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“You mean they are like us?” Rhys ran a hand through his dark brown hair.
“Aye.”
“Interesting.”
“Go back to your homes and stay alert. Now is not the time to be trusting anyone. I’ll keep Harrison here with me for a while until he understands and can control whatever is inside him.”
“We shouldn’t have brought him on,” Aidan said bitterly. “Why subject someone to what we go through.”
“Leonard insisted. He told me the Circle must always have a man from each country, or the balance of power could be catastrophic. I wasn’t going to argue with him. None of us choose this.”
“Why not end it?” Aidan asked. “Let the Circle break up.”
“Because maybe there is a bigger purpose we’re unaware of, and until we figure out where Leonard is and put an end to this fucking threat, we need each other.”
“You’re turning over a new leaf, Keir,” Rhys laughed. “I never thought I would see the day that you actually gave a fuck about any of this.”
Harrison let out a low moan, clutching his stomach.
“Aidan, I need you to take Evie back to California. It’s too dangerous for her to stay here with him. Then you can return to Ireland.”
He nodded. “Your dungeon makes a good battleground. I had to have Niles lock me in there in the beginning.”
I hadn’t asked him about what lived in him. But I could see the change. He was confident and loyal. Whether he recognized it yet or not, he had become powerful.
He had become a king.
Sir Leonard was right. Accepting our true selves was necessary. There was freedom in it. It offered a light in the darkness.
“A regibus intus potential jacet,” I said, I said taking a knee and bowing my head before the altar.
“A regibus intus potential jacet,” they repeated, doing the same.
We stood up, and I looked at my men. “Godspeed.”
Epilogue
SIR LEONARD
Ifelt the darkness before I saw it. Cold and damp, it settled into my bones. I longed to call up the Bodach. King of the Bogeymen. To feel his powers electrify each cell of my body. But he no longer came. He was gone. I was powerless. The last time I felt him was when I foretold my own death. Cursed by my own demon. He laid the day of my death on the ground before me as a special gift.
The end was now. My time had come.
She came toward me, slithering out of the corner, silent and lethal.
The air around me crackled as it froze, and icicles formed on the furniture and roof.
She was the Dearg Due.
The red bloodsucker.
Beautiful, wicked, and absolutely horrifying.
“Why?” I asked her as she sat down beside me.
“Because there are too many kings. The world needs a queen.”
“Will it hurt?” I shivered. Her arm looped around my neck like an icy noose.
“No.” She bit into my neck, and I sighed.
Winter took root in my soul as she sucked me dry, and I felt my life slowly drain away.
