“Are you trying to lay her out before Lilith gets the chance?” he demanded. “What are you thinking, dragging her into magicks like that, strong enough to brew up your own personal hurricane.”

“We needed her,” Hoyt said simply. “It isn’t an easy matter to throw a net over an area so large that holds so many. And as it stopped you on the edge, the spell holds.”

It hadn’t just stopped him, but had shot jolts of electricity through him. He was surprised his hair wasn’t standing on end. “She’s not strong enough to—”

“Don’t tell me what I’m not strong enough to do. I’ve done what was needed. And isn’t that the same you’d say to me if I dared question your reckless journey to the valley? Both are done now, and we’re able to stand here and argue about it, so I’d say both are well done. I’m told I have a chamber upstairs. Does anyone know where it might be?”

“First door, left,” Cian snapped.

When she walked, haughtily, he thought, up the stairs, he cursed. Then followed her.

She sat in the chair by the fire that had yet to be lit, with her head between her knees.

“My head’s light, and it doesn’t need you bringing a scold down on it. I’ll be myself again in a moment.”

“You seem yourself to me.” He poured water into a cup, held it down so she could see it. “Drink this. You’re white as a corpse. I’ve made corpses with more color than you.”

“A lovely thing to say.”

“Truth is rarely pretty.”

She sat back in the chair, studying him as she drank the water. “You’re angry, and that’s just fine and good, as I’m angry right with you. You knew I was here, but you didn’t come down.”

“No, I didn’t come down.”

“You’re a great fool, is what you are. Thinking you’d ease back from me, that I’d let you. We’ve only days left before we end this thing, so you go ahead and take steps back from me. I’ll just take them toward you until your back’s in the corner. I’ve not only learned to fight, I’ve learned not to fight clean.”

She gave a little shiver. “It’s cold. I’ve nothing left after that spell to get the fire lit.”

He moved toward the hearth, and before he bent down for the tinderbox, she took his hand. And she pressed it against her cheek.

It broke him, a snap like glass. He lifted her out of the chair, holding her off the floor while his mouth plundered hers. She simply wrapped herself around him, wantonly, arms and legs.

“Aye, that’s better,” she said breathlessly. “Much warmer now. The hours seemed endless since I watched you go. So little time, so little, for eternity.”

“Look at me. Yes, there’s that face.” He held her close again so her head rested on his shoulder.

“Did you miss it, my face?”

“I did. You don’t have to fight dirty when you’ve already carved yourself inside me.”

“Easier to be angry with each other. It hurts less.” She squeezed her eyes tight for a moment, then eased back when he set her on her feet. “I brought the vielle. I thought you might like to have it, to play it. We should have music, like we should have light and laughter, and all the things that remind us what we’re ready to die for.”

She walked to the window. “The sun’s setting. Will you go back to the battlefield tonight?” She glanced around when he didn’t speak. “We saw you go with Larkin two nights ago, and saw you go alone last night.”

“Each time I go, I’m a little stronger. I won’t be any good to you or myself if what’s soaked into that ground turns me.”

“You’re right on that, and tonight I’ll be going with you. You can waste time arguing, Cian,” she said as he began to. “But I’ll be going. Geall is mine, after all, and every inch of its ground, whatever is under it. I haven’t been on the edges of that place since my childhood, except in my dreams of it. I need to see it, and at night, as it will be on Samhain. So I’ll be going with you, or I’ll be going alone.”

“B ut I want to go! I want to. Please, please, please!”

Lilith wondered if her head could actually explode from the boy’s incessant whining and wheedling. “Davey, I said no. It’s too close to Samhain, and much too dangerous for you to leave the house.”

“I’m a soldier.” His little face went sharp and vicious. “Lucius said so. I have a sword.”

He unsheathed the small blade she’d had made for him—to her current regret—after his field kill. “It’s just a hunting party,” she began.

“I want to hunt. I want to fight!” Davey slashed at the air with his sword. “I want to kill.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Lilith waved him away. “And you will, to your heart’s content. After Samhain. Not another word!”

She snapped the order out while a tinge of red smeared the whites of her eyes. “I’ve had enough from you for one day. You’re too young and too small. And that’s the end of it. Now go to your room and play with that damned cat you wanted so much.”

His eyes gleamed red, and his lips peeled back in a snarl that stripped away even the mask of human innocence. “I’m not too small. I hate the cat. And I hate you.” He stormed off, his little legs pumping in his tantrum. He swung his sword wildly as he went, slicing through the torso of a human servant who wasn’t quick enough to leap aside.

“Damnation! Look at that mess.” Lilith threw up her hands at the blood spatter on the walls. “That boy’s driving me mad.”

“Needs a good swat, if you ask me.”

Face livid now, Lilith rounded on Lora. “Shut your mouth! Don’t tell me what he needs. I’m his mother.”

“Bien sur. Don’t bite at me because he’s being a brat.” Sulking, Lora slumped into a chair. Her face was nearly healed now, but the scars that remained burned into her like poison. “Simple to see where he gets his bitchy attitude.”

One of Lilith’s hands curled, the red-tipped nails like talons. “Maybe you’re the one who needs a good swat.”

Knowing Lilith could do worse than a swat in her current mood, Lora shrugged. “I wasn’t the one who hammered at you the last hour, was I? I backed you up with Davey, and now you’re taking it out on me. Maybe we’re all on edge, but you and I should stick together.”