rushed south. Her long, wavy blonde hair was scooped up into a messy ponytail, and sweat glistened on her skin. He could lick it off; that was how much he wanted her.

“I’m waiting!”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay.” His mind made his mouth move and sounds came out, but he was still dumbfounded by her beauty.

“As you can see, I’m fine, so why don’t you just go back to being a jackass in your own home.”

“Is Hal here?”

“No. He and Robin have vanished again. I don’t know where they are going, but it’s fine by me. Means I get this whole place to myself.” She sipped on her water bottle, the moisture clinging to her dusky pink lips.

His pants were uncomfortably tight.

“Aster, I’m sorry—”

“You have nothing to apologize for. You made it perfectly clear how you want us to be with each other, and now I suggest you follow your own advice. Go home, Dem, before we both make a mistake.”

She had come around the edge of the counter, approaching him as she spoke.

His hand snaked out and wrapped around her waist. “You mean like this?”

Dem’s mouth crushed Aster’s, her soft pillowy lips giving way under his own insistent ones.

Her body reacted immediately, relaxing into him, pressing against him, her skin, slightly sticky under his hands, only turned him on even more. Everything about her was an aphrodisiac, making his body and mind react in ways they hadn’t for centuries.

His tongue was twined with hers when her hands came up, pushing against his chest. He relented. He’d never force himself on a woman. She wanted him; he could practically scent her arousal in the air.

“Dem, that was a mistake. We can’t do this. You made that clear. And I’m certainly not going to be second prize for anyone. We just need to forget about the weekend and this and try to live normal lives next to each other.”

She backed away, her lips swollen from his kiss.

He wanted to curse and rage, but she was right. Aster didn’t deserve to be second place behind Isa. No one deserved that. Just because they had amazing chemistry and phenomenal sex didn’t mean they would be good together or good for each other.

Her liquid-gold eyes searched his, and his heart broke as he jumped out.

* * *

“Can’t you just do a tracking spell or something?” Robin’s voice was tight with frustration.

Hal knew that this was an almost impossible task, but they didn’t have another choice. “I wish it were that easy, but we don’t have anything from the house, unless you’ve been holding out on me?”

“No. Can’t you use my scar?”

Hal thought for a moment. “Maybe, but we would have to take a sample of it, which wouldn’t exactly be pleasant for you. Otherwise, we would just go everywhere you’ve been your whole life.”

“Well, that’s not really much of a journey.” She let out a bitter laugh that made Hal want to pull her close and kiss away all the bad memories.

She tapped the tip of her nose while she thought. “Maybe we can go about this logically. Compare properties Randall owns with locations, see if any fit the bill?”

“The last time we checked was when we were looking for Aster, and all we could find was the Eclipse headquarters in Boston and the farm up in New Hampshire.”

“Yes, but you went the simple route. Can you get me a laptop?”

“Sure, you can borrow Alec’s or something.”

“Would he mind if I put some software on it?” Her nose tapping had slowed as she thought.

“I can ask.” Hal shrugged. He wasn’t sure what Robin was up to, but she definitely had an idea of some kind.

An hour and an exhaustive conversation later, Hal was back with the laptop.

“I thought I’d lost you.” Robin smiled, but her brows pinched together in concern.

“Me? Never.” He smiled at her, big and goofy, which earned him a true smile from her in return. “The laptop, as my lady requested. It’s yours from now on.”

“Mine?”

“Alec used it as an excuse to buy a new one, not that Ellie was super happy about the idea. Since it was going to good use, she didn’t object too much, so now it’s yours.”

“Wow.” She was quiet for a few moments. “Thank you, Hal, really.” She stood up and hugged him.

He wrapped his arms around her tiny frame, pressing her to him like the precious thing she was. Her emotions were still tinged with darkness, but whenever he made her happy, some of it seemed to fall away. The light inside her was able to shine through a little more.

The air between them changed, their emotions charging the space with their desire. Even if he could never bed her, he would never turn her away. She was becoming more important to him the more time he spent around her. She made him feel real, whole. His hands came up and tangled in her red hair, brushing it away from her face.

“Robin . . .” he started, but he didn’t know what to say, how to put into words what he was feeling without sounding selfish, without taking away the time she needed to process what had happened to her.

“I know, me too.” She raised up on her tiptoes, but even that wasn’t enough. Her hand wrapped around the back of his neck and pulled him down into a kiss so utterly sweet and filled with emotion that it left him breathless.

As they pulled away, Hal felt overly conscious of the mark on her back, like it was watching them, waiting for them to get close enough again that it could cause her pain, make her associate him with pain. That was something he wouldn’t stand for. If he could never touch her again, that would be fine so long as she didn’t associate him with the pain the mark caused her.

He handed the laptop over and couldn’t help but notice the glee in her face as she sat down on the couch and cracked it open. The scoop-neck T-shirt had seemed like such a good idea when he’d bought it for her, but now it was just laughing at him, tempting him with the creamy soft skin he couldn’t touch.

Walking away, he went to get them both drinks. By the time he came back, she was laser-focused on what was in front of her. He sat next to her on the couch, their thighs brushing against each other, practically burning him when they touched. Robin didn’t seem to notice, though. She twirled some of her red hair between her fingers as something downloaded while she sporadically typed code in another window.

“So, what’s your plan?”

“Hum?” Her eyes took a second to focus on him.

“What’s your plan? How are we going to find the estate?”

“Oh!” A wide, slightly menacing grin spread over her face. “We’re going to follow the money.”

When he didn’t immediately understand the idea, she backtracked and explained it to him.

“I figure he’s got to pay people to take care of the house, right? So, I’m going to hack into Randall’s computer and access his bank statements, and then I’m going to dig until I find Eclipse’s financial records, flagging any transactions going to England. It might be a lot from Eclipse, but I have a feeling that the estate would be under Randall’s personal purview with it being so closely associated with the Order and everything. Plus, I can’t imagine him having a ton of transactions to England.”

Devious and crazy smart. “I like it.” He grinned at her and saw her gulp. Whatever else he knew, she liked his smile. “How are you going to hack into his stuff?”

“I’m going to do some penetration testing to see where the weak points are, and then exploit those to gain access to the system, and then I have another piece of software I can use to crack his password. I doubt Randall is that creative, so it shouldn’t be hard.”

Hal shook his head. He wasn’t exactly sure what she just said, but he knew it was a skill set not everyone had. “How’d you learn this stuff?”

“I was going for a college scholarship. I love computers, so I started teaching myself everything I could about them. Plus, I figured they were only going to get more important to society, so it would be a stable job field. I dabbled in some white-hat hacking on the side, just do-gooder stuff, nothing bad. The bad came later once I was inside Eclipse. I wrote programs that hid my activities and allowed me limited access to things outside Eclipse’s network. It was the only way I stayed sane. Without it, I probably would have pushed Randall too far a long time ago.”

“Pushed him too far?”

“There were rumors of his previous assistants vanishing, never being heard from again, not that I thought he would do that to me with my . . .”—she paused, as if looking for the right word—“unique skill set. If I pushed him too hard, though? Well, since he controlled every aspect of my life, he could make it a living hell.”

Rage flowed through Hal at the thought of Robin being treated that way. The energy buzzed in his system like bees after something disturbed the hive. “I’m going to go for a run.”

She looked at him for a moment, concern tracing her delicate features. “Okay, you’d probably be bored here, anyway.”

Chapter 17

Hal finished his run and was back at the cabin a couple hours later. Sweat trickled down his back as he stood on the deck. He’d taken his shirt off a long time ago and now used it as a towel. The workout had been tough, the anger that had welled up inside him pushing him harder than usual. Every step, every movement, had been an exercise in not immediately running back to check on Robin, trying to keep his mind off her, but everything about her had invaded his senses. From the way she smelled to the way she moved, and he couldn’t even think about the way she tasted. Gods, when he had been licking her core, it was like tasting ambrosia itself. All he wanted to do was strip her naked and devour her. Rage twisted in his stomach. If he did that, it would cause her pain, again.

That above all else was something he could not abide.

The sun was setting, its orange and pink rays staining the sky over the ocean. He wanted to fly, to show Robin everything he loved about his life, but he also didn’t want to scare her. He turned to go back inside only to find her watching him. Robin’s hair glowed red in the dusk light, which only highlighted her delicate skin.

Her gray eyes raked over his body, causing a rush of blood south, naked lust showing on her face. Pride filled him; it was good to know she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Now they just had to keep their hands off each other until they got this thing with her mark figured out.

Opening the door, Hal had to move past Robin and keep her out of arm’s length. Otherwise, he knew he would pull her to him and would only stop when the mark made them. That thought was enough to cool the flames of his fire.

“How was your run?” Her voice was deeper than normal, betraying her arousal to his ears.

“Good.” Hal turned toward her after pouring himself a glass of water. “How’s the hacking?”

“It’s getting there. I think I have some promising leads, but I would like you to go over me—I mean, go over them with me.” A blush stained her cheeks, and he couldn’t help but chuckle. They both knew where her thoughts were, and it had definitely gone past the PG rating, maybe even PG-13. Gods, what he wouldn’t give to know what was going on in that sharp mind of hers.

“Sure thing. Let me just wash up.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I probably stink after that workout.” Hal stuck his nose down by his armpit. Yep, definitely not a spring day down there.

Robin tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I like the way you smell.” The blush returned tenfold. “I’m not used to being around it. Helps me remember where I am and who I’m with.”

“Then I will be as stinky as you want.” He grinned at her. “Want me to go do another five miles?”

“No, you goofball. I want you here with me.” She paused. “Helping me.” The last part seemed to be an afterthought.

Hal was starting to suspect he was just as much under her skin as she was under his. He was overly conscious of his scent now, but if she liked it, he would get sweaty every day. Sitting on the couch next to her, he could swear he saw her pupils dilate as her eyes ran down his body once more.

“So what have you got?” If he didn’t distract them both, there would be hell to pay.

Wrenching her eyes away from him, she said, “Well, as I suspected, Eclipse has a ton of charges going overseas, many to the UK specifically, but Randall doesn’t have as many. There are only a few that are regular charges, which I think we should investigate.”

She clicked around on the computer screen, pulling up a cascade of windows that she began tabbing through as she talked. “There’s this one, which I think is the most promising. It’s a property management company, so they could contract out to staff and all kinds of people. My mom was a cleaner for a while, and companies like this one would have her come in and clean either before the place was put up for rent or if there was some reason the owners couldn’t care for it. Then there are the actual cleaning companies. I found four total, most of which are only paid once or twice a year at most, so I am less hopeful about those. Apparently, he owns a horse too, so there are regular payments going to a stable for the care and boarding of the animal. Then there is this.” Robin maximized the window she was talking about. “I have no idea what it is, and it would be impossible to find out without raising about a thousand red flags, but it’s a crap load of money.”

When Hal’s eyes adjusted to the figure, he let out a low whistle. It was most definitely a lot of money, even by his standards, and he had more money than he knew what to do with. His was all in savings, though. He kept a pretty low budget for himself, just in case the gods ever decided to pull the rug out from under them.

“What the hell could he be doing with that amount of cash?”

“I was thinking maybe it’s membership dues for the Order? Or maybe he’s renting the estate and the owners charge an insane amount every six months? I honestly have no idea. I tracked it as far as I could, but nothing. No combination of the code above yielded any kind of useful results. They were all just random, unrelated things.”

“Well, let’s start with the property management companies, see what we can find out from them and go from there.”

“Okay.” She paused, looking at him as though she was embarrassed to say whatever was on her mind.

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you have a phone that can make international calls?”

“Oh, yeah, use my cell.” Hal grabbed his phone from the pocket of the jeans he had been wearing earlier and handed it to her, watching something that appeared small in his own hands change to something that appeared large in hers.

“Thanks.”

With a few taps, she had pulled up the company’s website and was dialing their number. She glanced at him and put her finger to her lips, her face frozen in concentration.

“Ohmygosh, hello. Yes, I’m hoping you can help me. I’m Mr. Randall Fields’ new personal assistant, and oh my gawd, he’s going to kill me if he finds out, but he’s heading to his estate over there that you all manage, and I forgot to have something packed for him, so now I have to ship it. Is there any way you could give me that address?”

Hal’s eyebrows shot up when he heard the voice coming out of her mouth. She sounded more than a little ditzy, flustered, and overly feminine.

“Oh, yes, no, I completely understand. I just, I’m so new to this job, and he’s such a powerful man. He can be a little intimidating, you know? The last thing I want to do is mess this up.”

Hal was more than a little curious as to what the other person was saying, and was sorely tempted to lean down and listen in. That would probably distract both of them, though, so he kept his distance, even though inquisitiveness gnawed at him.

“I’m sorry. I’m really not trying to put you in a bad spot, but I’m kinda panicking over here. I mean, if I don’t get this out tonight, then he won’t have it when he arrives, and that would be the end of my career.” She sighed dramatically. “Yeah, I’m working late trying to get this taken care of. My fiancé is going to kill me if I miss the appointment at the church again, but if I don’t have a job, we won’t be able to afford the wedding, anyway.” She paused dramatically. “I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t completely desperate. Please, anything, anything at all that you could tell me would help.”

With a couple clicks, she had a blank document open on the laptop and began typing in an address.

“You are such an incredible lifesaver, you know that? I’m sure my fiancé would hug you if he could.” She giggled. “Thank you a million times over. You really just saved my career,” she gushed with a huge smile plastered on her face, which didn’t reach her eyes. “I hope you aren’t stuck there too much longer, either! Thanks again!”

She hung up and gently put the phone down, before turning and smiling genuinely at Hal.

“What was that? Were you an actress in a previous life or something?”

Robin laughed, and the sound took flight inside him. It was beautiful and pure, like the first bird calls of spring. “Just a little social engineering. Nothing major.”

“Social engineering, huh? I’ll have to remember that.”

“Please, I’m sure you’ve done something similar before.” She quirked an eyebrow at him. “You’re trying to tell me you’ve never used your good looks or charming personality to get something that you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise?”

He had—many, many times, more than he would like to admit, in fact—but he had never thought of it like that before. “Yeah, probably.”

“Right.” She grinned at him, clearly sensing that he was skirting the truth. “In other news, we now have an address!”

Before he even had a chance to respond, she had pulled up the address and was looking at it on a satellite map. She zoomed closer and closer to the little red bubble pointing to the possible location.

The map could only get so close, though. She zoomed out a little and found a main road that allowed her to zoom all the way in. The picture on the screen looked just as if they were standing there, looking down the gravel drive themselves. Wrought iron gates barred their way, but it was enough to give them a taste of the estate, and what an estate it was. The deep red of the brick facade was only accented by the stunningly green grass and the pale stone that made up the corners of the building. The towers on each side appeared to be topped with what would have been copper at one point, but were now a dull green. She zoomed out and looked at the area more closely.

“I think this is it. I can’t be sure, and I can do more digging, but my gut is telling me that this is the house he took me to. Not that house is really the right word for it.”

Hal’s phone buzzed on the table. Dem was calling. There was only one reason his brother would be calling him right now.

Bad news.

“Dem, what’s wrong?” Hal asked as he answered the phone.

“It’s Robin’s family. They’re gone.”

Robin’s form went deathly still next to him, staring at him with too-wide eyes. He squeezed her knee, trying to let her know that he understood.

“What happened?”

“Not sure. No signs of struggle. They’re just gone, but all the stuff they brought with them is still here. Something’s off, though. They wouldn’t just leave with nothing. It’s pretty much all they have.”

“Understood. We’ll be right there.”

Hal turned to Robin, who was white as a sheet and dangerously close to hyperventilating.

“Breathe, baby. We can’t help them if you lose it right now. Staying calm and figuring this out will be what gets them back.”

“He found them. I know he did.” She ran a shaky hand through her hair. “How did he find them? You told me they were safe!”

“They were. I swear to you.” Hal’s heart was breaking for her. “Let’s go to the safe house, and we can see for ourselves.”

She nodded.

“We can’t go if you’re going to freak out, though. You sure you’re good?”

A few deep breaths later, she said, “I’m good.”

Hal gripped her hand and jumped them to the safe house, wondering what the hell had happened. There was no way anyone should have found them. So where did they go?

Chapter 18

“Dem, you here, Brother?” Hal’s voice rang out next to Robin, sending a rush of anticipation down her spine.

They had arrived in the bedroom of an apartment of some kind. She could faintly hear the neighbors through the walls. It was fully furnished, with the eclectic style she recognized from the big house Hal had taken her to the first night. The scent of her mother’s perfume still hung in the air, making her stomach clench. She hadn’t seen her family since they had given her to Randall. One of her father’s shirts was draped over the back of a chair.

A swirl of emotions filled her. She wanted to be angry, to rage against the memory of him, but mainly despair clawed at her, twisting her stomach into knots at the thought of them missing. The whole reason she had agreed to come with Hal was because he promised they would be safe. She should have never left Randall, and then he wouldn’t have searched for them.

“In here.”

Robin hurried through to the open area of the apartment that housed the kitchen and living room, as well as a corner office, where Dem was standing with Thad.

“I called in reinforcements,” he grumbled.

“Hey, Brother,” Hal said as he followed Robin into the room. “Any luck?”

“Yep. Check it out.”

The air before her eyes filled with a mist-like quality, forming the shapes of her family as they sat on the couch and moved around the apartment. She had never seen anything like it. For a moment, it felt like she was watching a movie on fast forward. It slowed, and Thad said, “Here we go.”

In the image, her father was the only one present. He gingerly picked up a set of keys and his jacket, glancing over his shoulder as he moved, as though he was worried he would wake someone. Then he left. Moving faster again, the only reason Robin could tell time was passing was from the way the light in the room changed. What had been the dark of night became the bright light of day, complete with her mother and sister both pacing and wearing worried expressions.

Her heart pounded at the sight of them.

She hadn’t seen them in so long. Caitlyn was so grown up now, instead of the little wild thing who would run after her, curls bouncing behind her. Her throat tightened with tears as the reality of the time she’d missed with her family hit her. It was almost too much. She wanted to turn away, to not let her heart break anymore, but then her father returned home.

The regular screaming match occurred. Robin could guess where he’d been from his appearance, and it pissed her off. He had basically sold her to pay off his gambling debts, but it hadn’t changed a single damn thing. He was still going out and risking everything he could. She knew his addiction would one day destroy their family, and if she was honest with herself, she was surprised it hadn’t happened already.

While the images of her mother and father still yelled at each other, her little sister got up and opened the door. Robin’s blood ran cold at the sight.

Randall stood there, filling the doorway, with two security guards behind him.

“How did he find them?” she gasped.

Robin’s heart broke as she watched her mother pull at Caitlyn’s arm, trying to shield her remaining daughter with her body. Her father shook his head, his eyes wide with terror as Randall walked into the apartment. His long nimble fingers picked up pictures and ornaments, examining them with disgust as he spoke.

She wished she could hear what he was saying, but she had a pretty good guess what it was, anyway. How did they get away? Where was Robin? Did they have any contact with her? The list of questions he would be demanding answers for went on and on. The security guards had closed the door behind them, blocking, from what Robin could tell, the only entry and exit point.

The two men were in black T-shirts and cargo pants, standard Eclipse issue for people going out into the field on missions, whether it be to secure a package or track down someone like Aster. She knew they had guns on them somewhere, probably holstered on their lower backs so they didn’t cause immediate alarm.

Randall was still talking, like the narcissist he was, but when his eyes landed on Caitlyn, Robin wanted to scream. Everything she had been trying to avoid was now happening. Her sister was exactly where she shouldn’t be, in Randall Fields’ sights. Her father may have given her to the man he owed, but she had stayed to prevent her little sister from taking her place.

Hal’s arm wrapped around her shoulders as they watched Randall tug her sister out from behind her mother, evaluating her in front of her parents. It made her stomach turn.

Finally, the security guards opened the door. One left first, followed by the procession of Randall and her family, with the other guard bringing up the rear.

She stood staring at the door, as though waiting for them to come back, but she knew they were gone for good. Randall wasn’t about to give up something that would bring her back into the fold. Unless he kept her little sister. Her blood ran cold. What if she couldn’t rescue them, couldn’t offer herself up in Caitlyn’s place? What then? There was no way she would be able to let it go, but how could she fight a multinational corporation with the power to destroy what little life she had?

“What the hell happened?” Hal’s voice shocked her out of the pit of despair and self-loathing she was about to fall into.

“Near as we can tell, wherever James went, Eclipse was able to track him down and followed him back here.” Thad voiced the sequence of events that Robin had guessed at herself.

“James?”

“My dad.” She looked over at Hal as she answered his question. He knew exactly what had happened the last time she’d seen her dad, so she wasn’t surprised when his face went carefully neutral. Looking back at Thad, she said, “I can tell you where he was.” The three of them looked at her, the family resemblance almost making her smile. “He was out gambling somewhere, probably drunk when he came home, too.”

