My lord. Arran talked as if this guy was a prince of his people. Sophie tried to sneer at the thought, but actually, given his utterly atrocious behavior, she could well believe it.

On the other side, Thunder muttered, “Damn it, man, listen to him. Do it.”

The rage in Nikolas’s face eased somewhat as he listened to the others speak, but Sophie’s didn’t. She wanted to push him, and push him, and see what he might do then, because like the part of her that had needed to melt down earlier, the part of her that had no sense, had the bit between its teeth and wanted to run amok.

Then she caught another glimpse of Arran’s wife, back against the wall. Maggie wiped her face with a visibly trembling hand, and Sophie’s uncontrollable rage died. This confrontation was not just frightening for her. It was frightening other people.

Sliding away from Nikolas’s taut body, she said directly to Maggie, “I’m sorry we’ve caused such a fuss. If we have any more arguing to do, we’ll take it outside, well away from here.”

She put an extra glare in her glance at Nikolas as she said that. He looked supremely, utterly indifferent to it. In a calm voice, as if he had never lost his temper, he said to Arran, “Thank you for your offer, but there’s no need for you to bear the financial brunt of our conflict. Please see that everyone gets a drink, whatever they want, and put it on my tab. We’ll be at the corner table when you’re done.”

Relief flooded Arran’s weathered features. He nodded and smiled. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

With a long, inscrutable look at her and another one at the dog… the doglike creature… she still clutched, Nikolas turned away.

Her capacity to glare after him was disrupted as Thunder stepped in front of her, blocked her view of Nikolas’s back, and offered his hand. In a low voice, he said, “I’m Gawain. My apologies for what just happened. We’ve been too involved for too long in combat situations. Our first reaction to any kind of conflict or inexplicable event tends to be, well, less than peaceful.”

That gave her pause. She had known men like that, men who had been at war for so long their response to any kind of conflict was violent. Often they were unable to assimilate back into normal society, and they re-upped and went back into the army, or they became police officers. Occasionally they turned a gun on themselves.

Her eyes narrowed as she studied Thunder’s rough features. He appeared to be sincere enough, and the dog (doglike creature) wasn’t yapping or yodeling any longer or acting fearful.

Taking her cue from that, cautiously she took Gawain’s hand and shook it. “Sophie Ross. Maybe there’s no harm done this time, but there’s no trust won either. If one of you draws your weapon or manhandles me again, I’ll slap you with a curse so fast it will make your head spin. That’s a promise, Gawain.”

“I understand, and I respect it.” Gently his fingers squeezed hers, and then he released her. “Please, come join us at the table and tell us your story. It’s important.”

She hesitated, looking from one male to the other, but as deadly as Gawain was, she sensed no danger coming from him.

Nikolas though. She gave him a narrow look, which he returned with more than a hint of banked malice.

As far as Nikolas went, whether he was a prince of his people or not, she wouldn’t trust him as far as she could throw him.

Chapter Five

The round, wooden table in the corner of the front room was stained dark and scarred from many years of use. Nikolas chose a worn velvet chair tucked in the corner so he could look out over the rest of the room and watch the door.

From that vantage point, he watched Gawain talk with the American woman and listened easily to their low-voiced exchange. Nikolas filed her name away for future reference as he took in the details of her appearance.

She wasn’t short for a female, but she appeared short and slight next to Gawain, whose brawny height emphasized the femininity of her slender figure. Many of the details Nikolas had gleaned from the vision two weeks ago held true.

Her hair was long, black, and curling. She kept it pulled back from her pale, angular face by looping it into a short braid. It exploded from the end of the braid in an extravagant cloud of curls. Like the vision, her creamy skin was sprinkled with freckles, her lips were plush and pink, and she looked tired and too thin, almost gaunt. Dark circles ringed her eyes.

There was one arresting change from what he had seen before.

Those eyes. In the vision, her eyes had been pale and uninteresting. In reality, they were spectacular. They might be called pale gray or even light blue—it was hard to tell across the room—but mere descriptive words were inadequate and didn’t do them justice.

Her eyes were brilliant, and not just with the force of her personality and the magic she carried. They seemed to draw from every light around her and sparkled with luminosity, almost like diamonds.

He drew in a deep breath, filtering out the other scents in the pub to bring her feminine scent into his lungs. There was something different about her. She wasn’t quite fully human, and she held a significant amount of personal Power. It would be a mistake to underestimate her.

Gawain persuaded her to join them, and still carrying Robin under her arm, she followed him reluctantly to the corner table where she gave Nikolas one sour, brief glance before choosing a seat to his right, which kept her from having her back to the room as well.

Gawain took the seat to Nikolas’s left, settling his large, powerful body with care into the chair, leaving Nikolas’s view of the room unobstructed.