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  She blinked and looked at him. Even though she had stopped, her mind had continued to will the circle that protected Aedan forward onto the path, and Aedan had to continue on or risk being exposed to the sun. Grimacing at her inattention—and at the dire consequences it could have had—she stopped the circle’s progress, then, when Aedan looked like he wanted to come back toward her, reversed its course. Even as Aedan approached, Elver joined them from where he’d been standing by the circle of stone some distance away.

  “My lady,” he said, bowing awkwardly to her, then inclined his head toward Aedan, who nodded back.

  His gaze flitted to the circle of shade that shielded Aedan, but whatever he thought of it, he didn’t say, and looked back at Vivien instead.

  “Have you come to see my progress?” he asked with a pleased smile. “I’ve been working on the base so far. It doesn’t look like much yet, but better to go slow for this part. It has to be perfect or the rest of it won’t sit right.”

  Vivien nodded absently.

  “It already looks impressive. I didn’t expect something so big, to be honest.”

  Elver looked alarmed.

  “Is it too large? If it doesn’t suit, I can still change the size, my lady.”

  “No, no, do as you wish. I’m sure it’ll be wonderful when it’s finished.”

  Elver bowed again.

  “But that’s not why I came here,” Vivien said. “We’re in need of a majordomo, and I was wondering if you might agree to take the job.”

  She’d expected he’d be excited at the prospect. She imagined that working with people inside the castle would be more pleasant than spending his days alone under the harsh sunlight. She’d been wrong.

  “I’m honored, my lady,” Elver said, sounding anything but. “I’m just a gardener, though. I don’t know the first thing about majordomos.”

  He looked at Aedan as he finished as though to seek his support, but didn’t quite get it.

  “It’s not complicated,” Aedan said. “I’ll tell you what to say and how to act.”

  “But… who will take care of the grounds? What about the gazebo? I can’t leave it only half finished.”

  “This is what your dame needs from you,” Aedan said in his coldest voice.

  Elver shivered and bowed down again, more deeply than before.

  “Of course, my lady. Whatever you need—”

  “No, wait,” Vivien interrupted, and threw a brief frown at Aedan. “It’s not like that. Your work out here is important, and you want to make the gardens something special, I realize that. I promise we’ll take you away from the grounds only when needed. And when we have more guards in the castle, I’ll have them take turns at opening the Passing Room.”

  These assurances seemed to mollify Elver, and he said he’d be happy to serve her in any way she saw fit. He asked if he was needed now, but the two men who were coming to interview for the post of guard weren’t expected until the afternoon, so he could continue with his work on the gazebo until then.

  As they started back toward the castle, Vivien was careful to move Aedan’s shade at an even pace, glancing every so often to check that he was safe. She couldn’t fail to notice his thoughtful expression. She knew what that look meant.

  “Go ahead,” she said, sighing. “Tell me what I did wrong this time.”

  Aedan cleared his throat.

  “You didn’t do anything wrong, Dame Vivien. I just…”

  “Yes?”

  “You really think what you said, didn’t you? That his work in the gardens is important.”

  She looked back toward the gazebo. Elver was kneeling next to it, running a hand over the flat surface. From a distance, it looked like smooth lava rock.

  “I don’t know that anyone will ever use this,” she said quietly. “But it’s obvious it’s important to him. He’s one of two people who came here of their own accord when they heard I was back. I can’t tell him I don’t need a gazebo large enough to hold a ball in, can I?”

  She’d expected an argument, maybe something about how, if she was to reign, she couldn’t let sentimentality rule her. What she got instead was a quiet correction.

  “Four,” Aedan said. “Four people came back to you.”

  She knew what he meant, and she shook her head.

  “Two. Doril and Elver came back. Brad and you… you never left.”

  The expression of surprise that brightened his features was familiar enough; that was the way Brad looked whenever she told him she loved him, like he still couldn’t quite believe it. She couldn’t recall ever seeing this particular expression on Aedan’s face before, however. It was lovely to know something she said could make him look like that. They were at odds so often, finding common ground was refreshing.