“There are a couple spots he could have gone to around here that are within walking distance. If he took a cab, there are a few more, but it seems unlikely given the time he left. Dem, why don’t you and I split up to cover those, see if we can trace his movements. Maybe there’s a bookie somewhere who can tell us who was following him. It would at least give us a place to start, someone to lean on. Hal, you going to take Robin back to the island?”

“Actually, we have somewhere we have to check out as well.” Hal’s voice was velvet over her skin, soothing her, softening the edges of the raw, panicked mess inside her.

“Oh?” Thad raised his eyebrows.

“Randall had Nimue mark Robin. It’s causing some . . . problems.” He self-consciously rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “We are going to see if we can get Nimue out of there and have her get the mark off Robin.”

“Fair enough. Be careful, Brother. Remember what happened the last time you faced him,” Thad said, while Dem stood stoically behind him.

“If we encounter Randall, then we are jumping straight back to the island. No fighting.”

Thad nodded. “Give her a cell, in case you get separated.”

“Got it right here.” Hal reached into his pocket, withdrawing the cell phone she had used earlier and waggling it between his finger and thumb before handing it to Robin.

The brothers smiled at each other—well, at least Thad and Hal did—before they left.

She couldn’t stop the question that had been bubbling inside her since the magic show. “So is that Thad’s power?”

“Part of it, yes. He can use water to create, and it allows him to see the shadows of what has happened in a specific place. It takes a lot out of him, though.” Hal shot a worried glance toward the door.

“That’s incredible!”

“Are you okay trying to get Nimue while they figure out where your dad was?”

“I think it’s the best use of our time.” She nodded.

Sure, they could try to figure out where Randall had taken her family, but in all likelihood, they were in Boston at the Eclipse building, and there was no getting in there without setting off a myriad of alarms and wards. A wisp of a thought crossed Robin’s mind. Maybe Nimue could help them with that. If the Lady of the Lake was as powerful as Robin suspected, then the woman might be able to blow the wards, making the alarms and security the only problems they had to deal with, and she was betting that she could distract security.

Her mind was going a mile a minute, flipping into planning mode, trying to figure out the weaknesses and where they could penetrate the Eclipse building for the most effective retrieval plan, when Hal cleared his throat next to her.

“Sorry, I was trying to think of how to get to my family.”

“No worries. I figured as much.” He smiled at her, his dimples peeking out slightly, turning her insides to jelly. “Fancy a trip to England?”

“Do you remember where the estate is?”

“Yep.”

“Then let’s go.” She placed her hand in his, and the world around them disappeared.

When Robin could breathe again, she pulled in such a big breath of air that it made her cough. The smell of the country filled her lungs. It smelled of green—that was the only way she could think of putting it. It was a lush scent that she had only encountered at The Farm, at Hal’s place, and here. Earthy and natural, it made her want to go hiking or camping or do some similar activity.

“This way.” Hal tugged on her hand and walked them around the corner from the tiny alley they had appeared in. The wrought iron gates of the estate appeared just up the road, and Robin’s mind tried to wrap around the thought of how they had just traveled across an ocean in the blink of an eye. Failing, she simply accepted it for what it was—magic.

The iron gates were locked tight. She didn’t need to touch them to tell she couldn’t open them. The chain with a padlock on it spoke loudly enough, and when combined with the partial wall and fence, the keep-out vibe almost overwhelmed her.

“How are we going to get through?”

“I just need to find a secret spot we can jump to around the house. I wasn’t sure what would be visible from the road; otherwise, I would have jumped straight there,” he said in a hushed voice, making sure the sound didn’t carry to the people they passed on the street. “Ah, there we go.” Hal furtively glanced around.

Without any warning, the world disappeared and reappeared just as quickly all over again, but now they were up by the house, next to a tower that jutted out to the side. They quickly walked around to the door. The place was even more massive than she could have imagined. Though they had followed the curve of the tower, they still had to walk in front of bays upon bays of windows to get to the oversized, aged wooden door. Thankfully the curtains were closed on all the windows, but that didn’t mean that their shadows weren’t alerting those inside to their presence.

Nerves battered at her, wanting her to cower under the weight of the task ahead of them. Robin couldn’t do that, though. They needed Nimue for more than just selfish reasons now, and she wasn’t about to let her family remain in the tender care of Randall Fields because of her own fear.

Hal pushed the door open, and they both breathed a sigh of relief when it swung silently away from them. Robin sent a quick thank you to whoever kept the hinges oiled. The inside was just like she remembered it—all giant paintings, marble busts, and intricate woodwork.

Everything practically screamed money. It repulsed her. She wanted to go back to Hal’s cabin more than anything at that moment. Shoving the fear aside, she led them through to what looked like a familiar area. The ceiling that she could see as they approached was molded in the same way as the ceiling she remembered from the staircase. The walls were paneled with wood to about chest height, and above that, more paintings. They passed a fireplace bigger than any she’d ever seen before. It could have housed a small car.

Voices sounded from around the corner, and they froze.

“I don’t know. Some assistant called and said he was on his way here. I’m just saying we should ready the place as though he were staying. You know what he’s like when he doesn’t get his way!” The woman’s voice became more high-pitched as she spoke, a thread of fear underlying her words that Robin recognized all too well.

Hal pulled them back against the wall as the voices got louder.

“He hasn’t told us he’s comin’, though. I don’t want to waste time with this if it don’t matter.” The male voice was heavily accented but articulate, the vowel sounds being drawn out considerably, making his words sound rounded.

The man and the woman passed by the doorway to the room they stood in, and Robin held her breath. If they noticed either her or Hal, then they were up a creek, although Hal could probably charm them into forgetting they were there.

Once the voices had faded out of earshot, they silently moved to the hallway, edging out to make sure they would notice anyone around before whomever it was could see them. She darted across the open space into the next room over, and her breath caught in her throat at the beauty of it. The afternoon sun filled the room with a golden light that bounced off the cream walls and reflected again off the cream-and-brown tile floor. Golden wood covered the ceiling, with a large wooden beam running down the center and smaller wood ribs coming off at even intervals. The huge table was the centerpiece of the room that echoed the color of the ceiling.

As they moved around the table, she saw the stairway that she had been standing in front of the last time she was here. The dark-velvet-covered stairs descending to what Robin knew was a dank hole in the ground. She nodded toward the stairs so Hal knew which direction they were heading. His whole body was on high alert. She could see the strain in the taut lines of his shoulders and the way his eyes never stayed in one spot for too long.

They began to descend, and after a few steps, the velvet vanished, leaving just the stone blocks. She could feel the concern radiating off Hal as they kept moving downward. She remembered the same feeling when Randall had brought her here. At least she was in reasonable shoes this time. The smell of moss permeated the air, and Robin knew they were almost to the bottom. As they rounded the final corner, the sound of waves became noticeable.

“Underground lake?” Hal guessed.

She nodded. “I’m not one-hundred-percent sure this will work, but Nimue implied the mark would let me through the barrier the next time I was here. If I’m not able to get through, we’re screwed.”

The stone archway appeared in front of them sooner than she’d expected.

“Unless you can undo the wards that seal the doorway, I suggest waiting here. Smacking into the barrier isn’t pleasant.” She tried a smile, but her skin felt too tight.

“I’ll take a look at it, but you go on ahead.”

She nodded. “Watch the mist.”

Picking her way over the rocky shore, she called out to Nimue.

The fog over the water coalesced into the solid form of one of the most beautiful women she’d ever seen. She heard the sharp intake of breath from Hal behind her. Nimue walked forward, the water freezing under each step just as before. The power hit Robin like a brick wall. Suddenly there was too much oxygen in the air, making her dizzy.

“Robin, you risk much returning here, especially with your companion.” Nimue’s violet eyes flashed over Robin’s shoulder.

“I need your help, and I have a couple questions for you. If we can figure out how to let my friend in, then he can help get the bands off. We can free you.” Her throat closed up at the thought of being able to grant this amazing woman the freedom she’d lacked for centuries.

“If you can grant me my freedom, I will happily help with whatever you need and answer any questions I am able.” Nimue’s voice was soft, and her eyes shuttered. Hope could be such a fragile, painful thing.

“My lady.” Hal’s voice came from much too close behind her.

Turning, she was surprised to see him inside the cavern. “How did you—?”

“I have my own magic.” He grinned at Robin.

“Nimue, this is Hal. Hal, this is Nimue, the Lady of the Lake.”

“Ah, you understand who I am, as well. You are full of surprises, my dear.” She smiled, and it was like standing in front of an open oven—a wave of warmth crashed against Robin’s skin. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, siren.”

“Yours as well.” He nodded.

“Can you get the bands and chains off her?”

“Probably.”

“They are enchanted. Be careful.” Nimue’s voice was low with warning.

“I see it,” Hal said, nodding again as he stared at the band that circled her upper arm nearest him.

“You see it?” Robin asked in surprise.

“I can see waves of energy, magic, things like that. It’s how I can see what to heal, like with your ankle. A handy skill to have, especially at times like these.”

“Yeah, I would say so.” She stepped back as she watched Hal circle his project, examining each band in turn.

“Removing them . . .” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I can do it, but Fields will most likely feel the drain on his power.”

Robin’s eyebrows pinched together in concern.

“Think of it like this. He’s been sitting under a row of lamps, and as I remove each band and each chain, each lamp associated with that band or chain will turn off one by one. I’m sure once he senses it, he will make his way here as fast as he can.”

“Will you have enough time to get them all off before he gets here?”

“I don’t know.” Hal shoved a hand through his hair again. He was getting frustrated. “My lady, can you hold any power back from him?”

Nimue shook her head, blanching at the idea of trying to resist. If Robin’s understanding was right, then it would be physically painful for her to try, and she wouldn’t be able to withhold any helpful amount of power, either. Lots of pain, but no gain.

“Can you partially undo the enchantment? Set it up so it’s like a chain of dominoes, or something like that. If you can, and I have no idea how you would do this, but if you could rig it so all you had to do was tap one domino and then all the others would fall quickly after that, getting us out of here would happen much faster.”

Hal’s brow furrowed in concentration as he paced around Nimue again. “I hadn’t thought of it like that”—he glanced at Robin, the intensity in his eyes searing her own—“but I think it will work.”

Nimue gasped, her eyelids fluttering, as he began focusing on the first band, little sparks of light flying from it every once in a while as moisture dripped from the bottom edge. The process took several minutes before he could move on to the next band and repeat whatever it was he was doing, which was beyond Robin’s ability to see. She waited and watched, her chest feeling ever tighter as the time passed, expecting someone to come down and disturb them and everything to be ruined.

“Okay, I think that should be good. I—” His whole body seemed to vibrate, like he was being pulled in one hundred different directions all at once. “Something’s wrong. Robin, call Thad. I’m almost ready to set this off.”

She whipped the phone out of her pocket and scrolled through the contacts, tapping on Thad’s name. A green phone symbol in the center of the screen pulsed before the call connected.

“Thad?” Robin’s voice was tight with fear as another set of vibrations shook Hal.

“Robin? What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure. Hal’s . . . vibrating?”

Before Thad could speak, Hal’s eyes met her own, terror filling them as the bands fell away from Nimue’s arms and legs. Then he popped out of existence.

“Hal! Ohmygod.” Robin paced up and down in front of Nimue, the rocky beach digging into her feet through her shoes while a cold sweat broke out all over her skin.

“ROBIN!” Thad’s voice thundered through the phone, which she had forgotten she was holding.

“Sorry. Sorry. He’s gone. Vanished. Hal’s gone.”

Silence. She couldn’t even hear Thad breathing.

“Can you come and get me?” A cough sounded behind her, and Robin’s heart leaped, thinking Hal was back, but it was just Nimue, reminding her why they had been there in the first place. “And Nimue?” she added.

“Can you get somewhere safe?”

“I, uh—”

“I can take you somewhere. Tis not far,” Nimue interrupted.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think so.”

“Go. I will call you back in a moment.” The line went dead, and Robin just stared at the phone for a moment.

Nimue took her hand and led her up through the house into the gardens. They were following the line of trees when Robin realized they were moving much faster than they should be. The ground flew under their feet. Looking down almost made her nauseous, so instead she focused on Nimue’s silvery-gold hair streaming out behind her. When water splashed over their feet, Robin tugged on her guide’s hand. The humid air around them invaded her senses, pouring down her throat, making it hard to breathe.

“Robin?” Nimue’s forehead puckered.

“I.” She gasped. “Can’t. Breathe.” The tightness in her chest made it impossible to draw a deep breath. She felt like an accordion, all pressed together with no room for air.

“You are not used to traveling as I do. I apologize. It will pass.”

She tried not to let herself panic, but the lack of oxygen was starting to feel somewhat life threatening. As the world seemed to dim around her, she questioned trusting Nimue. Maybe she had made a massive mistake. Robin held eye contact with Nimue for as long as she could before the world disappeared and the blackness claimed her.

Chapter 19

Hal’s head was pounding, but his eyes were open and his vision clear. He tried to jump out, but nothing happened. Looking around, he realized he was surrounded. There were people standing all around the room, or rather cave, that he was in. Dark purple robes topped with a variety of masks spanned the walls, hiding their owners from view. Each robe had a patch or a shield sown on containing a bird of some kind flying over a labyrinth. As he looked around, he counted maybe fifteen people, maybe closer to ten.

A thunderclap sounded, and for a second, Hal’s heart stopped. The last thing he wanted right now was to deal with Zeus. Hesitantly he turned toward the sound. Not Zeus. He breathed a sigh of relief. A young man stood there looking just as confused as he was. Just as he was about to ask what was going on, another thunderclap sounded, except this time, it was so loud, it shook the ground under his feet. Hal curled in on himself, covering his head with his arms in anticipation of some of the rock that formed the ceiling falling.

It was only then he saw what he was standing on.

He cursed under his breath.

A god trap.

He shouldn’t have been summoned when they tried to reach whomever they were calling, but he took a wild guess that they weren’t sure what they were doing, which was how he ended up here with another random dude.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” The voice boomed out behind him.

A chill went down his spine. That was definitely a god’s voice. There was no mistaking it, but he didn’t recognize it right off the bat.

Silence greeted the god in answer. Never a good thing. Gods definitely did not like being ignored.

Uncurling from his protective pose, he turned toward the man who had spoken. The swirling silver and blue on his skin could only mean one thing.

Poseidon.

As Hal looked closer, he could see that the god’s black hair was entwined with kelp or seaweed and was dripping wet. He hadn’t seen Poseidon outside of Mount Olympus, and even then he had only met the man once. The look on the god’s face when he saw Hal and the other man was enough that if he had the option, Hal would’ve run for the hills.

One of the purple cloaks fell to the ground. There was a ripple of whispers, but other than that, no one moved or said anything.

“Someone tell me what the hell is happening, or I swear I will flood this whole cavern and you can all go see Hades.” Poseidon’s voice was gravely, rough on the ears, which Hal didn’t remember from last time.

“My lord,” Hal began, quickly glancing up to verify he had the god’s attention. “I believe they have tried to trap us. If you look at the floor, you can see one of the ancient summoning circles the Greeks made when they still worshiped you, but it appears to have been modified.”

“Who the hell are you?” Poseidon’s big naked chest was right in Hal’s face. He supposed he should be glad the god at least had some swimming trunks on covering himself; otherwise, it could have been a lot more awkward.

“Halcyon, my lord. Son of the siren Thelxiope, and Nikolaos, whom you blessed at birth. Brother to Alec, Demetrius, and Thaddeus.”

“Yes, I remember now. So you are part of the siren’s legacy, hum? How disappointing.” He sneered and turned away from Hal toward the other mystery man.

“Samuel. How did you get here?”

Evidently, the other man was well acquainted with the god.

“I was summoned, same as you.” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans, defiantly squaring his shoulders and staring at Poseidon.

Hal’s stomach clenched. The gods might not have the powers they once did, but they could still make a person’s life hell if they put their mind to it. Samuel might have some bad luck heading his way if they ever got out of here.

Satisfied with the answers he had obtained from both Hal and Samuel, Poseidon set off toward the purple cloaks, only to smack into a barrier of some kind. Looking at where the god stood, Hal realized that whomever these people were, they had not only altered the once sacred space but they had warded it. No getting in or out unless they commanded it.

He studied the floor. The ancient mosaic tiles should have been worn away, or broken by now, but this place was almost pristine. The hasty symbols painted around the edges were from a variety of cultures, but mainly seemed to be centered around the idea that man could be greater than the gods, if they could harness the gods’ power.

So, this was the Order of Talos.

It made sense now. They were trying to summon magical beings to harvest their power, or bind them as they did with Nimue. He wished them luck with Poseidon. The god had not been forgotten about and over the years had kept a fair bit of power by being careful how he used it. The Earth Shaker was not easily tamed and was much shrewder than his younger brother.

All Hal had to do was figure out how to get the barrier down without drawing their attention. He hoped like hell he could do it, because it was the only way he was going to get out of there.

Chapter 20

Robin gasped, sucking in air until her lungs wanted to explode with it. The delicious scent of the woods surrounded her.

“Oh, thank the gods!” a male voice that definitely wasn’t Hal exclaimed next to her.

Hal.

He was gone. Vanished. Taken. The thoughts shot through her one after the other, each one a slap in the face.

She forced her eyes open, even though they protested every step of the way.

Alec. He had been the one who exclaimed, and was smiling down at her now. “There she is.”

A coughing fit shook her body, and then she tried to breathe normally enough to speak. After making some sounds she was not proud of, she was able to get out, “Where’s Hal?”

“Well, we don’t exactly know right now, but we are working on it.”

“How do you not know? Don’t you guys track each other or something?”

“Sure, but some magic can block that. It’s why we took so long finding Aster.” He shrugged as though this was nothing all that unusual, which made her want to scream.

“Nimue?”

“I am here, Robin.” The ethereal voice came from her other side.

She breathed a little easier then. At least she hadn’t lost Hal for nothing. Not that she’d lost him. Nope. Not at all.

The one thing that whoever took him didn’t count on was her. She was damn good with computers and had a lot of friends out there on the darknet. She’d find him if it was the last thing she did.

“Those are some intense eyebrows you’ve got goin’ on there, girly. Care to share?”

“If you can’t find him, I will.”

“Fair enough. You were passed out for a while, though, so maybe let’s just take a breath and get you back on your feet before we start making any crazy plans, yeah?” Alec smiled in a way that she knew was meant to charm her, but he wasn’t Hal. There were no dimples, no swirling greens in his blue eyes, no long, sun-drenched hair that she could run her fingers through. Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes. She wasn’t going to give him up easily. That was for damn sure.

“Let’s get moving.” She sat up, and the world spun. Her stomach heaved. Turning her head, she almost vomited on Alec, barely missing him as he scrambled backward.

“Now, Robin, Hal is our resident healer, so you need to go slow, because I can’t peek into your head to see what’s wrong, okay? If I try and do that, your brain will explode, and I know Hal would kill me for that, not to mention you seem pretty decent, so I don’t want to kill you.”

He was very strange. When she had seen him before, Ellie had been with him. Together they made sense, but Alec alone was . . . odd.

“I don’t want you to kill me, either. Turns out I’m quite enjoying my life right now, with the exception of the last day or so.”

“You make a good point.” Alec winked, but it fell flat. He evaluated her with his gaze. Sensing that his usual brand of charming wasn’t working on her, he switched to business mode, which she appreciated. “We will figure out where he is, but right now, let’s get you some water, yeah?”

She nodded as he carefully helped her stand, handing her a bottle of water. Grateful for a chance to wash her mouth out, she took it. She spit the first gulp out before letting the cool liquid soothe her throat.

The world swam again, but it wasn’t as bad as before. She turned to Nimue and was shocked to find her wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. The woman’s silvery-gold hair was tied up into a giant bun on the top of her head.

Looking around, Robin finally took in her surroundings. They were in a clearing in the woods, next to a lake. The sun shone down in the way it did during summer, bright and warm, the leaves of the plants and trees bathing in its golden light. Birds called back and forth around her, and squirrels and other small critters scurried through the grass. It was idyllic.

“Where are we?” The question came out in a hushed, reverent tone, which she hadn’t intended but nonetheless felt was appropriate.

“Welcome to my lake.” Nimue smiled, and that same warmth Robin had felt before fell over her once again.

“The lake?”

“Yes.” She nodded as she sat cross-legged on a big rock.

“Is Excalibur in there?”

“Should be.” She shrugged, as though this wasn’t the most groundbreaking discovery ever. “Arthur doesn’t have need of it; otherwise, I would have known.”

“Couldn’t anyone just stumble onto it?” Nimue took a breath to answer, but Robin just realized what she had said. “Wait, the Arthur? How could he still be alive?”

