“Old bat,” Clara muttered. “I haven’t gotten much out of Bowen about her, but she’s like the evil sidekick in this fairy tale. Creepy. Ancient.”

  Nellie scrunched her mouth. “She looked about our age when I met her. Not to mention pregnant. Until she deflated.”

  “Deflated?” Clara asked. “How—”

  “If we keep asking how for everything, we aren’t going to be talking about anything else for the rest of our lives,” Nellie told her. “Let’s talk about your wedding.”

  “You’re changing the subject.” Clara poured more wine for the both of them. “But I will say this. Time might not be on any of our sides when it comes to happily ever after. So, if you have any plans regarding Keane, you might want to act on them sooner than later.”

  * * *

  In the great hall, Erian, Bowen, and a dozen of Keane’s most trusted Outsiders gathered around the table before the fire and reexamined their plans of attack. Some of his men had families, others had been on their own for most of their lives. They were all, however, first and foremost, determined to protect the world from which they’d been cast out.

  “It’s not going to work. Not anymore,” Bowen declared as he pointed a finger to the structure outside Dracha’s keep where he stored the majority of his weapons. “Going after their weapons is the first thing Rivalin would expect. It’s what he would do. And if we don’t do that, the entire plan falls apart.”

  “Then we have to think of things he wouldn’t.” Not that anyone had come up with an idea in the past two hours. Anxiety crept up Keane’s spine. His hand tightened on the staff at his side, as if improving his shadowy vision would somehow provide the answers they sought. “We cannot meet with the resistance and their spies until we at least have an idea of how to defeat Dracha. If we lose their trust, we’ve lost our only advantage.”

  “Is there any thought to letting them take the lead on the plan?” Bowen asked. “Rivalin knows how you and I think. He’d have planned for whatever we’d come up with.”

  “We’re putting a lot of stock in what we think Rivalin knows,” Taranto pointed out, his glass green eyes narrowing in his round, skeptical face. “Would not taking him out of the equation completely be our best option?”

  “It would be, yes.” Erian said. “But our sources say Rivalin’s now as heavily guarded as Dracha himself. That tells me there’s more left of him than we even we thought. He’s become both a liability and an asset to both sides.”

  “Which makes him doubly dangerous,” Bowen agreed. “What about the Wargari? Can they be of use to us?”

  “Better the fire demons be of use to us than Dracha,” Keane agreed. “But communicating with them is impossible now that there aren’t any Talkers left. Dracha had them all executed when they refused to convince the Wargari to fight for him.”

  “There’s one left.” Erian’s tight voice snapped through Keane’s growing despair.

  “There is?” Keane looked across the table at his second in command. “Who?”

  “Trevelyan.”

  Keane’s throat ached. He could only imagine what speaking his former lover’s name cost Erian. The two had been inseparable for years, even before they’d both been banished to The Forgotten Realm. Erian had never shared the details of what happened between them, but it had taken Erian many cycles to climb out of the bottle he’d dived into when they’d parted.

  “I heard he burned in the purge,” one of Erian’s soldiers countered. “Witnesses said—”

  “He’s alive.” Erian lifted emotionless eyes to Keane. “I can find him. I can convince him.”

  Keane shook his head. “I can’t ask—”

  “You aren’t asking,” Erian said. “By all rights you should be ordering me to track him down. You don’t have to. I’ll leave immediately.”

  “Find us a safe path to the summit,” Keane told Bowen as he followed Erian out of the hall. “Erian! Erian, wait. You don’t have to do this. We can find another solution.”

  “We don’t have time.” Erian stared straight ahead, his gaze never flickering once to Keane’s. “We’re out of options and we don’t have time to let our emotions get in the way. If I’m not at the summit as planned, it’s because I’m dead.” Now he faced Keane with nary a flicker of despair or sadness. He clasped his hand around Keane’s forearm and his leader returned the gesture.

