I woke to a heavy thumping noise that was not the steady thud of Linus’s heart beneath my ear, though I heard that too. I waited a full minute in the hopes our visitor would take the hint and leave before I cracked my eyes open.

“Hey,” I murmured, vision blurry, “I’m still in bed.”

Sheets tangled around my ankles, but there was too much give beneath me for hardwood.

Linus kissed my eyelids, which had slid closed again. “Yes, you are.”

“That’s…weird.” I yawned, forcing my lashes to untangle and stay that way. “Nice, but strange.”

“You slept through the day.”

“Solving the dream’s riddle seems to have worked wonders for me.”

“I held you all day,” he pointed out. “Don’t I get any credit?”

“While your arms are very nice—” I looked at Linus, really looked at him. Combed hair, the ends still wet. Brushed teeth, his breath minty. “You showered.”

Mischief twinkled in his eyes. “I held you all day…minus twenty minutes.”

“You’re also dressed.” Sheets whispered beneath my leg when I bent it to test my theory. “I’m not.”

Linus traced a chill finger down the length of my spine. “No, you’re not.”

Smooshing my face against his chest, I groaned. “You stayed awake.”

“I did.”

“You better not have been mentally painting me again.”

He kept his lips zipped while I thunked my forehead against his chest.

“I don’t want to come home and find Woolly plastered in nudes.”

“You entertain too many guests for that,” he said, sounding perfectly reasonable. “However, the basement…”

“You’re not transforming the basement into a seedy love den.”

“Nudes are art.” His fingers tickled over my ribs. “I was thinking more along the lines of a gallery.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

There was no graceful way to climb off Linus, not when he had draped me over him like a living blanket sometime during the day, but the door kept rattling, and he clearly had no intention of answering it while I was warm and naked on top of him. “Who is that?”

“Whoever it is, they can wait.”

Calling out wouldn’t do any good. They wouldn’t be able to hear us. “You don’t sound concerned about our unexpected guest.”

“The wards are sound.” His eyes twinkled. “I borrowed the design from a brilliant necromancer I know.”

“You used Woolly’s design here?” Flushed with pleasure at the compliment, I sent my awareness out into the house, but it met no resistance to indicate the dwelling was becoming aware. “Can you tell who or what entered the building?”

“The wards on the bottom floor are light to allow in customers and future staff. The upper floor will be impossible for anyone to attain who has malicious intent.” Linus frowned at the door. “I left stewardship of the wards unclaimed, for you. I assumed, if my proposal interested you, that you would want the bond since you would spend the most time here. All I can say for certain is our guest wishes us no harm.”

Truthfully, it could only be two or three people. Most likely, it was Lethe or Hood checking in.

“I’ll grab a shower.” The only thing stopping me from wrapping myself in the wrinkled sheet to make my grand exit was the look in his eyes. “You can deal with whoever is out there.”

That was the point when I remembered the bathroom was across the hall here, past our early visitor.

“New plan.” I snatched the sheet and made myself a toga. “You distract our guest while I slip past them into the bathroom.”

“All right.” He straightened his clothes as he stood then followed me to the door. Instead of opening it, he pinned me against it with his hips while he ducked his head to claim my mouth. “I didn’t know it was possible to love you more than I already did.”

“That’s the sex talking.” I patted his cheek. “Your hormones will behave after I get on clothes, and you’ll return to regular levels of loving me.”

Loving me.

Linus Andreas Lawson II loved me.

That, to me, was more of a revelation than the sex. And the sex had been…perfect.

“After last night,” he murmured, “that’s not possible.”

A blush warmed every inch of my exposed skin, and I had plenty. “Are you going to get that?”

Whoever was out there wasn’t taking silence for an answer. They wanted in, or for us to come out.

Linus tucked me behind the door, erased the sigil ensuring our privacy, and pulled it open. The light in his eyes extinguished, and the mask of Scion Lawson clicked into place. “Can I help you?”