“Tis a long story, one that is painful for me to tell. I will share it with you another time. Suffice to say that no, no one could stumble on this location unless I wished them to. It is part of my magic, my secret hideaway.”

“Whoa.” Robin suddenly sat down on a fallen tree across from the rock. “That’s a lot to take in.”

“I feel like I should be offended. You didn’t freak out at sirens, but Excalibur and Arthur? Come on. We are way older than Arthur, and we are still kicking ass, I might add, not napping in fairyland,” Alec huffed.

Nimue shot him a reproachful glare.

“Sorry. I guess because I knew about you before, it didn’t shock me when Hal told me, but this? I thought this was straight fiction.”

“Most of what people claim happened did not; at least, from what I understand of your stories. Keep in mind I have been in a cave for longer than I care to admit. I have to say, I like the fact that women wear trousers now. Very comfortable.”

“When, or if, you ever feel like sharing, I would love to hear what really happened.” Robin tugged at her earlobe self-consciously. She felt shy asking, even though it was perfectly reasonable.

“One day I will tell you my story, but for now, we need to deal with the pressing events.”

“Of course!” Robin’s mind flipped into planning mode again, all the unnecessary thoughts being hushed. “Nimue, I need to ask you about the mark you put on my back, and I think I also need your help with rescuing my family.”

“Whatever I can share or help with, I will. Feeling the sunlight again is more of a gift than I can explain.”

Robin’s throat knotted. “I understand. Randall didn’t allow me outside for almost ten years. If he was leaving, then I had to meditate on his future to make sure he was safe. While that’s nothing compared to you, I don’t think I will ever forget what that first breath of fresh air smelled like, or the warmth of the sun on my skin. Even now, the depth of need I have to be around nature is surprisingly intense.”

“Brother Randall is not a good man. Neither were any of his predecessors, though. All power-hungry narcissists.”

“While I hate to interrupt the bonding, ladies, I do feel that we need to stay on track.”

“Yes. Right.” Robin marshaled her thoughts once again. “The mark on my back. What is it and can you remove it?”

“It’s Randall’s personal brand that he had me develop for you. It has the design that an initiate of the Order of Talos requires, but the magic behind it marks you as his property.”

“His property?”

She nodded. “I’m sorry, but without some of his blood, I cannot remove the part of it that matters to you. I can make it invisible should you wish, but the magic binding you to Randall is blood magic. Only blood can dispel blood.”

“That means if I can’t get it removed, I can never . . .” Her heart broke at the thought of never being able to be with Hal.

“No. You would only ever be able to be with Randall. He was worried that someone else in the Order might romance you away from him. He has an unhealthy interest in you.”

“He has an unhealthy interest in anything he wants to control.” Robin fell silent as the thoughts of all those Randall Fields had injured or controlled over his lifetime ran through her head. He needed to be put in his place.

“And your family? How can I help you with them?”

“I’m fairly positive that Randall would have taken them back to the Eclipse building in Boston. It’s where he feels safest. The whole building is warded with magic, not to mention standard alarms and more advanced non-standard alarms. Could you help with the wards?”

“I’m sure I can. How big is this building?”

“Big. Publicly it’s fifty floors, but there are at least three floors beneath the underground garage. I wasn’t given complete clearance, so I can’t tell you for sure.”

“I have never seen such a structure!” Nimue’s eyes were wide with wonder. “I have plenty of power, though, especially since we have been resting at my lake. It has given me a chance to recharge.”

“Good.” She nodded, her brain already planning a few steps ahead. “Alec, did your brothers have any luck with leads on my family?”

“I’m not sure. They just sent me to get you and the Lady of the Lake. I was going to take you both back to the island, but you were passed out for an hour or so.”

“An hour!” Robin exclaimed, wishing they had started with that tidbit.

“Come on. If you’re ready, my lady, then it would be my pleasure to escort you to my home.”

“I am ready, siren.”

Robin put her hand in Alec’s outstretched one. His skin was so much smoother than Hal’s. Another slap in the face. All she wanted was that big man back. Once Nimue grabbed Alec’s other hand, the world around them disappeared, and then just as quickly, they were on the island, standing outside the big house.

Alec turned to her, his shoulders slightly slumped. “Do you want to take Nimue inside while I round up the others?”

“Actually, I need to go get something.”

He frowned at her. “Where are you off to?”

“I’m just going to grab the laptop I’ve been working on.”

Alec was clearly suspicious, but if Hal hadn’t told him about the cabin, then she wasn’t about to, either.

“Fine. I’ll handle everything, then, while you disappear to somewhere mysterious and get the laptop.” Alec practically pouted. Clearly, he was used to getting his own way.

“I’ll be back in a moment.”

Robin turned and followed the path up the mountain. It disappeared as it curved through the trees, but she remembered where to go. She could practically feel Hal walking beside her. Stupid man. Making her get attached. She scuffed at a rock in her way, kicking it to the side. Once she was out of the trees, she began to run. The energy she felt was incredible, like it had been bubbling up inside her.

The cabin was exactly as they had left it. Hal’s workout clothes still hung over the deck railing, and as she opened the door, the scent of him hit her like a brick wall. All masculine and woodsy. Her heart pounded in her chest. The mug of coffee she had been drinking when Hal came back from the workout was still on the table. Quickly, she emptied it and rinsed it. She wasn’t sure how long it would be before she could come back here, and she wasn’t about to leave a mess for Hal.

She changed her clothes, grabbing a sweater and the laptop, before starting to run back down the mountain to the big house. The few scraps of a life that she had might be crashing down around her, but she could still appreciate the tall pine trees that covered the ground around the pathway, not to mention the view, as she ran. She glanced out at the ocean, promising herself that one day she would swim in it. Once she had Hal back.

Bursting through the front door, she was surprised to find everyone waiting on her. Blush reddened her face as they all turned to stare at her.

“Are ye all right?” Ellie’s Scottish accent sang to her as she found a place to get set up.

“Yes. Just had to get this.” She waggled the laptop that had been tucked under her arm, before setting it down and opening it up. “Any news on my family?” She glanced at Thad.

“Seems Jimmy had been sneaking out every night to go to see a local bookie. Horses are his preferred way of losing money right now. He already owes the guy I spoke with upward of five thousand dollars.”

“Damn it.” She sighed. “Typical Dad.” Tapping aggressively at the keyboard, she was able to pull up the files that she had on the Eclipse building. Mostly it was public record stuff, plans that were put before the city council before the construction was started, permits, that kind of thing, but there were a couple documents that were private memos from the company archives.

“Seems that your father attracted the attention of a man, whom I am altogether too familiar with, whom I’ve been trying to track down myself.” He spoke in low angry tones. The change in Thad’s voice caused Robin’s head to snap up. Rage contorted his features. It was only then that she noticed Cin was missing from the assembled group.

“Who is that?” she asked, trying to figure out what could have made him so angry.

“Norman. Leonard’s brother.”

“The Scout? Why are you looking for him?” Panic shot through her. She hoped Thad hadn’t brought any unnecessary attention on them. That would be the last thing they needed.

“The Scout?”

“Yes. Norman. He’s referred to in any and all paperwork as The Scout. It’s only because I heard Randall use his first name that I know who he is.”

“Well, he tried to kidnap Cin. His brother is in a cage under us right now, and hasn’t been giving us any of the information we’ve so nicely been asking for, so I figure maybe I can get some payback on Norman and get the info we want at the same time.”

All the blood drained from Robin’s face. “The Surgeon is here? On the island?” Her heart beat an erratic rhythm in her chest. She tried to catch her breath, but she couldn’t seem to breathe deep enough.

“Robin? Just breathe. He’s locked in a cage that not even a fury can break into, or a siren break out of, for that matter. He can’t get to you and doesn’t know you’re here.” Alec’s voice grounded her a little, but the images flashing through her head were ones she hadn’t thought of in a long time.

When Randall had first taken her, he had The Surgeon evaluate her. The man had killed countless people in front of her, treating her like an experiment, testing how quickly she could sense impending death, how far she could sense it into the future, if the volume of her scream meant anything. He told her what he had been looking at after each section of the testing was concluded.

The fact that she was so connected with death also made him find her attractive, something he didn’t bother to hide, even flaunted it in front of her. There was nothing she could do to escape, to unsee what she had seen. Once the testing had been completed, she had been given a job working in proximity to Randall, eventually becoming his assistant.

Not that she was going to share any of that with them. Maybe with Hal one day, but only if she needed to. It was her personal torment. No one else needed to be involved.

“I’m fine.” She forced the words out, her voice sounding shaky to her own ears. “So Norman was tracking my dad?” she asked, focusing on Thad. Everything seemed too sharp, too bright. If the people she cared about weren’t in danger, she would just go back to the cabin and hide out there. That, however, wasn’t an option.

Thad nodded, watching her with those eerily light-blue eyes of his.

“Well, if he was the source and what we saw at the safe house was correct, then I think my initial guess was probably the right one. They are at the Eclipse building.”

“Okay, you lived there. How do we get them out?”

“Nimue thinks she can handle the magical wards, but I’m still trying to figure out what to do about the alarm systems.”

There was a pause as the group thought, before Ellie piped up. “I may be able to help wi’ that.”

“No.” Alec shook his head.

“Alec, love, I wouldn’t even need to be in the building.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Well, it’s a good thing the world doesn’t depend on what ye like, then, isn’t it?” the petite Scotswoman said with a smile, teasing her fiancé.

“Can someone explain?” Robin had no idea how Ellie could help.

“I can control electricity and lightning, but I’m still workin’ on the last one.” She smiled warmly at Robin, the skin around her eyes crinkling with mirth. “I could take all the electricity that the building would be usin’ an’ divert it, or store it. Would that help?”

Robin tapped her chin in thought. “Only if you can prevent the backup generators from kicking in?”

“Shouldnae be a problem.”

“Then yes.” Robin’s heart felt lighter. Now at least, they had one problem solved. “Now, how do we find Hal?”

“I tried to scry for him while you were getting your laptop, but wherever he is, it’s warded with magic, so we can’t sense him.”

“Okay, so magic can’t sense the area . . .” Robin’s mind was going a mile a minute, trying to figure out a way around the problem.

“Just look for the areas magic can’t sense and then search those.” Aster’s voice came from across the room as she leaned against the door.

Robin didn’t even realize she had appeared. The woman was sneaky and as sly as a fox. “You’re a genius. I assume you guys can do that?”

Alec looked at Ellie.

“I think we can reverse engineer one of Granddad’s spells. Ye ken the one with the water and map?”

“Yeah.” He nodded enthusiastically. “If we do a world map, then that could give us a list of locations to start with.”

“While you guys do that, I’m going to reach out to a couple of my darknet contacts. It’s been a while, but I can’t imagine they wouldn’t enjoy hearing from me.”

It may have been years since she had any contact with them, but those guys wouldn’t turn her away, especially if it was a plea for help. Jkall and Rider were out there somewhere; she just had to track them down again. They were masters at finding lost things. If the brothers could give her a list of sites, then Jkall and Rider would be able to tell her which one was the right one.

“Darknet?” Dem looked at her, one eyebrow raised in question.

She took a breath as she prepared to explain. “Darknet or darkweb is an area of the Internet that isn’t registered in search engines, usually to find things or people. You have to use a peer-to-peer server. Basically, everything is encrypted and the only way to find stuff is to kind of manually search for it, going from computer to computer.” She got blank stares all around the room. “Say I want to send Aster a message. I would have to encrypt it if I wanted it to get to her, but I couldn’t just encrypt it once.

“The first message would go to Nimue, who’s closest to me. She would decrypt the first layer and send it on to Alec, who’s next to her, and then Ellie and then Dem and then Thad and finally Aster. Each one of you would have a layer of encryption to break before you could send it on. The number of layers should correspond to the number of computers it has to pass through before it gets to its final destination. It’s called onion routing.

“There is no centralized web server, no search engine. You have to crawl from node to node to find what, or whom, you’re looking for. There are a lot of illegal services and activities around on there, but you have to know how to access them. I’m not sure that made any sense to any of you. Basically it’s a super-secret way of keeping prying eyes out of your business, usually so you can do something you’re not supposed to be doing.”

“Secret sneaky shit, got it.” Alec nodded at her.

“Well, when you put it like that, it makes it sound much less impressive.” A smile played at the corners of her mouth. She was starting to understand Alec’s humor.

“So these contacts you have can help you?”

“Yeah. I don’t actually know who they are in real life, but that’s part of why the darknet works. You give me some locations, and we can figure out which one is the right one.”

“I’ll go get the maps.” Ellie stood and walked out, with Alec hot on her heels.

Robin looked over to find Aster already gone and Dem and Thad sharing a hushed conversation, before they both got up and left.

“This is all very interesting. It’s like magic.” Nimue’s voice was full of awe.

“You know, if I remember correctly, there is a quote out there about technology being indistinguishable from magic once it’s advanced enough, or something like that.” She smiled across at the other woman.

The Lady of the Lake was sitting next to her, watching her crawl around the darknet as she tried to track down her old contacts from when she was a teenage girl who was too smart for her high school and up to no good. Her life was so weird.

An hour or so later, she had tracked down Jkall but was still looking for Rider, when Alec and Ellie came rushing back in. Dem and Thad had departed long ago, and Nimue was asleep on the couch next to Robin. Ellie held two or three soaking-wet maps.

“What happened?”

“We found ye some locations!” Ellie grinned.

“Um, why are the maps wet?”

“Well, that’s because this wee spell uses water infused wi’ magic.”

Her Scots accent was stronger when she was excited, Robin noticed. It was pleasant to listen to, but now was not the time to be distracted by that. “Okay, so what are the locations?”

Ellie spread the first map onto the table. Picking up the laptop so it didn’t get wet, Robin settled it on her knees, the battery warming her legs even through her jeans. A map of the world was now spread in front of her.

“You can see tiny pockets of dry.” She pointed to at least thirteen different locations.

This was more than she was hoping to give Jkall.

Another map flopped down on top of the first. This one centered on England. “You can see there are a few different locations here.” Ellie pointed at three dry spots this time. Robin could narrow one of those down herself as the estate or the cave where Randall had been keeping Nimue. The other two were still up for grabs, though. One was on the Isle of Man, and the other was up in the Hebredes just off the coast of Scotland.

Ellie repeated this process with a few different maps. Apparently, they had ruled out a few of the locations based on their previous experiences, but there were still almost ten left. She sighed. Jkall was not going to be happy with her. She knew she was going to end up owing him a favor, which was a dangerous place to be.

“I’ll send the list over to the contact I was able to reconnect with, and we will see what we can find.”

Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she encrypted the list before sending it off. While she waited for his response, she found a picture of the man who had controlled her life for the past nine years, and began to see which airports were closest to the areas shielded by magic. Hacking into their surveillance feeds wasn’t as easy as she had hoped. The firewalls and other security measures that had been put in place while she was sequestered in the Eclipse building were slowing her down. Things had changed while she was away, and she wasn’t happy about it.

Running the photo of Randall through facial recognition software, she compared it with the feeds she was able to pull from two airports, only to come up with bupkis. Theoretically, that knocked two possible sites out of the running. She began working on accessing the next location’s security cameras, but paused when she got a message back from Jkall. The decryption took a few minutes, and she waited with bated breath.

Finally, the photo of Randall she had sent to her hacker friend popped up with a still from a security camera next to it. Her old boss was trying to hide his face with sunglasses and a hat, but he wasn’t paying attention to where the surveillance cameras were. The location tag indicated that he had flown into Athens. Another message popped through. This time it only took a minute to decrypt. It was another photo of Randall, on the docks, getting on a yacht, along with a cruise permit. The course was indicated as a trip around the Aegean Islands.

They had it.

“I know where he is.”

Chapter 21

Poseidon had been raging against the purple robes for a while now, trying to unleash his fury on anyone around him, which was precisely why Hal was staying out of sight. The purple robes had been chanting low and slow since the god of the sea had arrived. He hadn’t even noticed it at first, but he was relatively sure they were getting louder. Not loud enough for him to understand what they were saying, though, which was frustrating.

He was sitting against the back wall of the cave, the musty damp smell of the cave encircling him. The tile mosaic was spread out before him, with Zeus’ face staring out from the center circle, surrounded by smaller circles containing all of the major gods’ faces, around which were even smaller circles containing the symbols of the favorite minor gods. Circles like this one had often been created in temples, with the god the temple was dedicated to pictured in the middle. If that held true, then this should be a temple for Zeus.

When he was a child, the temples had been everywhere, but not all had the circle. Only priests and priestesses of the highest order could request one to be created in their temple, and even then, it was no guarantee the god or goddess would show up when summoned. After all, they couldn’t deal with every minor grievance a human had. That wasn’t who they were.

Hal had been praying in his head to any god he thought would listen, trying to make sure Robin and Nimue were safe. He had even prayed to Zeus, asking him to come down to his temple and lay waste to those who desecrated it. There were no responses, though. He suspected it had something to do with the barrier. No god liked to be insulted, and the big Z-man was probably one of the most sensitive about it.

Opening his magic up and letting it flow out into the world around him, Hal looked at the markings keeping them trapped in the circle. The enchantments that surrounded them were intricate and almost impossibly complex. They all had a flaw, though. He just had to find it. He knew it was possible, but it would probably take more time and concentration than he had.

Someone was watching him; the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end.

Looking up, he met Samuel’s eyes. The man’s hair was the same jet black as Poseidon’s, and his eyes were liquid quicksilver. The penny finally dropped, and Hal realized he was one of the god’s sons. Maybe the only one. He hadn’t heard any recent rumblings of the god having children, and Samuel couldn’t be more than twenty-five years old. Reaching out with his magic, Hal found that the other man possessed skills of his own. Filaments of magic extended from the other man’s body. They were just as strong as his own. Maybe Samuel was a grandson, then, or maybe it was just because Poseidon’s powers were not what they once were.

Pushing up off the floor, the stone scratching his palms, he slowly made his way over, hoping that he didn’t draw too much attention from the purple cloaks or from Poseidon.

“I’m Hal.” He extended his hand to the younger man, hoping that they could work together to escape.

“Sam,” the younger man said as they shook.

“You a descendant of the big guy over there?” Hal kept his voice low as he spoke.

“Yeah. You?”

“Kinda, but not really.”

Sam quirked an eyebrow, but before he could respond, one of the purple cloaks shouted,

“You! Stop talking!”

Hal wanted to laugh. It wasn’t like they could come in there with them, or they would be overpowered, so what exactly was their plan?

“Or what?” he called out. Since his short conversation with Sam had already brought him to their attention, he wasn’t about to back down.

Another purple cloak stepped out of line, approaching the one who had spoken. The silver mask winked in the dim light.

“High Brother, I know this man. He stole my property and kidnapped an initiate.”

“This man?”

“Yes, High Brother.”

There was only one person who could lay that kind of claim against him.

Randall Fields.

“You wish to challenge him?”

“If you would allow it, High Brother.”

Good. Hal wanted a challenge. This man made his blood boil. He had almost killed Alec last time, not to mention putting Robin through hell and kidnapping Aster. If it was a one-on-one fight, then he knew that the mortal stood no chance. His gut twisted at the thought of facing them all. There was no way he would win. Not even if all three of them fought. Poseidon didn’t have his trident, and Sam didn’t look as though he knew how to throw a punch even if his life depended on it, which it very well might.

Opening up his senses, he began examining the magic that allowed them to be held there. The summoning circle barely had anything left. Getting the three of them there must have used up most of its remaining juice. The symbols painted on the floor and walls were another matter, though. The power pulsing through them was strong and would be hard to crack without drawing attention. He had been hoping Sam would be able to assist him, but now it looked like he was going to be fighting Randall Fields, instead.

His purple cloak fell from his shoulders, and he tossed the silver mask to the ground. Hostility radiated out of Randall as he approached the edge of the circle, wearing nothing but a pair of black shorts and a T-shirt.

“Allow us to show you what will happen if you interfere with this,” the High Brother said.

The ground shook, and fire radiated out of the symbols on the wall, forcing the three men trapped in the circle to one side.

“That is not the only weapon at our disposal. If the two of you interfere with the fight, then you will find out what some of the others are.”

Hal’s ears popped as the High Brother nodded and the pressure changed. Randall walked through the symbols, and the pressure changed again. Rage shimmered around him like a magnetic field. Without a word or sound, the man who had caused pain to so many people Hal cared about came charging at him. Stepping to one side, he let Randall smack into the barrier that kept them in the circle. He didn’t fall, which surprised Hal. As he turned, Randall pressed his arms together. The tattoos that were on both forearms pressed together to become one giant symbol. He chanted as he had when they’d first faced each other at the farmhouse.

“Order of Talos, grant me your strength. Order of Talos, grant me your speed. Order of Talos, grant me my power!”

