“Of course not. They’ll be mortals and I’ll be Fae.” His mate shook her head then rounded the table, weapon at the ready. He wished he could get a good look at it. He’d never had the chance to examine one of the Indonesian blades closely, though he knew the wave shape of the blade was created by alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron. “Let’s get this done.”
Hadrian wasn’t quite as ready to finish his assassination. “You don’t have family then?”
“I don’t need one.”
“And I’ll guess you don’t have friends.”
“I don’t need them either.”
“No wonder you’re so ready to talk,” he teased, seeing that she was startled again. “You took this assassination job simply because Maeve asked you to,” he guessed. “You would have done whatever she asked you to do.”
“Why not? I owe her,” his mate insisted. “There was no reason for me to decline.”
“Except that you’re killing people.”
“Not people. Others. Shifters. Abominations and half-breeds.” She repeated Maeve’s accusations against shifters as if they were her own. She must have heard them hundreds of times. “And since she gave me the kiss of death, none of them have been particularly hard to exterminate.” Her eyes narrowed. “Trust a dragon to challenge expectation.”
“Abominations,” Hadrian echoed. “But you’re a shifter. That makes you one of the Others, just like me.”
“Not for long,” she replied. “I think that was why Maeve offered me the deal, so she could save me. It can’t be easy to turn someone Fae and immortal.” She fell silent for a moment and dropped her gaze. Her tone was wistful when she continued. “She must love me.”
But she wasn’t sure.
It was clear to Hadrian that Maeve had twisted the expectations of his mate, which was only possible because she’d spent all of her life—over a thousand years—isolated from anyone other than the Dark Queen. Whatever Maeve suggested to her would seem plausible. Her trust of her patroness was complete.
But it was also misplaced. Maeve was using her. The Dark Queen had turned his mate to her own purpose and Hadrian had no doubt that would continue.
The prophecy revealed that he was right to try to convince her otherwise. He had to succeed.
The future of the Pyr and the Others relied upon it.
Six
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s even possible to turn someone Fae or immortal,” Hadrian said, trying to keep the conversation flowing. “Let alone both.”
“What are you implying?”
“Just that the Dark Queen is lying to you, the same way she lies to everyone else.”
“She made a promise!”
“She makes promises all the time and breaks them. There’s going to be some technicality that allows her to keep from delivering what you’re owed.” He shrugged. “It might just be that your nature is your nature, and that can’t be changed.”
His mate stared at him, frowning slightly. “You mean that you’ll always be a dragon shifter, and no one can change that.”
“How could they? It’s my essence. Plus I’m mortal. A spell can restrict my ability to shift, maybe, but I am what I am. You’re as mortal as I am. I don’t think anyone with any amount of magick can change that.”
“Maeve has all the magick. She has the gem of the hoard. She can do anything.” It sounded as if she was repeating something she’d been told, maybe something she’d once believed, but Hadrian had to wonder whether his mate believed it now.
He really didn’t want to think about Maeve possessing the gem of the hoard. He still felt that it was partly his fault that she’d managed to reclaim it.
Alasdair had tricked him, driven to do so by Maeve, but he should have guessed that something was up.
He stuck to their line of discussion. “Throughout time there are thousands of stories of the Fae taking children because they can’t have their own, but in every tale I know, that child either dies or returns to the mortal realm. They don’t become Fae, because it can’t be done.”
“You listen to too many stories.”
“I think you don’t listen to enough of them. Remember that she’s had the gem of the hoard before.”
His mate turned away from him, her expression impatient. “It doesn’t matter what you think. You don’t know everything about Maeve...”
“She offered what she thought you might want, but she has no intention of keeping the deal, much less paying up.”
“You can’t be sure of that...”
“I’m absolutely positive. And you should be wondering about it. Why does the