Lucivar flicked a glance at the knife and didn't move toward her.
Confusion swiftly changed to anger and changed back again. He saw the moment she realized she was pointing a knife at him.
Shaking her head, Luthvian dropped the knife on the kitchen table.
Lucivar stepped farther into the kitchen.
Her tear-bright eyes roamed over him, not like a Healer studying her Sister's Craft but like a woman who truly cared. She pressed one trembling hand against her mouth and reached for him with the other.
Hopeful, heart full, he linked his hand with hers.
And she changed. As she always did, had done since the first time the youth she'd tolerated like a stray-turned-sometimes-pet showed up on her doorstep wearing the traditional dress of an Eyrien warrior, and he'd learned, painfully, that the Black Widow Healer he'd thought of as a friend didn't feel the same way about him after she could no longer call him "boy" and believe it.
Now, as she backed away from him, her eyes filled with wary distrust, he realized for the first time how young she was. Age and maturity became slippery things for the long-lived races. There was rapid growth followed by long plateaus. The white streak in her hair, her Craft skills, her temper and attitude had all helped him believe she was a mature woman granting him her company, a woman centuries older than he. And she was centuries older—and had been just old enough to breed and successfully carry a child to term.
"Why do you despise Eyrien males so much?" he asked quietly.
"My father was one."
Sadly, she didn't have to explain it any better than that.
Then he saw her do what she'd done a hundred times before—subtly shift the way her eyes focused. It was as if she created a sight shield that vanished his wings and left him without the one physical attribute that separated Eyriens from Dhemlans and Hayllians.
Swallowing his anger and a small lump of fear, he pulled out a kitchen chair and straddled it. "Even if I'd lost my wings, I'd still be an Eyrien warrior."
Moving restlessly around the kitchen, Luthvian picked up the knife and shoved it back in the knife rack. "If you'd grown up someplace where males learned how to be decent men instead of brutes—" She wiped her hands on her hips. "But you grew up in the hunting camps like the rest of them. Yes, even without your wings, you'd still be an Eyrien warrior. It's too late for you to be anything else."
He heard the bitterness, the sorrow. He heard the things that were unsaid. "If you felt that strongly, why didn't you
do something?" He kept his voice neutral. His heart was being bruised to pulp.
She looked at him, emotions flashing through her eyes. Resignation. Anxiety. Fear. She pulled a chair close to his and sat down. "I had to, Lucivar," she said, pleading. "Giving you to Prythian was a mistake, but at the time I thought it was the only way to hide you from—"
him.
She touched his hand and then pulled away as if burned. "I wanted to keep you safe. She promised you would be safe," she added bitterly. Then her voice turned eager. "But you're here now, and we can be together." She waved her hand, silencing him before he could speak. "Oh, I know about the immigration rule, but I've been here long enough to count as a Kaeleer witch. The work wouldn't be hard, and you'd have plenty of time to be out on the land. I know you like that." She smiled too brightly. "You wouldn't even have to live in the house. We could build a small cabin nearby so that you would have privacy."
Privacy for what? he wondered coldly as the inside kitchen door opened. He felt walls and chains closing in on him.
"What do you want, Roxie?" Luthvian snapped.
Roxie stared at him, her lips turning up in a pouty smile. "Who are you?" she asked, eyeing him hungrily.
"None of your business," Luthvian said tightly. "Get back to your lessons.Now."
Roxie smiled at him, her finger tracing the V neckline of her dress. It made his blood burn, but not the way she imagined.
Lucivar's hands curled into fists. He'd smashed that look off a lot of faces over the centuries. There was battle-fire in the voice he kept low and controlled. "Get the slut out of here before I break her neck."
Roxie's eyes widened in shock.
Luthvian surged out of her chair, tossed Roxie out of the kitchen, and slammed the door.
Fine tremors ran through him. "Well, now I know why I need privacy. It would be an extra selling point for your school, wouldn't it? Your students would have the use of
a strong Warlord Prince. You could assure fretful parents that their daughters would have a safe Virgin Night. I wouldn't dare provide anything else since the witch I serve has to be servedto her satisfaction."
"It wouldn't be like that," Luthvian insisted, gripping the back of a chair. "You'd get something out of it, too. Hell's fire, Lucivar, you're a Warlord Prince. You need sexual relief on a regular basis just to keep your temper in check."
