I sat on my bed and tried to focus on the notebook I had taken from Hestorus's vault. I'd started off lying down – I didn't think I'd ever been so tired in my life – but when I laid myself flat it felt like my heart was going to stop. As much as I wanted to close my eyes and sleep, I didn't much fancy not waking up, so it looked like napping was off the table for the moment. I squinted at the script. My single Order Source was better for reading than any of my Nether, if not so good as a candle.

Raxier opens new possibilities for me. The duel with Emerus was the riskiest thing I've done in a hundred years or more, but with this new addition I can conceivably face forces far more powerful than mine and effectively level the playing field so long as I have a trusted squad of seconds to join me in the resulting competition. This may be the secret to ridding Dalrish of its shackles, but I am hampered by the fact that Raxier is a Legendary. I have to include him to put him to use, but I can ill afford to remove Kitsanya to make him fit. There must be a way to defeat the limits to Legendaries within the Mind Home. Meanwhile, I suspect that Dallon has discovered my plans for him. I may be forced to deal with that sooner than later. Ah, the irony of having to watch most keenly the ones you hold most dear.

I shook my head in disgust. I'd only gotten to speak with my father face-to-face a handful of times, but he'd immediately shown me he was a calculating snake instead of the vain fop he let the rest of the world see. I had no doubt this writing was his. It reeked of ambition, plans within plans, and secrets worth killing for. The sheer arrogance required to put his little book of a tyrant's musings among the greatest treasures he owned…! For all that things had gone to shit since his little showdown, it was hard to be sad he was dead.

Speaking of treasures, I'd poked and prodded at my stolen ring for a good long while before turning to the journal. It had a charged feeling to it – it almost hurt to hold – but I couldn't make it do a damn thing. No hidden weapons of power within, no extra power to my strikes, no Spells or Souls inside it. I'd keep fiddling with it, of course, but for the moment it was a dead end just like the journal seemed to be. I hoped the Queen could figure out what the important thing in the vault was, because I was starting to wonder if that room of supposed Legendary Artifacts was a decoy.

"Hull!"

I looked up, my heart speeding painfully at the surprise of someone sneaking up on me, but it was just Afi stepping out of nowhere. I smiled and set the useless notebook aside. "You know how to keep a man waiting."

Her crooked smile faltered and fell off her face when she saw me. "What in the Twelve is wrong with you?"

"Nothing," I said casually, waving the question away. "Rough day."

"You look like you haven't eaten in a year and then caught the plague on top of that," she protested, pressing a hand to my clammy forehead. "You were fine when I left last night!"

"Just a little run-in with my mother," I said. "Honestly, I'll be fine." Maybe. If she doesn't double-cross me. Again.

Afi's face hardened at the mention of my mother. "Tell me everything."

"I'd rather hear what they've got you doing," I said, patting the bed next to me. "What kind of big damn hero stuff have they forced you into since last night?"

She sat, though a steely look told me I only delayed my interrogation, not escaped it. "I freed a bunch of students from Biddlewyn that have joined the fight. Somehow the Undead turned the headmaster or possessed him somehow, and I had to duel him."

"You won handily," I guessed.

She hesitated and gave a terse nod. "I don't know about handily, but yes. I'd been told the Erluns were being held captive, but it turned out to just be Warrick."

"Oh great," I grunted. "Always good to have someone who might betray us all at any second."

A ghost of a smile appeared on her lips. "He'd have to come within fifty feet of an Undead without pissing himself first. Though apparently now he's saying that he dueled the headmaster and saved me with the rest of the students last night."

"If I could go back to that night at the Gala," I said wistfully, "I'd leave the contract card be and just smash his face instead."

She laughed and took my hand. "I almost wish you had. Now talk to me, Hull. Your hand is ice cold and I want to know what's going on."

"It's really not that big of a deal," I mumbled. I didn't want to tell her.

She frowned and reached up to flick my earlobe with a snap of her fingers. "Hull, you are an agent of the Queen on a mission of huge importance. Quit dicking around."

I sighed and rubbed my ear. "That hurt, dammit. I made a deal with Mother, that's all. She wants to investigate why I lived when she stole my card as a child. So, uh… I let her take my new one."

"What?" Afi barked, aghast.

