Chapter 6

Jacob's need to return to his wife overrode any desire he might have had to ask any further questions of Gideon, so he and Legna were left alone quickly after their arrival at the manse.

Gideon carefully carried his intended up the stairs, entering the very bedroom he had sent an image of to Legna that morning. It looked different in the dark, however. It was moonlight that struck the colors of the windows into the room, making them distinctively darker and more eerie than the fairylike comfort of the daylight refractions. But Gideon found it the more beautiful of the two, and so would Legna, he hoped.

Gideon had always indulged in his taste for uniquely beautiful things. His house was a museum of that particular facet of his make-up. Like most long-lived species, he had collected extraordinary art and antiquities over the centuries. His collection, however, was a rich display of one-of-a-kind beauty.

As he rested Magdelegna down in his bed, he could see all too clearly why she had been chosen to be his mate. Even in her exhausted state her repose was something to behold. He sat beside her gingerly, not wishing to disturb her natural sleep and, as a result, having to cast an inducement on her to replace it.

He reached to touch her cheek, the still-pale skin reflecting a star-shaped lavender design from the window opposite her. Of their own accord, his fingers moved to caress her throat. He allowed himself to feel the rush of need that coursed through him. It was a sharp, razor-bladed thing, and he knew that it would only become more honed over time.

But he had promised his incredibly brave mate time. She still feared him. He realized that he must keep that promise at all costs. He saw this need with extreme clarity. If a woman so courageous as to risk the unfeasible without any concern for herself found fear in something, then she deserved the luxury of as much time as he could sanely manage. He had known Legna all of her life, from the moment she had been born. Legna only knew what she had been raised to think about him. He had read it all in her mind these past few hours. He was the Ancient Demon, and no one truly knew the extent of his power. At the heart of his nature it was clear he was rooted in the old ways, when respect and obeisance had been not only expected but were deemed a divine right. He never asked, only demanded or stated, and he anticipated unquestioned results by doing so. His will was indomitable, impossible to fight, so she would be up for a pitched battle should she ever try.

Gideon was unlucky in one other way, a more serious way that would reflect a terrible representation of himself to her. Deeply within Legna's subconscious, she had a memory of him that she was utterly unaware of.

It was the memory of the day her mother had died.

She did not remember it consciously. The trauma had been so painful for the little girl who had witnessed the tragedy that those who had been there had decided to remove it from her accessible memory. One day she would grow strong enough to retrieve it despite the methods they had used to circumvent the memory. Perhaps one day very soon. It would be a hard day for her, and a terrible day for him. He had always suspected that on some level she had been aware of his part in that day. It was perhaps why she always resisted being near him. She would not understand the compulsion as anything other than an unexplainable fear or aversion. No doubt she had always attributed it to the warnings Lucas had filled her head with during her youth in an attempt to teach her to respect those of greater age and power, according to custom.

The only thing within her that was in his favor was her experiences watching him heal others, and the one time he had healed her and Noah after a horrible accident that had nearly killed them both. She remembered the former with feelings of awe and respect, but also with curiosity and contemplation as she witnessed the gentleness of nature he exhibited during these acts. And, though she didn't truly remember the healing during the latter incident, it was still a part of her, whispering positive impressions about him into her perpetually curious opinion of him.

It was on these slim images within her that he was basing all of his hope. All he could do otherwise was pray for the opportunity to win her trust and confidence in him—before she recalled the memory hidden so deep within her. If he could manage this, it would be so much less painful for her. If it happened too soon, it could cause incredible damage to them both.

He was racing the clock, and he knew it. He had wasted the past nine years and cursed himself for the fool he had been. Be it the ill memories to come, or be it Beltane, he needed to coax her to him first. He understood the odds were against him, and that encouraging her to stretch her strength and abilities as he had today could cost him dearly, making her develop in power more quickly than she would have otherwise. However, as he had explained to her, the curing of his patients always came first … even over the well-being of his own heart and soul. He had done what he'd had to in order to save Isabella and her child. It was not possible for him to do otherwise.

Gideon stood up, moving back a step from his sleeping guest. She immediately turned onto her side, facing him, her arm reaching across the bedspread in an attempt to reach him. An enormous ache of emptiness tightened in his chest, the compulsion to return to her side brutally overwhelming.

