Epilogue

" C alling to gloat, Grand Master?" Eric leaned against the stone railing that bordered this section of Triskelion Castle's roof. Far below, the Irish sea pounded against the dark stone cliffs, as restless and unhappy as he was.

"That would be beneath me," Juliette replied.

Eric snorted. "You're keeping score."

"Possibly," she conceded. "Also, I'm winning."

"Bribery," he declared, forcing himself to banter with her. "You bribed them."

Instead of a quick retort, Juliette was silent. Shit. He'd insulted her.

Eric turned away from the sea view, head slumped in momentary defeat. The relationship between the Trinity Masters and Masters' Admiralty had been destroyed during World War II, rocky when they first reconnected years ago after the last fleet admiral died, and only in the past six months had he and Juliette gotten to a place where they could forge a stronger alliance.

The first step was the Trinity Council meeting.

Eric wanted to rip someone in half every time he thought about that cursed afternoon in Dublin. He was barely holding it together, and now he'd let his inner turmoil spill into this conversation and pissed Juliette off.

"Eric," she said gently, "are you okay?"

Ah. Maybe he hadn't insulted her. He was just shit at hiding his feelings.

Eric walked back into his apartment on the top floor of the castle, leaving the door open so the cold wind could whip through the large, open living area and kitchen.

"Am I that easy to read?"

"No. If I hadn't been at that meeting, I probably wouldn't have noticed the fact that you sound…different than normal."

He had a feeling she'd been about to say "sad."

"There's a lot happening." It wasn't a lie. There were half a dozen active major operations he was keeping an eye on. Some, but not all of them, a result of the decisions they'd made at the Trinity Council meeting. The Crimean blackmailer issue was resolved, but now they had to figure out who "the Spaniard" was, and how the hell he knew so much about them.

Put one fire out and another flares up.

"There is," she agreed. "But that's not why you sound like your heart is broken."

Eric sank into a chair and put his head in his hand. Fuck. Fuck . His heart was fucking broken, and hearing the words made the ripping pain in his chest ten times worse.

"Nothing is set in stone. Not yet." Her words were soft, comforting, but he didn't want comfort, or to think about the fact that, technically, Nikolett wasn't married yet. She hadn't even met with her trinity.

Somehow that made it worse.

Eric couldn't bring himself to speak, his throat tight with the need to roar or cry.

Juliette sighed audibly. "You love Nikolett." Now the words were direct and no-nonsense.

He smiled faintly. This was the Juliette he was used to.

"You love Nikolett," she repeated, "and are using your position to make sure you can never be together."

It was the only way he could keep her safe. Every woman he'd ever loved, from his wives to the woman he'd thought of as his little sister, had died. And not peacefully in their beds. They'd all died horribly, in pain and scared with their last breaths.

He'd bolted upright in bed after waking from a nightmare of a blood-soaked Nikolett dying in his arms, more times than he could count.

"I'm sure you have a reason…"

Yes, she'd die. Better for her to have a happy life married to someone else.

"…but it's a bad idea."

"Thank you for your opinion," he ground out.

"It's more than an opinion. I speak from experience."

Eric raised his head, frowning. "What?"

"I was betrothed to a trinity when I was a baby."

That startled a laugh out of him. "Betrothed?"

"Yes. To Rose?—"

The dark-haired counselor he'd met several times now but didn't know.

"—and Devon." She inhaled deeply. "And the first thing I did when I became Grand Master was to end the betrothal and break the trinity."

Eric leaned back in the chair, now invested in this story. "Because you wanted…two dicks?"

"No. Because I hated Devon."

"…your current husband Devon?" Maybe there were two Devons.

"Yes. I had loved him all my life until the day I realized, or thought I realized, that he didn't love me the same way. It broke my heart. It's why I focused on humanitarian work abroad once I graduated—anything to keep me away from home, and Devon."

"And then you become Grand Master."

"And then I became Grand Master," she agreed. "I was angry at Devon, so I ended our trinity."

"You still ended up together."

"True. Though without Franco, it wouldn't work." There was a short pause. "Maybe all you need is your third."

Eric couldn't even bring himself to picture it.

"I won't marry again," he said, rather than directly addressing her statement.

"Because you'd have to step down as fleet admiral?"

"I'd fucking love to not be fleet admiral, but that would mean sticking someone I know, and like, with the job." The fleet admiral position could only be held by someone who'd been an admiral, and technically he'd briefly been the admiral of Kalmar after his wife, who was the previous admiral, died.

"You're still grieving your wives?"

Eric sighed. "No," he admitted. "I'll always mourn them, but I'm past the grief."

He wasn't past the guilt he felt that he hadn't been able to protect or save them.

"Are you placing her in a trinity because it's the only way to prevent a relationship between the two of you?"

"Given what an asshole I am, I don't actually think she wants anything to do with me."

"I got the hate-fuck vibes," Juliette assured him. "But I saw her face when you said she'd be the third member of that trinity."

Eric hadn't seen. He hadn't been able to bring himself to look at her.

"She pulled it together fast, but you broke her."

Fuck.

Eric flung a square pillow hard enough that it flew all the way across his apartment and smacked into the stone wall, exploding in a puff of white feathers.

"Did you have a fight before this?" Juliette asked.

Eric wasn't even sure why he was still having this conversation, except that there was no one he could talk to about this. Regina, the captain of his Spartan Guard, had no problem making her feelings known, which was precisely why he never confided in her.

"Yes," Eric sighed.

"About six months ago?"

Eric stood, eyes narrowed as he processed Juliette's words. "Yes," he said slowly. A very, very limited number of people knew about that. Was Juliette spying on him, or?—

"You have a problem," Juliette said. "Well, the admiral of Hungary does, and I'm guessing that you don't know about it."

"What. Problem?" He snarled the words, the blinding white-hot rage he tried—and sometimes failed—to control rising hard and fast.

"Someone's trying to kill Nikolett, and has been for the past six months."

Shock, then fear quickly followed by rage, battled to take the reins, the turmoil leaving Eric frozen in place, phone to his ear.

"Dahlia was worried that Vadisk was in love with Nikolett because of the way he talked about her. But actually, he was worried she'd end up dead if he left her, since he was her main bodyguard."

Nikolett was under attack—and he'd yanked her most capable and deadly security officer away from her, leaving her vulnerable.

Everyone you love dies.

"There have been at least seven assassination attempts," Juliette finished. "And I decided you needed to know."

The fucking Grand Master of the Trinity Masters was giving him information he should have gotten from his own people. Nikolett should have told him. Grigoris, Nyx, Vadisk, someone should have told him she was in danger.

He let anger take hold. It was easier to deal with than the sickening fear.

The things he'd done to Josephine's killers would seem gentle compared to what he'd do to whoever hurt Nikolett.

"Thank you, Grand Master." He ground out the words between his teeth.

"Eric, if you love her, don't?—"

He hung up, flinging open his door and descending the narrow, dark spiraling stone staircase at a dangerous speed. Three Spartan Guards appeared on the landing of the second floor at the sound of his steps. One look at his face, and suddenly they each had a weapon in their hand.

"Get the plane," he snarled. "We're going to Hungary."

Wait! There's more! Be sure to read the deleted epilogue to Power's Fall.

And check out these other series…all part of the Trinity Masters world.