"I've never needed it before," he snarled, "and I don't need it now. I can keep my temper in check just fine— when I choose to."
"Then you don't choose to very often!"
"No, I don't. Especially when I'm being forced into a bed."
Luthvian smashed the chair against the table. She bared her teeth. "Forced to. Oh, yes, it's such an onerous task to give a little pleasure, isn't it? Forced to! You sound like—"
your father.
He'd tolerated her temper before, withstood her tantrums before. He'd tried to be understanding. He was trying hard now. What he couldn't understand was why a man like the High Lord had ever wanted to mount and breed such a troubled young woman.
"Tell me about my father, Luthvian."
Desperation and a keening rage flooded the kitchen. "It's past. It's done. He's not part of our lives."
"Tell me."
"He didn't want us!He didn't love us! He threatened to slit your throat in the cradle if I didn't do what he wanted." The length of the table stood between them. She stood there, shaking, hugging herself.
So young. So troubled. And he couldn't help her. They would destroy each other inside of a week if he tried to stay here with her.
She gave him a wavering smile. "We can be together. You can stay—"
"I'm already in service." He hadn't meant for it to come out so harshly, but it was kinder than saying he would never serve her.
Vulnerability crystallized into rejection, rejection froze
into rage. "Jaenelle," Luthvian said, her voice dangerously empty. "She has a gift for wrapping males around her little finger." She braced her hands on the table. "You want to know about your father? Go ask precious Jaenelle. She knows him better than I ever did."
Lucivar snapped to his feet, knocking the chair over. "No."
Luthvian smiled with pleased malice. "Be careful how you play with your sire's toys, little Prince. He just might snip your balls off. Not that it would matter."
Never taking his eyes off her, Lucivar righted the chair and backed away to the outer kitchen door. Years of training kept him surefooted as he crossed the threshold. One more step. Two.
The door slammed in his face.
A moment later, he heard dishes smashing on the floor.
She knows him better than I ever did.
It was late afternoon by the time he reached the cabin. He was dirty, hungry, and shaking from physical and emotional fatigue.
He approached slowly but couldn't bring himself to step onto the porch where Jaenelle sat reading.
She closed the book and looked at him.
Wise eyes. Ancient eyes. Haunting and haunted eyes.
He forced the words out. "I want to meet my father. Now."
She studied him. When she finally answered, her gentle compassion inflicted pain he had no defense against. "Are you sure, Lucivar?"
No, he wasn't sure! "Yes, I'm sure."
Jaenelle remained seated. "Then there's something you need to understand before we go."
He heard the warning underneath the gentleness and compassion.
"Lucivar, your father is also my adopted father."
Frozen, he stared at her, finally understanding. He could accept them both or walk away from both, but he wouldn't be allowed to serve her and battle with a man who already had a claim on her love.
She'd been right when she'd said there were reasons he might not be able or willing to serve her. The Keep he could handle. He could deal with Luthvian as well. But the High Lord?
There was only one way to find out.
"Let's go," he said.
5 / Kaeleer
Jaenelle stepped off the landing web. "This is the family seat."
Lucivar reluctantly stepped off the web. A few months ago, he'd walked through the ruins of SaDiablo Hall in Terreille. Ruins didn't prepare a man for this dark-gray mountain of a building. Hell's fire, an entire court could live in the place and not get in each other's way.
Then the significance of her living at the Hall finally hit him, and he turned and stared at her as if he'd never seen her before.
All of those amusing stories she had told him about her loving, beleaguered papa—she had been talking about Saetan. The Prince of the Darkness. The High Lord of Hell. The man who had built the cabin for her, who had helped her rebuild her life. He couldn't reconcile the conflicting images of the man any better than he could reconcile the Hall with the manor house he'd imagined.
And he would never reconcile anything by just standing there.
"Come on, Cat. Let's knock on the door."
The door opened before they reached the top step. The large man standing in the doorway had the stoic, unflappable expression of an upper servant, but he also wore, a Red Jewel.
"Hello, Beale," Jaenelle said as she breezed through the door.
Beale's lips turned up in the tiniest hint of a smile. "Lady."
The smile disappeared when Lucivar walked in. "Prince," Beale said, bowing the exact, polite distance.