  The rest of the morning was yet another occasion to practice for her upcoming duel. It would have been easier to train with someone who could channel, but she worked something out with Aedan: she first channeled to create a handful of small, colorful bouncing balls. Armed with those, Aedan spent the next hour or so providing distractions while Vivien tried as best she could to keep control of the Quickening even when an unexpected ball hit her arm or leg.

  For the first duel, drawing blood wasn’t permitted, which meant that Rhuinn would without a doubt do his best to distract her and sever her link to the Quickening. If she could train herself to hold on to that link regardless of what was going on, it would be a great help.

  She didn’t mind training with Aedan, or at least not as much as she would have a few days ago, but all morning long the same question was on the tip of her tongue. She managed to keep it quiet until lunch time, but once Doril had left the dining room, leaving Vivien to once again take her lunch alone and in silence, she couldn’t stop herself anymore and had to ask.

  “Is Brad still sleeping?”

  Aedan’s posture stiffened at once, as though she had criticized both their work ethics.

  “He is, Dame Vivien,” he said, his tone more formal than it had been all morning. “Vampires’ natural tendency is to rest during the daytime and be active at night. For young vampires, it can be difficult to keep to a human schedule. We trained for a large part of the night so he needed to rest.”

  “That’s fine,” she said. “He should rest as much as he needs to, of course. I was just worried… I mean… he’s completely healed, right?”

  “He is. He’s fine. There is no reason for you to worry.”

  She opened her mouth to say that of course she worried; she couldn’t not worry about Brad. She doubted Aedan would take a reminder of her feelings well, however, so she said nothing and focused on her food, all the while thinking it would have been a lot more appealing if she’d had someone—Brad—to share it with.

  Once she was done, Aedan went to find Elver to instruct him on how to receive their expected visitors, while Vivien went on her own to the small reception room where she would talk to them. She didn’t look forward to it, but when she heard the chimes that meant someone was requesting to Pass Through, she schooled her features, sat down in an armchair that could have passed as a throne, smoothed her dress over her lap, and waited with no small amount of trepidation.

  Within a couple of minutes, Aedan was knocking on the door and preceding the first of their guard candidates into the room.

  Behind Aedan, a young man walked in. He looked no older than seventeen or eighteen, and Vivien’s first thought was that he was much too young for the kind of fighting she’d seen Brad and Aedan do to defend her—much too young to put his life on the line for anyone, let alone her.

  Aedan marched until he was standing two feet in front of her, a little to the side. With a gesture, he stopped the young man, keeping him a small distance away from Vivien. The man immediately bowed, then dropped down to one knee.

  He carried no weapon, she noticed, although he wore a black uniform similar to Aedan’s. His skin was tanned, his hair bleached by the sun; she had a feeling he was more used to working
outside in the elements than to following anyone through the corridors of a castle, keeping them safe from imaginary enemies.

  Aedan asked his questions, as they’d decided, while Vivien channeled and made sure everything the young man said was true. It was easier to hold on to her lie-detector trick when she wasn’t asking the questions at the same time.

  Only when Olric claimed to be twenty did the Quickening cast a doubt on his answer. With much stammering and apologies, he admitted he was nineteen—almost nineteen—but while not an adult he had permission from his mother to join the QuickSilver Guard, if Vivien would have him.

  His grandfather had served Vivien’s mother, he said to explain his eagerness, and Vivien was once again left to realize that all these people had little interest in her, per se; they came because of whose daughter she was. Then again, she’d been gone from Foh’Ran for most of her life. How could anyone know enough about her to care?

  Olric left; another candidate arrived. This one, white-haired and with a slight stoop, looked old enough to be Olric’s grandfather, though he said he had no family left. Also dressed in black, Savel carried a sword at his side, although Vivien thought that, once or twice, she noticed a tremor in his hand.