“Where is she?”

The blood warming my complexion a second ago drained from my face. “Boaz?”

“Step aside, Lawson.”

“No,” Linus said, his voice gone cold. “I don’t think I will.”

Before they came to blows, I stuck my head around Linus. “What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t come home. Amelie called this morning, frantic. Woolly had been ringing the phone at the carriage house off the hook, but she couldn’t go to the main house to see what was wrong, so I went to talk to Woolly.” His gaze roved over me, and I saw the moment understanding dawned. “You spent the day here.” Boaz gritted his teeth. “With him.”

Bumping Linus aside with my hip, I got between them before it got ugly. Uglier. “I appreciate you coming to check on me. I feel like a dirt sandwich for not checking in with Woolly, and I’m sorry I worried Amelie, but I’m fine.” The fact he was standing on the doorstep of a purchase I had just learned about made me ask, “How did you know to look for us here?”

“I was assigned to you, remember?” Boaz raked his fingers through his hair. “I keep tabs on your movements.”

The violation stung anew, and that surprised me even more. I ought to be used to his strings of tiny betrayals. “I need to shower, and we need to get home to reassure Woolly.”

The plan was to inch past him and shut the door behind me, putting a slab of wood between them, but I hadn’t noticed the sheet was stained crimson on the edge until Boaz fisted the material, staggering like someone had punched him. He dropped the cloth, his eyes glinting with cold fury.

“Did he bother taking off his fancy clothes before he fucked you?” His hands balled at his sides, knuckles popping as he faced Linus. “Did he take your virginity, or did you have to do it yourself? He’s fantasized about this for so long, he probably creamed his pants before he touched you.”

Using what Midas had drummed into me about being a woman taking on a male opponent, I drew back my arm and launched a right hook that snapped his head to one side. Something cracked. I think it was my hand, but I didn’t care. I threw my shoulder into the next punch before he shook off the first hit, and his utter shock was comical.

“Get out.” Knuckles throbbing, I massaged my hand. “Now.”

“Grier—”

“Do you hear yourself?” I cradled my arm against my chest. “You’ve lost your ever-lovin’ mind, Boaz.”

“This is not how it was supposed to happen.” He swept out his hand, indicating the sheet. “You let him take it. Him. Goddessdamn it.” He wiped a hand over his mouth. “Are you getting back at me? Is that it?”

“Linus didn’t take anything from me,” I said, sad and tired and over this. “And this has nothing to do with you.”

Eyes tight, he shook his head. “You don’t mean that.”

“Lethe.” I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t have to. “Come here, please.”

There was only one reason why Woolly would have fretted enough to reach out to Amelie, and that was if the gwyllgi had stayed to protect me. Hood and Lethe must have slept, among other things, in the van. And they wouldn’t have let Boaz or anyone else in without escorting them, whether our guest knew he had been tailed or not.

I spotted her blue hair first and her furious scowl next. “Escort him out of the building.”

“Sure thing.” She moseyed over to us. “Just one thing I have to do first.”

Lethe snapped out a roundhouse kick to his jaw so fast her leg blurred.

Boaz hit the floor on his back with a grunt, and she put her foot on his throat, pressing to make sure she had his attention. And then she smiled, and I almost wet my pants for him.

“You might think you’re insulting Linus when you talk smack about him, but you’re really insulting Grier. She wouldn’t be with a guy who treats her like dirt. Note how she’s not with you anymore?” She applied pressure, and he sucked in air between his teeth. “Even if Linus were literal pond scum, he would still be floating above the waterline. Even if he was a water snail eating pond scum, or water snail poop made of pond scum? Yep. Still better than you. You’ve sunk low before, but stay down there much longer, and you’ll drown.”

Hood walked up behind her, and he smiled down at Boaz, all teeth. Lethe ignored him and kept venting.

