Robin was screaming again, and Hal had no clue what to do. Again. Frustration whipped through him sharper than a knife.

“Rin! Robin, talk to me!”

He could tell she was trying to form words, but the pain was too overwhelming. Standing, Hal pulled on his boxers and jumped downstairs, grabbing ice and wetting a towel with cold water. If nothing else, he could try to ease the pain. Last time, it had been the markings on her back that hurt; he was willing to bet the same thing was happening again. Whatever it was, it seemed to happen when they were close to having sex, or just being intimate with each other.

She wouldn’t have been able to see them, or at least, not very well, with the markings being on her back, going up into her hairline. Hal was going to take a damned good look at them once the pain subsided and try to figure out what was going on with them.

Hal jumped back upstairs. Robin’s scream had quieted into groans as she rocked herself, trying to soothe whatever was happening inside her.

“I’ve got some ice, Rin. I’m going to put it on your back to try and help, okay?”

She nodded, although her eyes were still squeezed shut.

He gently rolled her onto her stomach and laid the towel-wrapped packet of ice over the mark while running the cold, damp towel over her forehead. Fraction by fraction, he could see her muscles relax, the tension that had gripped them while she was in pain fading away before his eyes.

A weight he hadn’t realized was there eased off his heart. He hadn’t expected the fear. He was usually pretty clear-headed in a crisis, but when it came to Robin, he was swamped with emotions he never expected. At that moment, it was fear that he would lose her when he hadn’t even had a chance to help her live again now that she was free.

Eventually, after a few incredibly long minutes, Robin’s face turned toward him.

“Thanks,” she croaked out.

“Any time, although I would rather this not happen to you at all.”

“Me too.” She laughed, but with how raw her throat was, it sounded almost like a cough instead. She took a few deep breaths and sat up to face him.

Even now she was stunning. Hal had to keep his mind focused on the mission, and currently the mission was to find out what the hell was happening to Robin. “Do you have any idea what’s causing it?”

“It’s something to do with the mark.”

“I figured that much, but why at those specific moments?” Hal rubbed the back of his neck. He was getting a bad feeling about this.

“Your guess is as good as mine. The only thing we can do is find Nimue. I’m hoping that since she put it on, we can get her to take it off. I promised her that when I escaped, I’d find a way to go back for her. I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. I figured Randall would be more guarded when I ran away, but now I don’t care. Screw being cautious—I want to rescue Nimue and get this damn mark off my back.”

“Right. Find the Lady of the Lake. Shouldn’t be difficult. It’s not like people have been searching for her for centuries or anything.”

This time Robin did laugh, and her whole body shook with it, which was incredibly distracting since she was still naked.

Hal focused his mind on the task. “Would you mind if I looked at it with my healing abilities? I probably can’t fix it, but it couldn’t hurt to try.”

“If you think it can help.” She nodded.

Jumping downstairs, he grabbed a glass of water before jumping back to Robin. Calling his powers forth, he could feel the water all around him. Each droplet, each speck, everything. The moisture from Robin’s breath, the rain threatening to fall above them, the waves lapping in the lake behind the house. If he focused, he could find water almost anywhere. He centered on the water in the glass, bending it to his will, pulling it upward and around to her back.

The cool water lay across her skin, showing him in his mind’s eye the shape of the mark. What he had first thought was one single scar was in fact layers of scars on top of one another, each one slightly different from the last, appearing to contain symbols eerily familiar to him. He couldn’t place them, but he knew they were familiar. If he saw them again, he would know.

Hal pulled the water together under her skin, trying to heal the scar; after all, it was only a few days old, if that. They were something only magic could create. Doing something like this without magic would be excruciating and would take much longer, years probably, since the skin would have to heal before the next markings could be made. The fact that the Lady of the Lake had done this in moments spoke to her power. If they could wrest her from the grasp of the Order of Talos, that would be a severe blow to them.

Knitting the skin together didn’t work, and neither did trying to heal the skin around the scarring.

Pulling the water off her back and putting it into the glass once more, Hal sighed. “You’re right. If we want to get this fixed, we will need to get Nimue.”

Robin nodded. The only problem was they had no idea where the estate was.

* * *

Anger was a living, breathing thing within Dem. It had been ever since Aster had yelled at him. His mind swirled with images of Isabeau and Aster. Two vastly different women, yet both had drawn him. They were irresistible and inescapable. The trouble was, Dem had been down this road before. Isa had been the light of his life, and she had been taken away.

Her ebony locks were always at the corner of his sight, but when he turned his head, she was never there. Zeus had made sure of that.

The big Z-man had tormented her into madness. At first, it was little things—talking to her without taking physical form, moving objects around the room. Over time, she began to spend more and more time with Dem, since that was when she didn’t hear the voices. The few times that Dem wasn’t around, Zeus often took his form, seducing his lovely Isa, or yelling at her, tearing at her emotions like tissue. When he realized what had been happening, Dem had confronted Zeus himself.