The runes and markings that were etched into his skin swirled in place but didn’t form a bond as they had done previously when Randall had been completely connected to Nimue. A look of confusion flashed over his face before he schooled it into a careful mask.

As they began circling each other, Hal waited for the mortal to throw the first punch. The kick came, and while it was powerful, it was nowhere near as powerful as he had been during the fight at the farmhouse. Nimue had to be free. His last burst of power to set off the chain reaction to break the enchantments had been successful.

“Something wrong, Randy?” Hal smiled innocently at the man he planned to beat to a pulp.

“What have you done?” Fury pulled at his face, white lines bracketing his mouth while his cheeks turned a mottled red.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Did you hurt her just to spite me?”

“Who would I hurt?”

“You know damn well.”

“Robin is doing just fine. I haven’t hurt her at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.” He waggled his eyebrows at the other man, letting the implication speak for itself.

“You couldn’t. Nim promised me . . .” Randall’s voice trailed off as he remembered they had an audience.

“She promised you . . .”—Hal definitely got the feeling good old Randy had done something he wasn’t supposed to—“that only you would be allowed to touch Robin?”

“I’m going to kill you.” He ground the words out, spitting in the direction of his opponent.

“You can try. No one’s succeeded yet, though, so good luck.”

Without warning, Randall turned away, walking to the edge of the circle, facing the High Brother.

“Something has happened to my Key. When I call on the Key’s power, nothing happens. Would any of you be willing to channel your Key’s powers into me?”

“Is what the creature says true? Did you harness your Key’s power to keep your initiate to yourself without her permission?”

“No! Of course I had her permission.”

“Liar!” Hal called from across the circle. He wanted to attack him, teach him the harsh lesson of not showing an enemy his back, but he also didn’t want the purple robes to attack them out of vengeance.

“I will stand with Brother Randall,” a woman’s voice called out as another of the purple cloaks broke rank and came to stand before the High Brother.

“Why would you risk yourself for Brother Randall, Sister Margarite?”

“Because he has often proved to be an honorable man, and I would hate to see him lose that honor on the word of a monster.”

“You have Sister Margarite’s support.” The High Brother nodded.

Hal could see some kind of movement between the woman still hidden in the purple cloak and mask, and the man he wanted to punch, but Randall’s body blocked most of it. All he knew was that when the mortal turned around, the marks on his arm swirled and connected as they had at the farmhouse. At least now it would be a fair fight.

Randall came toward him with a yell, swinging a little too wildly to be effective. Hal ducked and moved to the side, allowing the punch to pass by him without harm. The kick was unexpected and caught him in the ribs, possibly cracking one of them. It was nothing he hadn’t felt before, and he was more than capable of fighting with a cracked rib. Hell, it could be completely broken and he would still be up and moving. As the mortal came toward him again, Hal’s fist popped out, catching him on the jaw before sweeping his legs out from under him. Randall managed to stop his fall so he landed on his knees.

“Nimue sends her regards,” he said as he kneed the man in the face. The coppery tang of blood scented the air a moment later.

The crunch of bone only built his blood lust even further, but before he could hit him again, Randall rolled out of the way and came at him again from the side. Grabbing Hal by the hair was an unexpected move, one that he would expect from someone fighting for their life, but not at the beginning of a confrontation like this. The pain from Randall’s grip was fire spreading over his scalp. He twisted to face the man and kneed him in the groin. His opponent crumpled, his black shorts not providing any sort of protection.

If Randall wanted to fight dirty, he would fight dirty, but he suspected the mortal wouldn’t like the results.

Before he could do anything else, Randall rolled and lunged at him, bringing them both to the ground. The wind rushed out of his lungs, and Hal lost precious seconds trying to breathe again as Randall rolled them over. He tried to get an arm lock on the scrappy man but couldn’t get enough purchase, his bigger form unhelpful when fighting on the ground. Hal was plenty strong enough, but lacked the agility his brothers had. When they wrestled, Alec and Thad usually won, able to contort themselves into shapes that were beyond him. That couldn’t happen this time, though. Too much was at stake. He wasn’t about to give Fields the satisfaction of beating him a second time. The first time, it was two on one. This time, they were equally matched. There was no reason he shouldn’t be able to kick the other guy’s ass.

Kicking the mortal away from him, he was able to get to his feet before the other man.

Hal could hear muttering as Randall repeated something over and over to himself. He wasn’t about to get close enough to try to hear, though. He’d seen enough horror movies to know what happened when someone did that, and he would definitely not open himself up to be bitten on the neck, or something like that. He pulled his leg back to kick the mortal while he was down. Not very sportsmanlike, but it wasn’t a game, either.

His leg froze.

Movement was suddenly impossible.

Randall stood with a brutal smile on his blood-smeared face. Whatever he had been muttering had caused this. Pulling his fist back, he let it fly at Hal’s face. Pain burst over his jaw. A second punch hit him in the stomach, followed by a kick to the ribs. Hal’s body turned into a punching bag for the other man. Pain exploded like fireworks all over his body, some making more noise than others. Fields started laughing maniacally as his fists connected with ribs, face, shoulders, kidneys, anything he could reach. Kicks came into play, as well, and Hal was forced to stand there and take it.

A particularly nasty punch landed square on Hal’s nose, and blood gushed from it, trailing over his mouth and down his chin. He couldn’t even wipe his face. This wasn’t a fight anymore. This was a beating. Magic was something most people didn’t understand. The repercussions, the price—mortals always failed to account for those in their quest for power.

Hal reveled in the rush of magic that washed over him. Poseidon was staring at him—the power had come from the sea god himself. It had been enough to break the spell that Randall had used without alerting any of the other members of the Order of Talos to the interference. He wanted to sag with relief at the knowledge that he could move again, but that would give him away. He was sure that Randall would notice that he had moved slightly, but the man was too busy feeling victorious and didn’t suspect a thing.

Once he was in range, Hal leaped onto him, driving him to the ground with a knee digging into his opponent’s back. The singular sound of Randall’s head smacking onto the cave floor sent a chill through his bones. As much as he hated this man, he hated the loss of life more. It was why the brothers used tranquilizers when they were on missions. Of course, if someone did deserve to die, it was probably any of these people in purple cloaks. They had magical beings imprisoned and used them, used their life forces, for their own gains, treating them like nothing more than caged beasts.

Randall wasn’t unconscious like Hal thought. The scrawny man pushed up, rolling to try to get Hal’s weight off him. That wasn’t about to work, though, and Hal just dug his knee in further before adjusting himself so he could hit a kidney. Fields grunted in pain and stumbled for a moment. For the first time, Hal noticed that the woman who was supporting him stumbled as well.

He tried to focus on the man in front of him. Grabbing his arm and pulling him into a lock, he was prepared to dislocate the man’s shoulder. Blood was on the woman’s purple robe, dripping from under her mask. Hal’s mind reeled at the possibility that occurred to him.

The man wasn’t just siphoning magical energy off this woman; they had tied their abilities and life forces together. She wasn’t just supporting him magically, but physically as well. Any damage Hal did to Randall was also inflicted on this woman to some degree. The idea turned his stomach.

Could he justify this to himself? Murdering Randall in a fair fight, yes. The additional murder of a woman he had no information on, no. He knew he should just write her off. After all, she was a member of the Order, but what if she had been like Robin, forced into it? He had killed enough people in his long lifetime that he should be numb to it, but he wasn’t, and the idea of taking this woman’s life was too much.

That didn’t mean he was going to let Randall turn him into a punching bag again.

With that thought, he dislocated his opponent’s shoulder. The woman cried out in pain, falling to her knees, clutching her shoulder. Hal felt sick. He didn’t want to do that, but he also had to stay alive long enough to figure out how to get out of there.

Randall staggered to his feet, his arm waved with the movement, completely out of his control. At least if he was going to get punched again, it was with the man’s less dominant hand. He backed away when he should have been pushing his advantage, but the pained sounds of the woman who had bound herself to Randall still rang in his ears.

Fields began to circle him again, hitting out with his functioning hand but rarely connecting. The hit that almost took him down he didn’t see coming, too focused on the woman he had injured. His opponent’s fist connected with his head, just behind his ear, leaving his brains scrambled.

Darkness floated around the edges of Hal’s vision, but he kept moving as best as he could, knowing now that this fight would only end when one of them was dead.

Chapter 22

They had decided that rescuing Robin’s family was paramount. Since they knew Randall was out of the country, security might be a bit more lax. After all, when the cat was away, the mice would play, and if their suspicions were right, then the cat was not somewhere he would be reachable; at least, not for a while. It didn’t make Robin feel any better, though. She wanted both her family and Hal back, and she hated having to pick whom to rescue first.

“Let’s go over it again.” Alec’s somber voice broke into her stream of thoughts.

She blinked, taking a deep breath before diving in. “Thad will jump Nimue, and Dem will jump me to the alley behind the hotel to the west of the Eclipse building. Nimue and I will arrive within five minutes at the church across the street. You and Ellie will arrive at the donut shop on the other side of the building.

“We will circle the building and wait for you at the park next to the church. Nimue will evaluate the wards and verify that she can break them. Ellie and Alec will circle the building while Ellie evaluates the amount of electricity she will be able to handle. When we all meet at the park, we will confirm that the plan is a go. Nimue, Dem, and I will enter the building as she pulls down the wards, while at the same time, Ellie will siphon all the electricity she can, redirecting it back into the grid.

“Thad will remain outside, apart from both groups, as our ace in the hole. Once inside the building, Dem will nicely ask security for the keys, and we will make our way down to the floors below the building proper. Nimue will continue to work on removing any magical obstacles, and Dem and I will search for my family. Once we have them, Dem will jump my little sister and my mother out to the church across the street, where Alec and Ellie will be waiting. When Dem returns, we exit through the main building. As soon as we are out, Ellie lets go of the electricity and Nimue puts the wards back up. Then we all meet back here. Alec will handle Ellie and my sister, Dem will jump me and my mom, and Thad will jump Nimue and my dad. Clear?”

Nods all around.

“Then we sleep for a week,” Alec mused. “Jumping two people is going to wipe me out.”

“No. Then we go get your brother.” Anger whipped through Robin at the thought of them leaving Hal out there.

“I meant after that.” Alec rubbed the back of his neck, not meeting her eyes.

“Fine.”

“If it would help, I could take you all to the lake after. It will help rejuvenate your abilities.”

“That would be amazing,” Dem said, surprising Robin. “I can handle lots of jumping, but moving two people at once multiple times is going to be draining, even for me.”

They were all dressed somewhat casually. Ellie and Alec even had maps of Boston in their hands so they could be convincingly lost tourists should the need arise. Robin had half expected everyone to be outfitted with fatigues and weapons, but that would just draw attention. Her outfit, along with Nimue’s and Dem’s, were a little more business than casual. Their hope was once Dem knocked the guards out and they were in possession of the security badges, they would be able to move through the building without notice.

“Ready! Break!” Aster chimed in from the doorway, plastering a wide smile on her face that didn’t reach her nose, let alone her eyes, as she clapped and pumped her arm like a cheerleader. When Alec and Thad had forbidden her from coming, she had let out the bluest streak of words Robin had ever heard. In her gut, she wanted to agree with Aster—she had just as much right to deliver a blow to Eclipse as anyone. That being said, she had no fighting experience and no skills that made her presence there a necessity and not a liability.

Lately the petite blonde never seemed to be able to bring herself to fully enter a room; at least, not while everyone was together. The first night she stayed there flashed across her mind’s eye. Aster had seemed much happier then. Maybe something had changed, but Robin didn’t have time to worry about what that was right now. She sighed and took a swig of the water in front of her. They needed to get going, and she needed to get her mind focused.

“Everyone ready?” Robin asked, looking up.

She caught Dem scowling in Aster’s direction before his gaze reverted to her and he nodded. Something was definitely going on with Aster, and now she suspected Dem may be involved as well. A mystery for another time, she reminded herself as she brought the schedule to the forefront of her mind once again. She assessed the group in front of her. She had never been more grateful to have stumbled into this strange group of friends who were becoming more like family to her.

Mr. Scowl himself extended a hand to her, his midnight blue eyes flat, his face betraying nothing. Nimue took Thad’s hand, and the four of them jumped to the alley behind the hotel. The smell of rotting food assaulted her senses before she even opened her eyes. The hot late summer sun beating down on the trash made the odor that much worse. They walked around to the front of the hotel, crossing the street to get to the park.

Nimue’s eyes widened with amazement as she took in everything around them. The cars, buses, giant buildings, swarms of people—none of it would be familiar to her, and Robin wanted to kick herself for not thinking of warning the poor woman.

“You okay?” She nudged Nimue with her shoulder as they walked toward the front of the church, the big stone building looking tiny in comparison to the monstrosity that was the Eclipse building. The shiny tinted glass looked black in the sunlight as Robin glanced over her shoulder, trying to shake the feeling of being watched.

“I’m fine. I knew the world had advanced much while I was away. While this is more than I initially thought, I did glimpse some of it while running with you.”

“Running? Is that what we were doing? Felt more like flying to me.”

“Yes. Well, that was a mistake on my part. I am sorry for that, Robin. I don’t think I ever said that before. It was not my intention to harm you in any way.” Her violet eyes pierced her with their sincerity.

“I know you didn’t.” She smiled kindly at the other woman. “So shall we take a walk around, see what you think?”

“Yes, let’s. So far, I don’t see anything alarming.”

Dem was silent behind them as they began walking. Robin slipped her arm through Nimue’s so she was more able to guide her and they wouldn’t be separated. They crossed street after street, weaving in and out of the crowds of people, most of whom took one look at Dem and moved as far away as the sidewalk allowed.

“You all right back there?” Robin asked over her shoulder.

“Fine.”

The one-word reply didn’t surprise her. He was their guard, and he took his job seriously.

The walk took much longer than she would have liked, given the circumstances, but as they approached the park once more, she could see Ellie and Alec’s heads together as they sat on a bench at the far edge of the park, one map open across their knees.

“Hey all, how was your walk?” Alec said, looking up.

“Very informative,” said Nimue.

“And yours?”

“Also informative.” Ellie smiled up as she spoke. There was something so calming about the woman that made Robin simply want to spend time in her presence.

“Are we a go?” she asked, looking back and forth from Ellie to Nimue.

Thad came strolling up a moment later.

“There are no security cameras from any of the other businesses that have the front entrance in view.” His low voice was smooth as silk as he spoke.

Robin wanted to kick herself for not thinking of that. She knew that Thad was usually the one who planned and thought of contingencies by the way the other brothers deferred to him, but he had let her lead the charge on this, which she appreciated.

“That’s not surprising. Randall wouldn’t want anyone else to be able to see what was going on without having to go through him first. He is a bit of a control freak.”

“Especially when it comes to that which he desires most.” Nimue gave Robin a pointed look.

“I can handle the other building as well, if you want,” Ellie grinned.

“No, I don’t think there’s any need.” Robin took a deep breath. “Okay, Ellie, you want to do your thing? How long will it take?” The brunette hadn’t wanted to give an estimate before without having seen the building and power structure.

“By the time you walk from here to the front door, the power will be down.” Her eyes flashed with blue lightning, and suddenly Robin realized she had been massively underestimating her new friend just because of how protective Alec was, which was a mistake she wouldn’t make again.

“We’ll see you on the other side.”

Robin, Nimue, and Dem set off toward the towering building while Thad melted into the background as backup, just like they had planned. Sweat pooled between her breasts and trickled down her back, making the thin blouse cling to her in a way she was uncomfortable with. It was more than just the summer heat; her body was screaming at her not to go inside, not to pass through the doors that they rapidly approached, because she wouldn’t get back out again.

“Breathe, Robin. I won’t leave you in there.” Dem’s voice was a low growl, but it soothed the part of her brain that was spazzing out.

“Thank you.” She squeezed his upper arm, which was a hard rock under her hand, before turning to the other important player. “Nimue?”

“I have created a hole in the outer wards that will allow us to cross without completely taking them down. They are much too complex for that. A slight tweak, though, and we . . .”—she paused, her lips pursed—“are fine.” Her face smoothed out, and a small, slightly malevolent grin took up residence.

The sleek chrome-and-glass doors were in front of them then. Her hand stopped short as she reached out to open the door. If someone hadn’t been coming toward them on the other side, she may not have opened it, but if she didn’t, then she was going to draw unnecessary attention to their little band of warriors. The sharp cool caress of air conditioning slithered over her sweat-slicked skin as the familiar scent of cleaning products filled her nose.

The lights flickered and went out, leaving the lobby dull as the sunlight filtered through the tinted glass. The security guard working the front desk looked up at them, his bushy caterpillar brows connecting as he took in the people walking toward him. The hum of the air conditioning died at that moment, and the sudden black screens of the security monitors drew his eyes down. Thick pudgy fingers tapped the screen, as though that would somehow bring the picture back, before he peered under his desk at the computer tower that was now just a very expensive paperweight.

He ignored them, even though they were standing in front of him now, too focused on getting the screens to work again. When he picked up the phone and there was no dial tone, Robin could almost see the freak out beginning behind his dull, otherwise empty eyes. The badge hanging from his belt showed a photo of him that was at least twenty pounds slimmer, along with his name—Daryl Jenkins.

“Mr. Jenkins. We have an appointment to see Mr. Fields. Will you please let him know we’ve arrived?” Robin smoothed her hands on the counter in front of her as she spoke.

“Look, miss, I don’t know who you are, but we are having some technical problems right now, so you’ll just have to wait.” Daryl waved her off, as though she was a mosquito instead of an actual person.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible, Daryl.” She paused, taking in the man still ignoring her and pushing any button available to him as his frustration mounted. “I’ll just see myself up, shall I?”

Robin turned and walked toward the elevator bay, with Nimue just behind her, drawing him out from behind the desk as he began to chase after them, just like they had wanted. “Miss!” his raspy voice called out fruitlessly. A boot scuffed the floor behind her, and Robin turned.

Chapter 23

Dem had the man in a sleeper hold, his arm crooked around the man’s throat. Desperate hands scratched at Dem’s arm, which might as well have been a band of steel, and wild eyes pleaded with her to help. After a long moment, the scratching stopped, and the man passed out in their protector’s arms. Walking him back, he gently placed Daryl back into his seat, allowing him to slump over his keyboard as he detached the security keys just behind his badge.

Now they had to move. She lengthened her stride, and they reached the door to the stairs and pushed it open. The whole column of stairs was dark. They hadn’t accounted for no lighting when they were planning. She wanted to kick herself; this was what came of rushing things.

“Allow me.” Nimue’s voice skated over her oversensitive ears. Now that the door was closed behind them, all the sound was blocked out. Robin wasn’t used to so much silence. Every muscle in her body tensed as she watched what she thought was Nimue move, her hands creating the tiniest spark between them. She blew on it as if it were a real fire, and suddenly the tiny spark turned into an orb of yellow light swirling a few inches above her hand.

“I do have some skills,” she said, taking in their shocked expressions.

“Thank you.” Robin meant it. If she hadn’t been able to do that, they would be busy searching the unconscious guard and his desk for a flashlight.

They descended quickly and quietly until she saw a door that said: “Utility Closet.” They were just past the underground parking area, so Robin was willing to bet that the entrance to the private basement floors was around here somewhere.

“May I?” She looked at Dem as she held her hand out for the keys.

“Be my guest.” He dropped the warm metal into her hand. There were seven keys total on the keyring, and it was the fifth one she tried that opened the door. At first, when they looked in, they saw only cleaning supplies, but then there was a second door just to the left, which would have followed the pattern of the stairwell if it continued going down. She was about to try to open it with another key when Nimue asked her to wait.

Time ticked by. She knew, because it was so quiet, she could hear Dem’s watch. The sound of her pulse pounded in her ears.

“Okay.” Nimue nodded toward the door.

Robin lucked out, and the first key she tried opened it. Beyond it lay a badge scanner, which was down thanks to Ellie, and the rest of the stairs. The only problem was the wire mesh security door that could only be unlocked by the badge scanner. No keyhole present.

“May I?” Dem asked, mimicking her.

“Be my guest.” She echoed his own line back to him as she backed away from the door with a flourish.

In that moment, she was extremely glad that if she couldn’t have Hal with her, she had Dem. He was the biggest of the three brothers, with him and Hal being almost equal in height, and where Hal was beefy, Dem was ripped, which he demonstrated when he pulled the door’s mesh off. The muscles in his arms, back, and neck flexed as he moved it inch by inch.

The screech of the metal ripping out of the door it was soldered onto was almost deafening in the stairwell. Just as quickly as it had started, it was over. Dem’s arm reached through the gap he had created and opened the door from the other side. Apparently, they were so confident that whoever was being kept prisoner down there couldn’t get up here, that the badge-locking system was only in place on their side of the door.

