She shook her head but couldn’t find anything to argue with in his reasoning. He was probably right.

Since the mating ritual, Ava had been flooded with power. She was stronger. Quicker. She healed faster. She’d deliberately taken a knife to her forearm that afternoon while Malachi had been napping, just to see what would happen. The cut she’d made on her forearm had healed within minutes.

He was stroking her hair, leading them to the bench by the locked cistern. Ava looked at the sign announcing the renovations. It was in Turkish, but she could see the future plans for the new tourist attraction around the historic site.

“Did you get the car keys?” she asked when they’d sat.

“Yes. She said the messenger already called to say he’d be late. She said he’d probably arrive in the next half an hour.”

“And Damien? Max?”

“Headed over to the rug shop right now. We’ll call them once we get on the highway.”

Ava nodded, a sense of unease still heavy in her belly.

“It’s fine, reshon. Everything will be fine.”

Malachi watched her, wondering what had happened to the confident, fearless woman he loved. Since the night before, she was jumpy. A cloud seemed to hang over her shoulders. Was she truly that worried, or was their new intimacy making him more aware of her moods?

It wasn’t uncommon for Irin mated for years to be almost telepathic with each other. Though they couldn’t speak to each other’s minds, the awareness of mood was hard to ignore. He’d know when she was angry or happy. Upset. Worried. He felt them all now as her emotions flooded the magic he’d given her. It was both intoxicating and distracting, and for the first time, he wondered whether the ritual had been the right thing to do.

Too late to second-guess himself.

Malachi watched the front of the hotel as two men exited. They looked up and down the street, then sauntered off in the direction of the Sultanahmet tram station. A few minutes later, a couple entered the hotel from the opposite side. Normal traffic on a quiet afternoon.

And still Ava sat, a silent knot of tension at his side.

“Tell me a story,” she finally said.

“What kind of story?”

“Something not serious. What’s your favorite childhood memory?”

He broke into a smile. “Swimming at the beach. We’d go to the North Sea in the summer when we lived in Germany.”

“Wasn’t that cold?”

“Freezing.” He put an arm around her, thankful for the distraction. “My father had a good friend with a cabin there. I think it’s still there, probably. It was quite old, but very nice. My mother and father and I would stay for two months in the summer. Living in a retreat can be very hectic sometimes. Families live in their own homes, but the children go to school together, the adults all work together. Even meals are communal. So my parents tried to make some time for only the three of us. That was our family time. I would play in the water even though it was frigid. My mother thought I was crazy.”

A tentative smile crossed her face. “You were.”

“We should go there,” he said. “When we have children, we’ll take them there.”

There was a smile on her face. “We should.” Ava took a deep breath. “We’ll really have children, Malachi?”

“Hopefully.” He squeezed her. “Irin don’t have many children. One is normal. Two is fortunate. But I hope we have two.”

The vision of children Jaron had sent her flashed in her mind again. A dark-haired boy with his father’s eyes. A golden-eyed girl laughing. It should have warmed her, but there was a dark side to the vision, as well. The animals had stood at attention, prowling around the girl and boy. Clearly guarding them, but from what?

“Do not fear the darkness.”

The memory of Jaron’s voice calmed her as she sat. Then she tensed again when she felt Malachi’s arm tighten.

“What is it?”

“Grigori,” he said, freezing as he watched two men enter the hotel lobby. “Two of them just walked in. Damn it.”

Ava looked around them. They were completely exposed in the center of the square. There were no barricades to hide behind, no buildings they could duck into without being conspicuous.

“I can’t kill them in the hotel lobby or out in the open here,” Malachi said. “We’ll have to wait for them to come out. Draw them somewhere isolated.”

“Is it just the two?” Ava’s eyes landed on the grated door of the Theodosius Cistern. Though it was locked, it was only with a simple padlock. No guards stood nearby. And the dark passageway had a view of the hotel.

“More coming this way,” he murmured, taking her hand. “From the direction of the mosque.”

Looking uphill, Ava spotted two attractive men strolling down the street toward them. They were looking toward the hotel, not at Ava and Malachi, but Ava knew as soon as they saw their friends leave the lobby, the Grigori would start looking for them.

“More from that street, too.” Malachi pulled out Ava’s phone and sent a quick text to someone. Somehow the drop location had been compromised.

“We have to get out of here,” he said.

“How?” Ava’s heart raced. Six streets converged at the cistern park, and from each direction, a group of men strolled toward them. There were two there. Three there. “Malachi, they’ve cornered us.”

“No,” he muttered. “There has to be a way…” His eyes landed on the locked grate leading to the cistern entry just as the call to prayer started and birds scattered in flight. The Grigori converging on the square turned their heads toward the mosque on Divan Yolu, and Malachi used the distraction to drag Ava toward the cistern. “This way.”