“Grier loves Linus. That’s all you get to know about them. That’s all you need to know. She. Loves. Him. And you know the best part? He loves her back. Actually loves her. Puts her needs ahead of his own, that kind of thing. I would go into more detail, really break down how badly you’ve failed as a man, but it would fly right over your pig head, and I’m too hungry for this BS.” She rubbed her belly. “And now I’m thinking about bacon.”

“I’ll handle this.” Hood bent down and fisted the front of Boaz’s shirt, using it to yank him to his feet. “You order breakfast.”

“I love you,” she said, stomach growling.

“You love bacon.”

“I have a big heart,” she protested. “There’s room enough for both of you in it.”

After they had gone, Lethe turned back to me. “He’s an asshat. Don’t let him get under your skin.”

“I screwed up,” I admitted. “I should have called Woolly or Oscar.”

“Grier.” She clamped her hands on my shoulders. “You’re allowed to make mistakes. You’re allowed to live your life. You’re allowed to enjoy yourself.” She shook me. “So you forgot to check in. It happens. Apologize and move on.” She smiled. “I’m proud of you. You put yourself first for like twelve whole hours. That’s got to be a record.” She shot a look at Linus from under her lashes. “I want all the deets, but let’s wait until we get back to Woolly. I’m going to need popcorn for this.”

With a wink, she set off down the stairs, leaving Linus and me alone.

His chill fingertips skated across my shoulders before drawing me against him. “Are you all right?”

“This is not how I imagined the morning after, but I’m good.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and let the tension drain away. “You okay?”

“We have to do something about Boaz. This type of behavior is inexcusable.”

“Request-a-transfer do something, right? Not off with his head do something?”

“I’m not going to kill him.” His expression shifted into thoughtful lines. “Unless he leaves me no choice.”

That sounded like him holding open a door waiting for Boaz to walk through it.

“He needs space to get his head on straight, not have it separated from his neck.”

Linus stroked down my spine, a smile playing on his lips.

“That’s not a murder smile, is it?” I jabbed him in the chest. “I thought you weren’t the possessive type.”

“I will never cage you.” He took my hand and kissed my fingertips. “Not with love or otherwise.”

“Keep sweet-talking me, and I might have to hold on to you.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.” He nudged me across the hall. “I’ll bring you a change of clothes.”

A bit of last night’s glow had returned while I was in his arms, and it carried me through the shower. But, try as I might, I couldn’t banish the specter of Boaz. Part of me had always expected to share the morning-after experience with him, but not like this.

Amelie’s disinheritance. His engagement. Our estrangement. His mother stepping down as head of the family. Him stepping up.

He had been through a lot, and I sympathized, but I was done being his verbal punching bag.

I had to get him out of my life, and I wasn’t above asking the Grande Dame for help evicting him.

After my shower, Linus brought me one of his button-down shirts and a pair of cotton boxers. I could have worn yesterday’s clothes—they weren’t that rumpled—but I wasn’t going to say no to him fussing over me. Plus, I had that whole shirtdress thing happening after I rolled the long sleeves up to my elbows and belted the fabric at my waist. Those were trendy, right?

At least with his undies on, I wasn’t in danger of flashing my butt getting in the van. My poor boobs, however, just had to hang there. Linus didn’t seem to mind me going braless. Really, he ought to be used to seeing my boobs jiggle since bras were the first thing I lost in times of crisis.

We met Hood and Lethe downstairs, and we all walked out to the van together.

Boaz was nowhere in sight, but Hood’s knuckles were scraped, and Lethe looked far too pleased with her mate.

“I ordered breakfast.” She popped me on the rump. “We gotta vamoose, or the food will beat us there.”

“Hey,” I yelped. “That hurt. This shirt isn’t all that thick.”

“Oh, that’s right.” She snickered. “I’m used to you wearing jeans, but you slept here last night, and you didn’t pack a change of clothes. You were too busy having sex.”

I refused to blush.

Fiddlesticks.

Okay, my face was on fire.

