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Saetan lifted his face to the night sky and closed his golden eyes "Yes, she's mine"

PART 1

Chapter one

1 / Terreille

Surrounded by guards, Lucivar Yaslana, the half-breed Eyrien Warlord Prince, walked into the courtyard, fully expecting to hear the order for his execution There was no other reason for a salt ht to this courtyard, and Zuultah, the Queen of Pruul, had good reason to want hih Priestess of Askavi, still wanted him alive, still hoped to turn hi in the courtyard with Zuultah

Dorothea SaDiablo, the High Priestess of Hayll, was

Lucivar spread his dark, e of Pruul's desert air to let them dry

Lady Zuultah glanced at her Master of the Guard A h the air, and the lash cut deep into Lucivar's back

Lucivar hissed through his clenched teeth and folded his wings

"Any other acts of defiance will earn you fifty strokes," Zuultah snapped Then she turned to confer with Dorothea SaDiablo

What was the gaht Dorothea out of her lair in Hayll? And as the angry Green-Jeweled Prince who stood apart fro a folded square of cloth?

Cautiously sending out a psychic probe, Lucivar caught all the emotional scents Fro viciousness Froency and fear Beneath the unknown Prince's anger was grief and guilt

Dorothea's fear was thebecause it meant that Daemon Sadi had not been recaptured yet

A cruel, satisfied smile curled Lucivar's lips

Seeing the s ti a step toward Lucivar

Dorothea spun around "Prince Alexander, these things must be do—"

Philip Alexander opened the cloth, holding two corners as he spread his arms wide

Lucivar stared at the stained sheet Soriver—and the psychic thread If he sent out a psychic probe and touched that stain

So deep within him stilled and became brittle

Lucivar forced himself to meet Philip Alexander's hostile stare

"A week ago, Daemon Sadi abducted my twelve-year-old niece and took her to Cassandra's Altar, where he raped and then butchered her" Philip flicked his wrists, causing the sheet to undulate

Lucivar sed hard to keep his stomach down He slowly shook his head "He couldn't have raped her," he said, more to himself than to Philip "He can'tHe's never been able to perform that way"

"Maybe it wasn't bloody enough for him before," Philip snapped "This is Jaenelle's blood, and Sadi was recognized by the Warlords who tried to rescue her"

Lucivar turned reluctantly toward Dorothea "Are you sure?"

"It came to my attention—unfortunately, too late—that Sadi had taken an unnatural interest in the child" Dorothea lifted her shoulders in an elegant little shrug "Perhaps he took offense when she tried to fend off his attentions You knoell as I do that he's capable of anything when enraged"