She watched the battle commander come to the fore in his expression. The intelligence in his gaze was sharp enough to cut steel.

Damn, that was hot.

He glanced at a clock on the mantel of the fireplace. “Ten minutes.”

“We’ll be ready.”

She went to find out where Gregoire had stashed her troops. Even though the mansion was capacious, there were actually very few places where nineteen guards could wait comfortably.

She found them in the massive dining room. Gregoire and his staff had moved quickly. Large trays of sandwiches dotted the long, gleaming table. Most of the food was already gone.

As soon as the men and women saw her, they came to their feet. She knew all of them, and their relieved smiles lit her heart. She said, “Good morning. Thank you for coming.”

Shane strode forward to hug her. “It’s wonderful to see you.”

He was a tall man, even for the Light Fae, with a muscular build and a strong, contained Power. He kept his tawny hair clipped short, which emphasized his lean jaw, high cheekbones and somewhat blunt, puckish nose.

In repose, he had a stern grace that was balanced with a bright, ready smile, and he was one of the most dangerous magic users she had ever met. One of Melly’s favorite things to do as a child had been to ride on his shoulders, and she loved him like an uncle.

“It’s so good to see you too,” she told him. Her gaze swept the others in the room. “It’s good to see all of you. Now, eat fast. We’re about to go to war.”

The atmosphere in the room sharpened, as if she had unsheathed a gigantic sword.

Once Julian was alone, he shut the office door. Then he leaned both hands on the door panel and hung his head. Days ago, he had reached some kind of breaking point, and shit still kept happening. It pushed him somewhere uncharted. He had to figure out how to navigate through the strange landscape he found himself in.

Yes, relationships were breakable.

He wasn’t surprised that Dominic might have considered both sides of the Nightkind dispute. Dominic was, after all, primarily a mercenary and experienced at choosing the option that gained him the greatest advantage.

No, what surprised Julian was that he had believed Dominic would pick him.

Trust could be broken. So could faith.

At that, Julian’s thoughts inevitably shifted to Melly. Inevitably, because he always thought of Melly now.

Somehow she had walked a line with her sister. Without trashing everything, she had stood up for herself and had made her needs clear. Bailey might choose to ignore them, but if she did, she would be the one who broke the relationship, not Melly. In spite of how angry and hurt Melly had been, she held true.

She had also shown him how to win free of an impossible situation. Just like down in the tunnels, when she had picked the locks and freed them both with almost nothing but ingenuity and perseverance.

In his bedroom, he had been faced with two impossible choices. Like a classic riddle, both led to failure, until Melly reached out past all self-protectiveness and kissed him.

She was a goddamn Houdini, was what she was.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. He had been born and bred to win, no matter what the cost. He fought dirty because he fought for survival, not for any moral code or sense of honor. He threw sand in the face, kicked his opponent in the balls and went for the jugular.

That didn’t always gain him a victory.

The truth was, he was a dark creature in heart as well as in body. He was always standing at midnight.

He lifted his head. Maybe he could make different choices.

Maybe he could get in front of this and change his life, but in order to do so, he would need to make an intuitive leap.

He opened and closed his hands. What he needed to do lay right in front of him, waiting for him to get there.

Breathing hard, he pulled out his phone and punched out a number. He listened to ringing. A fine tremor ran through him. He felt sick with anticipation.

On the other end of the connection someone picked up.

Carling said, “Hello?”

His sire’s voice was as familiar to him as his own. They had, after all, known each other for centuries.

He sounded raw to his own ears. “You were tearing me apart with your contradictions. Ordering me to do this, then that. You weren’t safe for anyone to be around. You made promises and you broke them. You were going to stay on your island where you couldn’t do any more damage. Then you left.”

Time passed. It felt like years, but it might have been mere moments.

Carling said, “Yes, I did. All of that is true.”

His stomach clenched as he waited for her to take control of him. Not every sire could do so over a phone connection, but he was willing to bet Carling could.

Instead, she said in a soft, steely tone, “When I was fighting for my life, you tried to imprison me. You tried to have me killed. You banished me from the demesne I had created.”

Looking up at the ceiling, he admitted, “Yes, I did.”

Someone knocked on the door. He told whoever it was, “I need five minutes. Don’t disturb me. I’ll come out when I’m ready.”

“No problem,” said Xavier.

Julian listened to the younger Vampyre walk away.

“Why are you calling, Julian?” Carling sounded as cool and dark as an ancient river at twilight.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry.” He was shocked to find that his eyes were stinging, and he rubbed them. He was too old for this touchy-feely shit. He gritted his teeth. “I heard you were doing well, and I wanted to tell you I’m glad. I learned a lot from you, and we worked well together for a long time. I trusted my sire to have my back, and to fight for me when I needed it. You did all of that, until toward the end when you couldn’t anymore.”

Her voice gentled. “You were my best, brightest progeny. I was proud of you.”

“I need for you to set me free,” he whispered. “I can’t keep following the old orders you gave me. Once you asked if I wanted to become the Nightkind King. I said yes, and you set me to rule in your place, but that happened over two hundred years ago. Now… it’s a leash on my soul that never goes away.”

After a long pause, she sighed. “If I try to revoke an order that old over the phone, it might not take. Rune and I will have to come to you. Is that acceptable?”

Relief ran like sunshine through his body. “Yes,” he told her. “But it’s going to have to wait until after I kill Dominic and Justine.”