It didn’t go well.

Zeus had warned them all a long time ago not to get attached to mortals or they would face the consequences, but Dem couldn’t resist Isa.

They had met on a train while he was tracking down one of Dionysus’ cats. A leopard, or maybe a panther. Either way, he couldn’t rely on teleporting to a location, so he had to take the train, which was frustrating. At least, until he saw Isa. She sat next to a window, her hair glowing in the sunlight. Her light-blue eyes had been lined with black and a dark eye shadow smudged on the lid. He remembered so clearly because she was one of the first women he had seen so made up. Her cherry red lips had captivated him, making it impossible not to introduce himself.

It was all downhill from there, though. The closer they got, the more Zeus interfered, the more he played mind games with Isa.

Dem shook his head. He couldn’t let himself get lost in the what-ifs of his relationship with her. They were together for as long as they could be, and then he took care of her as best as he could.

Aster was a different story.

He paced up and down his home, trying to think of anything but the petite blonde who had infused his life with confusion. When they had first met, they both knew it was supposed to be a single night of passion. It wasn’t as if he had hidden that from her. They had both agreed, but that single night had turned into a weekend, and even then it was a challenge to drag himself away.

Seeing his family expanding was a punch in the gut. Why now? How had Zeus’ powers deteriorated so much in the last two centuries?

First it was Ellie, and then Cin, and now, if he was judging his brother’s expressions correctly, possibly Robin? Each of them were nails in the coffin of his heart. But then, Aster seemed to be right behind them, pulling the nails out again. Light and energy suffused any room she stepped into, making him crave her like the warmth of summer after a long winter.

He didn’t remember jumping, but he was standing in Hal’s kitchen, looking at a surprised Aster.

“What the hell, Dem?” Irritation flowed through her, making her amber eyes glow.

“Sorry. I—”

He took in the scene completely, and for a moment, his heart stuttered in his chest. Her skintight leggings and sports-bra-clad body made his brain blank out as all the blood in his head rushed south. Her long, wavy blonde hair was scooped up into a messy ponytail, and sweat glistened on her skin. He could lick it off; that was how much he wanted her.

“I’m waiting!”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay.” His mind made his mouth move and sounds came out, but he was still dumbfounded by her beauty.

“As you can see, I’m fine, so why don’t you just go back to being a jackass in your own home.”

“Is Hal here?”

“No. He and Robin have vanished again. I don’t know where they are going, but it’s fine by me. Means I get this whole place to myself.” She sipped on her water bottle, the moisture clinging to her dusky pink lips.

His pants were uncomfortably tight.

“Aster, I’m sorry—”

“You have nothing to apologize for. You made it perfectly clear how you want us to be with each other, and now I suggest you follow your own advice. Go home, Dem, before we both make a mistake.”

She had come around the edge of the counter, approaching him as she spoke.

His hand snaked out and wrapped around her waist. “You mean like this?”

Dem’s mouth crushed Aster’s, her soft pillowy lips giving way under his own insistent ones.

Her body reacted immediately, relaxing into him, pressing against him, her skin, slightly sticky under his hands, only turned him on even more. Everything about her was an aphrodisiac, making his body and mind react in ways they hadn’t for centuries.

His tongue was twined with hers when her hands came up, pushing against his chest. He relented. He’d never force himself on a woman. She wanted him; he could practically scent her arousal in the air.

“Dem, that was a mistake. We can’t do this. You made that clear. And I’m certainly not going to be second prize for anyone. We just need to forget about the weekend and this and try to live normal lives next to each other.”

She backed away, her lips swollen from his kiss.

He wanted to curse and rage, but she was right. Aster didn’t deserve to be second place behind Isa. No one deserved that. Just because they had amazing chemistry and phenomenal sex didn’t mean they would be good together or good for each other.

Her liquid-gold eyes searched his, and his heart broke as he jumped out.

* * *

“Can’t you just do a tracking spell or something?” Robin’s voice was tight with frustration.

Hal knew that this was an almost impossible task, but they didn’t have another choice. “I wish it were that easy, but we don’t have anything from the house, unless you’ve been holding out on me?”

“No. Can’t you use my scar?”

Hal thought for a moment. “Maybe, but we would have to take a sample of it, which wouldn’t exactly be pleasant for you. Otherwise, we would just go everywhere you’ve been your whole life.”

“Well, that’s not really much of a journey.” She let out a bitter laugh that made Hal want to pull her close and kiss away all the bad memories.

She tapped the tip of her nose while she thought. “Maybe we can go about this logically. Compare properties Randall owns with locations, see if any fit the bill?”

