“And I don’t fancy coppers, present company excluded,” Ian replied. “Place will be crawling with them soon since one of the detonations set off the museum’s alarm.”

Yes, I’d also heard the mechanical wail from the only modern building located within the ruins. Before I could reply, Ian vanished. He reappeared almost immediately, Silver tucked under one arm and my purse slung over his shoulder.

Then, he grabbed me and everything blurred again. When it stopped, a stunned glance revealed rows of tall stone columns from the Athenian goddess’s temple gleaming in the early light of dawn.

“Here we are,” Ian said, as if teleporting us over a hundred kilometers away, to the Parthenon, was nothing exceptional. Silver didn’t seem nonplussed by the swift, drastic change of location. When Ian let go of him, the Simargl scampered off to explore his new surroundings.

Then Ian smiled at me, enticing and oh-so dangerous to my still vulnerable heart. “Alone at last.”

Chapter 8

I backed out of his grasp. His smirk mocked the distance I put between us. Anger stifled the part of me that had been far too focused on how good his arms had felt around me.

“Don’t let your impressive new abilities go to your head,” I said in my coldest tone. I couldn’t let Ian know how he affected me. He’d only use it against me. “I might not be able to outrun you now that you can teleport, but there are many other ways I can still escape you.”

“All involving my intense pain, no doubt.” He sounded amused. “Tempting as that may be, you won’t need such measures. Earlier, you agreed to talk with me where the council couldn’t overhear us and Mencheres couldn’t interrupt us. This meets both those requirements.”

I’d only said that to get across the villa’s threshold to spring my trap! I hadn’t truly intended to talk to him. It was pointless. I couldn’t tell him the truth, and he was too damn clever for me to get away with lying to him.

My need to stall caused me to do what I never allowed myself to do: fall back into memories of what the Parthenon had looked like when it was new, its columns whole and gleaming under the bright Grecian sun instead of highlighted by artificial lights in its ruined state.

Then I rewound to centuries before that and the smaller, far less impressive temple that pre-dated it. I rewound to several millenniums before that, when this mount was empty and the city was nothing more than some sparsely populated wooden huts.

When I blinked, the sight of the Parthenon’s long-standing ruins caused all my years to crash back into me. As I struggled between then and now, my sire’s oft-repeated warning rang in my head. You must never allow yourself to be consumed by the ancient past. Countless aged among our kind have lost themselves to madness that way. Always focus on the present. Speak the modern language. Wear modern clothing. Think with modern thoughts. That is the only way you’ll survive, Veritas . . .

I’d heeded Tenoch’s advice in all ways but one. I couldn’t let my many tortures and executions stay buried in the sands of what was now modern-day Iraq. Instead, I’d sworn that one day, Dagon would pay for all the people he’d tortured and murdered, myself included. More than four thousand years later, I was still dealing with the repercussions of that promise.

Now, so was Ian.

“There’s nothing crueler than time,” I murmured. “It stretches when you’re in pain, flies away if you’re happy, and crushes you when you remember all the years that are now gone.”

Ian seemed surprised by the change of subject. Then, his gaze became hooded. “True. And every so often, time can also be stolen from you. It was from me, and I won’t stop until I’ve recovered every bit of it.”

I let out a short laugh. “Then those ‘migraines’ you’re so dismissive of will be the least of your problems. You don’t want to know everything you’ve forgotten, but I will tell you this—Dagon has no claim on your soul any longer. It’s yours again.”

His brows rose. “Demon deals are unbreakable unless the demon dies. Are you saying that Dagon is dead?”

“I wish,” I said with feeling. Then I retreated into my icy Law Guardian persona. “Dagon’s deal with you has been nullified. The details are unimportant. What is important is that you’re free, so take your freedom and go.”

His gaze gleamed with green highlights. “There are many words I’d use to describe marriage. ‘Free’ isn’t one of them.”

“Whose fault is that?” I snapped, before composing myself again. “I have no intention of asserting my rights over you. I’m sure you feel the same way about me. That makes our marriage nothing more than an unfortunate technicality.”

He tapped his chin. “Not sure I agree. I wanted to rip Xun Guan’s head off over how she incessantly eye-humped you. The more the merrier, I usually say with lovers, but I seem to be jealous and possessive over you.”

I covered my shock at that with more chilly deflection. “What makes you think we were lovers?”

His grin was everything that made Ian unforgettable. “Oh, I have many of those memories.” Then his voice deepened. “Though sometimes, I wonder if they’re real.”

“Why?” I shouldn’t have asked. Why had I? Maybe Mencheres’s truth spell on me from earlier hadn’t worn off yet.

He came nearer, brushing my arms with the lightest of strokes, which still caused shivers to race over me. “Because nothing that good could possibly be real,” he murmured, and bent his head.

I turned away before his mouth touched mine. Then I pushed him back. Doing both took all of my strength.

“Your memories are wrong,” I said, proving Mencheres’s spell was no longer affecting me as that was a lie. So was what I said next. “During our brief alliance, yes, we had sex to break up the monotony of laying out our trap for Dagon, but it was nothing exceptional. Once we’d both gotten what we wanted from Dagon, we were glad to part ways with each other.”

Ian’s brows had risen at the start of my heartless rendition. By the end of it, they were almost in his hairline. Then he burst out laughing.

“What’s so amusing?” I asked in my chilliest voice.

“You,” he said, still chuckling. “Knew you must fancy me to convince Crispin to lie his arse off to protect me from a demon I can’t remember, but I didn’t realize this.”

“Realize what?”

He gave me a sunny smile. “You’re madly in love with me.”

“What?”

He waved away my gasp. “Nothing to be ashamed of. You’re in the company of multitudes, though none of them got me to the proverbial alter the way you did. Have I mentioned how impressive that was? Blimey, talk about making the impossible a reality.”

Outrage had me sputtering. “You are such an ass—”

“Can’t blame it on the Red Dragon, either,” he went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “I’ve been high on that several times, yet never woken up with a wife before. Means I must have wanted to marry you, too, shocking though the thought may be.”

“Your arrogance is astounding—”

“Then again, I do know you’re mine,” he continued, eyes gleaming now. “Did I tell you I sometimes feel things before they happen? Ah, I can see from your expression that I did. Imagine my surprise when I felt that you were mine the first time I saw you. Felt it again with every memory I had of you. Felt it when you were lying your arse off to the council about me, too, and I really felt it when I walked into your hotel room and breathed in your true scent.” He came close, letting me see him inhale again. “Knocked me right off my feet,” he murmured. “’Course, that also could have been the new memory it elicited, but either way, I know you’re mine. And so do you.”