“Grier had sex,” she sang. “Grier had sex.”

“Hood,” I pleaded, “a little help here?”

Lethe rested her hand on his thigh, her nails trailing upward, and fluttered her lashes until he caved.

“Linus had sex,” he chimed in. “Linus had sex.”

“I quit the pack,” I grumbled. “I’m going lone wolf.”

“You can’t quit,” Hood said, “and we’re only half wolf. You’re actually zero wolf. So there’s that.”

The ride home was more of a ride of shame than anything. Lethe and Hood sang jaunty tunes about how much sex I had last night, and Linus was no help at all. He didn’t manifest his scythe or offer to cut off their heads or anything useful. Mostly he just sat there, a tiny smile playing on his lips, and pretended not to hear their caterwauling.

Back home, Woolly barged into my head before Hood threw the van in park. Her panic and relief clashed in a halting melody that made my ears ring. She bulldozed into my memories, discordant noise vibrating in my back teeth, and saw last night through my eyes. The complete quiet on her end startled me into a new blush.

Mortified, I dropped my face into my hands. “This night keeps getting better and better.”

“Oh.” Lethe plastered her face against the window. “I think that’s Joe.”

“I can’t remember the last time you were this excited to see me,” Hood remarked.

“The last time you brought me bacon,” she answered before hopping out and sprinting to the curb.

“Lethe and bacon sittin’ in a tree,” I grumbled as I stepped out into the driveway. “C-R-U-N-C-H-I-N-G.”

Chuckling under his breath, Linus emerged behind me and slid his cool fingers in mine. The happiness on his face, there for anyone to see, made my chest ache that he couldn’t be this Linus in our world. But his status made him a target, and so did mine. People wanting to hurt us would take aim at those we loved.

“I need to go check in with Amelie.” I heard the resignation in my voice, but it needed doing. “Why don’t you help Lethe bring in her order? I’ll be right there.”

He squeezed my fingers once then left to help my friend juggle her armload of bags and drink trays.

“How mad are you on a scale of one to ten?”

I whipped my head around at the sound of Amelie’s voice. I hadn’t realized I had turned to admire the view as Linus walked away until I glanced back at the carriage house to find her standing in the doorway.

“Maybe a three.” I shrugged. “You did the right thing.”

“I would have called anyone else if I had known anyone else to call.”

“I get that.” I used my modified pen to write a number on her palm. “However, if I vanish in the future and you can’t find the gwyllgi, I want you to call this number. He’ll know what to do.”

Her lips moved over the number as she committed it to memory. “Who do I ask for?”

“Midas.”

Perhaps not the best option considering the fact he struggled with control around Amelie. The darkness in her rankled his animalistic nature, which viewed her as sick prey in need of culling. But she didn’t need to know that, and it’s not like I had any better options. Hopefully, she would never need to test his restraint.

“He was the blond, right?” Her focus zeroed in on where we used to spar in the garden. “Blue eyes?”

“He would have to drive down from Atlanta, but he’s worth the wait.”

Chin lowering, she asked, “Boaz stuck his foot in it, didn’t he?”

“Your brother is under a lot of stress, and he’s making bad decisions. Talk to him. Or Adelaide. I met her at the ball, and she seems to have a good head on her shoulders.”

“No one else in your position would have put up with us this long.”

“The three of us have a lot of history. Just because I don’t think we’re good for each other now doesn’t mean I don’t care. I do. I want you to both be happy.”

“You are.” She cocked her head. “Happy, I mean.”

A dopey grin crept up on me. “I am.”

“I’m glad.” She smiled, and it was genuine. No shadows. No undercurrents.

“I should go.” I hooked a thumb over my shoulder. “Woolly is going to give me an earful—if she lets me back in the house.”

