She’d also thought about her father, dying in a rose bush in the desert. She wished he could have met his grandchild. She thought about Rhoswen, the way she commanded her world, her strengths and weaknesses. A thousand years had taught her that every chal enging situation held a lesson to be learned. Having that confidence required taking huge risks, but sometimes, to secure the future, risk was necessary.

  “Kane is going to go with us to Council,” she said out loud. “But not because of Council’s demands.” Jacob turned toward her. As her servant, he might not always be privy to her mind. But this was not one of those times. In this, he was Kane’s father, and she let him ful y into her head, let him see what she was thinking. A shadow closed over his face as he considered it, but she also saw him go through the same quick analysis she did. There weren’t too many variables to consider. She’d said it in the Fae world. She was done running, and that meant they had to confront the Council as a unit.

  He reached into the pack they’d brought, took out Keldwyn’s pendant. The stone glowed amber and chocolate brown in the dim light from the garage.

  Bringing it to her, he knelt at her feet, gave Kane a smile and pressed foreheads to him in playful affection as he let the baby touch the pendant. Then he placed it around Kane’s neck. As he did, the cord glowed, a warmth that shone over Kane’s fair cheeks a moment before the necklace became an imprint in the child’s skin, like a permanent tattoo.

  Jacob looked up at Lyssa. “Okay,” he said.

  Despite his initial surprise, he didn’t look as if her plan was too unexpected. And then she realized that was the other reason he’d summoned Gideon. Her servant had anticipated her, as he often did, and brought her potential reinforcements.

  She glanced at Daegan Rei. Like the others, he was watching them curiously. While she didn’t know exactly where his loyalties lay, she knew he’d been at odds with Council directives over the recent year, right before Mason stepped into his position on it.

  She couldn’t imagine Gideon bonding with someone who was dedicated to the current Council’s objectives, so she took a chance there as wel .

  “Lord Daegan, I plan to go into the Council meeting directly opposed to their plans. But I have a proposal for them that I think wil be better for us al .

  Though I do not command your loyalties, would you be wil ing to attend the Council meeting with us and stand at my back, against them as necessary?” The powerful vampire studied her. “I don’t play politics, Lady Lyssa.”

  She inclined her head. “I believe you support the vision of Council that I have always had. But I can’t stand against you, nor would I. However, if I speak of my plan tonight and you oppose it, enough to inform the Council, then—”

  Daegan lifted a hand. “With respect, please let me finish, Lady Lyssa. We are not a democracy, nor even a republic. Council is an oligarchy. However, any governing body making critical, frequent mistakes, the way this Council is, is creating an environment for change. Out of al the vampires I have met through the centuries, I trust your motives as a leader in that regard more than any other.” He gave her a bow. “You have my services and guidance, however you may need them.”

  “Does this mean I get to use explosives again?” Gideon asked.

  “Only if we shove them up your ass first,” Jacob noted.

  “Nice. That’s brotherly love for you.” Kane put his mouth to Lyssa’s breast, trying to gnaw through the fabric. Holding him close, she nodded to the others.

  “I’m going to retire for a while, but later tonight we’l meet and discuss my proposal.”

  As she received polite acknowledgments from the others, Jacob caressed her shoulder, putting a kiss on Kane’s waving fist as he met her green eyes. “I’l be right down.”

  You are going to tell Gideon about your parents.

  Yes. And the other thing.

  Her eyes warmed on him, though her hand tightened on his an extra moment as if a concern lay behind it. But whatever the concern was, she didn’t voice it. “Take your time,” she murmured. “But don’t be long.”

  Jacob smiled at the conflicting commands, typical of his lady. “Count on it.”

  “Lady Lyssa.” Daegan stepped forward. “However you choose to approach the Council, I would appreciate it if Anwyn and Gideon could stay here while we’re gone.”

  “Of course, my lord. They are always welcome here, as are you.”

  “As kind as that is”—Anwyn directed that polite tone toward Lyssa, though something else entirely entered her voice as she shifted her attention to Daegan—“we’re going with you.”

