Page 52 of Lord of Dance and Desire

We assembled, formulated a strategy, and I began to unravel the wards one by one; careful, slow work. Alerting Dartanyon to our presence would either force him to mount a defense, or prompt him to kill Anah. At the least, smuggle her to another location, though with us surrounding the property that would be more difficult.

This wasn’t a time for flamboyance or unnecessary risk. I worked through the layered protections with creeping, painstaking care.

“Mother,” I murmured, “my apologies for my contempt with your apparent lack of speed in response to crisis.”

How many times had I taken action around her, thinking her pace betrayed a lack of boldness?

Sometimes my actions had worked out, sometimes we’d had to clean up the mess.

Sometimes she corrected me after in her icy, disappointed fashion. Other times she’d said nothing—which was almost worse, as if she was consigning me to the particular Darkness of learning from my own mistakes.

I understood better now the consequences of moving too fast. For not considering all variables and choosing the wisest if not speediest course of action. Had I focused on security rather than seduction, we might not be at this juncture. I’d been distracted by shiny things. Clothing my bonded, jeweling her, feeding her, drowning her in an endless pool of desire. Had I taken Dartanyon more seriously?—

Another layer of protection dissipated—and then the golems rose.

CONSTIN

When thefuckhad Dartanyon constructed golems? I hadn’t known the bastard even had the training. Issahelle was going to be pissed, and I was not in the mood for two decades of her actively foul mood. I could probably fuck some of it out of her, but she hadn’t invited me to her bed since I’d gone to Andrei’s. She didn’t like to share. Must be where the boy got his unreasonable possessiveness.

I ground my teeth, casting a brief gaze at Drei, who stood still and unflinching, incandescent gaze unfocused as he brought down the wards one layer at a time. He trusted us to guard him and Darkness be damned if I’d fail.

I kind of wished he’d at least move to a more defensible position but I didn’t waste my time asking; he wouldn’t budge.

Everything had changed with dizzying speed in a damnedmonth; typical of what happened when you were stupid enough to let mortals in your life. I’d tried to get him to walk away the minute he’d set eyes on her. I’d also known it was pointless. The Sahakian-Casakraine curse striking again.

Except Anah wasn’t a curse. A complication, a difficulty, a new thing to fear because she’d burrowed her way under my skin, so quickly I suspected sorcery.

Damn me if I was able to defend against it though. She took more than she gave, but that was a defensive reflex; she’d opened a little more of herself every day and truth be told, I approved her wariness.

Only an idiot would fling themselves headlong into the situation without thoroughly sampling the benefits—and the opposite—first.

I’d spent enough time in Earth realm to understand that if human females demanded more, up front, and were as willing as Anah to cut ties and walk away, they wouldn’t be so ill-treated.

Anah was a little brutal. But she’d need to be.

We formed around Drei, and I reminded myself again that I was supposed to be the example of rational thinking and measuredemotions; I wanted to pound my fist against the barriers until they fell.

Which would get me nothing but a broken hand. Like it or not, the boy was stronger than me, so I did what I did best, protected and destroyed, projected calm confidence. The warriors believed it.

We fought.

“Theland is down!” Philea screamed in fury.

I was close enough to my own rut that I wanted to snarl at her to get off the field, but that would get me a swift kick to the balls—potentially lethal in the middle of a battle withfuckinggolems.

I was going to rend Dartanyon to itty bitty pieces and serve the quivering flesh to Issa’s swans. Eons ago Cassanians ate our enemies after battle. Well, maybe not eons. I understood the temptation now.

Hang on, Anah, we’re coming. Turn that infernal stubbornness to surviving.

I just hoped she was in the damn house, and this wasn’t a fucking decoy.

Chapter

Fourteen

HASANNAH

Well, I was definitely at a disadvantage. Survival was going to depend more on stalling and not at all on brute force.

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