Swinging the now-tattered metal door open, they continued down to the next floor.

“I’m in front. Nimue, keep an eye out for wards. Robin, look for your family.” Dem’s voice was low and nothing but business.

Nodding at him, Robin followed him through the first door, with Nimue just behind her. The scent of the cleaner was much heavier here, almost making her cough from the intensity of the acrid smell.

The hallway was similar to that of the conscripted employees’ upstairs, except there were none of the niceties. No wallpaper or paint, no carpet, no somewhat attractive light fixtures. Just concrete blocks and floors as far as the eye could see. The exposed bulb lights would have been painful on the eyes, if they were working. Thankfully, Nimue’s orb was a pleasant glow.

Dem went past the first set of opposing doors and stood guard while Robin peeked in.

The first room was a kitchen. The door looked similar to the others down the hall, but she was willing to bet that the rooms inside were mostly different from this one. Magazines and paperback books littered the table and chairs. The counter that ran around the outside of the room was filled with dirty dishes. Someone had been neglecting their chores. She moved over to the room on the other side. A cat’s eyes looked out from the corner of the room. Not a house cat. A large cat. Robin couldn’t tell what kind in the dim light. She turned and followed Dem to the next set of rooms. Again, she saw animals. This time a deer in one room and a wolf in another.

Something wasn’t right.

“Nimue, will you look into a room and tell me what you see?” she asked quietly, so as not to disturb any of the creatures that may be easily startled.

She nodded and looked into the room where Robin had seen the wolf. Before Nimue could speak, a woman’s voice called out from behind Robin.

“You don’t work here, do you?” A long thin arm hung out of the barred window Robin had just peered through.

There had been a giant cat in there. She knew she hadn’t hallucinated it. The reflective eyes staring back at her, the gleam of the fur in the faint light, she had seen those things, but now a young woman stood in the room where the cat had previously been. Robin hadn’t been aware that she had walked over, but now she stood in front of the woman.

Bright gold eyes stared back at her, long black hair outlining her face. Nimue came closer, and so did the light, making the scarab pendant the woman in the cell was wearing wink and shimmer.

“No, we don’t.” Robin’s mouth had moved, but her brain had stalled.

“Can you get us out of here? Please? All you have to do is open the door. That’s it!” The golden eyes were wide with panic now, but there was maybe a touch of excitement as she brushed inky strands away from her face.

“You . . . You were a cat.”

“Umm . . . maybe? I thought you’d know what the deal was if you were coming down here.” Her black slashes of eyebrow pinched together.

“How can we help you get out?” Robin shut the stunned part of her mind up and just let go. She could examine the memory of what she saw later. “Nim?” She used the shortened version she’d heard Randall using, since she wasn’t sure Nimue would want to be outed like that.

“There are enchantments on all the doors. Give me a moment.”

“How do we know you are safe to release?” Dem’s voice startled her. She hadn’t even thought of that.

“We are being held prisoner by a corporation, not the government, not in jail or an actual prison. We were given a life sentence without even being read our rights. How could you keep us in here?” She spat the words out at him.

“Dem, no one deserves this. Aster was here, remember? Someone is probably looking for these people too. They have families and loved ones, just like Aster did. The only difference is I couldn’t help them, since I didn’t know most of them were here. Now I do, and I’m not about to leave them behind.”

Nimue threw her head back with tightly closed eyes. The orb of light flickered but hovered where her hand had been as she opened her arms out to each side, moving them forward inch by inch. Her body shook with the effort. Every movement made a tremor run through her. But Robin could feel the magic breaking. Almost as if her ears were popping as each door was freed of its magical locks.

“Call in our backup. We need someone to get them out of here,” Robin said, glancing at Dem, who looked none too happy. When he didn’t immediately reach for his phone, she said, “I can if you don’t want to.”

Pulling the thin black device out, Dem’s fingers became a blur over the keypad, before he tucked it into a back pocket. By the time Nimue was done, Robin had started unlocking the doors after figuring out which key to use, and Thad appeared in the doorway.

“Thanks for getting here so fast.” Robin smiled over at him. “Can you lead these people out?”

“Um. Sure? What’s going on?”

“Robin’s a soft touch and can’t leave anyone behind,” Dem grumbled.

“Don’t listen to him. He’s just a grouch. I wouldn’t leave anyone behind, either, if I didn’t have to.” Thad’s eyes gleamed in the faint light, looking all the more eerie.

“They must go out through the front door. That is where the hole in the ward is. If they leave another way, I am not sure what will happen. Thank you.” The thanks that Nimue added seemed like an afterthought, which made Robin smile.

“Sounds good.”

Thad began speaking to each of the individuals who had been released from the cells, whether they were in human form or . . . not. He spoke to them all equally. Her eyes searched the growing crowd for her parents. As no one else joined, her heart sank.

Just before they left, the cat lady reached out, her elegant fingers brushing Robin’s arm. “Thank you. If I can ever repay the favor, call for me with this.” She unhooked the scarab necklace and placed it in Robin’s hand.

“You don’t need to—”

“Do not be ungrateful. You saved my life. I owe you a blood debt.”

“What’s your name?”

“Amisi.” The woman smiled, her golden eyes glowing in the light.

“Take care, Amisi.”

She nodded and followed the crowd out.

“We should walk the hallway to make sure there is no one left.” Dem’s voice was curt. He was unhappy with her choice.

The three of them walked in silence as they covered the ground. The empty floor seemed full of echoes now that the doors were open. When they found nothing but empty rooms, they went down to the next floor. It was similar, but slightly different.

Before they could even step foot through the doorway, they heard voices. Guards.

“I don’t like this, man.”

“Protocol is to stay at your post, so that’s what we are doing, Evanston. Now, tell me about the last movie you saw.”

The other man, Evanston, started prattling on about spaceships and aliens. Dem made eye contact with Nimue and Robin, motioning for them to stay put and quiet. His eyes were hard, and his face might as well have been chiseled from stone. It almost seemed like he was waiting for an argument from them, but he wasn’t going to get one. She knew they would be liabilities in a situation like this.

Robin watched as the man in front of her changed from stiff soldier to lethal predator. He moved with an almost feline grace that she wouldn’t have expected from a man his size. He disappeared into a room, and she heard a thud followed by a startled grunt and another thud. The stiff soldier returned, waving them forward.

The rooms on this floor were bigger, and as she peeked in through the window, she immediately knew why. These were the rooms where the guards interrogated the prisoners. She had watched the guards interrogate Aster in one of these rooms. They were designed to allow the guards to use whatever method they felt appropriate to get the answers they needed.

Thick metal chairs were bolted to the floor in the center of the room, with a light that could be used directly in front of them. To each side were folding chairs and cabinets containing instruments that had given her nightmares when she had first seen them.

As they moved down the hall, she was happy to discover that the rooms they passed were empty. A fact that also terrified her. Where the hell was her family? And what were the guards doing on this floor if the rooms weren’t occupied?

They were, though. She just hadn’t seen it yet. A man she didn’t recognize was chained to a chair in one room. She turned to look in the other room, and her heart stopped.

Her mother and her sister were handcuffed and chained to the wall at the back of the cell while another guard paced around her father, who was handcuffed to the chair. As she peered into the room from the hallway, her mother’s eyes widened, and she began violently shaking her head, tears streaming down her face.

“What the hell is wrong now?” The guard walked over to her, backhanding her across the face.

“S-S-Sorry.”

Robin turned the key in the lock as quietly as possible, and she knew without turning that Nimue was releasing the magic lock on the door. Her ears popped, and she turned the key the final little bit. There was an audible click that froze her in place. Footsteps came toward them.

“Mom! Stop! He’s just going to hit you again!” Caitlyn’s voice rang out in fear as her mom let loose a sob.

“I can’t hear myself think with you going on like that. Shut the hell up!” The guard seethed with anger as he headed back in the direction of her mother.

Dem moved Robin out of the way, and Nimue, who had already been out of sight, became as still as a statue. He pressed his ear to the door, listening to the movements inside. He peered inside and dropped back down again.

She caught a scent she wasn’t used to, but it was familiar, reminding her of summers as a child and thunderstorms. Fog filled the hallway.

Dem.

She had been wondering how he could control water. The visibility dropped, and it was only when she heard the handle of the door turn that she realized he was using the cloud he had created as cover. A confused grunt sounded from inside the room, before she heard a fist connecting with flesh, followed by a thud. If she was going to keep hanging out with these guys, then she needed to learn to fight. She hated feeling useless.

The fog seemed to get sucked up. As Robin watched, it condensed around Dem before seeming to just become part of him. If she had been asked to guess how he controlled water, this would not have been her first, or even her tenth, guess.

Taking in the guard sprawled across the floor and Dem standing over him, she knew that without having this unlikely companion, she would have failed at rescuing her parents and would be stuck back with Randall.

“Mom? Caitlyn?” Robin’s voice sounded shaky to her own ears.

“Robin?” Caitlyn’s eyes bugged out of her head as she stared at her sister, whereas her mother and father couldn’t look at her.

“We’re here to get you out.” She sighed, thankful to have found them. The keys jangled in her hand as she began trying each one on the lock that kept their arms raised over their heads.

None of them worked.

“Does he have any keys on him?” She turned to Dem, trying to keep the panic from her voice.

“No. I’ll go check the other guards. Stay here.” He pointed at Robin and then Nimue as he walked out.

“I’m so glad we found you. We’re going to get you out of here and then get you somewhere safe.”

“One of your friends told us that we were safe before, and look where we ended up.” The venom in her father’s voice surprised her.

The rush of anger scorched her cheeks, and she was sure they were flaming red. “You led them to the safe house, not me! If you had given up betting like you told me you were going to when you sold me to Randall Fields, then you wouldn’t be in this mess. You just can’t keep away from the track, though, can you!”

“Mom, what’s Robin talking about?” Caitlyn’s voice was small, tight with fear.

“It doesn’t matter now.” Her mother cooed at her little sister.

“It doesn’t matter? Are you serious?” Robin turned from her mom to her little sister. Looking at either of her parents made her sick to her stomach. “Dad sold me to a man who made me watch who knows how many people die, just because he wanted to test my abilities, let alone the fact that he controlled every inch of my life, of my body. The contract that he and I signed gave Randall complete control over the length of my service to him. It was twenty years at the beginning, and I know to the depths of my soul that even if I had survived those twenty years, he wouldn’t have let me go, especially since he could add years for any perceived infraction.

“All that to pay off a gambling debt. You know what he told me on the drive over, before he and I watched Randall kill two men, before he pushed me into the arms of a murderer? He promised me that giving me up was the hardest thing he had ever done and that he would never gamble again because of it. He promised me as he used me to pay a debt.

“Then when I couldn’t take it anymore and wanted to escape becoming Randall’s personal sex toy, I made sure you were all safe because I knew what kind of man Fields was. I knew he would kill each of you to get to me. It was only then that I even tried to run. And he risked all of that and betrayed the one promise I begged him to keep, just so he could lose money.” Her chest heaved as she finished speaking.

Without thinking, she turned on her heel and was about to walk out, the rage flowing inside her too much to deal with in front of her family right now, when she saw Dem standing in the doorway. Fury contorted his features, and she knew he had heard more than she had ever planned on sharing with him.

Whipping his phone out, his fingers flew over the buttons once more. She had no idea what he was saying or to whom, but as he marched past her with a different set of keys in hand, she walked out. Once she was out of the room, not looking at the parents who had abandoned her so easily, the pain became too much. Tears streaked down her face, and she slid down the concrete wall, curling into a ball on the floor. She gave herself sixty seconds to feel this, and then she had to pack it up once more so they could escape this wretched building.

Footsteps approached from the hall. Glancing up, she saw Thad, distorted by tears, and waved him through into the room. The boys’ voices were quiet, and she couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she knew she had to get a handle on her emotions. Her sixty seconds were up.

Wiping her eyes and tear-stained cheeks, she started to push herself up. Nimue was there, her touch gentle, as she helped Robin stand. The woman embraced her, squeezing her tightly. It almost caused the tears to start once more, but she let go just in time. Robin nodded at the woman and cleared her throat before going back into the room.

Everyone was free and standing.

“Thad isn’t comfortable jumping your mom and your sister out through such a small hole in the enchantments, so we are just going to walk everyone out.”

“There are more stairs going down. Don’t you want to see where they lead? What if there are more people trapped down there?” Robin’s voice was rough and strained in her own ears as she carefully kept her eyes from going to her family. She knew if they did, then the storm of emotions inside her would just bring her to her knees once more.

“We don’t have time. Ellie is getting tired. Whatever or whoever is down there is not what we came for. Right now we need to get out and get safe, before any of the other guards realize what’s up. We’ve been insanely lucky so far.” Thad was the voice of reason.

Robin nodded. She hadn’t thought about Ellie. Guilt swamped her. She glanced over at Dem, who was currently giving her father a death stare. This was going to be interesting.

They walked out, up the stairs and into the lobby. There were some people milling around, but no one she recognized. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t recognize her, though, so she pulled her ponytail out and used it to hide her profile as they passed the group.

Complaints about the power being out and the fact that they weren’t just released to go home seemed to be all the group was worried about. She knew that if they could go home, then they weren’t any of the employees who could have recognized her.

The security guard from the front desk was missing from his post. She dropped the set of keys they had taken from him on the desk and walked out into the sunshine.

Finally, they were back on the island, and for the first time, she felt like she could take a deep breath. It was only a matter of seconds, though, before her mind jumped forward and started focusing on rescuing Hal. She walked away from her family, knowing they were safe and couldn’t cause trouble, so she could save the man who had stolen her heart.

* * *

Hal wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep fighting. The woman lending Randall her support was on the ground, in pain and exhausted, but the man just kept coming at him. His own body was becoming stiff as it tried to protect itself from further damage.

“You’re all a bunch of cowards!” Poseidon yelled, as another one of his rages came on.

His moods seemed to ebb and flow like the ocean itself. One minute he would be quiet, observing the fight, and the next he would be yelling at the purple cloaks, trying to bait them into lowering the circle. It appeared he was trying to bait them once more. Hal sighed as he circled around, making Randall work for his next hit. The god might feel better raging at the masks on the other side, but it was damn distracting when he was trying to concentrate on staying conscious.

“You know what? Screw this! And screw all of you!”

The ground under them rumbled, and Hal almost lost his footing. He really hoped that the god known as the Earth Shaker had more than that if he hoped to accomplish anything.

Poseidon slowly began raising his arms. Water began pouring in through minute cracks in the floor, covering everything up to the barrier faster than Hal thought possible. The fight was getting more complicated as the water rose higher. It slowly crept up Hal’s legs until he was wading back and forth through it, trying to stay out of Randall’s reach.

The frustration on his opponent’s face was clear, but it didn’t stop him and barely slowed him down. Hal focused on the water around him, pulling a wave of it from behind Randall’s legs, pushing him off balance.

When the dark swath of hair went under the water, he knew this was his opportunity. One Hal couldn’t waste. Jumping on top of Randall, he held him down with one knee and most of his weight on the man’s back, forcing his opponent to struggle against his larger frame. It was when the woman on the floor started gasping for breath that he pulled the scrawny man up.

Taking a deep, shaking breath followed by a hacking cough, Randall went to turn to attack Hal once more, but this time Hal’s arm snaked around his neck, putting him in a choke hold.

Before he could do anything further, a great crack sounded, making his ears ring with pain. Lightning streaked out from the wall behind him, bouncing off the invisible shield holding not only them but the water in. Hal knew as soon as he saw it that they were screwed. He had only released Randall by a fraction of an inch when the lightning connected with the water. The pain exploded through him at an intensity he’d never felt before. Every muscle in his body locked up, and as the water rushed out of the room, he followed it to the floor, with Randall landing beside him. The last thing he saw was the woman who had been suffering to help Randall. She was still conscious, unlike the man she’d been connected to. Perhaps the bond broke when one of the members lost consciousness, but as her body collapsed to the floor, he gave up trying to think past the pain.

“I told you not to interfere,” the High Brother’s voice scolded, before screams began ripping through the air.

Hal knew he should be concerned about what was happening, but he couldn’t move. Every single hair on his body hurt. His skin felt like it was on fire, and that was all he could think about.

Chapter 24

Robin’s heart had stopped when she saw Hal’s body on the floor twitching. Everything had happened so fast that her brain was still processing. She knew she had to stay out of the way so the brothers could work, but it was taking everything she had not to run over and try to get to Hal. The only reason Dem had agreed to bring her along was because she could be played as a pretend bargaining chip or distraction.

When they had arrived and seen Hal and Randall duking it out, their plan had gone out the window. There were too many members there for physical combat, especially if they all channeled their Keys, which could have the boys facing any number of powers. Dem and Thad worked together to create a magical barrier of water that held the members of the Order in a confined space. The giant of a brother had somehow succeeded in electrifying the surface of the water that faced them, so when they had tried to escape, they all were shocked, leaving them howling in pain. She could understand why the gods employed the brothers when she saw how they worked together.

Alec and Nimue were over by the barrier, trying to get it down.

“It’s the circle. It’s ancient and definitely shouldn’t be in such good condition.” Alec’s voice was tinged with concern.

“So break the circle,” she said quietly as she scurried over to them.

“Break what? The circle isn’t visible. Plus, even if it was, it’s pure magic.”

“Break the magic that binds the circle. They had to add it to the stuff already there, right? So just break what they added.” Robin pointed at the markings on the floor.

Nimue had come along as backup or as a bodyguard for Robin, which she thought was much more likely. After looking for a moment at what Robin was talking about, she sent an orb of light flying at the floor, the small tiles of the mosaic turning to dust under her power.

“That should do it.” Her lyrical voice sounded so out of place in the current situation.

Robin moved forward without thinking and was through the area where they had seen the barrier before Alec could yell at her to stop. She dashed over to Hal’s side. He was breathing—she could see his big chest expanding and contracting with rapid, shallow movements. They needed to get him home.

The two other men began to stir at that moment, while Randall was still out for the count. She was willing to bet that if they hadn’t beaten each other to a bloody pulp before the lightning hit, then Hal and Randall would be waking up as well.

“Sirens?” The older man with the strange markings chuckled to himself as he rubbed his head. “Figures you’d come for one of your own.”

“My lord.” Alec dropped to a knee. “Please excuse Demetrius and Thaddeus for not showing the respect you deserve, but they are focused on containing those who would wish you harm.”

“Oh, enough with the formalities already and help me up.” Alec reached down and gripped the man’s arm. The silvery-blue markings on his skin swirled at the touch. They weren’t tattoos as she had initially thought; it was something actually in his skin. Once he was on his feet, he went to check on the other guy.

“Samuel?” Concern was etched on his face.

“Here, Grandfather,” the younger man responded with a cough, groaning as he rolled onto his side.

“Good boy.” The man clapped Samuel on the shoulder, which made him take a sharp breath in.

“Maybe not so much with the physical contact for a while, okay?”

“Oh. Sorry, Sam.” The older man smiled, bright white teeth accentuating his tanned skin. He ran his hand through his hair, pulling out a long strand of seaweed. “How long’s that been there?” he seemed to mutter to himself.

Sam had pushed himself up into sitting position and was looking up at his grandfather, who in Robin’s eyes didn’t look old enough to have grandchildren. “What are you going to do to them?”

A dark fury crossed the older man’s face. “I’m not sure yet.” He stalked over to the huddled group of people. “What should I do with you? Trying to capture and enslave a god? Tsk, tsk. No good can come from that, but how will you tell your friends if I just kill all of you?”

Dem and Thad glanced at each other with worried expressions.

“Sirens, you may let the wall down. I can defend myself now that I’m not stripped of most of my powers.”

“Yes, Lord Poseidon,” Thad said with his head bowed.

They slowly lowered their arms, letting the water melt away into the floor, the same as the water that had been about to drown Hal. Dropping to their knees, they bowed their heads. “Thank you,” they both said, before standing and coming over to where Robin and Nimue sat with Hal.

The row of about ten people, minus Randall and the woman who had collapsed onto the floor at the same time Randall was struck by the lightning, stared at the god, their eyes wide with fear.

“Rest assured that this specific summoning circle will no longer be of any use to you once I am through with it, and neither will a few of your comrades.”

The sea god’s face was almost feral with anger, making Robin want to shrink as far away from him as possible. The scream wrenched itself out of her then, startling everyone around her. The heinous sound had clawed her throat as it escaped, only to leave her with a flash of a vision and a knot in her stomach. She saw Poseidon killing them, though thankfully it wasn’t all of them. She knew exactly what was coming. Who Poseidon was going to kill and how.

After realizing what she was and what was happening, the sea god turned back to his victims. Reaching out, he grabbed two of them by the arm, and water flowed out of the ground and up their bodies, like a waterfall in reverse. It covered their faces, making it look like they were wearing clear helmets filled with water. As the scream subsided, she knew she couldn’t sit by and just let him kill them. Violence like this was unnecessary and cruel.

