“Well, Mena, we appreciate that you have come here and brought the child to us. You will be under our protection from here on out.”

“I’ve wanted to come before this, but we’re so afraid of the mistress.” She looked at Kamen anxiously. “Ever since you left she has been…she’s always had a cold streak in her, as you well know. And you…you were just as cold.” She cleared her throat of its fear for talking to him so bluntly. “But since you left she has gone through such drastic changes. She’s been vicious and cruel. And she never even speaks of the goals that made us loyal to her in the first place. The unification of the Bodywalker race used to be everything to her. Now all she talks about is destroying you all.”

Jackson and Kamen exchanged a look over her head.

“She has always plotted the destruction of the Politic, but she used to couch it in lies about unification,” Kamen explained to Jackson. “That is how she led so many Templars to her side. That and the promise of power through magic. She was a powerful priestess and tempted others to follow her by promising to teach them the power she knew. Even those who did not have an aptitude for magic.

“But Odjit would promise that she could teach anyone to cast magic with power. It was a lie I never refuted. I wanted the same thing she did or what I thought she did. Unification through any means necessary. If that meant telling a few lies, what did it matter?” He looked at Mena. “I have since learned the error of my ways.”

“A lot of the Templars are fed up with Odjit’s volatile temperament,” Mena confided in a whisper, as if Odjit might hear her even now. “Some have tried leaving and some have been killed for doing so. Has no one made it here to you?”

Jackson shook his head. “No. No one. But that doesn’t mean they did not make it away from her. They might just be lying low for the time being. You say many of the Templars are fed up. How many would you say are willing to put an end to this constant bickering and come to the Politic side?”

“At least half,” Mena said. “But they are too afraid to do anything.”

“Not now perhaps. But in time they might be able to do something about it,” Jackson said.

The baby began to cry.

“Come on. It’s too cold out here for the child. Let’s go inside and then we will see about getting her some food.”

“She hasn’t eaten once since she was born and that was a few hours ago.” Mena gnawed at her bottom lip. “They’ve surely noticed my absence by now. And they know I have the baby. They may even suspect I have come here.”

“Try not to worry about it,” Jackson said, leading her toward the house.

They were almost to the porch of the main house when Faith came bolting out the front door. The Night Angel stopped in her tracks and stared at the baby in Kamen’s hands.

“Oh my gods,” she whispered. Then she came closer and looked down on the little face. She reached out and touched the tuft of midnight blue hair on its head. “It’s Dax’s hair,” she said with awe. “I’d recognize it anywhere.” She swallowed noisily. “I’m an aunt.”

“Faith, there is still the matter of the child’s maternity,” Kamen warned. “Or should I say, other paternity.”

“I don’t understand,” Mena said.

“I will explain it to you,” Jackson said. “Kamen, Faith, take the babe inside. Have someone run into town for supplies.”

“I have to call my brother,” Faith said.

“Should we do that right away?” Kamen asked skeptically. “We don’t even know anything about the child.”

“My brother is this child’s father. It was done by force, but it’s still his daughter. He has a right to know and the right to come and see her,” Faith said sternly.

Kamen subsided. “Of course. You’re right. Go and call him. Viève and I will watch over her.”

Viève and Kamen walked into the house with Faith, but then she pulled a cellphone out of her back pocket and went off to call her brother in private.

“I don’t understand,” Viève said.

“Dax is Faith’s brother. He is a very powerful Night Angel. Apep raped him in order to father this child with him.”

“Oh my god, that’s terrible. Now he’s the father of a child he never wanted—that was gotten by violence. How will he feel about this baby?”

“That’s something only he can decide. He knew it was conceived, knew it would be born. He has had all these months to come to terms with it. Hopefully that was long enough.”

“Can one ever come to terms with such a heinous act committed against them?”

“I’d imagine you’d have to, otherwise there would be no moving on from it. If he is as strong as Faith has led us to believe, he will have done so.” Kamen cradled the baby in his hands as though he were quite expert at it, seemingly unafraid to be holding an infant as fragile as this newborn was.

“Have you ever had children?” Viève asked him.

“I have. In my early lives before I joined with Odjit. But I stopped once I realized I would always be leaving them behind. Either I would die or they would die and I’d move on to the next life without them, the pain of the loss mine to carry with me.”

“If you had a child with a Nightwalker they would most likely become immortal.”

“I suppose that would depend on how strong the Nightwalker genetics were in the child. This child is half Nightwalker, but clearly its Nightwalker traits are dominant. It is also half god. No one knows what that will mean for her. It seems reckless of Apep to discard her in such a way. Perhaps only a male child could be imbued with the power of a god. Who knows what that demented mind is thinking. It could just be a very old prejudice from a god born in times when male children held all the value, while daughters were deemed to be of little worth.”

“What does this mean for us? If Apep suspects we have his daughter, couldn’t that propel him into action?”

“He’s given birth now. The burden on his powers has been lifted. Once he regains his strength you can bet we will be the first thing on his to-do list. We cannot sit here and wait for him to act against us. I must use my location spell, find Apep, and bring the battle to him before he is expecting it or is prepared and recovered from giving birth. We must do this right away. I must speak with Marissa and Jackson right away.”