"I know, I know," I said, patting her hand. "It makes better sense than it sounds like, I promise. She's letting me summon my old card and talk to it."

She withdrew her hand and covered her eyes with it. "Hull."

"I had to," I said. "Af… my entire life is missing. I can't remember anything from when I was young. And it's Epic, Af. I'm an Epic! Or I'm supposed to be, at least. And she's going to give my new card back before it gets too bad. She might even give me the old one."

Even when she looked like she'd eaten a lemon she was still pretty. "You can't trust her."

"I know."

"None of this is why you're here!"

I shrugged, tired and defeated. "It's my card, Af. I had to."

She paused and took my hand again. "You do truly stupid stuff," she said gently. "I honestly can't believe you've lived this long."

I coughed out a weak laugh, feeling the torn-ness inside of me. "Can't argue that." I fished out the vault key and held it up. "Sometimes stupid works out all right, though." I briefed her on Basil's situation and our foray into the vault.

Her face lit with a triumphant smile. "Now this is something the Queen will be happy to hear. She continues to insist that the King left a great weapon behind in there."

"If he did, I didn't find it in the Legendary room," I said doubtfully. "Bunch of odd garbage is all. Hopefully she sees something in there I didn't." I put the cube away. "I'd have you take it to her, but I'm almost certain my blood is all that will open it."

She gave me a puzzled look. "Your blood? Why?"

I cursed my slow thoughts and loose tongue. "Um. I'm… not sure that's something I'm supposed to talk about." I didn't mind Afi knowing that I was the King's bastard, but I was absolutely certain that the Queen wouldn't appreciate me flapping my lips about it, even to the girl I liked. "In fact, that's probably something you should only tell the Queen when nobody else is around."

She looked thoughtful and nodded slowly. "All right."

The door creaked, and in a flash I was… somewhere else, sitting sprawled on the flagstones of a smallish house with Afi still grasping my hand. Her eyes were impossibly wide.

"You're here!" she gasped. "How are you here?"

"I don't know where here is," I said, looking all around. It was a cozy little place with padded chairs and a sofa in soft yellow upholstery. I glimpsed movement in a farther room. "What happened?"

"We're in my Mind Home," she said wonderingly. "Your door opened, and I was scared, so I just popped away… but you came with me! I didn't think I could do that!" Her brow furrowed. "I tried before with that captive fellow, but… maybe it requires knowing the person? Trusting them?" Her mouth dropped open. "This means I can get you and Basil out!"

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"I can't get out until I get my card back," I said. "But it's good to know for when the time comes."

"Who is coming to your room in the middle of the night?" she asked.

"No idea," I said. "Maybe the vampires wanting to have another crack at convincing me to turn."

She took my shirt collar in a tight fist. "Turn? Again?"

I pried her fingers loose. "Later. I'm not gonna do it. But if I'm not in my room it might be a problem. I should go back. Best if nobody sees you, though. Can you send me back alone?"

"I think so," she said. "I'll report in on your news and bring you orders tomorrow night." She gave me a brief, fierce kiss. It hurt. "No more surprises," she said, and pushed me carefully back into the real world.

I couldn't feel anything strange as I passed from Mind Home to reality; I was simply in one place and then suddenly in another. I could feel her fingers pushing me back, but once I was in my room I looked down and saw nothing there. Hearing a step behind me, I whirled about. Damn. My head spun and I sat down hard on my bed.

"Get back up, boy," a gravelly voice said. "You're needed. No time to waste."

It was that damned Master Assassin I'd snatched back from the necromancer. Apparently Basil had sent it after me just like he had all that time ago during the Tournament. I hoped I was in less trouble this time around. "What's the story?" I asked, hauling myself to my feet. I might be half dead, but if Basil needed me, I would go. It wasn't like I was going to sleep, anyway.

The soul marched out of the room, gesturing for me to follow. He seemed massively impatient. "Basil's facing the lich again and needs me to get alchemical liquid from the bath sitting in the throne room, but a powerful demon is standing guard. I need a distraction to get past her."

I was still stuck on the first part. "Basil's fighting that monster and he sent you away?"

"Yes, so let's go faster," the masked summons hissed. "I've seen grandmothers move better than you."