  “No, you’re not,” he responded. “Do you remember your last visit to Council? We agreed on a low profile after that. Indefinitely.” Gideon shifted to that aggressive stance Jacob knew al too wel . “This Council meeting isn’t going to be about us, so it’s a different situation. And I’m not letting my brother and my nephew go into it without my help.”

  “So you are fine with Anwyn deciding to go into a dangerous situation if it suits your own purposes?”

  “Don’t do that,” Anwyn snapped. She moved shoulder to shoulder with Gideon. “You know how it pisses me off when either one of you uses me as a pawn to get your way. Why don’t we hear Lady Lyssa’s plan tonight and then decide?”

  “Fine.” Daegan inclined his head. “We wil hear it, and then I wil decide. I’m going to check the perimeter.”

  As he strode away, the vampire cal ed over his shoulder without turning. “Gideon, I can see it in your mind when you make a gesture like that.”

  “Good. I’d hate for you to miss it.” Gideon glanced

  at Jacob. “What the hel are you grinning at?” Lyssa was moving toward the house, Ingram accompanying her. While Jacob couldn’t think of anything more appealing than curling around his lady and Kane while they slept, and catching a few hours himself, he wanted to take a moment with Gideon.

  He needed to do that.

  Gideon sobered, picking up on the change in Jacob’s demeanor. “Everything okay, bro?” His throat suddenly thick, Jacob nodded. He gripped his brother’s shoulder, tightening his grasp there in a sudden surge of emotion. “Yeah. Let’s go see if Ingram has beer in the fridge. I have to tel you some things about where we’ve been. Who we saw.” Clearing his throat, Jacob added, “Kelpies are real, Gid. And that’s not al . You’re not going to believe where I went the day before we left.” Soon after Jacob and Cayden’s sparring session, Catriona had arrived at the castle alone, indicating she wanted to show Jacob something, if he could be spared for a couple hours.

  Lyssa was busy with Rhoswen, but regardless, Catriona said this was for Jacob’s eyes alone. While he rode one of the white chargers the Queen’s Guard favored, the dryad chose to fly in low formation next to him. However, after a time, she squatted on the horse’s rump, her bare toes and a light hand on Jacob’s shoulder balancing her. When they moved out of forest area, right toward a thick sworl of pink and golden mist col ecting across their intended path, her grip tightened. “Just keep riding,” she said in that soft, breathy voice, a voice like musical chimes. “It’s al right.”

  Since the pitch blackness of the desert world had been his last experience with obscured visibility, he was somewhat wary. However, this was Catriona, and the horse didn’t seem concerned. He moved straight into the fog. It was cool, damp on the skin, making it glisten with that same pink and gold shimmer. Catriona’s breath was warm on Jacob’s neck as she went to her knees behind him, leaning against his back, both hands on his shoulders now.

  In several strides, the mist started to clear. He saw they were on the bank of a slow-moving river, the water deep midnight blue, with touches of green and the sparkle of the sun. On the other side of the river, within hailing distance, was an island. Lush green grass, fruit trees with wide canopies, white stone buildings. The setting reminded Jacob of the Spanish monastery where Thomas had trained him to be Lyssa’s servant, only even more peaceful and untouched. Women in pale robes picked fruit in the orchards, dropping them into slings on their hips.

  “Apples,” Catriona said. “So sweet. The priestesses send baskets of them over as an offering to Queen Rhoswen every season and she shares them with us al . Because of those trees, this is cal ed the Isle of Apples.”

  Jacob swal owed. Something shifted beneath his very foundation. The world tilted. It couldn’t be . . .

  “Avalon.” The word came out hoarse. Catriona’s hand tightened on him.

  “Yes, Sir Knight. For that is also what your lady cal s you, does she not? She has favored Sir Vagabond, but Sir Knight is always what she means, no matter what she cal s you. Throughout the ages, no matter the century, there are men who represent the ideals of a knight. Nobility, loyalty, faithfulness, bravery, integrity . . . you cannot turn them from their path. And there is one spirit, one man they honor as the best of al of them, though some believe in his reality, and others only believe in what he symbolizes.”

  Jacob got off the horse. Catriona used her wings to land next to him, her lyrical voice continuing.

