She nodded, listening but watching Lilith more intently. “That’s very true. I’m sure the comarré is busy mourning Malkolm.” She glanced up. “Which reminds me, pay attention to those you speak with tonight. My first project after we return home is to put a team together to go to Paradise City and retrieve the ring of sorrows and the comarré once and for all. I’ve decided I will not set foot in that city again, but with the position and power I now hold, I don’t need to, nor do I wish to be separated from Lilith. I want a good group, ten or twelve strong, loyal nobles who will put this matter to rest for me. We can handpick them from the crowd this evening.”

“I will pay close attention. I’m sure you’ll have many volunteers.” He offered a hand to Lilith, who was trying to pull herself up using the edge of the small table next to his chair. “There you go, my darling.” He smiled at Tatiana. “Amazing how fast she’s growing. I expect she’ll be talking before long.”

“I can’t wait for that.” She smiled down at Lilith. “Are you going to talk to Mama, my darling? Can you say Mama, sweetheart? Mama?”

Lilith laughed and waved bye-bye.

Octavian stood. “I believe I’ll go make sure Damian is ready, then come back and get dressed myself. That way I can watch Lilith while you’re occupied.”

“Excellent.” She smiled as he left, then kneeled on the floor beside Lilith. “We are lucky to have Octavian, aren’t we, my sweet? So long as he doesn’t do something foolish.” She kissed Lilith’s fingers, then sat and began stacking the blocks Lilith had been ignoring.

When they were five high, Lilith clapped her hands, then shoved them down and giggled as they crashed to the ground. Twice more, Tatiana built the tower and twice more, Lilith toppled it.

Tatiana sat back and tried to ignore the buried remnants of her Roma soul. This was not an omen. Not a sign of things to come. Lilith was just a child and all children liked to destroy things.

Didn’t they?

“I can’t believe it’s over.” Fi, freshly showered, sat on the padded table while Barasa did his doctor thing and wrapped her torso into a compression garment. She’d told him a pain shot wasn’t necessary, but he’d insisted. Good thing, too, because the cuts on her face had stung like a mother when he’d cleaned them. Now, though, the meds had kicked in and she barely noticed her cracked ribs anymore. In fact, she felt about as good as she remembered feeling in a long time.

“Well, believe it. You’re the pride leader’s mate fair and square.” He didn’t look at her while he spoke, just kept his eyes fixed to his work.

“How did I do it, though? I barely touched her.” Fi closed her eyes to help her brain work and started tilting backward.

“Whoa, there.” Barasa righted her. “You need to sleep for a while, let your body heal.”

“I told you, I can go ghost and do that.”

He caught her gaze and shook his head. “How can your physical body heal while you’re a ghost? I don’t think it works that way.”

“What do you know about ghosts?” The urge to sleep was pretty freaking strong. Maybe she’d just lie down right here. “What kind of a cat are you?”

“I know about ghosts because—I’m a tiger. I did a year of residency at a hospital that specialized in othernatural patients and—”

“A tiger? That’s so cool. Lemme see.”

A knock interrupted them and the door opened. Doc stuck his head in. “How’s my girl?”

“Pretty looped on pain meds,” Barasa answered.

Fi heard a squeal, then realized the noise had come out of her. “Hiya, baby! Hey, did you know Barasa’s a tiger?”

Doc laughed. “Yeah, I know that.” He looked at Barasa again. “She going to be okay?”

“A hundred percent. Just get her into bed and make her stay there for a few days. She’ll be sore and bruised for at least a week. Her ribs are only cracked, not broken, but they’ll take a good four to six weeks to heal completely.” He smiled sheepishly. “So no unnecessary activity.”

“He means no sex,” Fi whispered loudly.

“Yeah,” Doc said. “I knew that, too.”

Fi pointed at him and kept whispering. “You should tell Barasa about your fire problem. He worked at a ghost hospital. He might know how to fix that.”

Doc’s expression froze; then he covered with a laugh. “Cripes, those drugs sure are doing a number on her, huh? Better get her to bed. I’ll just—”

“So it’s true?” Barasa asked.

Doc’s eyes glittered gold. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Barasa put his hands up. “You think you can’t trust me? I’ve been on your side since you got here. I helped train Fiona.” He muttered something else Fi couldn’t make out.

“What?” Fi asked, but the two men didn’t seem to be paying attention to her anymore. “What did you say?” she asked again. Maybe he’d said something about Heaven. Wait, Heaven was dead. How exactly had a human defeated a varcolai? Fi couldn’t make it work in her head.

Doc’s jaw popped to one side. “Yes, it’s true. But as long as I keep a small dose of K in my system, it seems to hold the flames at bay.”

“K?” Barasa’s mouth dropped. “Ketamine is one of the most dangerous things our kind can ingest.”