  “If that’s the case, go with the Goddess.”

  “He going to be okay?” Bowen asked from the doorway after Erian had gone.

  “He’ll do what he has to.” Keane’s thoughts turned to Nellie. In truth, his thoughts hadn’t turned away from her since he’d first pulled her out of the Lake of Sherena. The pull of her, the desire for, her hadn’t lessened the longer they were apart. It had grown like a hunger, one he could no longer deny himself. “Is there a safe path to take to the summit?”

  “There will be by morn.”

  Keane’s hand tightened on the staff as he resisted the urge to see if Bowen was lying. He’d gotten the answer he wanted. “Tell the men I’ll join them then. First bell. We leave at midday.” With that, he headed for Nellie’s quarters.

  * * *

  He finally found her, not in the quarters Erian had arranged for her, and not with her sister, who had a knowing smile on her face when Clara opened her own door to him asking where Nellie had gone. He found her in the last place he expected.

  The only place he wanted.

  He found her in his bed. Sound asleep.

  With a wave of his hand, he locked his door and stood looking down at her. He moved the staff from side to side, hoping to break through the shadows and gray. The need to see her, really see her, all of her, had him setting the orb against the wall before he sat beside her.

  He reached out a hesitant hand, his fingers trembling at the promise of the softness of her skin. The pain behind his eyes was familiar and expected. He closed his eyes, waited for the worst of it to pass, sinking his hand deep into her red hair.

  They needed to talk. He had to tell her the truth. That with her touch, he could see again. Could be whole again. But at the same time he had to make her see that that wasn’t why he wanted her.

  But it was why he needed her.

  Which meant touching her was a very bad idea.

  He felt her stir, her softness shifting on his bed, her cheek pushing into his hand as if begging for more and when he opened his eyes, he saw only her, in perfect focus, looking up at him, her full, kissable lips curving into a smile.

  “If this is a dream, don’t wake me up.”

  “It’s not a dream.” He couldn’t decide what filled him with more promise and hope. Being able to see or looking at her. Keane stopped debating and lent down, pressing his mouth to hers. “I went looking for you.”

  “Thought I’d beat you to the punch.” She reached for him, drew him over her. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Finding you in my bed?” He pressed a trail of kisses along her jawline, under her ear. Down the side of her neck. He inhaled her scent mingling with the soap he’d used on his own skin, the combination arousing him to the point of mindlessness. “I don’t mind at all.”

  “Good. Then I have another surprise for you.” She smoothed her hands down his arms to slip her fingers through his. As he drew himself back, she pushed up and, before he realized what she was doing, she flipped him onto his back and straddled him. “I’ve decided taking chances has been working for me.” She gripped his hands tighter and drew them over his head, stretched her body over his until he felt her breasts pressing fully into his chest. She shimmied up, nipped at his chin before she kissed him again. “Fair warning,” she whispered as her thighs tightened around him. “I’ve not done much of this before, so I might need some assistance.”

  Keane might have laughed if the lower part of her wasn’t wreaking havoc with the only part of his body that was doing any thinking.

  “I am happy to assist.”

  “Good.” She let go of his hands and sat up, taking his sight with her.

  He didn’t mind. Not when she began to move above him, twisting and turning and…his entire body felt as if she’d set him on fire.

  “Ah, man. I am going to kill Clara.”

  Keane reached out and stilled her flailing arms. “Why? What’s wrong? What are you doing?”

  “Failing spectacularly at this whole seduction thing. She trussed me like a holiday turkey.” She sagged forward and into his hands. “I can’t get out of my dress.”

  Keane sat up, sliding his hands up to the bare skin above her shoulders, unable to stop the smile from forming on his lips as he saw the frustration and embarrassment flooding her face. She was spectacular in every possible way. He cupped her face in his hand and kissed her while moving the other to her back where he found the laced bow.

  He pulled once, whispered a word of magic, and the top of her gown fell away.

