‘Unless it’s hidden in these end pieces?’
‘I don’t know. They’ve been soldered on, so short of ripping them off, I’m not sure how we’d find out,’ Kyan said, allowing himself to perch on the couch beside Remi, Dylan still cross-armed and frowning.
‘We’re not tearing it apart,’ Nicole said, flashing Kyan a reassuring look he was grateful for.
‘Maybe we need to take it to … my sister,’ Kyan said quietly, testing the words and finding them unnerving.
The Tène shifted on Bells’ wrist, its ribbon-like neck twisting to inspect the torc, as if alerted by the presence of its previous treasure.
It purred slightly – a metallic yet dragonesque sound – and then, fast as a whip, dived off Bells like a golden comet and nuzzled into the torc.
Dylan cursed. ‘We need a warning on that thing.’
It purred again and Kyan didn’t miss Bells’ disappointed exhale.
The Tène twined itself around the terminals with a series of clicking sounds. Then one of the terminals dropped off onto the cushion, the gold wires it had capped spilling free. The Tène slithered between them before tugging something out – its little jaws wrapped around—
‘The vial,’ Bells breathed. She knelt beside the table to peer closer as the creature dragged out a thin vial, barely thicker than themetal wires but just as long, made in a material that looked like bendable glass.
There, on the velvet cushion amid an unwound artefact, was a vial of pure goddessblood.
‘Incredible,’ Remi breathed.
Dylan shook his head. ‘How is this possible?’ He looked like he couldn’t cope with a single other revelation, and Kyan couldn’t blame him.
ForyearsKyan had worn this ancient piece of art, unknowingly guarding a vial of the most precious substance in … the universe?
‘Is that glass?’ Nicole asked, baffled.
‘Likely made by Credne,’ Kyan said thoughtfully, ‘he was the artisan god of the Túatha Dé with his brother Goibniu. They had all sorts of inventions. Bendable glass wouldn’t surprise me.’
‘But that means the blood was put into your torc before you were given it,’ Nicole realised. ‘They would have designed the torc to withhold it, so it didn’t break or grind the glass and spill the blood.’
‘It makes sense,’ Remi said. ‘You’re an Empyreal. They would have wanted you to guard, or use it. Right?’
Kyan nodded, but two things had bothered him since they’d spoken with the Druid.
If goddessblood was needed to survive a Fomóiri-killing transformation and had been hidden in his own torc, why didn’t his mother, or the gods, tell him what it was for?
And why, when he transformed to kill the Fomóir that killed his family, had he not needed it?
They didn’t go right to their room.
Kyan sat with Nicole at the bar downstairs, his back against it and body towards the rest of the room, to watch it, and her. Part of him still rebelled at the idea of being seen, even knowing Luca was still successfully playing with any cameras they encountered. Still, as long as they were mindful, it would look like Kyan was doing his job and getting close to her.
The thought of the Wake intruding on this moment when she was so vulnerable turned his stomach.
The dark bar with its guttering candles and luxuries lit her and theblood shimmer of her dress like a faceted ruby. The scent of her strong, sweet, dessert wine and dusky natural perfume nearly made his head spin.
‘Let me know if you hear Bells or Dylan,’ she said quietly. ‘I just need to shut it off for a minute.’
‘I will.’
She unbuttoned the cuff of his shirtsleeve and pushed it up to get to the warm skin beneath, where she ran her fingers up and down the raised veins in feather-soft strokes. Kyan forced his body not to react as her eyes closed briefly in a kind of grieving relief, lashes dark against her flushed cheeks as she mentally muted the world and used him to ground herself.
The wine had stained the seam of her lips. For a while, she stared unseeing and sipping, letting her mind work and work until he could see she’d disassociated, as if her researcher’s mind couldn’t take any more information.
Eventually, her gaze returned to normal and slid to him, her fingers stilling. She moved closer and her eyes, her gorgeous dark eyes, were so tired.