“Robin, do not meddle in the affairs of gods.” Nimue’s voice was just behind her ear, the woman’s hand coming down on her shoulder like a ton of bricks. “He will retaliate on you, me, and the sirens you are so fond of. If for nothing else, then for their sakes, do not interfere.”

She stopped her movement and shut her mouth. If there was one thing she wasn’t about to do, it was bring a god’s wrath down on those who had just helped rescue her family. Glancing down at Hal’s prone form, she didn’t think he would be able to take whatever retribution the god dished out, and he was the one person she would never, for the rest of her life, betray.

Focusing on Hal, she tried to shut out the sounds of the people drowning, instead replacing them with the memory of Hal’s laughter, or his deep baritone voice that she thought was heavenly, and if he sang, well, then she wouldn’t stand a chance, would she?

“Did that scare you enough?” Poseidon’s voice cut through the daydream of Hal serenading her by the ocean.

Glancing over, she saw the two freshly slumped bodies. She wrenched her eyes away before they took in details she couldn’t unsee.

“No?” The god’s voice sounded again, the edge of malice sharp as a razor blade. “Maybe one more, then?” She heard a sickening crunch and looked back down at Hal. “Now, as for the rest of you, let’s treat you to a nice vacation. What do you say?”

She looked over just in time to see him teleport out with four of the members of the Order. He appeared again seconds later, bringing with him a swirl of fresh air and exotic scents. There was even sand stuck to his feet. Grabbing the remaining members, he disappeared once more, this time returning with flakes of snow flurrying around him. It was only as he walked over to them that she realized the third victim of Poseidon’s rage had been the woman who had seemed to be connected to Randall somehow. She had been in pain when they first appeared, and then when the lightning struck, she had collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

Hal began to stir, his breathing becoming deeper and his body restless. Robin knew he was in pain; she could see it in the lines of his face. She just didn’t know how to help.

“Now”—he put his hands on his hips, evaluating the room—“just that one?”

“Lord Poseidon, please, we need this one,” Nimue said with her head bowed.

“What possible reason do you have for needing this one?” The sneer on his face made it evident that whatever needs they had, they were far below the needs of a god, and therefore unimportant.

“He performed blood magic on this girl. We need his blood to remove it.” Nimue’s voice was sure and strong. She wasn’t intimidated by the god, but she was still being respectful.

The sea god had evidently not noticed earlier who she was. “I am not used to seeing Fae out in the mortal realm. Why do you help them?”

“Because I owe my life to them.”

He regarded her for a moment. The expression on his face made Robin uncomfortable. It was a mix of attraction and arrogance that reminded her all too much of Randall Fields. Looking down, she found Hal looking up at her. His stirring a moment earlier had evidently led to full wakefulness. Blues and greens swirled in his eyes as he watched her.

“Hal?” Her hand came up to his face, gently cupping his cheek. “Sweetie, are you okay?”

“What’s going on?” his voice croaked out, each syllable a study in pain.

“Don’t worry about that. Just rest.” She stroked the tangled wet hair away from his face, her gut clenching at seeing him in agony.

“Figure something else out.” Poseidon’s voice came out like a whip as he picked up Randall’s unconscious form from the floor, walked over, and placed a hand on the younger man’s shoulder and jumped out. The brothers, Nimue, and Robin were the only ones left now, if she didn’t include the dead bodies, which she was trying not to think about.

Robin’s heart broke. In that moment, the one hope she had of this all working out in the end shattered. Randall was gone, and she was still stuck with the mark. Hal would be forever out of her reach, and she wouldn’t drag him into a relationship that could never grow and mature.

Nimue moved around her and began examining Hal’s hands.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m looking for any blood that Randall may have left behind. For instance, on Hal’s knuckles from when they were fighting.”

Robin looked around to where her old boss had been unceremoniously dumped after the water disappeared. His unconscious body may have left behind something useful. As she turned to examine the area, she found a small rivulet of blood tucked between some of the mosaic tiles.

“Can you tell if it belonged to Randall?” she asked, turning toward Nimue, carefully avoiding putting her hands anywhere that might disrupt the few drops of blood.

“Probably, but I can’t guarantee it.”

“There’s a little over here.”

The silvery-gold-covered head snapped up from where it was bent over Hal, who was going in and out of consciousness. Moving over to examine the patch of ground Robin was guarding, the other woman started nodding her head as she looked at it.

“How can you tell?” Robin’s curiosity got the better of her.

“His body is not meant to handle magic; it is not an innate ability for him. I can sense the dissonance between his blood and the magic that flowed through his body while he fought Hal.” She peered at the sample, her head practically on the floor. “Could one of you bring this sample with you?”

The brothers all looked at one another, confused expressions all around.

“We don’t have anything to put it in,” Alec said, voicing his brothers’ concerns, as well as his own.

“Can you not transport it in water?”

Thad shook his head. “Even with my talent being what it is, I wouldn’t be willing to bet on it surviving the trip home, especially since we can’t make it in one jump.”

When they had set out to rescue Hal, the brothers had jumped from the big house to Paris, and then from Paris to Athens, and finally to the speck of an island that the map had shown them. She could still smell the freshly baked bread from Paris and the salty air from Athens and the island they were now on.

“There has to be something somewhere that we can use to contain it.” The desperation in her own voice surprised her, as it did the brothers. “I can’t live my life tied to that man. I just . . .” She sighed, feeling defeated. “I can’t.”

“I understand.” Nimue’s voice was gentle as the woman rubbed circles on her back, right over the mark. Robin wondered if it was intentional. “Can’t one of you jump somewhere and get something?” she said, asking the question that had been swimming in Robin’s mind since this discussion started.

“I don’t know about these two”—Dem gestured to the brother on either side of him—“but I barely have enough energy to get myself home. If Hal isn’t able to jump himself and we have to get Robin home, then I just don’t have the energy to spare.”

Nods of agreement came from Thad and Alec.

“Jumping with two people is a serious energy drain, and so is putting up a wall of water. There has to be something around here,” Thad said as he began to search the space.

“What about in ice?” Alec posed the question to his brothers.

They paused, looking at each other.

“Could work. I’m still worried about it breaking, though.” Thad rubbed the pale blond stubble that was starting to appear on his jaw.

“So take the dirt with you. Freeze that.”

“If someone can transport me home, then I can try and remove the mark here.” Nimue’s voice was low. “But after I am done, I will need to go straight to the lake to recharge.”

A crackle of nervous energy erupted in Robin’s belly. Here and now was something she wasn’t mentally prepared for.

“I can take you home if you would allow me to rest there a while, and if Thad and Alec are okay with Robin and Hal,” Dem said, his eyelids drooping slightly with exhaustion already as he glanced over at his brothers, who nodded, and then at Nimue, who gracefully inclined her head.

“If this is too difficult, we can figure out another way of transporting the blood.” Robin’s voice was high and tinny in her own ears, revealing her fear to the others.

“It will be fine, Robin.” Nimue’s violet eyes met her own, filled with touching sincerity.

In that moment, she knew the pain was going to be just as bad, if not worse, as when the mark was applied. If Randall’s unconscious body were still there, she would have released her frustrations out on him. Poseidon had taken that opportunity away from her. He might have even taken away the ability for the mark to be removed if the few drops of blood she had found weren’t enough.

“I will need to meditate for a while to draw the necessary energies to the surface.” Nimue sat, almost guarding the blood, and began to close her eyes before they snapped open again. “Robin, I suggest you take this time to rest and ready yourself as well.”

Robin nodded and watched as Nimue settled into a meditative pose, her body relaxed, eyes closed, breathing gentle. She tried to mimic the position, but it didn’t work. Her body felt stiff and awkward in comparison to the other woman’s. Thoughts raced in her head about what was to come, and she watched as the brothers each took up positions throughout the cave.

They were spread out enough that if they were somehow attacked, the attackers would be forced to spread out as well, but they could reach each other, if need be. Closing her eyes once more, Robin went searching inside herself for the strength that had allowed her to stand up to Randall in the first place, the strength that had helped her remain at Eclipse when every second was like slowly suffocating. It was the strength she would need for what Nimue was about to do.

* * *

Hal jerked awake as a scream ripped through the air. What had happened? He remembered arriving here, the purple cloaks lining the wall, Poseidon and Sam showing up, and fighting Randall, but then nothing. His eyes were having trouble focusing on anything, and he felt like he’d been hit by a truck. Every muscle in his body was sore, even his toes. What the hell made his toes sore?

The scream tore through him again. Bolting upright, the vision in front of him was one that made his heart almost stop. Thad and Dem were holding Robin’s arms while Nimue stood behind them, performing some sort of magic on her back. Those slate-gray eyes that he’d come to care for so much locked with his own as tears streamed down her cheeks.

“What the hell?” His voice was a quiet rasp. Clearing his throat, he asked again.

“Brother, it is for her own good. They are removing the mark. It’s all good.” Alec was beside him then, and as he turned to look at his brother, his eyes took in what could only have come from a god’s vengeance. Three bodies lay strewn across the floor. Two of them had drowned where there was no water. He knew Poseidon’s handiwork when he saw it.

Finally locking eyes with his brother, he said, “She’s screaming in pain. How is that all good?” The words ground out of him, low and quiet, the calm before the storm of his anger.

“She did this voluntarily.” Alec’s forehead creased in concern as he took in Hal’s current mood.

“What the hell are you all doing here, anyway? Where is her family? Who’s watching out for Aster and Ellie?” The questions came rushing out of him just as another scream burst forth from Robin’s throat. He knew the screams were not the warning of oncoming death; they didn’t have the same reverberation as the one he had experienced when she had met Cin, but to him, these were worse.

Caring for Robin had changed something in him. It was no longer just fun; she was not just a distraction. She was important to him, perhaps more important than he ever expected her to be. True, he had been inexplicably drawn to her from the very beginning, and his desire to rescue her had almost driven him, and probably his brothers, mad. All that being said, though, he hadn’t expected to want to physically harm his brothers and rip Nimue away from her as though they were responsible for this fresh pain. He had known she wanted the mark off, and it was the mark causing the pain.

It was all Randall’s fault. He should have killed the bastard when he had the chance, but again, the thought of killing that innocent woman stopped his line of thinking in its tracks. Glancing back over at Poseidon’s vengeance, he saw that the woman hadn’t made it out alive, anyway.

“We came to rescue you, dumbass. Robin’s family is safe. They are on the island, as are Ellie and Aster. Ellie can take care of everyone. She’s my tough cookie.” Hal watched as Alec’s face softened as he talked about his soulmate.

He had thought, once upon a time, they would all die in battle one way or another, but it never came. Centuries passed, and he thought they would only ever have each other and the occasional romantic dalliance. Then Dem had found Isa, and everything had seemed as though it was balanced on a knife edge, until Zeus pushed them over and that knife edge cut Dem’s heart, leaving him emotionally scarred from what Isa had been through.

Hal shook his head. He was doing too much thinking while Robin was in pain. Pushing himself up, he moved over and crouched in front of her. “Hey, Rin. I hear you came to rescue me.”

“Somebody needed to save you.” She winced as she spoke.

Peeking over her shoulder, he could see that Nimue was hard at work trying to remove the mark. He hadn’t expected to see her fingers in Robin’s back, but they were knuckle deep as they moved around the shape of the mark.

“I appreciate it.” He smiled and kissed her on the cheek.

“Don’t waste it.”

“Waste what?”

“Your second chance. They could have killed you.”

Whatever Nimue did then caused another yell, followed by sobbing.

“We are almost done, my little banshee.” Nimue’s voice was soft as she spoke, incongruous with the actions she had to perform to remove the mark.

“I just want to be free.” Robin’s voice scratched the words out between sobs, and he understood why she was doing this. The mark represented everything about her life she was trying to move past. If it remained, then part of Randall would always be with her.

“You will be, baby, you will. I promise.” At some point, he was going to hunt that bastard down and make him pay for his crimes.

Hal wiped the tears away from her cheeks, brushing the flame-colored hair away from her eyes. This strong woman was being brought to her knees by her wish for freedom, and that was something he understood more than she realized. He had often wished to be free of the gods, to not have to do their bidding anymore, to be in charge of his own destiny. The thing was, when he was with Robin, he felt that way. His life’s path was within his grasp, and the work for the gods was just a fraction of what his life could be.

She looked at him once more, the gray-blue of her eyes searing his soul. “I love you.” The words were quiet and he barely heard them, but his soul heard them loud and clear as his heart thumped its own response in his chest.

Before he could return the sentiment, her body went limp, her head hanging between her shoulders like a rag doll’s. He looked up at Nimue, panic-stricken that something like this would be what took her away from him.

“She’s fine. I’m done. Now her body needs to rest. As do I.” The woman swayed on her feet, and Dem instinctively let go of Robin to catch her. Thankfully, with Hal being right there, he was able to catch the now-unconscious Robin. Thad released his support of her, as well, and Hal scooped her up into his lap, brushing her hair away from her face once more as it rested on his shoulder.

“I’m taking her home,” Dem said. He looked exhausted, making Hal wonder what exactly had happened in the time that he couldn’t remember.

“We should all head home,” Thad said, wearing the same exhaustion on his face as Dem. “Hal, are you okay to jump yourself?”

He nodded. “I’ll take Robin too.”

“Thanks, Brother.” Alec clapped him on the shoulder, and he sucked in a sharp breath. Once he was home, he would have to do something about all these bruises and what he suspected was a broken nose.

“I’ll check in on Robin’s family, so you can just take her straight to the cabin,” Thad said, causing Hal to stiffen.

“How do you know about the cabin?”

“Seer, remember?” His brother chuckled. “I knew when you decided to build it, and I knew when you first brought Robin to the island that it would be your cabin that made her feel safe. I usually know more than I share with you, which is a good thing, because you shouldn’t know the future. It’s good to have surprises in your life.”

Thad looked at Dem at the last statement. His eldest brother jumped out, carrying Nimue, clearly not amused by whatever Thad was getting at. Hal waited until Thad had jumped, and just before Alec left, he asked, “What do I say to her when she wakes up?”

Confusion crossed his best friend’s face. “What do you mean?”

“She said she loved me. What do I say to that?” Hal’s heart felt torn in two. He cared for her deeply, but he wasn’t willing to sing for her; at least, not yet. If she wasn’t his soulmate, then she would become his thrall, and she had been under one man’s thumb long enough that it wasn’t even a possibility he was willing to entertain.

“Say it back, if you feel it. If not, well, then talk to her about it. The biggest mistake I made when I was courting Ellie was not explaining myself. I just dumped my emotions on her, and she rejected them outright, as she should have, but if I would have explained what I was feeling, what I wanted out of a relationship with her, who knows what would have happened differently.”

“If you had done anything differently, then you wouldn’t have ended up talking to Aphrodite, which has given us all a sense of freedom. I know Thad and Dem will probably never think to say this to you, but thank you for taking the risk, for pushing hard enough, and pushing me hard enough, that we know we can lead full lives now.”

Alec’s head dipped. He was uncomfortable with heavy conversations, always had been. “Let’s go home,” his brother said.

They both jumped out, leaving behind the broken god-summoning circle and failed attempt at a power grab.

Chapter 25

Frustration boiled in Aster’s blood. The brothers had left her. Again. She was not a child who needed a babysitter, and she certainly wasn’t going to live out her life trapped on this island instead of trapped in a cage by Randall Fields. A thought skittered across her mind.

There was someone in a cage she owed some payback to, though.

She hadn’t missed when they had told Robin that The Surgeon was on the island, contained somewhere, nor had she missed Robin’s reaction. The man was worse than scum. He was deranged and needed to be put down. If she could figure out where he was, then she could find out what the hell that man had done to her while she was in his tender care. They had talked about trying to breed her like some kind of dog, testing to see if her ability was genetic or not. She, of course, was supposed to be impregnated too, so that if none of the other children had the ability, then they could test against a child carried in her own womb. The whole idea made her sick to her stomach.

Pacing around the big house was no help, especially now that Robin’s family was there as well. Her father was the biggest waste of space she’d ever seen. The man was dying without getting his gambling fix. Even though he looked like he’d been beaten until he lost consciousness, the only thing he could think about was where he might be able to lay some money against some ponies.

The other daughter, Robin’s sister, looked like she’d been through hell. Poor thing was shell shocked. She wouldn’t look at either of her parents, even though her mother was begging her to let her explain. Their voices were digging under her own skin. She could only imagine how Caitlyn felt. Robin’s parents seemed so self-centered that it amazed Aster that the banshee had risked anything to get them out of that hellhole, let alone her life itself.

She pulled a pair of running shoes on and decided to go exploring, because if she stayed in the house with those people, then she was going to snap, and she liked Robin. She didn’t want to upset her. Not that she could really do anything. One self-defense class and one judo class did not a warrior make.

Finally, out in the fresh air, the sounds of Robin’s family imploding were fading, and she could breathe again. Although, without them to distract her, her mind inevitably drifted back to the one place she had been trying to keep it from going all day.

Dem.

What the hell had he been thinking showing up in the kitchen like that? He seemed just as confused by everything as she was, and it pissed her off. He was supposed to be this immortal warrior. Surely he should have some parts of his life figured out by now. She kicked a rock, wanting to scream and throw a temper tantrum, but that made her feel like a little kid. She had to let her frustrations out somehow, though. She couldn’t help it, not if she wanted to stay sane. When the rock hit something metal, she stopped, her head turning toward the sound.

There was nothing there.

No structure, no seats, nothing that should have made that sound, and yet she had heard it. Walking over, she had to maneuver around some trees and under a bush. The rock had traveled further than she had intended, but then she felt it. Something hard under her foot. It wasn’t a natural hard, either; no rock or tree stump felt like that. She scuffed her foot back and forth, scraping away some of the dirt and leaves that had built up over the top, before hearing that familiar echo of metal.

Dropping to her knees, she began scooping away all the leaves and dirt that she could, following the line of metal she had found until that line became a patch, which became a square, which became a door. There was something hidden beyond it—she just knew it. Not like a vision or knowing, but on a gut level, she could feel it.

There had to be a handle somewhere. A door didn’t exist for no reason, especially not on an island untouched by anyone other than four siren brothers. Her fingers slid around the edge, the rough edges of metal scraping and pinching as she went. When she finally found it, her breath caught.

Pulling with all her might on the lever she had found, she expected something to happen, but nothing did. Bracing her feet on the dull sliver of metal she had dug out, she pulled again. It gave just a little, but it lit a fire in her. She pulled again and again. Each time the door gave a little more.

The lever gave way, like a damn breaking, little by little at first, and then all at once. She fell flat on her ass, but she didn’t care. Her arms might be jelly tomorrow, but it would be worth it if she found The Surgeon. Swinging the metal door up, she could see that it was built like an old cellar door, two sides opening out, and the lever had been locking them together. She didn’t need both of them open, though. One was enough for her to slip through and begin searching for her prey.

The tunnel beyond the door was dark. She could see that it sloped down fairly sharply, but after a few feet, all visibility ended. Before she went down, she wedged the door open, holding it down with a few rocks. At this point, she highly doubted her arms would be functional the next day.

Pulling up the flashlight app on her phone, she began to descend, slowly at first, but by the time the descent ended, she was jogging down. As she rounded a corner, lights flickered on around her, evidently motion-activated. The floor she had been walking on was packed dirt, but now it was concrete, smooth and hard under her feet. A shiver went down her spine as she remembered the concrete room from when Randall held her captive.

She was in control now, though, and that bastard would get what he deserved one day. She would make sure of that.

The air was dry and almost musty, but there was a slight breeze coming from vents that were positioned every once in a while. The tunnel curved, and she noticed a pathway going off to the side that went back up. Instinctively she knew up would take her further away from her goal, so she pressed on, following the curve of the tunnel.

A second pathway split off to the right, and she followed it. The ground stayed flat under her feet, and as she walked, more lights flickered on, illuminating a door ahead of her.

Her heart jumped in her chest.

If she was going to lock someone in a theoretically unbreakable cage, then she would probably put it underground behind more than just a couple doors, but then, she wasn’t an immortal warrior. The sleek metal door loomed large in front of her, a flat handle the only thing standing between her and what she hoped was on the other side.

Doubt swamped her before she could press the handle. What if she couldn’t take seeing him again? If she flipped out and had one of the panic attacks she had been hiding from everyone? It would make her just as weak as Randall thought she was. That thought above all others drove her forward.

Pushing the door open, she didn’t expect the large room on the other side. The ceiling was much higher for most of the room than the ceiling in the tunnels, coming down lower in the back. Workout equipment covered most of the space. Huge free weights were just on the edge of the mat next to her. On her other side were a series of machines, a few of which she even recognized, although they looked much beefier than any she had used.