"I'm hurt," I told him. "This is all I've got."

Growling, he stopped. "Get on my back."

I goggled at him. "What?"

"I'll carry you. I can go fast." He gestured jerkily. "Come on."

With a shrug, I clambered slowly and painfully into a piggyback position. "I thought you hated Basil. He always said so."

The soul grunted. "The boy has grown on me." Then he slid us both into shadows and took off running.

It felt damned odd to be Stealthed. Everything looked dim and watery, and sounds were muted – but nobody saw us, and the Master Assassin did indeed move fast. It felt like a bare two minutes before we stood at the top of the palace's grand staircase just outside the throne room. He let me down, and I stumbled on clumsy, deadened feet. "Now what?" I whispered. Now that I wasn't touching him I couldn't even see him anymore. I might as well have been talking to the wall.

"Get the demon to move away from the throne," came a disembodied whisper. "I'll do the rest."

I clenched my fists. "Do I need to follow you back down to the fight?"

"You couldn't hurt a half-dead troglodyte in your state," the invisible soul said contemptuously. "Cover my trail. I'll take care of the fight."

I hated to leave Basil in danger, but I knew he was right. I was in no state for dueling, no matter what kind of bluster I might make about it. "Here we go, then," I said.

I pushed open the door to the throne room, thinking I'd see my mother. Instead, it was Xemris. Dammit.

Even seeing her sent a jolt through me. My body was in enough distress that I didn't immediately tent my trousers, thank the Twins, but I still felt the magnetic pull of her. Her head turned, and a satisfied smile spread on her sensuous lips. "You stayed away longer than I thought possible," she said, rising to her feet.

"It's been a weird day," I said.

She looked me up and down and frowned. "You are failing. Why have you come to me like this? If you wish to mate we must have a good fight first."

I laughed, wheezing and clutching at my aching ribs. "I don't think I'm up for either of those things," I said.

She stepped up to me and put her hands on my face, pushing back my eyelids and peering into my eyes. Her touch was electric, and my mouth went even drier than it had been. "You are caught in one of her schemes, aren't you?" she whispered.

The contact was too much. I shrugged away from her. "Not by choice."

"Your mother is not a true demon," she snarled.

I needed to get her away from the card bath sitting on the seat of the throne. A quick glance showed Hestorus's card floating there, seemingly totally unaffected by the alchemical solution despite the fact it smelled far stronger than what Roshum had taught me to use. "She's the only living demon I've ever known," I said.

Xemris made a disbelieving sound. "Then you know nothing of your own kind. You should come back with me to the Unyielding Court. I can show you the ways."

I didn't dare get too close to the open edge of the floor behind the throne. Dizzy as I was, I might just fall out, and what a stupid way to die that'd be. I meandered to the side, talking in the hopes she'd follow me. "What's so different about Mother?"

Xemris growled, her tail lashing. Why did that look enticing? I'd never seen a woman with a tail before. "She lies. She can even make the truth lie. Her words seem to make sense, but they turn the world upside down. If I didn't know better I'd say she had faerie blood in her."

"You telling me demons don't lie?" I asked skeptically.

"We can," she admitted, "but it is the weakling's way. There is a purity in coming to grips with another and letting the strongest ideas and strongest hands win."

"Mother's no weakling," I said.

"That is the most infuriating thing about her," Xemris said, spitting the words. "Yveda thinks to make lies win. It cannot be." She gave me a measuring look, and I found myself wondering what kissing her would feel like. Stop that. "Do you support her goals?"

"I don't know her goals," I said. "Truth be told, I wish I could never see her again. She's a plague on my life."

"I suspect," Xemris whispered, moving closer to me, "that she worships the Twin Defilers."

I blinked. "The who?"

"Stasis and Flux, the usurpers of this realm. The ones the humans venerate."

I had the sudden feeling that I needed to tread very carefully in this conversation. "I've never heard her say much about the Twins. If anything, she worships power. Or herself."

"She seeks to undo Father's work even as she pretends to support it," Xemris said, now close enough to feel her heat, her fingers climbing up my arms seemingly without her knowledge. "I am sure of it. I have to stop her."

Her touch was extremely distracting. "What's your father's work?"