He turned and walked out of the bedroom, unable to help feeling as though he had just left a part of himself behind.

Legna's eyes opened slowly, blinking in the face of fading daylight.

She felt disoriented and confused. The room was full of extraordinary colors, all of them splashing across structures and furniture that were familiar and alien all at once. She took in a careful breath, almost as if she wasn't sure she would be able to breathe in this strange environment.

The scent that slowly threaded its way around her and invaded her senses was also familiar, as well as extraordinarily stimulating. She released a soft sound of curiosity and captivation. Legna stretched out slowly, the movement rippling through her like a sensual awakening. The simple movement made her instantly aware of the warmth of a body beside her, the body that owned that distinctive and delicious scent.

She turned to him, so close already that when she made the simple movement it brought her into snug contact with him along his side. The breath that she had so carefully achieved a moment ago left her in a rush of haste and amazement as she rose up on an elbow and took in the remarkable sight of Gideon beside her in bed. He was asleep on his back, bare-chested and in a relaxed repose of crossed ankles and a hand beneath his head. His other hand lay on his stomach, rising and falling with each deep breath he took. He wore silk pajama pants of a beautiful sky blue, the drawstring of which was draping off the edge of his left hip.

In that moment, Legna realized just how incredibly and beautifully male the Demon beside her was. Because he was always clothed and refined whenever she saw him, she had never truly appreciated the development of the physique he had been concealing beneath expensive silk and embroidery as well as movements of elegance and tightly wrapped control. Even that morning in her bedroom when she had touched him so boldly, she had not reconciled her touch to what she was now seeing with her eyes.

To begin with, he had unbelievably wide shoulders. As a Demon female of great height and sturdy build, she rarely felt dwarfed or shadowed by a male, but Gideon had always managed to do so. Now she could see how his arms were much larger around at the biceps than the span of both her hands. He also had a chest and stomach of artfully sculpted definition, without a single sign of a silver hair to mar the plane of it. His trim waist came to the enticing V that she had always enjoyed on a male, and though the pants he wore were somewhat loose, there was no mistaking the distinct power of his thighs or the strength in his calves.

She had known Gideon her entire life, yet she was realizing that she was seeing him with perfect clarity for perhaps the very first time. There was no childhood intimidation now, nor was there wounded feminine ego to stand in her way.

She was simply a woman, looking at a man, who was anything but simple.

His hair was longer than she had realized. He usually kept it in a tightly bound tail, as was the popular style among the males of her race. But now it was loose, streaming like a waterfall of pure shaved silver over his pillow. His brows were silver, his lashes purely black. His jaw was shadowed darkly with the beard that had grown in as he slept. Upon close inspection she realized it would be streaked both silver and black if he had let it continue to grow. For some reason, it made her smile.

It was strange, but he looked both younger and older as he slept. Younger because he was truly relaxed, having shed the rigidity of the flawless control he held over his poise and body during waking hours. Older because, somehow, seeing him strictly as a male only added to his presence and power in her mind. If she were not so fascinated she might have been a little intimidated.

Legna reached out impulsively to touch his hair. It was unexpectedly soft and smooth, nowhere near the brittle feel of metal it tricked her into expecting. It was clinging to her fingers as if caressing them on purpose, the eerie sensation giving her a shiver as she double-checked his state of sleep. Once she was satisfied she was getting away with her trespassing undetected, she grew bolder, leaning farther forward over him, her breasts pressing against the hard musculature of his arm as she did so. She touched his face so lightly she could barely feel him. Curiously, she followed the arches and curves of it, from wide forehead and aristocratic cheekbones to his strong, slightly cleft chin and the perfectly sculpted lines of his mouth.

Braver still, she traced her butterfly touch down the firm column of his throat, marveling at its complete antithesis to the slim shape of her own and how strange it was that she found that to be a sexy thing. She had not realized a man's neck could look so appealing.