  She liked that his dark eyes looked at her directly, unlike the way Olric had only glanced up every so often as though staring any longer might have drawn her ire. He wanted to be her guard, he said, because Rhuinn was a terrible ruler and she was the only person who had the legitimacy to take him down.

  Vivien didn’t like his answer much more than Olric’s. She didn’t want to carry people’s hopes like this. In the end, she knew little about Rhuinn and what he’d been doing to Foh’Ran and its people. She opposed him because of what he’d done to her and the people she loved.

  “What do you think, Dame Vivien?” Aedan asked when he came back from escorting Savel back to the Passing Room. “Did your channeling reveal anything to you?”

  She shook her head. She had dialed down her channeling so as not to exhaust herself, but she was certain nothing had slipped by her. Certain enough to risk her life and everyone who lived in the castle on it.

  “Savel seemed like he’d know what he’s doing if we pick him,” she said because Aedan was still waiting for her to answer. Of course he was; she had, after all, demanded to have some input in this choice.

  “He has experience being a guard,” Aedan agreed. “But that means he pledged his loyalty to someone else before you. He might still be under their influence, whether he realizes it or not. On the other hand, Olric doesn’t even know how to hold a sword. He’s going to need a lot of training, and I might not have time to train him.”

  Her gaze narrowed, and she looked at him curiously.

  “Why not?” she asked. “It’s not like you have much to do until I go back for the first duel. Despite what you think, I don’t require anyone to guard me around the clock.”

  Aedan hesitated, his mouth opening then closing again after a tiny shake of his head that seemed to be more for his own benefit than hers. He finally inclined his head and said, “There is another alternative. If you accepted them both as guards, they might keep an eye on each other and train together.”

  Vivien had to grimace at that. She’d agreed that they needed an extra guard, one who would be able to protect her in the sun if needed, but now Aedan was trying to push it further.

  She didn’t have much of a choice, though, did she? She had challenged Rhuinn to a duel, and since she had no intention of laying down and letting him beat her, she had to go on assuming—or at least hoping—that she had a chance to win. If she did, she would be what Brad and Aedan had claimed she was since the beginning: a queen. And a queen would need more than two vampire guards, even if she wished she didn’t need any at all.

  “All right.” She sighed deeply. As much as Aedan called her ‘dame,’ he seemed to always get his way in the end. “Let’s take them both.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Orders

  When Bradan woke up and chanced a glance outside, he could hardly believe how high the sun was in the sky already. How could he have slept that long? Why hadn’t Aedan woken him?

  He cleaned up and dressed hurriedly before going down in search of his brother. He came across him as Aedan was coming out of the long corridor that led to the Passing Room, Elver walking at his side.

  Aedan smiled when he saw Bradan, though the smile faded when it wasn’t returned. He nodded absently when Elver took his leave and gestured for Bradan to accompany him.

  “Our dame and I talked to two prospective guards today,” he said as he led the way toward, Bradan supposed, the library. “She decided to have both of them work for her. I think it’s a good start. They’ll come tomorrow. You can meet them then.”

  Gripping his arm, Bradan forced him to a stop in the middle of the corridor.

  “Why didn’t you tell me? I would have liked to be there to meet them as well. Instead you let me sleep like a tired child!”

  Aedan frowned at him, shaking his head slowly.

  “You were tired. You were up all night. You needed to rest. And like I said, you can meet them tomorrow.”

  “Sure, tomorrow,” Bradan repeated, lifting his chin an inch higher and looking down at his brother. “When everything is decided. After you’ve spent the day with Vivien interviewing them and discussing what to do. I bet that’s more fun than standing in her hallway staring at the walls and wishing you were inside with her, isn’t it? And more fun than being outside listening in when you know I’m with her.”

  Bradan didn’t even know where the accusation had come from. He wasn’t even sure what exactly he was accusing Aedan of. He was just hungry and angry that he’d missed such a large part of the day, and frustrated that Aedan had been with Vivien the entire time while Bradan himself hadn’t been alone with her since waking up as a vampire. He missed her enough to ache from it, to argue with Aedan now—although the argument met a swift end.

