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He needed to consult with Rith, whom Greaves kept very close these days in his Geneva penthouse At this point, Rith wasthan a useful tool in the war, but he had a well-developed Third ability to ride the future strea Casimir hadn’t taken seriously since it was only one of several outcohter had happened, which hy Caz needed to figure out what had intruded to disrupt his lory

For just a moment, he pondered Fiona Gaines, the wo tradition of the breh-hedden Caz knew she had e powers

But what kind of powers? How had she known to warn the warriors about the attack? He had read her powers previously, more than once She had tremendous telepathic ability However, beyond that, she was truly a disappointment She could barely fold from place to place She couldn’t throw a hand-blast She had no preternatural speed In some ways, her connection to the Warriors of the Blood was a complete mystery

And yet, with all that lack of power, she had saved therew relaxed against his shoulders, he lowered the each hand, walked them back to their bedroom, where their au pair stayed She was a Second ascender, quite a gifted horticulturalist, great with children, and lovely to behold

Greaves had recommended her when his beloved wife died Of course, he’d abducted her and made a little mischief with the memories of those closest to her He kept her partially enthralled all the tis The effort required soy because she was very powerful

But enthrallment couldn’t answer for her character A mean person enthralled was still very ht The wo, firm when necessary and never vicious, the perfect babysitter

As he watched her draw Sloane onto her lap and stroke his unruly blond hair, hecurly red hair If not for the color, she would have looked positively angelic

"Tazianne, I’ll be leaving for a couple of hours Make sure the boys have their baths then put theood, monsieur"

He closed the door and headed out to hunt At some point, he felt certain he’d solve the , but for now he turned his attention to the pleasures before him

Time to hunt

Some choices just suck

--Collected Proverbs, Beatrice of Fourth

Translation into the modern vernacular

Chapter 4

At eleven thirty in the , Thorne held his tumbler of icy Ketel One in his hand and tried to keep the da He wasn’t sure if it was post-battle adrenaline or the fact that Fiona had couerite He took a sip and let the fire burn down his throat He drew in a deep breath

Hands still shaking

He leaned his hips against the pool table, which had soe in the last few months since it had been replaced Must have been a record, but then with Marcus out of the picture but two nights a week, Medichi traveling the globe, and Kerrick anxious to get ho till dawn, there was a helluva lot less testosterone being thrown around these days

He sipped again, savored another burning slide, and finally his fingers were a little less shaky

He’d rarely taken his eyes off Fiona froure out how to separate her from Jean-Pierre so he could talk to her for a couple of uerite

The whole situation was eating hiht She had dark wavy hair, though not quite as dark as Parisa’s or Marguerite’s for that old Fiona’s eyes were blue, but hter than Alison’s, and on the silver side If she hadn’t been a loving kind of woman, her eyes could have been called icy But with a face that always measured everyone else with expressions of concern, ice was the last word he’d ever use to describe Fiona Gaines

She was also tall, like the three other woht some sort of indication the women were meant for the breh-hedden? None of the Warriors of the Blood was shorter than six-five Jean-Pierre was no exception So, Fiona, at close to six feet, was a uerite, on the other hand, was a full foot shorter than Thorne, only five-five, so it looked like she couldn’t be his breh if height were a requireht hadn’t made one damn bit of difference in bed He’d taken her every which way from Sunday over the decades He took a sip of Ketel to keep frouerite was an experiymnastics

But she wasn’t tall

And she didn’t have a special scent, either, which of course oddam raison d’être, she could never be his breh

He should have felt relieved Instead, the whole thing bugged the shit out of hiuerite had been able to contact Fiona and deliver a warning about an attack at the outdoor chapel? He knew his woifted Seer, but had she really been in the future streams just before the attack? And how had she been able to contact Jean-Pierre’s breh?

He was as confused as hell