One of those sharp-taloned hands twined around mine. "Let me show you." She pulled me toward an adjoining room. Thanking the Twins – they really don't worship the Twins? – I went willingly. I heard nothing, but I knew the Master Assassin was silently dipping a vial or something into the bath and racing away to help Basil. Luck, Basil, I thought toward my friend. Don't die, and I'll try to do the same.

The room was some sort of resting space for the king, most likely, but she went to a tapestry of dear old dad facing an army of cat people and swept it aside. Behind the cloth was a jagged purple tear in reality as tall as a man where the wall should have been. Glowing Nether stones sent coursing energy flowing across the void space between.

"I was sent with sprouts of the Netherwell," she said, sidling in next to me. "Soon one will be able to cross."

"Cross?" I said, trying to ignore the desire to throw myself on her. I'd probably break something if I tried. She'd probably break something if I tried; not because she was trying to stop me but because apparently demons like to knock the stuffing out of each other to say hello, much less to mate. I wished I understood why I was so powerfully drawn to her. Mother had said it was simply the drive of two young demons put together, but it couldn't be as simple as that, could it? I felt like we both had lodestones in our pockets. Our bodies would fit together like hand and glove; I knew it in my bones. I tried to think of Afi and had a hard time picturing her face.

"The Primarch comes soon," she said. "Breaking the human Legendary's card into the Nether will make a permanent fissure in this realm. Finally we can begin to undo the Defilers' tyranny."

I didn't understand most of that, or give a shit about it, but I figured the Queen would want to hear about something like that. "And you want me to help?"

"Tell us when and how Yveda will make her strike," she purred into my ear. "So we can force the fair fight." I felt her nuzzle at my neck and heat spread from the point of contact.

With a supreme effort of will I wrenched myself out of her grasp and walked to the far side of the room. "You talk to all the boys like this?"

She smiled, showing brilliantly white teeth. "There's something about you. Perhaps your human weakness shows your demon side more clearly. We can forgo the fight if you wish." Her hands toyed idly with the buttons of her vest as if she might shuck it off at any moment. "Let go of your useless ideas about human mating rituals. It's just one more way in which I can show you the proper way things are done among our kind."

I steeled myself. "Lady, I barely know you. A tumble is the last thing I want."

She gave me a knowing look. "Unlearn your lies, Hull. They have no place among us. You will see – once all this is done we can meet in our own lands, and you will feel how the truth flows when claw, fist, and flesh do the speaking. There the magic runs unbound by the rules and chains of the Defilers and everything is possible. You will learn not to deny yourself."

"Sounds great," I muttered. "Meantime, when should I expect this Primarch of yours? Wouldn't want to miss him."

"As soon as the portal permits," she said. "A day or two, no more. Speak to Yveda. Learn her plans and bring them to me."

"We'll see," I said. "I'm no lackey of hers, and the, ah, Sources know I'd love to spike her wheel for a change." I had to be careful; I'd almost said the Twins know. Probably not smart in front of the daughter of the guy hoping to bring them down somehow. "But I can't promise she'll tell me anything." Truth be told, the whole lot of them sounded crazy. When I stopped my dick from doing my thinking for me, this girl sounded as bad as Mother, if not worse. She was just a different flavor of insane.

"I will give you something," she said, swaying toward me. "To bind you to the cause."

I tensed. I wasn't sure if I could withstand another come-on like the last.

She reached behind her ear and pulled out a card. "This card was one of my first. He taught me the ways of the Unyielding Court." She handed it to me, her fingers lingering on mine.

I stared at it. "I can't just take an Epic out of the blue," I said. "Are you nuts? Why would you ever give this up?"

She smiled, leaned close, and licked me from jawline to eyebrow. "Beat me in a fight and perhaps I'll let you give it back to me." Her breath smelled of smoke and sweetness. Twins, this girl could wring a heartbeat out of a corpse.

"Think on everything I've said," she called over her shoulder as she sauntered away. "Come back as soon as you like… but be strong when you arrive. You'll need every last scrap if you wish to survive a mating."

Alone in the anteroom I clutched the amazing card to my chest and let out a shaky breath. Xemris was beautiful, alluring, and mad as a loon. I'd think about what she said, all right. I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to stop.

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