He could tell things were already different. 'Things are going to be different, MacRieve. 'For what it's worth, I am sorry to have lost the cuff. 'Ah, bluidy hell, lass.' Never would he have thought an apology from her would be as sweet to hear as her laughter. 'I hated the consequences of what we'd done - or at least what I'd thought they were. 'What?' Was this an olive branch - from her? Just when he'd thought she couldn't confuse him more, she put them into completely unfamiliar territory. Damn you, I'll never want another!'Īt that, she leaned down and pressed a tender kiss to his forehead. 'I'll never be done!' he snapped, wincing again as his ribs screamed in protest. 'I was coming back for you! Though you dinna deserve me to, stubborn Valkyrie.' Her expression unreadable, she asked, 'For me?' Before he could answer, she added, 'Probably to convince me to continue on the mission.' You must've shot it from down below.' He tried to rise, then coughed, flinching as pain radiated through every inch of him. 'You told me you couldn't shoot anymore.' 'You killed it?' When she nodded, he frowned, recalling more with each second, his ire toward her returning. what happened?' His body was a mass of aches, his head and wounds throbbing. When Garreth coughed, waking, Lucia was right beside him, gazing down, her eyes swollen from tears. He was leaving her! Had made up his mind. She cast a smile down at MacRieve, but it quickly faded. Lucia swallowed as a sudden thought struck her. Lucia was no longer a Skathian, a slave to the goddess's whims.

'What were you doing under her - Never mind, I don't want to know.' Yet her irritation with Nïx soon dwindled when Lucia comprehended all that had happened.

'I'd totally forgotten about this until I found a Post-it note to myself stuck to the underside of Annika's bed.' 'You advised me to restrain myself for nothing!' Wait! You couldn't have told me all this earlier, Nïx?' she asked, her aggravation spiking. 'Damn it, what do you mean? This is no time to withhold. You break them, and you'll have to leave the party.' 'Can I get the dieumort without waking the evil?' Even the gods fear its awakening.'Įl Dorado. 'Within it is a being so powerful that if loosed, it would change the world forever. 'Yes, but to find the dieumort, you have to open a tomb, and there's an evil deep inside it.'Įxactly what Damiãno had said. 'Skathi had to know I would never abuse the weapon, would never harm anyone but Cruach with it.'

Pleasure of a dark prince