“No.” He rubbed the band hidden under his shirtsleeve. “I have a job of my own to do.”

What job? she almost asked. With him, it was probably best if she didn’t know. “Be careful.” The words slipped out, and though she wanted to take them back—too concerned, almost clingy—she didn’t.

He blinked in surprise. “I will. You, too.” A tension-laden pause stretched between them, and she couldn’t quite pinpoint its source.

Perhaps he couldn’t, either. He frowned and stalked from the room.

Ashlyn skipped over and linked their arms. “According to the other warriors, Baden used to be the nicest male on the planet, but death changed him. So have the wreaths he wears. He’s harder, colder. But I know for a fact he’ll never hurt you.”

Her heart suddenly felt like the drum at a rock concert. “What makes me an exception?”

“Oh, honey. The way Baden just looked at you...well, I’m sure you’ll learn the answer firsthand. And soon!”

9

“Looks like it’s fuck-this-shit-up o’clock.”

—Kaia the Wing Shredder,

Harpy from Clan Skyhawk

GILLIAN BRADSHAW—GILLY to her friends, though she despised the nickname more and more, wanting to prove herself an adult rather than a child—tossed and turned atop a soft mattress as a terrible fever ravaged her from the inside out. So much of the past few days had become a blur¸ but she thought she remembered Keeley giving her something cool to drink.

Happy eighteenth birthday, little one. This is going to make all your dreams come true...dreams you don’t even know you have. You’re so welcome.

Then, as Gillian screamed in pain, Keeley had said, I’m one hundred percent certain that I’m ninety-three percent certain that I gave you the correct dose. Hmmm. Your symptoms are...well, this doesn’t bode well. Maybe we’ll have to go with Plan B?

Gillian also thought she remembered William gathering her close later that day and carrying her...somewhere else. He must have. None of her friends had visited her to command she get well soon.

Warriors. Can’t live with them, don’t want to live without them.

“There, there, poppet.” William gently wiped her brow with a damp rag. “You’ll heal. That’s an order.”

She opened boulder-heavy eyelids. He sat beside her, his image blurry, as if a gossamer mist surrounded him. Her mind supplied the details she needed: he was the most beautiful man ever born, with hair blacker than any night and eyes bluer than any ocean.

“What’s wrong with me?” Her voice was weak and raspy, the words nearly impossible to understand.

Thankfully, he wasn’t human, his hearing better than most. “Something supernatural. But I’ve got the best immortal doctors in the world running tests.”

Yes. She remembered poking and prodding, William snapping, “Be gentler or lose your hand.”

“I want to go home,” she said. She wasn’t just weak and pained; she was weirded out. Her every cell felt as if it had sprouted legs and now crawled through her veins. A familiar setting would help.

She didn’t have the strength to get up and walk to the bathroom. She had to have help—William’s help—or she had to use a bedpan.

A freaking bedpan. Oh, the humiliation!

She wanted the girls.

Cool fingers sifted through her hair. “Baden returned to the fortress, and his temper is...unstable. I know better than most what he’s capable of doing. I experienced the same—” He quieted, then smiled a smile devoid of humor. “You’re safer here. This realm is hidden. No one comes or goes without my knowledge. Sleep now, poppet.”

No, no. Not ready to drift away just yet. She wanted more time with him before they were separated forever...

Panic. Don’t think about dying. What if her thoughts opened the door to Death?

“You’re not sleeping,” William said.

Sweet William. From the first moment she’d met him, she’d been drawn to him in a way that both scared and excited her. He was just so wonderfully mesmerizing. And powerful. And wicked and smart and sexy and kind—to her. Always to her. His friends, too, but only sometimes.

His enemies, well, they died badly.

Men feared him, and women craved him like a drug. When he smiled, panties dropped. Or melted off. She wasn’t sure which, only knew he worked the situation to his advantage. The guy slept around, though he never stuck around. Because he always came back to Gillian.

As much as she hated the thought of him getting naked with another woman, she never ever never ever wanted to have sex again. She despised everything about the act. The smells, the sounds, the sensations. The pain...the humiliation...the helplessness...

The thought of joining her body with another person’s made her break out in hives, not shiver with desire.

“—friends are looking for you,” an unfamiliar voice said, breaking into her awareness. It belonged to a male. Was deep and raspy, with the same cocky and perpetually amused timbre as William. “I think they want your head on a platter.”

“Thanks to you, Baden brought trouble to Buda,” William replied, utterly unconcerned by the threat. “Gillian needs peace and quiet right now.”

“I told you not to befriend her. She’s human.”

“And I told you to go fuck yourself. More than once!”

“Is that any way to speak to your dear father?”

“Adopted father,” William grumbled. “And I’m tempted to say worse. Let’s take this conversation outside.”

So. He was speaking with Hades, she realized, sweat beading on her brow. The bad boy of the underworld. And that was saying something!

William didn’t know it, but Hades had appeared to her one night. He’d warned her: Stay away from my son. You aren’t the one for him. Don’t make me prove it.

He’d scared her, but she hadn’t heeded him. William was too important to her.

“Not being blood related to me is an embarrassing secret you’d do well to hide,” Hades remarked now.

Gillian cracked open her eyes...caught sight of two towering shadows on the balcony. I have a balcony? The sound of cascading waves caressed her ears, the scent of salt teasing her nose. An ocean!

“She’s deathly ill. She’s going to die if you fail to make her immortal,” William snapped. “So, make her immortal.”