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"It’s not the king?"

Jeanne shook her headat her, she breathed "He’sDelos’s greatgrandfather He just caie nodded And the next instant it ept out of her head as PJ’s hand clutched at her and she felt a wave of adrenaline

The party beloas stopping

The hounds turned and circled first, for ahesitant clump not twenty feet down the road

When the people pulled up their horses they werealie’s tree

"What is it?" the tall man said, the one Jeannehad called Hunter Redfern

And then one of the hounds changed Maggiecaught the movement out of the corner of her eyeand looked quickly, or she would have missed it

The lean, wiry anito look over a fence But when it reached its fullheight it didn’t wobble or go back down It steadied, and its entire dusty-tan body rippled

Then, as if it were thein theworld, its shoulders went back and its arainht Its tail pulled in and disappeared Andits hound face rowing Inhad become a boy, a boy who still wore patches of tan fur here and there,but definitely huie thought distractedly, even though her heart was pounding in herthroat I wonder how they e that?

The boy turned his head toward the riders Maggie could see the ribs in his bare chesthere," he said "I can’t followtheir life force anymore"

Hunter Redfern looked around"Are they blocking it?"

Gavin spoke up from beside Sylvia’s stirrup

"Bern said they were blocking it yesterday"

"Isn’t that impossible?" Delos’s cool voice caroup, where he wasexpertly holdinghisnervous,dancinghorsein check "If they’re only humans?"

Hunter didn’t lance pass betweenSylvia and Gavin Sheherself twisted her head slightly, just enough tolook at the other girls in the tree

She wanted to see if Jeanne understood whatthey were talking about, but it was Cady whocaught her eye Cady’s eyes were shut, her headleaning against the dark furrowed trunk of the treeHer lips were ie couldn’thear any sound

And Jeanne atching her with narrowedeyes and an expression of grim suspicion

"Hu easily down below "It doesn’t et the for the castle," Sylvia said"We’d better put extra guards at the gate"

Maggie noticed how Delos stiffened at that

And so did Hunter Redfern, even though he waslooking the other way He said calmly, "What do you think of that, Prince Delos?"

Delos didn’t move for an instant Then he said,"Yes Do it" But he said it to a lean, bearded man beside him, who bowed his head in a quick jerk

And he did soo cold

He looked up at her

The other people in his party, including the hounds, were looking up and down the road, orsideways into the forest at their own level Deloswas the only one who’d been sitting quietly, lookingstraight ahead But now he tilted his chin andturned an expressionless face toward the cluster ofbranches where Maggie was sittingAnd aze directly

She saw the blaze of his yellow eyes, even at thisdistance He was looking coolly and steadily-at her

Maggie jerked back and barely caught herselffro her But she didn’t see to her branch

We’re dead, she thought dizzily, pinned into ier thanthe rest of the

Now all they have to do is surround the tree Wecan try to fight-but we don’t have weapons They’llbeat us in no tiave her a new shock It wasclear and uneie’shead

Delos?she thought, staring into that burning gaze You can-?

His expression didn’t change I told you before,but you wouldn’t listen What do I have to do to ie’s heart picked up more speed Delos, lis ten toyou,he said, and his mental voicewas like ice Don’t coain

Maggie felt cold to her bones, too numb to evenform words to answer him

I mean it,he said Stay away from the castle if you want to stay alive

Then he turned away and Maggie felt the contactbetween them broken off cleanly Where his presence had been she could feel eo," he said in a short, hard voice, and spurred his horse forward

And then they were allto keep hertre the tree

When the last horse was out of sight, PJ let outher breath, sagging "I thought they had us," she whispered

Maggie sed "Me, too But Cady was rightThey went on by" She turned "Just as that stuff about us blocking theainst the treetrunk, and her eyes were still closed But shesee

Jeanne’s eyes followed Maggie’s They were stillnarrowed, and her riAfter a ed ht At leastelsebothering her, so she said, "Okay, then, what aboutthat guy who looks like Delos’s father? HunterRedfern"

"He’s a bigwig in the Night World," Jeanne said"Maybe the biggest It was his son who foundedthis place back in the fourteen hundreds"

Maggie blinked "In the what’s?"

Jeanne’s eyes glowed briefly, sardonically "In thefourteen hundreds," she said with exaggerated pa tience"They’revaht?Actually, they’re lamia, which is the kind of vampire thatcan have kids, but that’s not the point The point is they’re iuy has been alivedown the pathwhere Hunter Redfern had disappeared

"Yeah And, yeah, everybody says howOr the other way around,you know"

Delos sure thinks he looks like hiht She’d seen the way Hunter handled Delos,guiding hiuided hishorse Delos was usedto obeying somebody wholooked and sounded just like Hunter Redfern

Then she frowned "Buthow cohed and ducked under a sprayof fir needles that was tangled in her hair She looked impatient and uneasy "He’s from the Outside, okay? He’s only been here a couple of weeks All the slaves say that he didn’t even know aboutthis place before that

’Me didn’t know"

"Look This is the way I heard it from the oldslaves, okay? Hunter Redfern had a son na And when Cher vil was, like, our age, they had soed And then Chervil ran off withhis friends, and that left Hunter Redfern withoutan heir And Hunter Redfern never knew thatwhere the kid as heesturedaround the valley "To start his own little kingdoht People But then somehow Hunter found out, so he came to visit And that’s why he’s here"

She finished and stretched her shoulders, lookingdown the tree-ra froie chewed her lip, not satisfied yet "He’shere just to visit? That’s all?"

"I’m a slave You think I asked him personally?""I think you know"

Jeanne stared at her a lanced atPJ Her look was alieunderstood

"Jeanne, she’s been through hell already Whatever it is, she can take it Right, kiddo?"

PJ twisted her plaid cap in a coht," shesaid flatly

"So tell us," Maggie said "What’s Hunter Redferndoing here?"