  “Enough,” Aedan said in a low voice that was very close to being a growl.

  The word resonated through the air, through Bradan’s mind, through his very bones, it seemed, and he suddenly found himself unable to move.

  “I’ve tried to act toward you like nothing more than a brother,” Aedan continued a little louder. “But clearly that’s not working. I am your Maker, and you will treat me as such. When I tell you to feed, you will feed. When I tell you to go to bed and sleep, you will do it. And when I tell you to stop spouting nonsense, you will be quiet. I let you sleep because you needed the rest, no other reason, and you insult me by implying otherwise. Tomorrow you and I will need to go see Ciara. Believe me when I say insulting her as you did me might be the last mistake you ever make.”

  Bradan was still trying to wrap his mind around all that, and trying to understand how his brother’s voice could sound like this, like law descended from above and impossible to ignore, when a second voice, much lighter though no less serious, rose from the side corridor.

  “What was that about Ciara?” Vivien asked as she came closer to them. “You can’t possibly mean to go to Rhuinn’s palace to see her.”

  Aedan turned to her and gave her the slight bow that never ceased to annoy her.

  “We have no choice in the matter, Dame Vivien. It is customary for a new vampire to be introduced to the head of his clan within three days of rising. Tomorrow is as late as we can push things.”

  Bradan felt as unsettled as Vivien looked. He took one step toward her, only to stop when alarm and wariness spread through the bond.

  “What about your oath?” Vivien demanded, and while she made a good show of sounding calm, her voice wavered. Her scent was even more explicit, controlled fear coming from her in waves. “You’re supposed to keep me safe, aren’t you? How are you going to do that if you go to my enemy’s palace?”

  “I'm not putting you in danger by going there,” Aedan said, but the protest wasn’t enough for Vivien.

  “No, you�
�re just putting Brad in danger. And yourself. You can’t do that. If I’m your dame, if you’re supposed to obey me, then I forbid you to go.”

  How scared was she to resort to giving them orders? Bradan couldn’t remember her doing this before, not so plainly. He came closer to her, ignoring Aedan’s wordless warning.

  “I am sorry, Dame Vivien,” Aedan said very softly. “That is an order neither I nor Bradan can obey.”

  Vivien’s hands gripped the sides of her dress so tightly that her knuckles were bone-white.

  “But she said she’d kill you! And Rhuinn already did kill Brad, didn’t he? He had Loree do it for him. What’s to stop him from doing it again?”

  At the first gleam of wetness in Vivien’s eyes, the last of Bradan’s restraint faltered. He knew Aedan didn’t want him to risk getting physically close to Vivien, but he couldn’t bear to watch her like this and not offer whatever comfort he could. Crossing the last couple of steps that separated them, he took her in his arms. She wove her arms around him and held him tight, as though by doing so she could stop him from going to Ciara.

  “Bradan,” Aedan hissed.

  Ignoring him, Bradan nuzzled Vivien’s neck, murmuring quiet words against her skin.

  “It’ll be okay. We’ll be fine. We’ll just meet her and come back to you.”

  If anything, Vivien held him more fiercely still. The heat of her body was searing, and even through the layers of clothes, Bradan felt as though he were burning. His body responded, and his cock stirred. He took in a shaky breath. Fear still permeated her scent, but he thought he could smell more than that. He just wasn’t sure what it was. Fear had been the first scent he learned to recognize, mostly thanks to the animals he hunted. This, though, he had never smelled before. Was this what affection smelled like? Love? Or was it lust?

  Whichever it might be, it was as intoxicating as fine wine, and while Bradan had never cared much for alcohol, he didn’t think he’d ever get enough of this—enough of her. Soon, her scent ceased to be sufficient anymore. He wanted more of her, all of her. He pressed his lips to Vivien’s neck, feeling the blood beat right under the surface of her skin. He parted his lips to flick his tongue out; it was nothing more than a small lick, but he could feel Vivien trembling in his arms. Whether from fear or desire, he couldn’t have said.