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in the cold. She needed rest before she could do anything else. But how was she to tell them all?
    “I—I am so sorry… but I…” Her eyes closed and she felt her legs buckle. She heard Aodhan’s curse. His hands caught her before she slipped to the floor.
     
     
     
     
                 
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 7

     
     
    HE followed Behlik and the healer into the castle, unsure what else he should be doing. What he wanted to do was follow his damned female into the castle and drag her back to the room his sister had assigned him. Then he could get his answers from her, and then explain how their life would be changing in the next few days.
    If he knew how those changes would be going. Had to admit he was at a loss here in the demon world.
    Behlik carried the girl like she was precious personified, and Marcos supposed that to his friend she was. She was a beautiful girl, underneath all that raggedness.
    She’d woken, and stared at the men around her, unspeaking. Another woman had trailed after them, and she said almost as little. The healer led them to a small wing off the back of the castle. “This is where we’ve set up a small Healer’s Hall for the Dardaptoan people. My office is here, Kindara’s—she’s the Chief Healer and queen of this realm, and Bronwen and Thaddeus share space as well.”
    “Sebastos?” He and Thadd had been age mates so many years ago, friends.
    “Yes.” The healer motioned toward an exam table. “You can put her here, Behlik. I wish to examine her, see if I can find the source of this weakness.”
    “You all need to leave. Give her privacy,” the woman said. “We do not know you. Any of you.”
    Behlik tried to protest. Marcos understood; he took his friend’s arm and pulled him out of the office. “We will wait outside.”
    Behlik paced the small hallway before turning to Marcos a few minutes after the door had shut in his face. “She is so frail. How am I to help her?”
    “Wait for the healer’s diagnosis. Then make your plans.” His female had been just as small, just as fragile. What had happened to her? She hadn’t been that weak three years ago, had she? “What do we know of Amyenka?”
    “You know as much as I do. Not much has changed in three years.”
    “I mean, what do we know about his family? Of that female?”
    “What female?”
    “You did not see the woman in white? The redhead?”
    “I saw her, but I did not recognize her.”
    “Amyenka’s sister. I do not know her name.” He didn’t know his Rajni’s name. How had that happened?
    “Havalana, I believe. The only daughter of the House. She’s sixty or seventy, I think.”
    “Young.” A babe, by their standards. None of his people, save for the babes born in the last few decades, were under five hundred.
    “If Amyenka’s tribe is the wealthiest in Europe, why is his sister and these people dressed so shabbily? What has happened to them?” Behlik seemed to be regaining some of his senses, at least.
    A good question. “Are you in control of yourself again?”
    “Of course. I will wait for the healer and my female. Then she and I will decide what must be done.”
    “Best of luck to you with that.” Was that how it worked? They met their Rajni and just cleaved together that day? He’d only witnessed a few Rajnis finding each other—most of his warriors still had yet to find their females—but he seemed to remember it being a bit more difficult than that. “I am going to go find that warrior who accompanied them. See if he can answer my questions of these people.”
    “Share what you find?”
    “Of course.” He always shared his information with his second in command.
    But he hadn’t shared the knowledge of her.
    Where was she?
    It was time he found out.
     
    **
     
    He figured out the lay of the castle pretty quickly, and it took him only moments to find her people. They were eating, and he watched several of them for long