They crossed the main street. He stayed at the corner. She continued up the street, toward the alley. Toward me.

She glanced at the alley, then stopped and cried out, “He’s hurt! Mother Night, he’s hurt!” She looked around frantically. “Help me, Warlord. Help me. He’s hurt!” She darted into the alley.

The boy stayed true to his training. A female had cried for help. He ran into the alley after her.

And I saw the loose button on his jacket.

I heard his panicked cry as I rushed into the alley.

“Let him go, bitch,” I snarled, calling in the hunting knife.

She whirled to face me, the boy held against her, a knife as mean as mine pressed against his neck.

Her eyes danced with the glee of the kill. The smile she gave me was malignant.

“Let him go,” I said again. I saw terror in the boy’s gold eyes, but I had to play out the game-and hope.

“There’s no law against murder.” She pressed the blade against the boy’s neck hard enough to cut the skin. Blood trickled from the wound.

“True. But it’s also not condoned when there’s no reason.”

“He’s male. That’s reason enough.” She pouted. “You’re female. You should be on my side.”

When the sun shines in Hell, bitch. “Let him go.”

“All right.”

She ripped the knife across the boy’s neck and throat. Blood sprayed the alley walls. Sprayed her. Sprayed me.

I just stood there, frozen by the feel of warm blood on my face. We failed.

“Why?” Before I finished with her, I was going to get an answer. “Tell me why you killed those men, killed this boy.”

The alley was suddenly filled with hatred, with fury… and bitter hurt. That was the other thing I’d sensed in that first room but couldn’t quite recognize.

I knew that feeling, too. Didn’t matter. Not with that boy’s blood on me. “What happened, sugar? Did your lover walk away after taking all he could stomach from you?”

Her fury drowned out the bitter hurt. “He didn’t walk far.” She pouted. “But the males in the village were so angry about him dying like that, my aunt commanded that I stay in Amdarh for a while. They exiled me, a Queen’s niece, from my own village because of that bastard.”

“That doesn’t explain killing the men here.” Something wasn’t right. Broken heart or not, something wasn’t right.

“They’re all the same!” she shouted. “They make you feel special until the contract ends, then they walk away.”

“The man you killed was a consort under contract?” No wonder the men in the village were pissed off. If he’d fulfilled his contract, a consort had the right to walk away without repercussions.

“He was better than the other ones I’ve had, and I wanted to renew the contract. But he refused. The bastard started packing his things the minute after the contract ended.”

“Guess he just didn’t want to spend another year in bed with a snotty little bitch.” I studied her. She wasn’t nursing a bruised heart. A bruised ego, maybe, but not a bruised heart.

That malicious gleam filled her eyes again. At that moment, I hated her with everything in me.

“I can do anything I want with a male,” she said. “No male is going to make me feel special, then walk away. Never again. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Now that’s where you’re wrong.” I smiled. “As you pointed out, there’s no law against murder.”

Before she even thought to run, I created a Gray shield bubble around her, trapping her.

“Everything has a price,” I said softly. “I’m calling in the debt for the men you killed here in Amdarh-and the boy.” Especially the boy. “You like splattering the walls with blood and gore, sugar? Well, now’s your chance.”

I gave her one moment to realize what was going to happen. Then I fed all of my own fury into my Gray Jewels as I unleashed their stored power and slammed it into her. Her body exploded, a storm of red mist and white bits of bone swirling in a Gray bubble. I thrust a rapier of Gray into the mind I could still sense in that mist, breaking her power, finishing the kill. There would be no ghost or demon-dead to haunt this alley.

Then it was done. Debt paid. But the price for stopping that bitch was much, much too high.

“Surreal.”

Grief tightened my throat, but I obeyed the command in that deep voice and walked to the mouth of the alley… where Daemon waited.

“You played the game well,” he said. “Why didn’t you splatter her over the walls? You wanted to.”

“After what she’d done, it didn’t seem fair to have men spend a couple of days scrubbing her off the bricks.”

He looked into the alley. “Leave the bubble. I’ll take care of it later.”

I nodded, feeling heartsick. “All of this because males are trained to serve, to please.”

“Hardly,” Daemon replied dryly. “That was her excuse. I’ve seen her kind too many times over the years. She liked inflicting pain, and she liked having control over the person while she did it. She didn’t kill any of those men because they were trained to serve; she killed them because they had the right to walk away from someone who wanted to hurt them.”

He was right. I knew he was right, but… “I guess I should-” I looked down at my clothes.

No blood.

I turned and looked into the alley. No blood sprayed on the walls. No small body.

“No one can create an illusion the way Jaenelle can,” Daemon said softly.

No small body in the alley. “When…?”

“She made the switch the first time the boy came back into the coffee shop for instructions. She needed him on the street just long enough to hone the details in the illusion.”

Jaenelle would pay attention to the details-right down to a loose button on a jacket. Which meant I’d watched an illusion for most of those two hours and never known the difference.

Relief made me dizzy, weak. Daemon put his arm around my shoulders and led me to the coffee shop. Rainier entered the shop just behind us.

The little Warlord sat on a chair at the back of the shop. He looked shaken, but he was safe. Whole. Alive.

“Hmm,” Jaenelle said as she gently probed the boy’s neck. “Swallow now. Does that feel sore?”

“A little,” the boy replied.

Caught by those sapphire eyes, he didn’t look shaken anymore. A bit dazzled, but not shaken. Jaenelle had that effect on males.

“Hmm,” Jaenelle said again. “There’s no damage, no injury. But I think a bit of medicinal care is still required.”

The boy’s eyes widened. “Medicine?”

I guess bravery only goes so far.

“Mm. A dish of flavored ice twice a day for the next three days will take care of the soreness.” Jaenelle’s eyes sparkled with laughter. “Can you handle that?”

The boy grinned. “Yes, Lady.” He bounced off the chair and came over to stand next to Rainier and me.

“Now,” Daemon said, slipping a hand around Jaenelle’s arm to coax her to her feet. “Since everything is settled, my Lady and I will take care of our shopping and resume our honeymoon.”

“Daemon is going to teach me how to cook,” Jaenelle said, smiling at him.

“Oh, how”-brave of Daemon-“nice,” I replied.

Everything has a price. I wasn’t sure who was paying whom with the kiss that followed, but it was certainly a demonstration.

After watching for a few seconds, the boy tugged on Rainier ’s sleeve. “Am I going to learn how to do that?”

Rainier grinned. I closed my eyes.

Daemon broke the kiss and chuckled as he led his Lady out of the coffee shop.

Within a few minutes, the boy and his instructor were gone as well.

“Well,” Rainier said. “It’s been interesting, Lady Surreal.”

“That it has, Prince Rainier.”

He hesitated. “What are you doing this evening?”

Soaking in a deep tub of hot water. Sleeping. “Why?”

“Would you like to go dancing?”

We would never be lovers. Just then, that was a point in his favor since I wasn’t ready to spend time with a man who wanted to be a lover. But maybe we could have some fun together as friends.