“I have a paper due tomorrow.” She ducked her head. “I should get back to proofreading it.” She snapped her fingers. “Oh. I almost forgot. Check the inside of that shell you showed me. There’s an inverted Z. I thought it was scarring from the moon snail, but it’s the signature of a local artist. She creates jewelry from what she collects on Tybee. Earrings are her most popular item. She does a good job of making pairs from intact clams so they’re a perfect match. Calls them shellmates.”

“Nice detective work,” I praised her. “I’m not sure what it means, but it must mean something.”

Otherwise, Cletus wouldn’t keep circling the issue.

“Whatever I can do to help,” she said, and I could tell she meant it. Not from boredom, but earnestly.

We parted ways, and it wasn’t as awkward as the last time. Maybe next time would be even easier.

I took the stairs onto the back porch, expecting Woolly to lock me out or bean me with the door when I was halfway through it, but I walked right into the kitchen and found her buttering up Linus while he sorted the mail, tossing petitions addressed to me in the trash as per my request. Their bond was fainter than ours, so I’m not sure how they communicated. Images were simplest. That was my bet.

Crinkles gathered at the corners of his eyes when he saw me. “Have you discussed this with Grier?”

Braced for the worst, I rested my hand on the nearest wall. “What are we discussing?”

Woolly projected babies and cribs into my head. Kids running down the halls with his hair and my eyes. I lost count after five, but there were—wait a cotton-pickin’ minute—three cribs. Triplets? No. No, no, no. Hearing the Marchand family was lousy with fraternal twins was terrifying enough, but three infants? At once? Plus the five others she had decided she wanted? I might as well never leave the hospital. I would end up a baby factory operating out of a posh delivery suite.

“Um, Woolly,” I began. “It’s a bit early in our relationship to think about children.”

More images flashed. Changing tables. Bouncing seats. Swings. Highchairs. Strollers.

“Pump the brakes.” I snatched my hand back. “I’m not popping out a kid per room. You’ve got a dozen.”

Woolly dimmed the lights, her presence storming off across the house in a fit of pique.

“I saw this going differently in my head,” I admitted to him. “I figured she would tear me a new one for staying out all hours of the day without calling in. I didn’t expect her to pitch a hissy fit because you didn’t knock me up on the first try.”

Lethe glanced up, a bacon strip hanging out of her mouth that she slurped up like a spaghetti noodle. “There was just the one try?” She shoved a box of meat toward Linus. “Eat that. It will help build your stamina.”

Linus flushed crimson, and his dark-auburn hair paled in comparison. “I’m not having this conversation.”

“It’s okay to ask for help.” She rubbed her stomach. “Hood didn’t get it right out of the gate, either. He’s an old pro now, though. I bet if you asked him nicely, he would give you tips. He might even draw you a few pictures. You’re an artist, right? He would be speaking your language.”

Before she could ask for a pen and paper, he pointed toward the hall. “I’m going upstairs.”

He didn’t say if it was for a shower, which he had already had, or clean clothes, which he already wore. I don’t think he put much thought into the statement beyond blurting what guaranteed to get him out of the kitchen and away from Lethe.

On his way past, he handed off a postcard featuring the picturesque North Shore Mountains. There was no postmark, no note, and no signature, but it was the third blank postcard I had received since Taz went into hiding. I assumed she must be using Elite contacts to pass them to me, but I had yet to catch her coconspirator in the act, though I had a good idea who was responsible.

The picture wasn’t much, but it let me know she was okay, and that had to be enough.

The Marchands were out for blood after Taz shot Heloise to save me. She wasn’t safe in Savannah, maybe anywhere, until they considered that debt paid.

After tearing the postcard into tiny pieces, I dumped them in the trash, afraid of leaving a paper trail someone might follow back to her. With that done, I stared down Lethe and anchored my hands at my hips. “You ran Linus off so you could hog all the bacon, didn’t you?”

“Yep.” She opened the box she’d offered him. Only a grease smear remained in the bottom. “He doesn’t eat much that I’ve noticed, but there were no snacks in the van. After noon, it got dire out there.” She placed her hand across her heart, staining her shirt. “But I persevered. For you. Because you’re my friend.”