  “When he died, it is said his half sister, the sorceress, brought him to Avalon to live, until the day he returns again.”

  Her hand slipped into his. Jacob gripped the slim fingers as two figures appeared, walking down the island beach. One was a tal , statuesque woman with glittering gold hair almost to her knees, her emerald green robes making her look like a jewel in a gold setting. The man who walked next to her wore a plain unlaced tunic and leggings, his feet bare. He swung a naked sword in relaxed fashion as he walked, as if he’d been doing a morning practice before he joined her for the strol .

  As casual as he appeared, no one with eyes could mistake the man for anything but what he was. A king. It wasn’t merely the broad shoulders or way he moved. It just . . . was.

  It didn’t matter that he hadn’t looked their way, and perhaps, with Fae magic being what it was, they couldn’t even see the opposite bank. Regardless, Jacob dropped to one knee and bowed his head before he drew another breath. He placed one hand over his heart, and one on the pommel of the short sword stil at his hip.

  Catriona touched his shoulder again, drawing his eyes up. The two had stopped. King Arthur moved several steps closer to the water, and though they were not within speaking distance, Jacob could see a pair of steady eyes, a firm mouth. The Pendragon raised his sword before him, touched the flat to his forehead

  and

  gave

  a

  slight

  bow,

  an

  acknowledgment. Then he turned and rejoined the woman, where they continued their walk. As Jacob stared after them, the pink and gold mist rose up on the river, slowly swal owing the island again.

  Catriona pressed the hem of her dress to his face, taking away the tears there. “Irishmen are very sentimental,” she said, with a tiny ghostlike smile. “I am glad the Lady of the Lake found you worthy. I wasn’t sure if she would al ow the mist to part and you to see this, but if it was possible, I thought it might be a good gift, for what you did for me.” Jacob cleared his throat. He wasn’t sure if he could speak quite yet, but he croaked out a sentence. “It was my lady who freed you. The gift . .

  . should be hers.”

  “You are Lady Lyssa’s gift. You are her heart.

  When I honor you, I honor her. She knows this.” Catriona put her hem to his cheek again, blotting more tears. “Was it a good gift?”

  Jacob nodded, but could say no more. Catriona seemed to understand.

  21

  WHEN Jacob joined Lyssa in her lower bedroom, she could tel from the flush in his cheeks, the gleam in his eyes, he’d been tel ing Gideon not only about their parents, but about the Fae world. And Avalon.

  As he lay down next to her, he propped himself on his elbow so they could close their upper bodies in a heart shape around Kane, now dozing off after his meal. She caressed Jacob’s five-o’clock shadow, enjoying his facial hair again. He’d had a neatly trimmed beard and moustache when she met him, much like the knight she’d met a few centuries before.

  “When you came back from Avalon, Rhoswen told me we needed to leave the very next dawn,” she said, low. “She told me I should watch over you closely.”

  That day, she and Rhoswen had been in the main bailey. When Jacob rode back into the courtyard, what Catriona had shown him fairly vibrated from him. Lyssa understood the sheer enormity of it to him. But something about his reaction disturbed her as wel . Since they’d returned from the desert world, she’d sensed an odd struggle inside of him, too amorphous to define. Rhoswen had provided the missing piece.

  He’s human again, Lyssa. This world is an addictive drug to the mortal soul. The moment they step foot here, they yearn to be a part of it, never wanting to leave. He has already started to feel the twisting desire not to depart, though he’s balancing it with the love he has for you and your son, both of whom belong to another world. While I expect his desire for you will always be greater than anything else, a heart can be damaged by being torn in two.

  Leave at dawn. Before you next come here, we will try to figure out how to shield him. Humans whose blood becomes infused with the essence of our world can never return to the mortal world. Their hearts explode from the agony of that separation.

  Now she kept her hand on his face. “Wil I lose you to the Fae world, Jacob?”

  Keeping his blue eyes steady on hers, he curled his fingers around her wrist, kissed her pulse point, making it quicken. “It wil never match the yearning I have to be with you and Kane. Being without you is what would truly tear my heart in two. Be easy on that, my lady. I am always yours. What kind of knight would I be if I wasn’t?”

