“How many more are in your order?” Veritas asked, ignoring that last part.

Neryre smiled in an oddly dreamy way. “I don’t know, and if you torture me for a hundred years, you will still get the same answer. Long ago, our leaders determined that we would not know anything about each other, so that if one coven was caught, it would not endanger the others. Our cause will triumph. If not today, then another day.”

“Oh, I’m all for people being free from oppression,” I said, “but you can’t build any real freedom on top of piles of bones. Vampires were wrong to hunt and murder witches, yet you admitted that your order would be just as brutal, if given the chance.”

“They deserved it,” she snapped.

“You’re wrong,” I said softly. “Yet you’re not going to live long enough to see that, because the good man you helped murder in the other room will be avenged.”

Then my whip shot out, but before I could snap it, Neryre exploded as if she’d swallowed a nuclear warhead. Vlad stared at the flaming remains a moment before his gaze met mine.

“Now you have your vengeance, Leila, and if there are consequences for her death, they will fall on me.”

Veritas gave Vlad a truly exasperated look, as if she didn’t know whether to yell at him or start punching him. “No matter what Neryre claimed, I could have gleaned more information out of her.”

“It’s nothing you can’t learn for yourself with a little due diligence,” Vlad countered. “We agreed that there would be no survivors except one, and he is coming with me.”

“He hasn’t said if he’s going to let you leave,” Veritas said, with a meaningful glance at Mencheres.

I stiffened. She was right; Mencheres hadn’t said what he was going to do about Vlad’s potentially lethal intentions toward him.

“Well?” Vlad asked Mencheres.

His emotions snapped closed, giving me no idea if he was preparing to fight for his life, or if he loved Mencheres enough to be willing to face whatever was about to happen without fighting back.

I wasn’t willing, and despite knowing that Mencheres could rip my head off with a mere thought, I started to send electricity into my whip. No matter what, I would never stand by while someone tried to hurt Vlad.

Maximus moved closer, his body relaxed, but I knew he hadn’t picked that exact moment to merely stretch his legs. He wasn’t about to stand by and let anyone hurt Vlad, either.

Mencheres said nothing for so long, my nerves were screaming from the tension. Then, at last, his mouth stretched into a thin smile.

“I will not fulfill the necromancers’ plans by striking you down and causing the same chaos that they sought to cause when they used Leila’s tie to Mircea against you.”

I almost sagged in relief, yet Vlad’s shields dropped and sadness poured through our connection despite his gaze remaining steady.

“I will not ask for your forgiveness. My intentions were unforgivable, but I hope you know that if it had been any other life except hers that they had held over me, I never would have even considered harming you.”

The faintest smile curled Mencheres’s lips. “I do know that, because if I were ever forced to choose between Kira’s life and anyone else’s, she would live and they would die. Besides”—here his voice turned husky—“I might be angry with you, but a father always forgives his children, even if those children are not of his own blood.”

A choked sound came from the other side of the room, and tears pricked my eyes as I got the subtext. Vlad did, too, and shock flashed through his emotions. Then he looked back and forth between Mircea’s prison and Mencheres’s face.

“You want me to forgive him? He’d still love to kill me!”

Mencheres moved closer. “Centuries ago, I decided to take a bitter, violent young man under my wing even though I knew at the time, he would kill me if he could. If you are grateful for my choice then, you will honor my wishes with Mircea now.”

“Don’t do me any favors, you fucking poor excuse for a father and a man!” Mircea shouted.

Mencheres’s mouth quirked. “Children. They say the sweetest things, do they not?”

Annoyance, anger, and admiration threaded through my connection to Vlad. “If this is your punishment for my former actions, then I commend you on your cruelty.”

Mencheres patted the side of Vlad’s face. “I knew that you out of all people would appreciate it.”

Then Vlad looked at me. “Mircea won’t stay in our house. After all he’s done, you need not have him near you.”

“It’s okay,” I said. Yes, Mircea had done a lot to me, but he’d been acting out of his own awful pain, and he’d also saved us, too. “We’ll just rename the dungeon the time-out room.”

“I am not going with you!” Mircea continued to rage. “As soon as I am free from this quartz, I will disappear!”

“Excellent point,” Vlad said dryly. “You’ll need to keep him encased in that black quartz all the way back to my castle, or he’ll use his dematerializing trick to escape.”

Mencheres smiled. “That can be arranged.”

Chapter 49

I found myself walking very slowly back through the tunnels. I’d been able to restrain the worst of my grief out of revenge-lust and fear for everyone’s safety, but now I didn’t have that. When we reached the antechamber and I saw Marty’s lifeless form again, it would ruin me.