She licked her lips slowly, her eyes riveted to the movement of her fingers, breaking her attention away only briefly now and then to check his breathing or his closed eyes to monitor the maintenance of his sleeping state. She touched the broad curvature of his collarbone, tracing it with single-minded fascination. She moved her exploration to his chest, noting the marks she had left on him had healed naturally, only the ghosted presence of the impressions of her nails remaining. It pleased her to realize he had not used his skills to heal them, and then it disappointed her that their bodies healed so damn quickly. She pressed her lips together to prevent a giggle from escaping her. It was a silly, clearly territorial thought, but she made no excuses to herself for it.

Her fingertips next drifted over his belly, softly weaving around his fingers, enjoying the increasing warmth of his skin as she traveled. She paused, her eyes scouting ahead of her touch, and nibbled on her lower lip as she considered whether or not to continue her secret tour of him.

Her question was answered when she suddenly felt his hand wrap around her fingers. She gasped, jerking back instinctively, her face flaring with heat while her neck prickled with chills. Nevertheless, he held tight, preventing her withdrawal, pressing her hand to his stomach beneath his own. She looked up into his eyes, vexed by the humor ghosting through them.

"How did you do that?" she demanded. Eyes and breathing aside, it was impossible to fake sleep with a Mind Demon. She should have picked up on the rise of his awareness as he awoke.

"You continually attempt to fit me into the molds of the men you are acquainted with," he said softly. "I am extremely different than anything you know, Magdelegna. It would help if you expected what you would least expect, and go from there."

"Gee, you are so wise," she said in a high, cooing voice, blinking her lashes with ridiculous speed. "I am so tremendously lucky! Most girls get stuck with an insufferable, devious, underhanded snake of a man."

The humor of her act drew a smile to one side of his mouth, and Legna couldn't ignore the way it turned her insides around when the smile glowed warmly in his eyes.

"You will never bore me, Nelissuna. I can see that fact straight to my soul."

"But I can clearly see you being easily capable of boring me to tears," she countered archly, trying to free her trapped hand with a determined tug. He was even stronger than he looked, she thought.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, noticing her struggle and insults about the same way he would notice a passing speck of dust.

"Why can you not tell me? You are the medic, are you not?" She exhaled sharply. "Will you please let go of me?"

"No."

Legna growled in frustration at him.

"You are so obnoxious!" she accused. "I hate it when you do that!"

"Do what? Answer a question? If it disturbs you, I will ignore your questions from now on."

"You know exactly what I mean. I hate it when you lay down the word no as if it were the last letter of the law. And do not think I do not know that you are doing it on purpose just to irritate me, because I do!"

"Then you should cease giving me the opportunity to say it," he told her, his tone so matter-of-fact that she almost screamed at him. "And you should be careful of those little growls you insist on making, Neliss. They are … very stimulating."

Suddenly Legna forgot all about trading barbs with him and became very aware of his warmth above and below her trapped hand, the solid strength she leaned up against so cozily, and the very clear hunger that was brewing under the humor he had been using to hide it.

Now that he had her full attention rather than her acerbic defenses, he slipped his hand out from under his head and reached to touch her soft, warm cheek with fingertips as light as the ones she had explored him with.

"You are so very lovely, Legna. I have always thought so. Even as a child, you were quite stunning."

"It took you long enough to tell me so," she said, but there was no true energy to the would-be sarcastic remark.

"Yes. I know. But I always felt it would be inappropriate. Noah is … I was his Siddah. I began fostering him from the time he was ten years, his abilities proving to be too powerful to wait until he was at the usual age. He was like a son to me … more so after your parents were gone. Noah treated you more like a daughter than a sister as he raised you in turn. It always felt like a barrier I ought not to cross. Even now, I do not welcome the time when he discovers what is happening between us. I can see you have the same concern."

"Yes," she agreed. "But in time …"

"Yes. Time. I am finding myself in great competition with time of late."

"He will resist at first, but if he thinks you will make me happy, he will eventually come around," Legna assured him.

"So then"—he picked up her hand from his stomach, lifting the palm to the kiss of his lips—"all that remains is for me to convince you that I will make you happy, so that you are able to convince him of it."