  Later that evening, as Lyssa laid out the plan to the others, she found she’d convened a dangerous strategy team. As hunters, Daegan, Gideon and Jacob al had experience in difficult confrontations, so they provided her a wealth of contingency plans and alternative scenarios if things didn’t go exactly as planned—or even if they did. Anwyn contributed her experience as a Mistress, honing the diplomatic approaches into a razor-sharp edge. Lyssa hadn’t wanted any household staff other than Mr. Ingram and John present, so was amused when Anwyn took charge of dinner for the four humans. The fledgling vampire enjoyed cooking, though she herself no longer benefitted from it.

  Despite the serious nature of their discussion, it was a relaxed environment. Jacob and Gideon helped Anwyn fetch and carry. John, after being cal ed in from the library where he’d been doing his homework, helped set the table. Daegan was absent at the moment, but Anwyn indicated he would join them for dinnertime. Lyssa understood. For the most part, Daegan had been alone and on his own for nearly seven hundred years. When she had Jacob in her mind, available to her as she wished, she often had no need for other company.

  Stil , after having been in the Fae world, surrounded by strangers, this was a quiet pleasure.

  John sat on her lap so she could test his spel ing for class the next day. Jacob was nearby with Kane balanced on his knees, holding his hands as he pushed his chair back onto two legs and made it bounce like a horse for his son. Anwyn and Gideon were teasing one another in the kitchen. If Mason and Danny were here, she’d feel like she was surrounded by . . . family.

  Vampires lived on a pyramid, rating every other vampire as over or under them, and behaving appropriately. They didn’t have families, not usual y.

  Even those that got pregnant with their servant or another vampire often stil treated the servant or vampire as a lesser or superior, and the child was expected to cleave more to the dominant vampire parent in time, relegating the human back to a servant’s status as the child matured.

  She glanced at Jacob, watched the boy fal face-first against his father’s chest with complete trust as Jacob caught him then held him high in the air, teaching him how to fly like Superman. The idea of ever al owing anyone—whether it was Kane, herself or another vampire—to treat Jacob as less than a ful father to Kane, was reprehensible to her, particularly seeing the unconditional love in Jacob’s eyes for his son.

  When Gideon came into the room, she saw that cautious smile on his face as he looked toward his brother and nephew. This was al new for him, too.

  Spending time with people he loved without having to always be on guard, emotional y or otherwise.

  They were a dangerous group, with bloodlust issues and dominant and submissive sexual proclivities that could be way over the top. So vampires were never going to be a warm fuzzy family, but this worked for them. As Anwyn arrived, her gaze sought out Gideon instantly, and he lifted his head, his eyes warming on her. He kissed his nephew’s head, then came around and held her chair for her. As he did, Daegan strode in. When he slid his knuckles along Anwyn’s cheek, he also brushed Gideon’s body with intimate familiarity, closing his palm on his hip.

  Daegan, Anwyn and Lyssa had wine flavored with their servants’ blood and a smal sampling of the meal Anwyn had cooked. Elijah, Jacob, Gideon and John got steak, mashed potatoes and a Cobb salad.

  Anwyn had accurately guessed the tastes of the

  “meat and potato” males, though Lyssa was amused to see John somberly tel ing his grandfather he should eat only half of the meat and save the rest for later, to watch his cholesterol. Jacob, on the other hand, had attacked the meal with gusto.

  You don’t have to savor that quite so obviously, you know.

  Shooting her a grin, he cut her another tidbit of the wel -buttered potatoes and held it out. She took it, wel aware of how he watched her mouth as it closed over the morsel.

  When they’d al slowed down a bit, she lifted her wineglass, drawing their gazes. Kane had fal en asleep in her lap, and she held him in one arm. “A toast. To good friends and family. Perhaps the changes we make wil al ow us more times like these, Goddess wil ing.”

  “Or we’l al be dead and it won’t matter,” Gideon added.

  She inclined her head. “True. Over the past year, I’ve learned that there is never an age where you can’t learn something new about yourself and the world, and be the better for it.”