Cautiously, she put one foot in front of the other until she saw it. The cage.

It was in the back where the ceiling was lower. The bars actually went up into the surface and down into the cement floor. She could understand why the brothers thought the cage was impregnable. She inched closer, her feet silent on the workout mats that covered the floor.

He was there, up against the back wall of the cage, asleep.

Rage coursed through her. How dare he sleep peacefully? He should be tormented by the memories of what he had done, and not just to her but to those who had come before her. Aster wasn’t naive enough to think that she was the first or the only one he had experimented on. His breaths came slow and steady as she crept around the outside of the cage, silently picking up a jump rope abandoned on the floor.

If he was truly asleep as she suspected, then she would only get one shot at this. Her heart beat in her throat as she secured one end of the jump rope around a bar of the cage. She took the other end and tied a trucker’s hitch knot, making the tightness of the jump rope adjustable. Now came the scary part.

Making a loop over his head, she was ready. All she had to do was get the rope around him. She balanced on one foot, the other raised, ready to push him forward as her hands got the rope in position.

Nudging him with her foot, she was able to get the rope in place before he fully woke up, pulling it tight around his neck.

“What the hell?” he yelled as his hands tore at the rope now securely positioned around his throat.

Turning his head around, he saw her as she finished the last knot. Instinctively he reached for her, which just ended up choking him as she danced out of reach. She sat down on the cold concrete floor at the other end of the cage and waited while he struggled, trying to get the knots undone so he could breathe easier.

It wasn’t going to work.

Eventually he would accept that and they would talk, but for now, she would wait. A smile crossed her face. She knew without a mirror handy that it wasn’t a happy smile. It was one comprised of the grim pleasure of vengeance.

“Whenever you’re ready, I have some questions I would like answers to. Whether I loosen or tighten the rope around your neck depends on your responses.”

He turned to her then, his pitch-black eyes trying to intimidate her. The trouble was, she had known he was a monster before she set foot in there. Taking off the mask of faked emotions didn’t show her anything new.

“I can wait,” she said, watching his anger and hatred toward her rise.

There was nothing he could do to escape the net she had him snared in, and he was going to answer her questions whether he liked it or not.

Chapter 26

Robin knew she was in the cabin, but she didn’t know how she had arrived there. The last thing she remembered was Hal’s green-blue eyes staring up at her as she screamed her head off while Nimue removed the mark.

The mark.

She twisted, trying to reach around to feel her back. She hissed as pain shot through her.

“Rin?” Hal’s voice made her heart want to stop.

“Hal?” She turned again to find him waking up from sitting in a chair next to the bed. He must have moved it up there while she was passed out so he could keep watch over her. The thought made her melt toward the man who had become altogether too important to her.

His face hovered over hers, his sun-bleached hair hanging down, a curtain of dark gold in the light streaming in through the window. “How are you feeling?”

She felt like she was seeing him again for the first time. His dark blond and brown stubble highlighted the soft curve of his lips and his square jaw, while his eyes captivated her, the dark lashes resting on his cheeks for a moment as he blinked, only to reveal the green-blue eyes that looked more like they belonged in space than in this gorgeous man’s head. Her hand came up and stroked some of the long, soft hair that hung down beside her, hiding the rest of his body from view. Her heart stuttered at the memory of how it had felt to touch and be touched by him.

“Rin? Are you okay?” Hal ran a knuckle down the side of her face, his rough hands making her shiver in pleasure.

“I’m good,” she whispered. “How are you?”

“I’m glad you’re awake and so far seem to be okay.”

The bed dipped as he sat on the edge, tilting her body toward his.

“Are you really fine?” Robin remembered how he had looked when they were finally able to get to him. Her big strong warrior had been crumpled and unconscious. It had scared her more than she wanted to admit. The idea of losing this man who had made her feel at home in the world for the first time in forever was too much. A tear escaped her at the rush of emotion.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” Worry clouded his face as he moved from sitting to kneeling beside the bed, their faces only inches apart.

“I thought you were dead.” The words came out in a strangled whisper.

“I’m fine, though, see?” He stood. Spreading his arms, he gave her a twirl and a bow. The sweatpants sitting tantalizingly low on his hips revealed a strip of sun-kissed skin that lay underneath as his T-shirt rose up.

“Come here.” The hoarseness in her voice betrayed her need to touch him, to feel the warmth of his body now that she knew he was safe.

She watched as he walked around to the other side of the bed, the sweats making her want to bite the round globes of his ass as they flexed and released under the material. Finally he was in bed with her, his warmth seeping into her as his arms circled around, pulling her close.

He was quiet a moment while they both absorbed each other’s presence. “We both made it out alive, and that’s all that matters.”

The hitch in his voice made her look up.

Hal’s eyes were shinier than normal, concern filling them and drawing the chocolate-brown slashes of brow together.

“What’s wrong?” Her hand came up and pushed some of the brown and gold locks out of his face so she could see him more clearly.

“I woke up, and you were screaming in pain at the hands of my brothers. It scared the shit out of me. If Alec hadn’t been there holding me down, I would have tackled both of them and beat their asses for hurting you.” A dark fury flashed behind his eyes as he spoke.

Robin knew he was a warrior, and in that moment, she saw the fighter within him come to the forefront. It didn’t scare her, though. It made her feel safer than she had in a long time.

“They were only doing what I asked them to,” she said against his chest, kissing the very center as she ran her hand up and down the smooth skin of his back, soothing her warrior.

“I know, but it didn’t make it any easier to watch.”

“If we had had another option, I would have taken it, but we didn’t. Now, because of your brothers’ help, I am free of the mark and my tie to Randall.”

She nuzzled against him, wishing she could express how she felt, but not knowing how to put it into words without either sounding crazy or scaring him. Somewhere along the way, she had fallen for this brave, sensitive man with eyes that seemed to see into the very heart of her.

A knuckle under her chin pulled her gaze to his. “Me too.” His eyes shone with affection, the sincerity of the statement obvious on every inch of his beautiful face.

Robin raised an eyebrow in question.

“I have a small talent for sensing emotion.” He gave her a lopsided smile, which made her heart melt even more.

A blush flew up her cheeks at the realization he could sense her feelings toward him.

She studied him for a moment, the eye contact they shared more intimate than anything she’d ever experienced. Pushing herself toward him, her lips brushed his in question. His response was a blistering kiss that seemed to claim her as his own in a way that left her dizzy. He nipped her lower lip, sucking it into his mouth before releasing it and exploring her own with his tongue. The kiss left her gasping for breath with her heart galloping in her chest. Her body turned to fire under his touch, her core a molten heat.

“Rin, you should rest,” Hal said, pulling away.

“If I should, then so should you.”

“I can’t stay in this bed with you and not touch you. I know that sounds weak, but it’s the truth. To me, you’re magnetic. Trying not to touch you, trying to be away from you, means fighting myself.”

He trailed kisses along her jaw and down her neck as he spoke.

“Then don’t. I want you, Hal. I’ve told you that from the very beginning, and now, if we are being honest, I want more than just sex with you. It wouldn’t be enough anymore, not after everything—”

His mouth claimed hers again without warning. His tongue swept against her own as his hands gripped her waist, pulling her against him. She could feel his rigid need pressed against her belly as his hands slid behind her, pressing her against him from head to toe.

“If we don’t stop now, I won’t be able to.” The words came out of her mouth unexpectedly in a gasp between kisses. She didn’t take them back. They were completely true; she just hadn’t planned on saying them.

Her whole body was one big nerve that had been exposed. Every touch was half pleasure, half pain. His hands left a trail of fire in their wake as they slid down her side and around to her butt.

“If you think I don’t want you as much as you want me, then you’re crazy. If you want to stop at any point, just say the word. I don’t care how far into this we are—I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.

Her heart had been melty before, but now it was just a pile of goo. This man could not be any sweeter or kind. She watched him for just a moment before kissing the daylights out of him. His hands gripped her hips, and he rolled so she was on top of him, the unyielding line of him pressing against the very center of her.

His hands slid under the T-shirt she was wearing, smoothing over her waist and around until he cupped her breasts, her nipples taut peaks under the thin material of her bra. Sitting up, she whipped off her T-shirt, the cool air kissing her skin as it became exposed. Hal’s mouth took the place of his fingers on one breast, sucking and kissing through her bra. Her breath came in short gasps as she rocked herself back and forth on the ridge of his cock.

The back of her bra snapped open with a little help from his talented fingers, exposing her breasts completely to him. The sensitive skin of her nipples was now at the mercy of the heat of his tongue and the rough skin of his fingers. Her hands began to roam under his own T-shirt, pushing it ever higher, exposing the sun-kissed skin underneath. As she tugged at his shirt, he understood that she wanted it gone, but instead of just taking the one item of clothing off, he rolled her off him, stood and, in the blink of an eye, was only wearing boxers.

She lay back on the bed and took in the unbelievably sexy sight of him. Golden brown hair dusted his chest, and a trail of it led down to the waist of his boxers, disappearing behind them. Her eyes traveled down to the tented material, and her whole body quivered with anticipation.

“Want these off?” His voice was rough with need as he nodded at her jeans.

Biting her lip, she nodded. She wanted everything off, wanted them both naked more than she wanted to breathe at that moment.

His hands came up and deftly undid the button, pulling the fly down excruciatingly slowly. The zipper finally halted, and his warm fingers slid inside the waistband of her jeans, tugging them off. She raised her hips to help, and his gaze darkened as he took in the sight of her in nothing but panties. She felt like she should be self-conscious, but he made her feel glorious.

Once her legs were exposed, he picked each one up, kissing the tips of her toes. It made her squirm with how unusual the sensation was, until he started kissing a line up her leg, his big hands gently squeezing her thighs as his tongue traced patterns on her skin. His fingers skimmed the thin cotton that prevented her from being completely bared to him.

It was as if a jolt of electricity went through her. She arched up off the bed into his hands, a gasp of pleasure escaping her. His fingers pressed down on her core, moving in slow, agonizing circles over her panties.

“Please, take them off.” The words escaped between breaths, her body clamoring to be closer to his.

She felt his fingers hook into the fabric by her hips, and then the cool air was caressing her sensitive skin. His hot skin took the place of the cool air, and suddenly he was leaning over her. His kisses were like fire as he made his way down her neck to her breasts once more as his fingers began exploring her most intimate area. Robin knew she was more than ready for him, her body pulsing with need.

Hal slipped a finger inside her, and she moaned. The sensation was more than she expected, but not enough. Her body ground against his hand as he thrust in and out of her. The pad of his thumb came up and circled the neglected nub of pleasure. She cried out as the sensation rocked through her.

Hal repeated the motion again and again, until something felt like it was building inside her. He circled one nipple with a finger and the other with his tongue while his thumb circled her clit. It was all too much. As he thrust his fingers into her again, she shuddered as pleasure burst through her, leaving her writhing and twitching under his hands. He wrung every drop of pleasure out of her, gently bringing her back down to earth.

Her eyes flickered open only to watch him kiss his way down her stomach to the auburn curls that lay between her thighs. She flung her head back, unable to take the erotic pleasure of watching him kiss her where she most desired him. Her hands tangled in his hair, the long strands twining around her fingers as he began to lick and suck, his tongue pushing inside her. Everything was too much all at once. Before she could even sense it, the orgasm overtook her, leaving her body bucking against his mouth.

He rode out the waves of pleasure, though, still licking and sucking and delving into her. His tongue had to be a gift from the gods.

“Don’t fall asleep on me now. The fun’s just starting.” His voice was right next to her ear as he nipped her earlobe.

“Oh god, Hal, I don’t know how much more I can take,” she said honestly.

“We can wait to have sex,” he said, stopping his kisses and looking down at her, the greens in his eyes more vibrant than she had ever seen them before.

“No, I want you. I just want you now, no more teasing and playing.”

“As my lady commands.”

He stood and pulled down his boxers, his manhood standing proud now that it was free of its constraints. Robin bit her lip in anticipation. She couldn’t wait for him to be inside her.

As he lay back down, Hal’s brows drew together. “Are you sure you’re ready?”

She nodded. “I want you inside me, please.”

The blunt head of his erection pushed at her folds, gently parting them, inching into her. She tried to push her hips up to meet his, impatient for the sensation, but he pulled away.

“If you rush me, I won’t last two seconds.” His teeth grazed a nipple as her back arched toward him.

Inch by delicious inch, he pushed into her, past where she thought he would stop and then some. The sensation of fullness was so complete, so exquisite, she couldn’t help but gasp as she felt his hips connect with hers. Finally, he was fully sheathed within her, and she loved it.

Slowly he pulled out before thrusting into her again. He was more forceful this time, and it was everything she wanted. The friction between them was delicious, and every time their hips connected, he hit the over-sensitized bundle of nerves. He truly began to move then. The sound of their bodies connecting, combined with his grunts of pleasure and the sounds escaping her, made for the most erotic symphony.

Hal’s hands slipped under her ass, picking it up as he thrust into her, going even deeper than before. She screamed out as he rode the line between pain and pleasure. Her hands gripped the steel of his thighs, and as he pulled her legs over his shoulders, she wanted to faint from the sheer pleasure of it. He was bent over her now, and she was able to touch and caress more of him. Her fingers drifted to his nipples, the brown nubs pointing out just as proudly as his cock had been when he’d stripped for her. She ran circles around each nipple before flicking them. The resulting grunts and groans coming from her man were enough to send her into a frenzy of need.

The pace he set was punishing, pounding into her. She could feel another orgasm building. She’d wanted nothing more than this sensation since she’d first seen him. Now as his cock filled her over and over again, her heart broke open. The emotions she had been locking inside spilled out of her. Hal had her heart, and now he had her body. Robin watched as the wave of emotion crashed into him, his eyes widening and taking the sight of her in.

Hooking her feet securely over his shoulder as he sat up, his free hand squeezed her ass before coming around to the front, his thumb connecting with her clit once more. She panted at the sensations he caused within her body. The orgasm that had been slowly building was now right in front of her, and as he kept the pace up, it soon overwhelmed her. While the pleasure was rocking her own body, she could feel her muscles squeezing Hal’s cock, his motions becoming jerky and impossibly fast as he joined her in his own release.

Her big burly siren collapsed on top of her, breathing hard as she felt him soften inside her. The tenderness of the emotions she felt toward him now surprised her. She brushed the hair out of his face as he propped himself up on one arm.

Wrapping her arms and legs around him, she said, “I’m never letting you go. I just thought you should know.”

He chuckled. “This could get awkward, then.”

She sighed. “Fine, I’ll let you go, but only for short periods of time.”

“Sounds good to me.”

He kissed her nose and rolled off of her. She immediately missed the sensation of him inside her and the heat of his body on her own.

“Come here.” He held one arm open, and she rolled over, placing her head on his chest. “Was that okay?”

She raised the head she had just laid down, quirking an eyebrow at him. “Okay? That was phenomenal, earth-shattering sex. I came three times.” A flash of doubt crossed her mind. “Was it okay for you?”

“Rin, having sex with you was the most amazing experience of my life to date. You are a goddess.” His lips brushed hers.

She could still faintly taste herself on him, and it turned her on all over again.

“I need a minute. I might be blessed by the power of Poseidon and be half siren, but even I can only do so much.” He laughed.

Robin settled back down, her head resting over his heart, listening to its regular beat as he stroked her hair. She felt more relaxed than she had in the past ten years. Letting her eyes close, she drifted on a wave of tranquility that could only come from being loved so thoroughly. It didn’t hurt that it was by someone who clearly cared for her in a way that was more than she had expected or even hoped for.

Chapter 27

Hal looked up at Robin. They had spent the rest of the day yesterday and most of the night loving each other to exhaustion. He had never felt such pure unadulterated pleasure his whole life. Gray eyes turned and stared down at him.

“If you keep looking at me like that, then we are never going to make it to brunch with your family.” They had received the text at some point last night from Alec, advising them that Ellie wanted to meet up and check in on both of them. So did everyone else, apparently. The idea for brunch at the big house was decided before they had even seen the messages.

He made a low noise. “Maybe I don’t want to.”

She smiled and took a half step toward him before she turned back around. “You think I want to see my family? I’ve been putting it off for as long as I can. Just the thought of looking at my dad again makes me want to throw up. If it wasn’t for Caitlyn, I would probably never want to see them again. So, as hard as it is, we should go, and you have to behave yourself. Now, get that gorgeous butt of yours out of bed and get dressed.”

She shimmied into her jeans, her ass wiggling as she pulled the fabric over it, and suddenly going to brunch wasn’t the hard thing.

“What do you want me to do about this?” Hal chuckled, gesturing to his cock, which was getting harder by the second.

Robin looked over her shoulder and licked her lips, her eyes going dark with lust. He just about pulled her back onto the bed and ripped those jeans off in that moment.

“Think of something gross? I don’t know, but if you get up and we go to brunch now, I promise I’ll make it up to you later.” Her voice was a sultry caress over his skin as he started dreaming up ways she could make it up to him.

“Fine,” he ground out before standing, his arousal jutting out in front of him like a dowsing rod, except all it was going to lead him to was Robin.

He rummaged through the dresser and pulled some clothes on, his erection still straining at the front of his pants. As he turned around, Robin was pulling her thick fiery hair up into a bun, exposing the delicate line of her neck.

“Walk, jump, or fly?” he asked, hoping she would pick the latter. Hal wanted to feel her in his arms as the wind rushed over them. He wanted to show her the utter joy he found in having his wings spread as he flew over the ocean. When she raised an eyebrow at him, he expanded. “To get to the big house.”

“Fly?”

“Siren. Wings. Fly.” He made a flapping motion with his arms.

“Fly.” She grinned at him, and his heart soared.

When they stepped out onto the deck, he shook his shoulders and felt his wings emerge from wherever it was they went when they were glamored. Robin’s eyes widened.

“They . . . They’re beautiful,” she whispered as she outstretched her hand. “Can I touch them?” she asked at the last second.

He nodded with joy as her hand connected with the sensitive feathers. The sensation rocked through him, making his blood sing for her. She was his, and he would never let her go again, unless that was what she truly wanted. Her hand ran down the long feathers that made up the edge of his wing, and he extended it outward, inviting her to touch even more. With each caress, he felt the bond he had with her grow deeper, and though he wasn’t going to do anything about it at this particular moment, his desire for her increased beyond anything reasonable.

She giggled as her hand ran down to the very tip of the wing that was outstretched, and something in him snapped. He knew in that moment that he was completely in love with her, and that she was his soulmate. A small part of him demanded that he sing for her to confirm it, as only a siren’s true soulmate would be repulsed by their song. He wouldn’t do that, though. She had been under a man’s control for most of her adult life, and he wouldn’t risk that. Besides, he had known that it was true on some level ever since he first heard her at The Farm. There was nothing he wouldn’t have done to rescue her, and nothing he wouldn’t do to keep her safe and happy.

“Ready?” His voice was thick with emotion as the realizations left him reeling.

She nodded shyly.

“Do you want to look out or over my shoulder?”

“Out.” She bit her lip, which filled his head with memories of their love-making last night, her slowly riding him, her lip pinched between her teeth. He had been so relieved last night when they realized that the removal of the mark had worked and she was free to find pleasure where she wanted to.

“Turn around, then.”

She obeyed, and he wrapped an arm around her stomach and the other around her chest, just over her exquisite breasts. As he pulled her flush against him, she wiggled her butt. He gently bit the lobe of the ear closest to his mouth. “Keep doing that and I’ll drop you in the ocean just so I can peel your clothes off, and then we’ll never make it to brunch.”

A small moan escaped her lips, and Hal almost lost it. All he wanted was to take her back inside and make love to her again. Reining his desire back in and putting it under lock and key, he pushed off from the deck, his powerful wings lifting them higher and higher. Robin squealed in delight as they moved through the air. The trees flew under them, and he swerved, taking her out over the ocean. The ripples of the water blurred under them as he took them to the big house. It wouldn’t be a long flight today, but he would take her up whenever she wanted, if she enjoyed it. It was one of his most treasured abilities.

The wind rushed over them, and as they approached the big house, he saw his brothers already waiting inside. They landed on the patio by the back door, and he relaxed his hold on her. She spun in his arms, turning to face him.

“That was the most amazing experience of my life next to having sex with you.” She kissed him, her supple lips molding to his under the pressure, until she nipped at his lip.

His hands moved from where they had been resting and crushed her to him. One hand went to the nape of her neck while the other slid and cupped the firm globes of her ass. His tongue traced the seam of her mouth, and when she opened it, it tangled with her own. Her kisses took his breath away.

A cough sounded behind them.

“Not that we don’t enjoy watching you two make out, but we are all getting ready to eat, so if you could withhold the PDA at least through brunch, that’d be great.”