"A daunting task, to be sure," she murmured, looking at her arm to see if there were any visible signs of the sensation the touch of his mouth was causing to rush up the length of it. She blinked twice and shook her head slightly to clear it of the dangerous predatory sensation stirring within her thoughts. "I have not asked about Bella," she said, discreetly trying to clear the catch that had entered her voice. "Is all well?"

"Yes. Both she and the baby will survive and, eventually, regain their health."

"Thank goodness," she sighed. "If I ever complain about the changes going on inside me, remind me of how they saved my friend's life." She hesitated to catch her breath as his mouth brushed back across her sensitive palm.

"Legna, why are you so afraid of me at the moment?"

She met those penetrating eyes of his, feeling as if they were searching her very soul. It made her breathless and nervous.

"I am afraid of how easily you seem to … cause strong emotions within me with such a simple touch."

"And if I told you that you have the same power over me?" he asked, his rich voice hypnotically gentle.

Legna knew in an instant what that knowledge made her feel. She felt that baser side of herself stirring into awareness, threatening to overcome her as it had in her room so recently, in the garden nine years ago, and in battle with the necromancer last October.

She sat up away from him and this time he let her go, releasing her hand with a lingering touch.

"I should go home. Noah must be worried."

She turned and slid out of the bed on the other side, but by the time she was upright on her feet, he was in front of her, leaning a shoulder casually against one of the bedposts.

"Run, run, as fast as you can …" he said softly, his meaning all too serious and all too clear.

"Gideon, please," she begged quietly, unable to meet his direct gaze as her heart pounded out a frantic rhythm.

"I see what you are running from, Magdelegna. But you will not succeed. The huntress is a part of you. Back before time was time, our people lived in prides just like the lions do. And like lionesses, your ancestral females were born to the hunt, built sleek and beautiful and deadly in the most magnificent ways. It is deeply embedded in your genetic code, in spite of all of our evolution and civilization, and is as much a part of you as your empathy. I am sorry, but this code, Neliss, is the one thing you can never escape."

"But it is worse when you are near me. Tell me that is not true."

"It is very true. But instead of thinking of it as worse, I would hope you would think of it as natural. It is, you know. It is natural that your baser nature appears when your mate does."

"You are not even my mate yet. What happens if … if we have sex?" She wrapped her arms tightly around herself to ward off a chill. "Will it become wor—more frequent? Stronger? It overtakes me so easily, Gideon."

"I understand how unnerving that can be, Legna. It haunts me as well whenever I come close to you. Even if I cross a path you have recently trod, your lingering scent stimulates the dominant in me, the part of me that urgently needs to be with you. Near you. Wrapped around you, with you … with you wrapped around me."

The phraseology was intensely suggestive, but it was lost on her until he reached out to her, past her shoulder to take hold of her braid, wrapping it around his large fist twice before using it to coax her closer to him. When she was close enough for him to lower his head to her ear, he brushed his mouth over it in an unbelievably erotic caress.

"I crave the time when you are wrapped around me," he told her, the heat of his breath and his words flying through her like an arrow to its mark. Her entire body lit up with the heat of response, a flood of molten liquid rushing madly to awakening places beneath her skin.

"Gideon," she breathed, unable to draw in enough air to sound his name more firmly.

"Mmm, I love when you speak my name, Neliss, " he said, his tongue touching to the sensitive lobe of her ear just long enough to draw it between his gentle lips. "I will love it just as well when you cry it out. And even more so when you scream it."

"Gideon, please do not do this," she begged, the words falling from her in soft, short bursts of breath. "I am not ready for this."

"I think you are."

To illustrate his argument, Gideon lifted the knuckles of his left hand to her breast, skimming over the taut thrust of her clearly aroused nipple. Legna practically melted under the touch, her body swaying into his as he turned his hand over and cupped her through the rich satin of her dress.

"Yes. Yes," she relented. "My body is ready. But Gideon …"

"Hmm." He brushed his mouth over her jaw until he was nearer to her mouth. "A Demon of the Mind whose mind is not as willing as the rest of her. A remarkable dilemma, Magdelegna." His mouth hovered so close to hers, an awesome temptation to her weakened resistance. She remembered his kiss too well, the flavor, the artistry, and the intensity beyond anything she had ever known. "I will make a bargain with you, Neliss, " he offered, continuing to caress the shape of her breast, eliciting an unchecked moan from her. "Whenever I take something from this delightful body of yours, I will give you anything you desire that will appease your reluctant mind."

