“Yeah, that’s as good a term as any. I had the cave coordinates, but not the exact place where she was. I had to zero in on her, get inside to get her out.”

“And fast,” Sasha continued. “Then you traveled again, here, with her. That’s three shifts inside what, ninety seconds?”

“About that.”

“And that sort of traveling drains you, even if you’re feeling like a party. You’d lost God knows how much blood, you were hung up like a side of beef and beaten, and worse, while you had to watch them hurt Annika, which is more torture. But you did what you had to do, and got back, barely alive. Am I right about that part?” she asked Bran.

“It was close, closer than I’d like.”

“Exactly. So I don’t want to hear any more bullshit out of you about any of it.”

“Damn skippy,” Annika said. Then laid her head on the table and wept.

“Oh, come on. Don’t, don’t, don’t do that.” Desperate, Sawyer stroked her hair, rubbed her back. When he tried to just haul her up and onto his lap, he found he didn’t have the strength. “You’re killing me, Anni.”

“No, no, they are almost all happy tears.” She wrapped herself around him. “Almost all. We’re here, we’re all here, talking. And I heard you laugh, even though it hurt you, I heard you laugh.”

She brushed kisses over his face, met his lips, and simply drowned herself in him.

“Want some privacy?” Riley wondered.

“If only,” Sawyer murmured. “I don’t think I could manage it.”

“There will be sex again.” Through tears, Annika smiled at him. “When you’re healed. I will be very gentle until you’re strong again.”

He ignored Doyle’s snort of laughter. “Good to know. So okay, no bullshit.” He picked up his wine, studied it. “Power honored, responsibility met. I’ll get there. There was more to the need to rush, to do what I had to do. Malmon called Berger in. He told him to kill Sasha. He wanted Bran wounded, but Sasha dead. He wanted the rest taken alive, so he ordered Trake to bring a team down here to take care of that while Berger took Sasha out.”

“You worry Nerezza, fáidh.” Under the table, Bran took her hand. “She can’t force her will on you, can’t pull your power away and into herself as she believed. You worried for all of us,” he said to Sawyer. “But we’d prepared for exactly that.”

“Yeah, I figured Berger for toast, but still. The tank shook. Did the tank shake?” he asked Annika. “The light—it exploded?”

“Yes. Just as you came for me. Malmon ran, but he couldn’t have run fast enough to escape the light.”

“We were dealing with Trake and company when you were heading in,” Riley continued. “We were ready for them. Bran set off the chain reaction up in the hills, and we had plenty more for them here. There . . . was nothing left of them. Wounding with the newly magickalized—I’m going with that word—weaponry, it puts a world of hurt on them. But a kill shot, it just obliterates. Nothing left.”

“No bodies to dispose of. That’s the cold truth here,” Doyle added when Sasha winced.

“You’re right,” she said. “I know you’re right. Bran and Riley went up to the cave yesterday. We had to check, and after some heated debate, Riley went, Doyle stayed. We couldn’t take the chance of Bran going alone, or of leaving us underprotected here. So . . .”

“Nothing left,” Bran told him. “The cave is just a cave. There was . . . a smear of something on the air, something dark. But faint and fading.”

“We salted the ground, and Bran did a cleansing.” Riley shrugged. “And that was that.”

“So we won that round. We have to go back to the search,” Sawyer said. “We have to get moving on it before she figures out how she’ll come at us next.”

Sasha picked up her wine again. “No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“We go as six or not at all. Until you’re strong enough to dive, it’s not at all.”

“Jesus, I can handle a little swimming. Another little boost from Bran’s magick potion, I could do a triathlon.”

Saying nothing, Doyle leaned over, gave Sawyer a light punch on the shoulder. And Sawyer saw stars.

“Fuck!”

“You’re on the DL, brother, until you can take a love tap without whining.”

“Love tap, my ass.”

“The stars have waited centuries,” Bran pointed out. “They can wait a few more days. When she does come again, we need you.”

“I can tell you when having sex causes him no pain.”

“That’s a good benchmark.” Kicking back, Riley gestured with her beer. “And maybe you should be specific. Like what kind of sex.”

“And how long he lasts,” Doyle added, and made Riley grin.

“They’re messing with us, Annika. Kidding.”

“I’m absolutely serious.” Riley cocked her head at Doyle. “You?”

“Deadly. Keep us updated, Gorgeous.”

“I will. And when he’s healed, we’ll find the Bay of Sighs. We know we must be close because I heard them again.”