Lost. He was lost. They were lost, memory a fragile thing, easily broken. Tainted blood brushed against his tongue, poisoned his dreams. His only hope lay in the rise and fall of the fickle sea.

“There’s some sort of plot against Oberon, but I don’t know all the details. Just our part in it.” Constance wriggled, trying to break free of Akane’s hold. Just because Akane was short people continued to underestimate her. There was no way the Sidhe female was getting away.

“Which was to get the child of Dunne.” Jaden gripped Constance’s chin, forcing her to stare into his eyes. “I take that personally.”

“The child of Dunne will one day perform an act that will change our world.” Constance parroted the prophecy. “The child had to be in our control.”

“So you could hand him or her over to the Dark Queen.”

Constance nodded. “My father had it all planned.”

Jaden barely blinked, but Akane’s partner was shocked. If this went back to Cullen… “What about the original marriage contract between Duncan and Aileen?”

“That had nothing to do with the prophecy and everything to do with power. We knew Sean Dunne would marry into the Joloun family. If we had a toehold in the family we thought we might be able to influence him.”

“How?”

Constance bit her lip, refusing to answer.

“Answer me!” Akane breathed pale flame on the column of Constance’s neck.

The Sidhe shrieked. “How what?”

“How did you know Sean Dunne would marry into the Joloun family?”

Constance tried to protect her neck, lifting her shoulders. “The Seer.”

Akane’s eyes closed. Damn her mother and her policy of handing out visions. “But you didn’t know it would be Aileen who would bond with Sean.”

“Thus becoming part of the prophecy.”

“Is that why Kaitlynn insisted on Leo as her sperm donor?” Jaden’s claws scraped down Constance’s arm, raising red welts on her pale skin.

“She wanted the Dunne with the purest Sidhe blood.”

“And you? How would Hobart feel if you got Leo in your bed?”

“He understands prophecy,” Constance whispered.

“Oh yeah. Every man thinks of prophecy when another man is shoving his dick in his woman.” Jaden rolled his eyes. “It’s sort of like England but…different.”

“The child would have been ours!”

“If it wasn’t for us meddling kids?” Jaden gripped Constance’s throat, ignoring her yelp of pain. “I say we kill her.”

“I say we let the Hob question her.”

Constance stilled. “Robin Goodfellow is here?”

The terror in her voice proved she was smarter than she seemed. “Yes. He is.”

At that point the real struggle began. Constance pivoted in Jaden’s grip, ignoring the long scratches that appeared from his claws. She lashed out with her foot, catching him the upper thigh. Her elbow flew back, catching Akane in the throat. Akane’s grip loosened and the Sidhe was free.

“Oh goody. I was hoping for a fight.” Jaden laughed and went on the attack, dancing around the Sidhe with lazy grace. His hands moved, and small cuts appeared on Constance’s face. He licked his lips at the sight of the blood. “You’re not getting out of here alive.”

“I know.” She reached up and clasped the simple onyx pendant around her neck.

Neither of them could have predicted what happened next. The explosion damn near destroyed the safe house, sending both Jaden and Akane flying. Akane unfurled her wings, halting her flight through the air. Jaden didn’t fare so well. The vampire plummeted, knocked cold by something that left a bleeding gash on his forehead.

She flew down and scooped the vampire up in her arms, racing skyward in an effort not to be seen. Jaden was unconscious, unable to help. There was no sign of Constance.

She hoped the bitch had been blown to smithereens.

Akane flew over the house just to make sure and blinked. One room remained standing amidst the rubble. One room in perfect, horrific order. Akane hovered over the room and stared at the black sludge that coated the walls, the floor, every bit of furniture within. Only the ceiling was gone, the victim of the explosion. Akane wasn’t sure why when not even the furniture had overturned.

Then the scent hit her, that acrid, horrible stench of the thing that had filled Shane’s veins. Akane’s flame swirled around her, her wings glowing with it. That thing needed to die before it could touch any other living being.

She blew, burning the room to ash in the blink of an eye. She didn’t have to worry about someone caught in the flames. From the looks of things Robin was already gone, his job done, his erstwhile son either dead or close to it.

When she was sure none of the sludge had survived her fire, Akane took off, Jaden cradled in her arms. There was still no sign of Constance, but Akane couldn’t worry about the Sidhe now. If Constance had survived, she wouldn’t stay alive for long. If the Dark Queen didn’t take her out for her failure to capture Leo, Akane would see to it that she died a long, lingering death by fire.

Akane headed home, already aware that Shane had been saved.

Shane blinked. The visions before him weren’t swirling, twirling, puking, hurling or otherwise doing something that would make him want to do any of the above. Moira was staring down at him, her eyes red from crying. Duncan, pale and trembling, held a hand to his head.

“Hello.”

Shane looked up into a face too long to be pretty, too interesting to be called plain. Her full, bow-shaped lips were curved in a smile. Her nose was slightly crooked, as if she’d broken it at some point and it hadn’t quite healed right. Her eyes were absolutely huge even in her human Seeming, a turquoise so bright Shane blinked to see if they were real. Their most dazzling aspect was the intelligence and humor that lit them from within. Her forehead was really a fivehead, further elongating her face. She’d made an attempt to hide it with bangs, but then she’d pushed half of those bangs back with a headband. The ends stuck out of the back of the headband, giving her an odd, rooster-like look. She had a sharp, pointed chin and quirked, full eyebrows. Her hair in her Seeming was brown, but it would be sea green in her true form.

Shane smiled. “Hello.” There she was. He’d been wondering when she would show up.

“My name’s Cassie.” Long fingers brushed back his hair. In the background Sal barked happily. “You gave us quite a scare.”

“It was a lot less pleasant on my end.” Shane’s throat ached. His voice sounded weak and scratchy, like he’d been screaming. He probably had been, but he didn’t remember it.

“Those were some mighty powerful visions you were having.” Duncan sat wearily beside Shane’s bed. His gray gaze was full of speculation. “How many of them will come to pass?”

Shane shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“Well. That just sucks.” Duncan ran a hand through his hair wearily. “Some of them involved Jaden and Moira.”

“I know.” And Shane was now on the path to ensure they never came to pass, but there were still forces out there that would try and make them come true. “Jaden’s hurt.”

Duncan stared at him in disbelief before sighing. “I agree with Jaden. You are a freaky-ass dude.” He stood, his head shaking. “But you’re our freaky-ass dude. Get some rest, okay?”

Shane nodded even though Duncan wasn’t looking. “Would you look at him? He took a powerful blow to the head.”

Cassie nodded. “What race is he?”

“Part vampire, part Robin Goodfellow, all pain in the ass.”

She blinked, amusement once more lighting her face and turning it from plain to riveting. “Ah. That should be interesting.”

Shane chuckled. “Understatement of the century. Jaden’s something else.” He tried to sit up, startled to find how weak he was. He could barely get his head off the pillow. “Akane will be here soon too.”