Gideon stepped away from her, releasing her so unexpectedly that she had to stop herself from following him. She looked into the white-hot fire of his eyes, understanding instantly the effort it had taken for him to deny his needs. The taut set of his jaw was only the beginning of the rigidity locking up every muscle in his body.

"This time, I give you your wish to go home. Go. This instant, Legna."

Another command. Albeit a welcome one. One she wanted to follow almost instantly. But she hesitated just the same, her gaze still locked to his, unable to break away.

Gideon's hands curled into fists.

"Legna," he warned.

Legna crossed the distance he had put between them in a heartbeat, throwing herself against him. Gideon caught her to himself even as she locked her mouth to his and thrust her hands into his hair at the back of his head. She held him to her, aggressively seeking his tongue, tasting him with wild savagery as his arms wrapped tightly enough around her to lift her onto the very tips of her toes. She disengaged as sharply as she had begun, panting rapidly for breath before she pulled him back to her hungry lips.

His hands were sliding over her, everywhere at once, his touch matching the ferocity of her kisses. Wildfire scorched her wherever he grasped her, setting her to burn. His body was pure strength against hers, solid and unforgiving, hot and hard and just as aggressive as hers was.

Gideon caught the satin fabric at the back of her dress up into a vicious pair of fists, using the material to pry her away from him. He held up a hand to keep her at bay when she moved forward with a sound of protest.

"If you touch me again, Legna, I will have you," he warned, his voice hoarse with pent-up need and barely leashed impulses. "Do you understand? No turning back, no more time." She drove him to the brink with just a kiss, his control shuddering with weakness. Gideon's whole being was rocked with this outrageous desire for her that she wasn't ready to appease. She thought she was at war with parts of herself, but she couldn't know how much his feral half was raging to be let loose on her. It was all he could do to maintain control of himself.

Gideon's caution humbled Legna, and her eyes widened with her remorse for forcing him to be the one to maintain control in spite of her aggression. She felt the haze of his mind within her own, felt the baton of respect and concern for her he was using to beat back every inborn instinct he had. He wanted her to come to him with clarity of thought, with an honest need that transcended just the physical chemistry that so over-whelmed them. The amazing part was that he wanted it for himself just as much as he wanted it for her.

"So, once again you are the one to show far better control between us," she said quietly, taking a ginger step away from him. Slowly, he released the fabric of her dress, the satin slipping from his fingers after a long, highly charged moment. "I will go home, as you say, because I must put Noah's mind at ease. I know he is worried. I can feel it. But I will not take long, Gideon. The night has just begun and I want to spend it learning exactly who you are and what we will be with one another."

Gideon nodded once, a short movement that radiated the strength of the tether he had upon himself.

"Do me one courtesy, Neliss. Remember at all times that I am a part of your mind now. Take great care in what you do and what you think." He exhaled slowly. It galled Gideon to confess his weakening discipline, but he had to make this clear to her. "My self-control is stretched far too thin as it is. For all my age and experience, I cannot fight what is happening to me. Do you understand?"

"I do. I will do my best, but I am similarly afflicted and I may make mistakes."

"I understand that quite well, Legna. But there is a vast canyon between understanding and execution. However, I will maintain a reasonable mind. That is a promise."

"Thank you."

This time she moved forward slowly, her intent quite clear as she watched him with careful eyes. She reached to kiss him gently, briefly, stepping back with a sensation of awe over the tenderness he had used while returning her kiss. She absently touched her mouth for a moment, then raised the same hand into a graceful twist, sending herself home.

Legna appeared in her bedroom, startled to see Noah was already there waiting for her. Suddenly self-conscious, she touched her hair with one hand and covered her reddened mouth with the other. Noah turned from the window to look at her and she turned away and moved to her wardrobe, making herself busy with her back to him.

"I would have come down to you," she said as neutrally as she could.

"I was worried. After Kane told me what had happened, I went to see Jacob. He told me when he left you with Gideon you were sleeping, but I grew concerned when the entire night and next day passed without word. Jacob told me what you did for him and for Bella. I am amazed, to say the least."

