Page 1 of Legacy of Temptation

Prologue

“Mama? We go?”

Smiling, Regan looked down at her toddler son, the breeze ruffling his blond hair. “Yes, Logan. We’re taking a walk and getting some fresh air.” She rubbed herbelly,swollen with a baby she already knew would be a girl. “Doctor’s orders. And if your uncle Eidolon says to do something, we do it.”

She almost laughed at that. Just three years ago, she’d hated all demons and hadn’t believed thata single oneof them could be anything other than pure evil. But Eidolon, the head doctor at Underworld General Hospital, had saved her life, delivered her son, and continued to prove himself a million times over. Now, Regan’s life was filled with demons and angels,hellhoundsand hell stallions.

And most unbelievable of all, her husband, Thanatos, was the Horseman of the Apocalypse known as Death.

Sometimes, she had to pinch herself to make sure she was awake.

“Miss Regan?” One of Thanatos’s daywalker vampire servants, Eli, called out to her as she started out the gate.

“Yes?”

“You need a guard, ma’am.”

Thanatos insisted shehave someone with her at all timesif she left the safety of the castle walls, but she wasn’t planning to go far. Besides, multiple wards protected the perimeter from most demons within a hundred-yard radius. Beyond that, ancient runes scattered for miles around the Greenland countryside rendered the stone keep and outbuildings invisible to humans and most supernaturals, from demons to angels.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured Eli. “I promise not to go beyond shouting distance. But if it makes you feel better, assign someone to watch us from the battlements.”

“Yes, ma’am.” His tall, wiry body folded into a deep, formal bow. “I will keep an eye on you myself.”

“Thank you, Eli.”

Logan darted off, his favorite stuffed lion dangling from one little fist and a toy bow in the other. She hadn’t been happy about her husband giving their son a bow and arrow set for his birthday, but Thanatos had pointed out that Logan had been practicing with real, miniaturized bows since he could walk.

Of course, Regan had known what she was getting into when she married the Horseman, but that didn’t mean she didn’t worry. She often struggled with the reality of life as the mate of a legend and what it meant for her children. It wasn’t always easy to accept that they were fated to fight evil from birth until the Apocalypse. They might be destined to become holy warriors, but they would always be her babies.

Logan’s little quiver of arrows bounced on his back as he ran, leaping over tufts of grass and rocks with remarkable agility for a child his age. Suddenly, he stopped, dropped his stuffed lion, andnockedan arrow.

“Remember,” she called out, “we don’t kill anything that’s not evil or food.”

“I know,” he yelled back as he released the arrow. It sailed in a graceful arc and then plunged to the ground with a thunk. “Yes! I got it!” He darted toward his prize.

Puzzled, she strolled over to him as he crouched on the ground. He turned to her, a proud grin on his face. He looked so much like his father when he smiled. He’d gotten her hazel eyes, although they were flecked with the pale yellow of Thanatos’s irises. Logan had his father’s blond hair, but she’d passed down her darker skin, even if herson’swas a couple of shades lighter. And he’ddefinitely inheritedhis dad’s stubborn streak.

Thanatos would say their son got the stubbornness from her, but he was wrong.

“What is it, Logan?”

He held up an apple pierced at an angle by his arrow. “Daddy hid a whole bunch and told me to hunt them with my bow.”

“Well, you know the rules.” She reached out and tousled his hair. “You hunt it, you eat it.”

“And you ‘spect it.” He sank his teeth into the crisp red fruit.

“Yes, you respect it and the life it gave up for you.”

She smiled, remembering the bedtime story Thanatos had told Logan about growing up in an ancient Druidic society and how hunting had sustained them. He’d described rituals that thanked the animal for its sacrifice before releasing its spirit to be reborn...

“What about ‘venge?” Logan asked.

“Revenge? You’re asking if the spirits will want revenge?” Thanatos puffed Logan’sLion Kingpillow. “Many do. But that’s why you make clean kills and respect the life you took. Waste nothing. When that animal is born again, it could be friend or foe. Wouldn’t you rather have a friend?”

Logan nodded and snuggled into the covers, so young and innocent. But sometimes, he looked mature beyond his years, a glimpse into what he might become.

Like now, standing proud as Regan returned her attention to him, his face to the breeze as he cleaned and stored his arrow and devoured the literal fruits of his kill. He wasted nothing.

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