“There’s a convenience store a block down and several restaurants. There were also two bags of takeout containers, candy wrappers, and soda bottles in the back we had to step over to get in the van in the first place.”

“What are you saying?”

“That you’re a black hole that sucks down anything with caloric value within a fifteen-yard radius.”

“I’m pregnant.”

“Your baby is so tiny, it could be mistaken for a pinto bean.”

“Don’t listen to her.” She clamped her hands on either side of her stomach. “She’s just mad Linus gave out after one round.”

“Lethe.” I clamped a hand over her mouth. “You can’t say that in front of your child.”

“Trust me, growing up gwyllgi, it’s going to hear worse. He or she might as well get used to it.”

A shiver in the wards prickled my nape, and I sought out Woolly to ask what was out there.

Still grumpy, her consciousness flowed toward me like molasses stored in a fridge.

“Lethe.”

I cocked my head at the muffled sound of a man’s voice.

“Lethe Kinase.”

Without waiting for Woolly to interpret the scene, I jerked the door open to find a squat man slabbed with muscle standing in the driveway. That was as close as Woolly let him get, and he had worked up a head of steam over being denied his grand entrance.

“I challenge you,” he bellowed. “I challenge you for second in the Atlanta pack.”

Hood raced in from the side yard, but he was too late. Magic boiled around Lethe, splashing up her legs.

“No,” he breathed. “No.”

Lethe didn’t hesitate. She rocketed toward the property line and tackled the man mid-shift. Foam boiled over her lips as she sank her teeth into his ruff and slung her head until his blood stained her mouth red.

Shrieking like a stuck pig, the challenger dropped to the ground on his side, thrashing in her grip, trying to escape, but I could have told him that wasn’t happening unless she let him. Panicked, he twisted onto his back, eager to flash his underbelly and end it.

With a snarl, Lethe released him, allowing him to submit. Already I breathed easier. It was over. Phew.

Tail swishing, she glanced back at Hood, huffing at him for doubting her prowess.

With preternatural swiftness, the challenger lunged for her tender belly.

Hood roared, his agonized cry a promise of retribution.

I was too slow to stop the challenger from locking his jaws on her abdomen, but blood ran through my fingers, hot and wet, before I understood I had cut my hand with my knife.

A circle snapped into place around me, and I sketched a sigil on its surface, slamming my hand against it.

Magic shot from my palm, pierced the challenger’s chest like an arrow, and he fell dead on the spot.

I didn’t need to call on my necromantic powers to tell his heart had stopped beating.

Lethe shifted to human. She collapsed on the ground, cradling her ravaged stomach as blood spilled through her fingers.

Linus ran past me, yanking off his dress shirt, and knelt at her side. Expression tight, he pressed the balled fabric to her wound to staunch the bleeding. The look he offered me was grim, and my knees wobbled.

“I can’t fix this,” he said, his eyes full black. “The baby…”

On my way to them, I sliced my hand until the blade hit bone. Blood dripped down my wrist, and I didn’t waste time with my fingertips. I used my entire hand to draw an enormous healing sigil across her abdomen.

Necromancers weren’t healers. We didn’t save lives—we offered second chances—but I had to try. I had purged Linus several times. I could do this. I had to do this. For Lethe. For Hood. For their unborn child.

More blood. More pain. More symbols.

Designs flashed, alien in my mind’s eye, and I bathed Lethe in my blood without slowing down to figure out what each one meant.

I had to trust my gut, and my gut said I had one shot at getting this right.

About the time my head started swimming from blood loss, a shimmering veil of incandescence settled over her like a shroud. Before my eyes, the ragged edges of the wound knit together, and the blood reabsorbed into her skin. One final pulse lit her from the inside before the glow receded into her pores.

“Get her…” I panted, “…to your…”

Healer.

The world spun around me, dark as the backs of my eyelids.