"I know." She reached to absently re-crease a fold in one of the dresses hanging before her. "I rather amazed myself."

"Legna, when are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?" he demanded suddenly, his hurt at being left out of the life she had always shared with him coming through in spite of his efforts to maintain an even tone.

"It is senseless for you to try and hide emotions from me in any event, Noah," she chided softly, finally turning around to meet his eyes.

"Legna," he uttered, the shock that washed over him so potent that it made her catch her breath. He crossed over to her in only two steps, reaching to grasp her by the chin and turn her face up to his. "What the hell is this?" he interrogated her roughly. "What happened to your eyes?"

She could not answer him. She was suddenly overwhelmed by Gideon's virulent concern for her.

Legna, what is the matter? I can feel your distress.

Nothing. Please, do not worry.

You are lying to me. Tell me what is going on.

Noah and I are talking. Gideon, trust me. I will be just fine.

Legna felt his reluctance, his urgent desire to protect her no matter what. But to her relief he gained control of the instinct and moved to the back of her thoughts, allowing her the freedom to deal with her brother in her own way.

"Legna, answer me."

"Noah, I cannot give you the explanation you desire if you are going to rail at me."

"I beg your pardon, Legna, but I think a brother has a right to be upset when his sister's eyes have changed from a pretty gray-green similar to his own into this bright silver that looks just like—" Noah went pale as realization dug deep claws of shock into him. "Sweet Destiny, Legna, are you insane? "

"Noah, I refuse to get into an argument with you over this," she said, jerking her head out of his grasp. "And it is not as though we have any choice in the matter."

"This … is impossible," her brother growled bearishly. "He's more than seven hundred years older than you, Legna! His power is like nothing ever seen before. Do you have any idea what an infusion of power that potent can do to someone as young as you are?"

"So far what it has done is allow me the grateful opportunity to save the life of a greatly beloved friend. A friend who happens to be the wife of a man you care for very much, Noah. As strong as he is, how well do you think Jacob would survive the loss of Isabella? Do you think he would even make it through a year? Did you think Father would have if he had not been Summoned so soon after Mother's death?"

"Legna!" Noah's temper flared, sparked by the suppressed issues beyond what she had dared to speak of. It was one thing to share memories of joy, and quite another to actually discuss the nature of their parents' deaths. "You are trying, as usual, to divert this conversation from its true point, Magdelegna."

"And that is?"

"You! Your well-being! Do I need to point out that you have just spent twenty-four hours sleeping off this exertion you are so proud of? What if it had been worse? What if conducting that kind of power had burned you out completely, something sleep cannot cure?"

"I have thought of this, Noah. Contrary to what you and Hannah seem to perpetually think about me, I am no longer a child. I am aware of the ramifications of my actions and the actions of others. Would it please you to know I am having a significant amount of trouble accepting this and that I am anxious enough without your predictions of doom?" She turned and slammed the doors to the wardrobe shut in a rare show of frustration. "I hardly know him, Noah, and now he is taking over half of who I am. Anything I do know about him has been from stories I heard as a child that, to be frank, could be pretty frightening at times. So trust me when I tell you I am sufficiently terrified to satisfy you!"

She sighed softly then and turned to face him slowly, her arms crisscrossing her waist. "My entire life was turned upside down a little over twenty-four hours ago." Legna leaned back against the wardrobe doors, closing her eyes and releasing uninvited tears down her cheeks in the process. "All I have wanted to do since this started was talk to someone about it. The someone I chose to share this with, I found lying in a pool of her own blood on her living-room floor."

"Legna," Noah said, his eyes as sad as his hoarse voice, his anger instantly evaporating under the shower of her tears. "I did not mean—"

"I know you did not. But you have to understand, I have been fighting to keep my perspective on everything in my life ever since I was dragged out of it and entrapped in that horrific five-pointed prison last October. I have not been at peace since that day, Noah. The only way I can discuss the incident with you is in an argument, and Hannah is not much better. I do understand it is because of what happened to Father and how it affected you both." Legna pushed away from the closet and crossed over to him, reaching to take up one of his hands between hers. "It was Gideon who figured out why I have been so restless, and it was he who finally helped me rest."

