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PROLOGUE

LONDON, ENGLAND

Adam Black stood in the central cha and watched as Chloe Zanders stueus MacKeltar

She eeping as if her very soul were being ripped apart Incessant and piercing, it was enough to split a Tuatha Dé’s head

Or a huht darkly

He was getting bloody tired of her constant wailing He had proble problems

Aoibheal, queen of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, had finallythreats to punish him for his continued interference in the world of mortals And she’d chosen the cruelest punishment of all

She’d stripped him of his immortality and made him human

He spared a quick glance down at himself and was relieved to find that, at least, she’d left hilamour: that of the dark-haired,blend of Continental Celt and Highland warrior, clad in tartan, ars that didn’t suffer the light of day well

His relief, however, was short-lived So what if he looked like his usual self? He was human, for Christ’s sake! Flesh and blood Limited Puny Finite

Cursing savagely, he eyed the sobbing woman He could barely hear hieus wasn’t really dead she would shut up He had to find a way out of this intolerable situation, and fast

“Your lover is not dead Cease your weeping, woman,” he ordered iive of his own ihlander’s life

His command did not have the intended effect On the contrary, just when he was certain she couldn’t possibly get any louder—and how such a se noise was beyond him—his newly acquired eardrums were treated to a wail that escalated exponentially

“Wo his hands to his ears “I said he is not dead”

Still she wept She didn’t so lance in his direction, as if he’d not spoken at all Furious, he skirted the rubble littering the chamber—debris from the battle that had taken place there a quarter hour past between Dageus MacKeltar and the Druid sect of the Draghar, the battle he should never have intervened in—and stalked to her side He grabbed the nape of her neck to force her gaze to his, to compel her silence

His hand slid right through the back of her skull and came out her nose

She didn’t even blink Just hiccuped on a sob and wailed anew

Ada for one of her breasts His hand slid neatly through her heart and out her left shoulder blade