  “Oh. Well, that’s one way to do that, I suppose.” Nellie sucked in a breath as he nibbled at the side of her throat. “You, um, sure you want to do this, Romeo?”

  Was he sure? Could this be the answer he’d been looking for? Bowen had said when he and Clara made love Bowen’s magic had been given back to him. Maybe…maybe Keane would be equally lucky. Maybe Nellie would never have to know…. “I’m in your hands, Nellie. Do with me what you wish.”

  * * *

  “When I get back home, I’m sending my ex a registered letter letting him know he’s as dumb as a stump.” Nellie hadn’t meant to speak the words out loud, but when Keane’s chest rumbled under her, she flushed a new shade of red.

  “Did he not please you in bed?” He stroked his hand down her spine and had her arching against him like a cat.

  “Ohhhhh. Mmmm. He didn’t please me anywhere.” But Keane certainly had. He’d pleased just about every inch of her. Was there a part of her that wasn’t still tingling? “You should give lessons in this, except that would be weird.”

  “It would indeed.” He pulled her over him, settling her solidly against him from shoulder to hip and drew the blankets around them. “Sleep, Nellie. I must be up early in the morn, but want to enjoy you again before then.”

  “Again? Really?” She thought that was only something that happened in books. “Oh, that reminds me, Clara gave me this after sex tea to drink to prevent preg—”

  “In the morn. You drink it in the morn.” He slipped his free hand into her hair, settled his palm against the back her neck. “Now sleep, my love. And dream only of good things.”

  My love.

  Nellie’s eyes filled with tears as she listened to Keane fall asleep. No one had ever said those words to her. He loved her?

  And that thought, at least for tonight, was more than enough.

  * * *

  Keane awoke as he usually did, instantly and well before first-bell. Only this morn, something was different. Nellie.

  He had Nellie in his arms. Not just now, but all night. Even now he was loathe to let her go. Keane tilted his chin and nuzzled the back of her neck, his hands flat against her stomach, his fingers tempted to dip into the heat of her one more time….

  A soft knock sounded on his door.

  Nellie groaned and pushed herself deeper into the bed. Keane surrendered to obligation and, with more than a bit of regret, slipped his arms out from around her and sat up.

  His heart stuttered as darkness descended immediately. Disappointment mingled with anger as he dragged on his pants, grabbed the staff, and, after he made the preventative tea he kept in supply for her to drink when she awoke, headed to the door.

  The second he opened it, he found Bowen, who looked at the glowing orb of the staff and offered a sad smile. “I’m sorry. I had hoped mating with her would restore your—”

  “Yeah, me, too.” Keane scrubbed a hand down his face and motioned for Bowen to back up so they could talk in the corridor. He kept the door open to listen for Nellie should she awaken. “Did you find safe passage to the summit?”

  “Yes. But we’ll need to leave sooner than planned. Akarak Falls should provide sufficient cover for our number.”

  “That’s more than six miles out of our way.”

  “But Dracha’s men do all they can to avoid that area. We may even find additional allies to add to our numbers.”

  “Any word from Erian?”

  “He sent word he found Trevelyan. Beyond that, we don’t have any information.”

  “All right.” Keane struggled to get his focus back, not easy to do when every one of his senses—well, all but sight, alas—was flooded with Nellie. “All right. Have the kitchen send up something to eat. Make sure the men are well stocked and ready to go at my say-so. I need to talk to her before I leave.”

  “You’re sure her magic only works when she touches you?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure.” And apparently it didn’t matter where she touched him, as long as it was skin on skin. The images of what she’d done to him, with him, last night, would have to last whatever life he had left. “What about you? Did you speak with Clara?”

  “I did. Which brings me to my next request. Do you have a priestess at the Citadel?”

  “Are you in need of spiritual guidance?” Keane tried to joke.

