He laughed at her. “You’ve no idea. Now, you will tell me where that gate resides or I will begin carving off pieces of your anatomy and adding decoration for Rosie’s chest plate.”
Her blood turned black in her veins as his words struck their mark. It ran down her pale skin, forming a road map over her body, marbling over the alabaster. “I told you I would give it to you.”
“And then we were attacked.”
“I-I had nothing to do with that.”
Devyl scoffed. “I don’t believe you.”
She tried to pull away, but he held her fast. Cringing, she put her arm up, over her face. “Why would I betray you?”
“Because you’re an idiot.”
“Duel! Let her go!”
He ignored Mara as she came into the room with them. “Answer me, Mona, or else I will begin carving you into all manner of objects for my use.”
“Duel!”
He glared at Mara over his shoulder. “I’m not a dog to heel at your command!”
“Yet I am your commander, am I not?”
His eyes glowed an instant before he let out a curse so foul even Thorn would have blushed had he heard it. Reluctantly, he released Mona and stepped back, but not before he passed a sullen grimace to Mara that would have made a petulant toddler proud.
Disregarding his distemper, she stepped forward to deal with their betrayer. She put herself between Mona and Devyl, and it took everything he had not to cut off both their heads. If not for the fact it would only make them stronger, he would have given in to the impulse.
With a calmness he couldn’t fathom, Mara took a deep breath. “Vine sent you here, didn’t she?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Very well.” Mara reached out then and shoved her hand straight into Mona’s chest. Devyl’s jaw dropped as she wrested the bitch’s heart from her bosom and yanked it out, then used her powers to incinerate Mona before she could hit the floor.
Her expression one of total serenity, she turned to face him and held the bloody heart toward him. “Use it to heal us as fast as possible. I’m sure others are on their way to attack us.”
Dumbfounded by an act that was completely incongruous to her nature, he stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
Still her features betrayed nothing. “In all the centuries we’ve been together, you’ve never bothered to learn the most basic thing about me. Never had a single conversation with me where you asked about my thoughts on any matter. And you know nothing of my people. When Vine killed you, she knew I would die, too. Did that thought never occur to you?”
Nay, it had not.
“In my darker hours, I’ve wondered which of us was the real target of her wrath. And why she did what she did. I’ve always assumed it was you, Du, because it was more comforting to do so. Yet what if it wasn’t? Either way, she is our enemy now. Both of ours. Mona has proven that without a doubt. You would have left Mona alive, not knowing that Vine was able to use her as a living conduit to us. A doorway better kept closed. And now I am weak. My powers are fading. I can’t heal myself. Therefore, I need you to do it for me.”
He caught her as she passed out. Cradling her against his chest, he took care not to crush Mona’s heart or harm Mara.
As gently as he could, he carried her to her cabin and placed her on her bed. Then he set about preparing the potion that would restore her strength and heal her injuries. All the while trying to come to terms with a side of her he’d never suspected existed.
Honestly? He liked it.
Black looked good on her.
It was why he’d do anything to heal her. Even use the darkest kind of magick he’d learned from his father. The kind his Druidic forefathers had specialized in. Unlike the rest of their breed, the Dumnonii branch of the Aesir hadn’t been just counselors, teachers, and priests, they’d been warriors, too. Protectors imbued with a fierce sense of noblesse oblige to safeguard the fledgling humans from their brethren who’d sought to harm them.
Descended from the gods themselves, the Dumnonii had been the ones who’d established the Druidic orders and taught them the ways of magick and given them their wisdom and ability to commune with the gods. They had brought order to the world of man. It was why their home realm had been termed Asgard and not Asaheim. Why the world of man was known as Myddangeard or Mydgard and not Mydanheim. This wasn’t just the home realm of mankind or Asgard the home of the Aesir. These two realms were where they’d brought order and discipline to the chaos of it all. They were wards set up to protect humanity.
When the primal gods and their creations had been at each other’s throats and were tearing the universe apart, this was where his ancestors had drawn the battle lines and put the boundaries that protected humans from their armies that would have destroyed them. From their monstrous creations that would have preyed on the humans without mercy.
Out of all the nine known and established realms, only these two worlds bore the protective “gard” suffixes that designated them as places of human refuge. Places where order and discipline reigned supreme over animalistic, primal urges.