Hal broke the kiss. Glancing down at her swollen lips, he had to give his amazing woman one more peck before turning around.

Alec stood there with a big grin on his face as he tried not to laugh.

“Hey, Brother,” Hal said, slapping his brother on the shoulder hard enough to sting.

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. You know how we get when we’re hungry.”

Hal turned slightly and took Robin’s hand. As they walked into the giant kitchen, he was greeted with a knowing look from Thad and a scowl from Dem. Par for the course from his other two brothers. Ellie ran up to him and gave him a big squeeze. He returned it with one arm, unwilling to let go of Robin’s hand.

He noticed Cin was standing by the back of the kitchen as though she was ready to bolt if she needed to.

“Heya, Cin.”

She gave him a wave and a smile.

“She’s keeping some distance between herself and Robin in case her fury rises to the surface again, not that it should, but we don’t want to trigger the scream if we don’t have to. No offense, Robin,” Alec said quietly as the rest of the family started getting food and sitting at the enormous table that took up most of the space.

Robin’s family was standing quietly off to one side, looking slightly overwhelmed. He knew he should feel sorry for them, but he was struggling with it, especially when her father exuded resentment. He would have to have a chat with the man at some point about that. His banshee stayed glued to his side, radiating unease. Hal wished he could help, but this was something she would have to figure out on her own. Either she could forgive them, or not.

Aster came bounding into the kitchen, happier than he had seen her in a long time. He watched the young woman fill her plate with eggs and a big quarter of a waffle. Tugging on Robin’s hand, he tried to move them toward the food, but she stood stock still, like her feet were cement blocks. A small smile played on her face as a song bubbled out of her. It wasn’t anything he recognized.

He raised an eyebrow at her in question.

She just shrugged and kept singing. The sound was beautiful. It wasn’t lyrical so much as it sounded like nature. If he had to compare it to something, he would say a babbling brook, water flowing happily downstream. As he watched, Robin’s eyes closed and a peaceful expression passed over her face.

Her mother was by his elbow then.

“Robin? Can I talk to you?”

Her gray eyes snapped open, and the song stopped. Anger bubbled low in Hal at this woman stopping something his woman was clearly enjoying, but then he saw the confusion on Robin’s face, and the anger dissipated. Had she not known she was singing?

“Mom?” The strong voice that made his heart light was tinged with worry. Something wasn’t right.

“Sweetheart, I know you are still upset with me, and that’s fine, but I need to talk to you and it can’t wait.”

“Okay.” Her red bun bobbed as she nodded.

Hal went to let go of her hand, but she clenched her own tighter around his. Evidently he was going with her.

They went around the corner into the living room, and when Tamara turned around, her face didn’t hide the shock that Robin had brought Hal along.

“We should really talk in private, little bird.” Her eyes kept darting between Hal and Robin. He wasn’t going anywhere unless Robin told him to, though. She wouldn’t have brought him along if she didn’t want him there.

“Whatever you want to say, you can say in front of Hal.” She squeezed his hand as she spoke, and another wave of love filled him.

“Fine.” Tamara sat on the couch opposite them, and they followed suit. She took a deep breath. “Your song, it means . . . well, it means that you have given your heart to him.” She gestured at Hal.

“What do you mean?” A blush scalded Robin’s cheeks.

“Banshees only get to decide once—don’t ask me why—but once you give your heart as completely as I think you have, then you can’t get it back. He will have your love forever. Even if you hate him, your banshee will still love him. If you try to leave him, it will feel like you’re cutting off a limb. Why do you think I’ve stayed with your father all these years? It’s not like I still love a man who has sold one of my daughters into slavery and continues to gamble away every penny we have.”

Robin started to interrupt, but her mother just barreled on, silencing the interruption with a wave of her hand. “Your father and I aren’t important right now. The song you were singing . . .” She sighed, as if suddenly tired. “The song is a skill your banshee develops once it knows true love. You now sing for life that is coming into the world as well as scream for life that is leaving it.”

His fiery redhead seemed to fold under the weight of her mother’s words, leaning back against the couch.

She took a breath to speak and stopped, shaking her head as if to clear the mess out that her mother had just dumped on her. She took another breath and started again. “So you mean you are only with Dad because your banshee side still loves him?”

Her mother nodded. “He knows it too.” Tamara scrubbed her hands over her face, lines of exhaustion taking up residence around her eyes.

“And that song means that someone in that room is pregnant? Or about to become pregnant?”

Another nod from mommy dearest.

“Oh my god.” She whispered the words, almost to herself. “What am I supposed to do with that?”

“You know I never liked you sharing your visions with people. The scream usually scared them enough, let alone you running after them telling them how they were about to die. I always held to the same philosophy when it came to the pregnancies. A woman will eventually find out that she’s with child. You don’t need to tell her that it’s about to happen.”

Robin was quiet, her whole body still.

“I assume you know who it is or will be? You had a small knowing, right?”

The red bun bobbed again.

“Well, my advice is to keep it to yourself. You’ve never really listened, though, have you? So do what you will. Just try not to hurt anyone.”

“I still don’t understand why you can’t leave Dad.” Robin picked at some imaginary lint on her jeans as she spoke.

“Because my banshee doesn’t want to. As much as I hate him, I still love him. He will always be my true love. I just wish my heart had picked a more responsible true love than him.”

“How’s Caitlyn?”

The question seemed to be out of place to Hal, but then when he thought about it, he could see why she had connected it. She was still scared for her sister, still looking out for her. Even after all she’d been through, she was still worried that her father would sell out Caitlyn too.

“She needs her big sister. She needs to know you’re okay, that life will be okay again. It’s not something she’ll listen to coming from me, and you know how stubborn she can be.”

Tamara smiled tentatively, as though waiting for Robin to shut her down. When his beautiful banshee didn’t respond either way, Tamara’s face crumpled just a little. She stood, pulling on the edge of her T-shirt, as though she wasn’t used to being so underdressed. “You should talk to her.”

With that, she left the room. Hal looked at the woman next to him. She might be slender and seem breakable, but inside she was pure titanium. Her big gray eyes looked up at him, worry pinching the corners.

“I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable,” she said, tucking imaginary hair behind her ear.

“What would make me uncomfortable?”

“My feelings for you.”

A bark of laughter escaped him. “Rin, nothing you could feel or do would make me uncomfortable. You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. I’m not giving you up without a fight. And you should know I feel the same way.”

She grinned, the pinch of worry leaving her eyes. “And what way is that?” He knew that she wanted to tease him, but there was an underlying seriousness to the question that made him cautious. When Robin had admitted her feelings before, she had probably felt like she was dying, judging by the screams that came from her. He got the sense that she wanted him to admit his feelings first since they were both conscious, sober, and neither of them were in peril. He understood, but his nerves still jangled in response to his coming declaration.

“That I’m in love with you.” His voice was quiet, nerves getting the better of him at the last moment. He watched her absorb the words, her eyes glittering as they filled with tears.

“I love you too.” Her voice was hushed, as if they were sharing a secret. It wasn’t a secret he would be able to keep for long, though. Joy filled him. He wanted to shout from the rooftops, but he settled for a kiss.

It wasn’t like any of their other kisses. The passion was still there, but the sweetness, the tender emotions, added new layers. His lips brushed against hers, feeling the velvet of her mouth against his own. She made a small sound in the back of her throat, and his hand came up, cupping her cheek as he deepened the kiss. His tongue tangled with hers in a possessive way, and yet, when hers did the same, it was a welcome feeling. He wanted to possess her just as he wanted her to possess him. They belonged to each other now, and that was just fine by him.

Something inside him locked into place in that moment.

He could tell Robin felt it too. For a moment, she paused, her breath caught as the connection settled between them. He could feel her emotions radiating out of her more clearly than ever before. As his lips brushed hers once more, he felt the spike of excitement, lust, and something deeper than he had ever believed possible—love. Hal knew as his hand brushed down to her hip, squeezing and pulling her closer, that Robin was debating asking him if he wanted to sneak out and make love in the forest. An idea that had its merits, but one that he knew they shouldn’t act on. One day he would claim her in the forest, but when they had plenty of time so he could love her as thoroughly as she deserved.

“You feel that, right?” He had to know he wasn’t alone in this new connection.

“Yeah.” Robin’s breath tickled his lips as he dipped his head once more, unable to resist the warm honey flavor of her. It seemed to crash into him whenever he kissed her, and he loved it.

“Um, excuse me, lovebirds? Food’s getting cold and there won’t be any left if you don’t hurry,” Aster’s voice called out from the doorway behind them. “Just thought you should know.”

Hal could tell she had been smiling as she spoke, and he was relieved that some of the anger that had almost swallowed the petite blonde whole seemed to be passing.

“We should eat.”

“Umhum.” Robin nodded, her eyelids heavy as dirty thoughts ran through her head. He couldn’t wait to explore those later.

“You’ll need energy for what I have planned for you.” He planted one last hot kiss on her before standing and hauling her to her feet.

He watched her walk into the kitchen in front of him. The sweet curve of her ass and hips swinging to and fro as she moved made his mouth go dry, his need for her becoming a finely honed edge. Later he was going to show her exactly how much he loved her and what a siren was capable of, but that could wait, though. For now, it was family time, a time to be thankful that they had all come through the last few days relatively unscathed.

* * *

Robin’s head was spinning, and not just from the kisses, although those were phenomenal. The connection she now had with Hal was almost overwhelming. She was surprised by the depth of the emotions she felt coming off him.

She moved along in her dazed state, through to the kitchen, where someone clapped as they walked in, and as her eyes scanned their faces, she saw happiness all around. Even a flash of it from Dem before he fell back into his permanent scowl. She picked up a plate and loaded it with food, intending to make sure that she had plenty of energy to play with her siren later.

His hand never left her. Whether he was holding her hands or it was resting on the small of her back, it comforted her. As they sat, she looked at her sister, her emotions raw. Glancing over at her father, she was swamped by rage, most of which wasn’t her own.

Looking up, she saw that Hal was watching him as well, his face almost contorted into a snarl. She reached out under the table and stroked his thigh, bringing his attention back to her.

“I can feel you now, remember?” she said quietly.

“What he did to you was unforgivable.”

“I agree, but once we get them off the island, I won’t have to see my parents again unless I want to.”

Hal grumbled an agreement, and she felt him rein his anger in. Her mind churned over the possibilities of what had given them this new connection. She doubted her parents had it—otherwise, her mother would have warned her—so this was something from his side of their magics. He had told her he had a small talent with emotion, sensing vibes, putting his own out there. Robin wondered if this was the result of that skill.

As they finished lunch, his hand ran up and down her back, sending shivers along her spine. Finally, after saying their goodbyes and Robin promising a big-sister chat with Caitlyn, they were free. She stepped out of the door onto the deck. The warm salty water of the ocean seemed to brush up against her, greeting her in a way she had never experienced before.

“Do you feel that?” An elated smile spread over her face.

“What?”

“Like the wind and the ocean are greeting you?”

“No, but I feel something like that whenever I go somewhere new.”

“It’s amazing!” She held her arms out as the breeze wrapped around them, playing with her hair as it left. “Can we fly home?”

Hal’s dimples popped out as he wore the biggest smile she’d ever seen on him. Her heart lifted with joy that they could make each other so happy.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

He pulled her tight once more and took off as she reveled in the hard muscles pressed against her. Robin could feel his blissful exhilaration as he swooped and soared through the sky. Their trip down had been nothing like this. Now he was showing off, but not just that—he was showing her the joy he found in flight, in the ocean and feeling the air on his snowy white wings. She felt euphoric. Not only was she free but she was in love with the most amazing man, and he loved her back with all his gigantic heart.

Her banshee side had picked a good one. She knew that life was never going to be easy as long as Randall and the Order of Talos were still out there, but at least now they could face it together. Feeling Hal’s arms squeeze her a little bit tighter, she knew he agreed. Together they could take on the world.

Epilogue

Two Months Later

The golden light of the last gasps of summer glittered across the waves as they lapped at the shore. Robin had never been more content than she was at that moment while she waited for Hal to join her on the beach. The memory of the first time she swam in the ocean flashed over her mind. At the time, she had felt like a child, filled with awe and wonder at this amazing part of the earth she had never had a chance to experience before, while he watched with love in his eyes and that adorably sexy smile on his face. Since then, he had indulged her, and they went swimming almost every day.

It was later in the year now, though, and although the weather might have been nice above the water, it wasn’t warm enough for the water to retain its heat. The September sun just wasn’t as powerful, so instead, he took her on hikes and flew her over the ocean. She had nothing to complain about.

A rustling sound came from behind her, but when she turned, no one was there. The woods that came down to the small beach were filled with animals, so she brushed it off. The salty air coming in from the ocean caressed her skin, and as she lay back on the sand, her troubles seemed to melt away.

Robin was still worried about Caitlyn. She had refused to go to the new safe house with her parents and had transferred to a community college on the outskirts of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Ellie was letting her live above the magic shop the Scotswoman ran. It wasn’t the one she’d inherited from her grandfather, but it was hers and contained everything the original shop had. She also let Caitlyn work some shifts there to earn some money. The problem was, there was still something off about her sister. Something had broken in her, and Robin wasn’t sure how to fix it.

Sighing, she picked up her margarita and took a long sip, the salt and tequila biting her tongue. When she heard another rustle, she turned, glimpsing nothing but swaying leaves. Turning back around and taking another sip of her drink, she tried to focus on loosening the tension that had her body tightly strung. Ever since she had gained her freedom, she had struggled with the feeling that somehow she was going to get dragged back to Eclipse. She knew she wasn’t and that it was just anxiety in her mind making her feel that way, but nonetheless, the years of being prepared for Randall to do anything he wanted were making it hard to fully relax.

Hal cleared his throat behind her as he came up. She turned, expecting to see him with a book and a beer. What she saw instead stopped her heart.

Everyone was there—all the brothers, Ellie, Cin, Aster, Nimue, Caitlyn, even her mother. Hal stood front and center, holding a giant cake with candles.

A chorus of the traditional birthday song broke out, and Robin wanted to disappear. She hadn’t celebrated her birthday since she was sixteen; it was just after her seventeenth birthday that her father handed her over. No one in her family wished her a happy birthday that year, and no one ever knew it was her birthday after that.

“Happy birthday, Rin.” Hal smiled at her.

Everything she was melted in the warmth and love that flowed out of that smile. She loved his nickname for her. It was different from anything anyone else had ever called her, which made it all the more special to her.

“How’d you know?” Her voice was a whisper as she looked down at the decadent cake in front of her. The flames of the candles danced merrily in the breeze, while the frosting on the cake read “Happy birthday, songbird.”

“Your mom. She messaged me a while ago, and we figured a surprise party would be just what you needed.”

For the first time, Robin’s gaze took in everything behind Hal. Everyone, even Dem, was wearing a party hat and smiling at her. Streamers hung from the trees, and balloons were tied to their branches. Her eyes sought out the woman responsible, but when she found her mother, she wished she hadn’t. Tears streamed from her eyes as she covered the lower half of her face with her hands, muffling the sound of her sorrow. When she noticed her daughter looking at her, she turned and walked off through the trees. Robin knew she would eventually have to make peace with her mother, but the pain of everything was still too close. Even though it tore at her heart to see her mother upset, she let her disappear into the woods to cry in private. There was nothing she could say right now that would make her feel better. The only words she had were hard and a little unkind, but she was trying to work past that.

Alec and Thad carried out a cooler filled with beer, while Ellie and Cin did the same with one filled with snacks.

They had brought her a picnic on the beach.

Setting the cake down on the makeshift table, Hal grinned at her. “Make a wish.”

She took a deep breath and blew out the candles. Her brain blanked on making a wish. Right now she had everything she wanted.

Hal smiled down at her as he began plucking the candles from the cake. The thick white and yellow frosting stuck to the bottoms of the little wax sticks. As he collected them, he wiped the frosting off with a finger. Robin looked up at him, a hunger burning inside her, not just for the cake, although that looked delicious, but for the man who had brought such happiness into her life. When he held out his frosting-covered finger, she smiled and locked her lips around it, sucking his finger clean of the sweet treat. Hal’s own eyes filled with desire then. Her movements had ignited a flame within him that she knew they would quench later that night, once everyone else had left. The promise of the coming pleasure shone in his gaze.

“You know, some of us actually want to eat that cake,” Alec’s voice called out.

“Oi, leave them alone, ye big bully.” Ellie’s sweet chiding came a moment later.

Robin backed up, letting Hal begin to cut the cake. He slid thick wedges of it onto paper plates, leaving white and yellow smears behind on the cake sheet.

“I wasn’t sure what flavor you would like, so half the cake is marble with vanilla frosting and the other half is chocolate with a mint frosting, which is my favorite. His dimples winked at her as he smiled. She could see the slightly different colors of the frosting now that he had pointed it out, a fact she would have missed if he hadn’t said anything.

“I don’t remember, if I’m honest,” she said quietly, not wanting to bring the mood down.

His smile flickered for a second. It was so fast that if she hadn’t become so familiar with his face over the last few months, she would have missed it, and then it got even bigger. “Then you get to try a piece of each!”

He cut two slices and put them on a plate with the skinny ends facing each other. “Don’t want to mix the frostings and skew the results of your taste test.” He winked at her, and she went back to her seat.

The metal of the fork was cool in her hand as she picked it up, the tines slicing into the marble cake, creating a small mouthful for herself. The chocolate and vanilla flavors swirled on her tongue as the richness of the cake invaded her senses. Taking a sip of water to cleanse her palate, she tried the other slice. The tang of the mint frosting mixing with the sumptuous chocolate almost overwhelmed her.

“By the gods, woman, I could watch you eat cake for the rest of my life and be happy.” Hal’s voice came from next to her.

She hadn’t heard him sit down or been aware that she’d closed her eyes, but both had happened while she was taken in by the luxurious flavors that danced on her tongue.

Smiling, she took a long, sensual pull on her fork, the tines slipping slowly through her lips as she took another bite.

“If you keep that up, we will be leaving the party early.” Hal’s eyes, filled with lust, were trained with a laser-like focus on her mouth.

Robin giggled at the idea. He was heaven to her, and if he wanted to sneak away from the party, she would gladly join him.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with jokes and laughter while they ate and drank their way through the picnic. She had never been happier. As people left, the party dwindled down to just the two of them, lying on a blanket on the beach, watching the sunset.

Her life had turned from pure hell into pure magic.

“Take a photo with me.” Hal’s voice was tender and quiet, as though he was afraid of her reaction to the request.

Her heart swelled with joy at the thought of him wanting to document their lives together. After she nodded at her love, he took her by the hand and led her to the edge of the ocean before pulling out the phone and snapping a couple photos of the two of them. Before she knew what was happening, he picked her up and tossed her into the water. She squealed as she moved through the air, feeling weightless for just a moment.

The cold sucked the air out of her lungs, and as her feet connected with the bottom, she realized she hadn’t gone far. It was only waist-deep water. She lunged at Hal, tackling him down into the surf. Laughter rocked through his body as they rolled around, their hair getting matted with sand. When they stopped, he looked at her. The purity of the emotion shining from his eyes had her kissing him before she could stop herself. Sand coated some of her face, and when they parted, he gently brushed it away.

He pulled out his phone once more.

“A, how did your phone survive that, and b, I have to look like crap now.”

A bark of laughter escaped him. “A, it’s got a protective case, and b, you look amazing.”

Rolling over in the sand so he was on his belly just like her, he extended the phone and took a photo. The sun had stained the sky orange and pink behind them, and their faces were full of joy. It was the perfect photo.

A shiver rolled through her as the chill of the water finally hit home.

“Come on, let’s go get you warmed up.” Hal stood and picked her up, swinging her into his arms as he had on that first night he took her to the cabin.

“I hope you don’t just mean with a warm shower or sitting by the fire,” she teased.

“Wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.” He jumped them directly to the bedroom. “I was thinking something a little more intimate.”

A huge smile spread over Robin’s face as her heart rejoiced in the love that surrounded her, before he kissed her senseless and began to thoroughly warm her.

The End

Don’t miss the next book in The Siren Legacy Series!

The Siren’s Heart (Book Four)

Other books in the Siren Legacy series

The Siren’s Son (Book One)

The Siren’s Eyes (Book Two)

The Oracle: A Siren Legacy Novella

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank you most of all, as the reader, for giving me a chance to entertain you and invite you into my world. Thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed it!

Thank you to my family for helping me pursue my dream and putting up with my wandering mind!

Last, but not least, thank you to my husband for pushing me to share my stories with the world. Thanks for putting up with me every day, babe. You’re amazing!

About the Author

Helen Scott lives in the Chicago area with her wonderful husband and furry, four-legged kids. She spends way too much time with her nose in a book and isn’t sorry about it. When not reading or writing, Helen can be found absorbed in one video game or another or crocheting her heart out.

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