“The last time we checked was when we were looking for Aster, and all we could find was the Eclipse headquarters in Boston and the farm up in New Hampshire.”

“Yes, but you went the simple route. Can you get me a laptop?”

“Sure, you can borrow Alec’s or something.”

“Would he mind if I put some software on it?” Her nose tapping had slowed as she thought.

“I can ask.” Hal shrugged. He wasn’t sure what Robin was up to, but she definitely had an idea of some kind.

An hour and an exhaustive conversation later, Hal was back with the laptop.

“I thought I’d lost you.” Robin smiled, but her brows pinched together in concern.

“Me? Never.” He smiled at her, big and goofy, which earned him a true smile from her in return. “The laptop, as my lady requested. It’s yours from now on.”

“Mine?”

“Alec used it as an excuse to buy a new one, not that Ellie was super happy about the idea. Since it was going to good use, she didn’t object too much, so now it’s yours.”

“Wow.” She was quiet for a few moments. “Thank you, Hal, really.” She stood up and hugged him.

He wrapped his arms around her tiny frame, pressing her to him like the precious thing she was. Her emotions were still tinged with darkness, but whenever he made her happy, some of it seemed to fall away. The light inside her was able to shine through a little more.

The air between them changed, their emotions charging the space with their desire. Even if he could never bed her, he would never turn her away. She was becoming more important to him the more time he spent around her. She made him feel real, whole. His hands came up and tangled in her red hair, brushing it away from her face.

“Robin . . .” he started, but he didn’t know what to say, how to put into words what he was feeling without sounding selfish, without taking away the time she needed to process what had happened to her.

“I know, me too.” She raised up on her tiptoes, but even that wasn’t enough. Her hand wrapped around the back of his neck and pulled him down into a kiss so utterly sweet and filled with emotion that it left him breathless.

As they pulled away, Hal felt overly conscious of the mark on her back, like it was watching them, waiting for them to get close enough again that it could cause her pain, make her associate him with pain. That was something he wouldn’t stand for. If he could never touch her again, that would be fine so long as she didn’t associate him with the pain the mark caused her.

He handed the laptop over and couldn’t help but notice the glee in her face as she sat down on the couch and cracked it open. The scoop-neck T-shirt had seemed like such a good idea when he’d bought it for her, but now it was just laughing at him, tempting him with the creamy soft skin he couldn’t touch.

Walking away, he went to get them both drinks. By the time he came back, she was laser-focused on what was in front of her. He sat next to her on the couch, their thighs brushing against each other, practically burning him when they touched. Robin didn’t seem to notice, though. She twirled some of her red hair between her fingers as something downloaded while she sporadically typed code in another window.

“So, what’s your plan?”

“Hum?” Her eyes took a second to focus on him.

“What’s your plan? How are we going to find the estate?”

“Oh!” A wide, slightly menacing grin spread over her face. “We’re going to follow the money.”

When he didn’t immediately understand the idea, she backtracked and explained it to him.

“I figure he’s got to pay people to take care of the house, right? So, I’m going to hack into Randall’s computer and access his bank statements, and then I’m going to dig until I find Eclipse’s financial records, flagging any transactions going to England. It might be a lot from Eclipse, but I have a feeling that the estate would be under Randall’s personal purview with it being so closely associated with the Order and everything. Plus, I can’t imagine him having a ton of transactions to England.”

Devious and crazy smart. “I like it.” He grinned at her and saw her gulp. Whatever else he knew, she liked his smile. “How are you going to hack into his stuff?”

“I’m going to do some penetration testing to see where the weak points are, and then exploit those to gain access to the system, and then I have another piece of software I can use to crack his password. I doubt Randall is that creative, so it shouldn’t be hard.”

Hal shook his head. He wasn’t exactly sure what she just said, but he knew it was a skill set not everyone had. “How’d you learn this stuff?”

“I was going for a college scholarship. I love computers, so I started teaching myself everything I could about them. Plus, I figured they were only going to get more important to society, so it would be a stable job field. I dabbled in some white-hat hacking on the side, just do-gooder stuff, nothing bad. The bad came later once I was inside Eclipse. I wrote programs that hid my activities and allowed me limited access to things outside Eclipse’s network. It was the only way I stayed sane. Without it, I probably would have pushed Randall too far a long time ago.”

“Pushed him too far?”

“There were rumors of his previous assistants vanishing, never being heard from again, not that I thought he would do that to me with my . . .”—she paused, as if looking for the right word—“unique skill set. If I pushed him too hard, though? Well, since he controlled every aspect of my life, he could make it a living hell.”

Rage flowed through Hal at the thought of Robin being treated that way. The energy buzzed in his system like bees after something disturbed the hive. “I’m going to go for a run.”

She looked at him for a moment, concern tracing her delicate features. “Okay, you’d probably be bored here, anyway.”