  “I’m in need of a hand-fasting ceremony. That’s her condition. I have to marry her before I leave.” Given the growing smile on his friend’s face, it was obvious Bowen didn’t find the condition distasteful in the least. “We’d like you and Nellie to bear witness.”

  “As long as that’s all I’m bearing witness to, I’ll be there. Callandria. You’ll find her tending the gardens behind the second spire. She has an altar next to the lake that will be perfect for the two of you.”

  “No Cherellean water beasts then?”

  “Only a few boddingbirds and scuttles.” The heavily feathered birds would add a bit of elegance to the ceremony. “We’ll have the ceremony after I solidify plans with the men.”

  “Thank you, Keane.” Bowen clasped his forearm. “This means the world to both of us.”

  “I know it does.” And the idea of a hand-fasting didn’t sound like such a bad one to Keane. He wondered how Nellie would react should he suggest…he stepped back into the room.

  The door slammed behind him.

  Keane spun around. Nellie standing behind him, in the shadow of the orb, sheet wrapped around her, her sleep-tousled hair an odd contrast to the fire in sensed in her eyes.

  “Good morn.” But even a blind man could see there was nothing good about it. His mind raced as he wondered how long she’d been awake. How long she’d been standing there.

  His heart stuttered. How much she’d heard.

  “How’re your eyes? Still blind?”

  With that one question, he knew. A fear he’d never experienced before swept over him like a rush of fire. “Nellie, let me—”

  “What? Explain?” She stood there, in the corner of his room, wrapped in his sheet, shivering. “Explain how you used me to try to get your sight back? That is what’s been going on, isn’t it? All this touchy-feely thing. The way you just had to kiss me back in the forest. That wasn’t you wanting me. It was you testing to see if I could bring back your sight!”

  “I—” Anything he might add would only be a lie. And he’d already lied to her enough for one lifetime. “At first, yes.”

  “Tell me the truth, Keane.” He felt her walk toward him but stayed a good arms’ distance away. He’d never felt so far away from anyone as he did at this moment. “Can you see when I touch you?”

  He swallowed hard. “Yes.”

  “But only when I touch you.”

  “Yes. But I don’t care about that now. I did fine before, I’ll manage now.”

  “Well, that’s good to know since I won’t be touching you ever again.” She swept past him toward the table by the window. “Gah.” She slammed a cup down. “Well, that’s the perfect bitter taste to end this encounter on.” She darted around his room, plucking up her clothes, clutching them against her chest as she stumbled over the sheet tangling around her feet.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Back to my quarters. So I can forget…this.” She swung on him before she reached the door.

  “You don’t mean that.” He caught her arm when she turned away. Only then did he see the tears staining her cheeks. “Nellie, what we have is more important than my lying to you. And it wasn’t a lie, exactly. I had to find out for certain. I didn’t have anything to lose.”

  “Wrong. You had me to lose. You didn’t tell me the truth because you know what I do now. You were using me for something I don’t even have. And that’s the one thing I just can’t forget. Not again. Now let me go.”

  He held on, desperate for the right words. Desperate for her to understand. For her to forgive.

  “I said let. Me. Go.” She wrenched her arm free and yanked open the door.

  The second the door closed behind her, he realized what he’d done. What he’d lost. Keane’s guilt and anger boiled over, driving the breath from his chest. He spun and whipped the staff and orb down and around.

  And shattered it against the wall.

  * * *

  “Congratulations.” Nellie rose up on tiptoe to kiss Bowen’s cheek, embracing her new brother-in-law with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. The setting beside the lake couldn’t have been more beautiful. The Farrengold flowers, as she’d learned they were called, had dipped in to bathe the lake shore in moon-kissed light while colorful birds swam to and fro by the bank.

  The priestess quietly withdrew as Bowen reached his hand out to his bride, Nellie’s sister, who looked caught between utter bliss and complete terror. The white gown she wore glistened in the darkness, her long red hair worn loose and curling around her shoulders.