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hand. “Bring it here.”
Lindsay came closer, but slowly. He stretched out to put the box in Ezqel’s hand, not wanting to get
any closer than he had to. He knew that Ezqel’s tests had been necessary, but that didn’t make him feel any more comfortable with the old man.
“You’ll have to get over that,” Ezqel said, not looking at Lindsay. “This thing I am doing for you, it
requires you to trust me. Do you even know what will be happening to you? Aren’t you even curious?”
“No,” Lindsay whispered. “I don’t know what you’re going to do to me.” It wasn’t as though he’d had
any chance to ask Ezqel about it; Ezqel had been too busy making him relive the most hellish moments of
his life. “Will knowing make me trust you more?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. What do you think? Do you care what I’m going to do?” Ezqel tilted his head
curiously, waiting.
“I’m not sure,” Lindsay admitted. “As long as it works. I don’t want to be broken anymore.” He took
a deep breath. “Will it be like last time?”
“No.” Ezqel put the box down and folded his hands over it. “This was a young demon. About the
same age as you, at least in its own years. You were fortunate to be in the same time and place as this one.
Its magic will help heal you. The heart will draw your magic out, as it did when the guul was hunting you.
For a moment, it will be like the heart of your magic. We are putting you on bypass so I can undo the
damage without hurting you. And then we will see…”
“See what?” Lindsay stared at Ezqel.
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“We will see how well you heal. We will see if you recover completely. It will be an interesting thing
to watch.” Ezqel smiled. “Watching things grow always interests me.”
“It won’t get worse than it is now, will it?”
“It will only get better.” Ezqel shook his head slowly. “You can only get better if the past is put in the
past.”
Lindsay nodded. “All right. I guess I’m ready whenever you are.” He wasn’t, but he might never be
ready. He wanted to be fixed, and Cyrus and Dane wouldn’t have sent him here if they didn’t think it would
work.
“You could do something for me, though.” Ezqel took up his pen. “A personal favor.”
Lindsay pulled his hands up into his sleeves. “What is it?”
“Get Dane to stop being a fool. Tell him to let me help him.” Ezqel looked at Lindsay askance. “I
thought he’d be done by now, but apparently not.” He tapped the box. “This will work on both of you—
magic is simply magic, like water is water—but he won’t tell you that. He knows it, and I know it, and now
you know it. So, I leave it in your capable hands. He has to be conscious, or I’d simply have Taniel club
him senseless with a fire iron.”
“I can try.” Lindsay turned toward the door, half-expecting Dane to be standing there, watching him.
“Isn’t there some saying—do not try, only do?” Ezqel gave Lindsay an arch look. “If you succeed
where Cyrus and Vivian and others have failed, then perhaps it will be to your benefit. Consider that.”
“I don’t know that I have any more influence over Dane than they do,” Lindsay murmured. “I doubt
that I do.” He shrugged. “But I will try. We talked about his magic, once.” And not since.
“You could be stronger than you allow yourself to be.” Ezqel went back to writing. “Consider that, as
well.”
Lindsay frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly what I said.” Ezqel didn’t look up. “To do otherwise would be to waste my words.”
Ezqel and Cyrus were peas in a pod. No wonder they were friends.
Lindsay found Dane in a huge armchair in the sitting room below the guest loft, reading a large book
by lamplight. The cat, displaced, dozed on the high mantel, its tail dangling above the yellow flames. The
natural light softened Dane’s features and brought out the red tones in his hair. Lindsay’s chest was tight with seeing him there.
He glanced up a moment after Lindsay came in. “You seem to have survived,” he rumbled.
“He hasn’t touched me yet,” Lindsay returned dryly. He came over to curl up on the floor near Dane’s
feet, rubbing his cheek against Dane’s knee. It felt good and he was quiet a while to enjoy it before ruining everything. Waiting only made him more nervous, though, so he spoke before Dane could ask what was
wrong just from smelling his anxiety. “You didn’t tell me the heart would fix you too.”
There was a thump as Dane closed the book. “Wasn’t relevant. He didn’t have any damn business…”
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“Any business doing what? I know you don’t like being stuck. I could hear it in your voice when you
were telling me about it before. Why wouldn’t you want him to help you?”
“Any business getting you involved in my business.” Dane shook his head and put the book aside.
“It’s not your trouble.” He crossed his arms over his chest and stared into the fire flickering in the hearth. “I manage as I am.”
“What happened to all the pep talks you gave me about how important it was to have full use of my
magic?” Lindsay didn’t know if Dane was being stubborn now, or if Dane had been simply manipulating
him before. He was hoping for the former, but he didn’t understand it.
“That was for you.” Dane relented some and reached out to stroke Lindsay’s hair. “Your magic is
important. Ezqel just wants to win an argument we started before you were born.”
It was ridiculous how much being petted helped soothe Lindsay’s worries. He crawled up into Dane’s
lap and frowned at Dane. “How do you know yours isn’t? Is wi
you would rather have that than all of your magic?”
“Yes.” Dane shrugged, looking utterly unapologetic. “And I know what I am. There are advantages to
being freed from being human anyway.” He stroked Lindsay’s cheek. “Don’t worry about the affairs of old
men.”
Lindsay’s eyes slipped shut. “I know what you are too,” he murmured, turning into the touch,
brushing kisses across Dane’s palm. “And I know that your magic is more important than whatever Ezqel
did to piss you off.” He opened his eyes again, meeting Dane’s. “I know that I need you.” Not that he
expected that to make a difference, but he had to say it anyway.
Dane’s expression didn’t shift for a long moment, but then he drew Lindsay to him for a tender kiss.
“I begged him once, and he refused me,” he said against Lindsay’s lips. “Long, long before you were
born.”
Lindsay couldn’t imagine making Dane beg for anything. It hurt, the thought that Dane would have
begged Ezqel for help and been refused. That only intensified his dislike of the fae mage.
“Hasn’t he begged you to let him help, now?” Lindsay asked, snuggling closer. Nothing mattered but
Dane being well. “Isn’t that what this is? Doesn’t it mean anything that he wants to help enough that he
asked me to help you?”
“This is part of a game. He offered to help me when we were here before, and I said no. He hates to be
refused, for all that he refused me.” Dane stroked Lindsay’s hair back. “He thinks he’ll win if you get me to say yes.” He kissed Lindsay, and Lindsay leaned into it, trying to get close and begging with his mouth.
Please. I need you. Lindsay slid his hands into Dane’s hair and pressed kisses up under Dane’s chin.
He licked at the roughness of Dane’s beard over his golden skin, doing everything he could remember
animals doing to show submission. “He can’t win if you’re not playing the game,” he murmured, dragging
his mouth along the line of Dane’s jaw.