"Legna, that is just his abilities. It does not mean—"

"Noah, please. Can you stop arguing with me and find it in yourself to support me in this? Gideon and I have not made a careless decision based on some kind of whim. We were chosen by Destiny for this. Yes, it was up to me to make the acceptance, but you do not know what the Imprinting feels like, how strong it is. Need I indicate Jacob and Bella as an example? She was a human, completely taboo by our laws at the time, and yet Jacob found himself betraying centuries of morals just to touch her. No matter how much it tore him apart."

"You cannot liken Gideon to Jacob. There are things—" Noah broke off, running a frustrated hand through his hair. "I know you, Legna. You are extremely sensitive to the art of compromise. Gideon will never compromise. He demands and acts and expects that no one will contradict him. If they try to do so, he merely ignores them. I cannot bear to think of you in a relationship like that."

"Noah, I beg you to stop making him out to be some kind of manipulative monster, because you know it is a lie and I will not stand for it. I love you, Noah. I always will. I understand your fear, but you have to look beneath it and understand what you are feeling. I do not believe it is Gideon's age or power or rude manners that truly scare you."

"If you are going to start psychoanalyzing me, Legna, just stop it right now," Noah warned her.

"You have had my undivided love and attention practically since the day I was born, Noah. Has it never occurred to you that you are simply unwilling to share me with anyone else? You joke about it, but there are reasons why you are not interested in finding a companion of your own. Why should you? You have a perfectly kept home, a beautiful hostess to manage your social affairs, and she is pretty much emotionally maintenance free. I give you completely unconditional love, respect, and admiration. I keep you company when there are so many around, but none are really close enough to your heart to safely be a King's confidant. There is only one thing I cannot do for you, and I already know you have your ways of obtaining that. "

"Legna," he protested, his face flushing. "That is not true."

"Which part?" she countered, raising a single brow.

"I …" He hesitated, looking away from her penetrating gaze, realizing that she saw so much more than he had ever given her credit for. "Well, for one, the rafters of my ‘perfectly kept home' are full of cobwebs," he said sheepishly.

Legna suddenly, gratefully, found herself laughing. It was a short burst of amusement that instantly defused the painful tension between them.

"As if it would kill you to spare a thought to giving them a two-second toasting and getting rid of them yourself?"

Noah smiled in spite of himself, shaking his head solemnly. He sighed a long breath of unwinding tension. "Listen, I cannot tell you I am happy for you when I am not. I cannot pretend to encourage you to leave me when it is going to break my heart. I guess what I am saying is …"

"You need time," she finished for him. "A phrase I have been using a lot myself recently. I understand how you feel, Noah. I would appreciate it if you took the time to understand how I am feeling in return, okay?"

The Demon King nodded silently. He then reached out to his sister, giving her hand a warm squeeze for a minute that reassured her of the things he couldn't say at that moment.

"I will let you get changed," he said, moving to the door of her room, opening it before hesitating a moment "Are you going … out?"

"Yes."

"Do me a favor? Make time to have dinner with me tomorrow?" He jiggled the knob on the door as if inspecting its integrity. "I will be able to tolerate this better if you take the time to reassure me and tell me that you are doing all right."

"Only if you swear to me Hannah and the children will be miles away," she bargained.

"As I see it," he countered, a small smile twitching across his lips, "the way your abilities are developing, you could see to that yourself."

Noah left, shutting the door gently behind him. As soon as he was gone, Legna moved quickly to her bed and let herself fall down onto it with a huge sound of relief.

Well done, Nelissuna. Very well done.

Thank you. Gideon?

Mmm?

Please tell me we will not devastate my family because of this.

It will work itself out. Just keep that in mind. I am waiting for you, sweet. And by the way, I know you want to stop to see Isabella. That is strictly against my standing orders as her doctor.

You know, this is going to get on my nerves very quickly. Remember how you said we needed to convince Noah that you will make me happy?

I do.

Well, it would make me very happy if you would vacate my head for a little while.

As you know, that is pretty much impossible.

Try!

As you wish. For now …

She felt him fade from the forefront of her thoughts.