"Thank you."

Stepping out into the "garden," she found the velvet green grass host to the most graceful dancers formed of stone. There was a woman, one leg raised, the foot of the other arched. She looked as if she would take flight. The sculpture next to her did look as if she had taken flight, the girl's small body held to the earth by a toetip at best.

But the dancers weren't only female. There was a male crouching at the foot of the woman poised on one leg, his hands cupped, as if ready to push her aloft. His face was adoring and filled with mischief at the same time, the woman's with laughter. In front of them, another dancer stood with his hands on his hips, his expression that of a fond friend.

Enchanted, Liliana craned her neck to see the other statues. There were too many to take in all at once, but she noticed one thing. None stood alone. Not like the man at the very edge of the garden, beside a long, rectangular pool filled with water clean and fresh. Several small birds frolicked in it, diving and flicking water at one another, their chatter a bright stream of music.

"Micah."

"Liliana." His slow, dawning smile stopped her in her tracks. No one had ever looked at her that way, as if she was the best thing they had ever seen.

"Is that for me?" he asked when she reached him.

She held out the cup. "Yes." So is my heart.

"No, not that."

As she stood there, confused, he stepped even closer. "Hold very, very still so you don't spill the chocolate."

It was difficult to follow the order with him so near. He smelled wonderful - soap and water and warmth. The black armor covered his chest and legs once more, but his arms were bare to the sky, and his skin glowed under the sunlight, making her want to touch, to stroke. "What - "

"Still, Liliana. So still." Curling his hands around her neck, he stroked his thumbs over her jaw. "This smile is for me, isn't it?"

"Yes."

Then she lost her words, because Micah was sipping at her lower lip, his mouth caressing, his hands possessive. The tenderness of it made her tremble.

"Careful." Spoken against her mouth. "I'm kissing you like you kiss me." Another soft sip, the feel of teeth. "I like it, but it's even better when you kiss me this way." Slanting his mouth over hers, he took her with openmouthed wildness that made her want to push him to the earth and do things no good maiden should even think about.

"You spilled the chocolate," he said, biting at her lower lip.

She glanced unseeing at her hands. "I did?"

"Let me." Taking the cup, he placed it carefully on the edge of the pool. Then he rose, lifted one of her hands to his mouth and stroked her fingers inside one by one. Each hot, wet tug pulled at things low and deep within her, her thighs clenching in darkest need.

"Chocolate tastes better on your skin."

"Don't stop." It was a whisper as he started on her other hand.

But he did so abruptly. "I smell blood sorcery."

Yes. A putrid odor infiltrated the air. That of a corpse defiled, a grave broken.

"Go inside," Micah ordered.

"I'm a blood mage." Never would she leave him to face such malignant power alone. "I can - "

Micah snapped out a hand, closing it over Liliana's wrist when he saw her pick up a sharp stone. "No."

"I must." Determination steeled eyes that had been sultry with pleasure only moments ago. "This is who I am."

"You are not this." And he wouldn't allow her to be swallowed by it.

Her eyes flicked up. "Look."

He'd already seen - the sky was turning a fetid brown streaked with red. The spreading color was no shapeless stain. It had the appearance of a skeletal hand tipped with claws. "Who is that, Liliana?"

"My father." Her pulse turned rapid, almost panicked under his hand, but her voice was resolute. "He's found me."

"Not yet." Squeezing her wrist, he made her drop the stone she'd intended to use to cut herself. "But he will if you spill your lifeblood."

"Sorcery of his kind is stronger than other magic. It's created of death."

"I am the Guardian of the Abyss and this is my domain." Releasing her hand, he gripped her chin, looked her directly in the eye. "You will obey me. Do not spill your blood."

"Take care, Micah." Shimmering emotions in those eyes that showed her every mood. "I'm not worth your life. You're meant for far more."

He didn't understand what she meant, but saw a silent promise that she would do as he asked. Dropping her hand and anchoring his feet, he awakened the old, old magic that was of this place and that lived in him when he wished it to. Of the Abyss.

The black armor crawled over the exposed parts of his body at the same time, curving over his fingers and around his neck, into his hair and across his face in fine threads of impenetrable jet.

"Please be careful. My father doesn't play fair."

Things didn't touch him in the depths of the Abyss, but he felt the care in her words wind around his heart, protecting it in armor that was invisible. "Wait for me, Liliana." Then he rose into a sky stained with the malevolence of a dark blood sorcerer.

The magic in that stain recoiled from his black armor, from the kiss of death that was the Abyss. But it didn't retreat. Instead, after a short hesitation, it curved around him, and he knew it had tasted the death, decided that it held no danger. It was wrong. The Lord of the Black Castle stood as the guardian against evil, no matter its form.

Arms down his side, he spread his fingers and said a single word. "Rise."

The ghosts of the Black Castle circled into the sky in a wave of cold, the wind vicious and cutting. He knew they wouldn't hurt Liliana where she stood looking up at him, a tiny figure clothed in green.

Around him, the ghosts formed a twisting ribbon of ice, and he knew it was time. "Hold."

The ribbon solidified into shimmering white on either side of him. An instant later, the ice coated his armor in glittering shards bright as diamonds.

The dark sorcerer's claw reached out again - only to scrape off the ice with a screech that had Liliana clapping her hands over her ears below. Perhaps he should've warned her, Micah thought with the part of his mind that remained of the man, not the Guardian, but he had told her to go inside. The shriek reverberated through the sky, through the dark sorcerer's power, shattering the stain into thousands of lethally sharp pieces. Those pieces began to ricochet back. Hard.

Micah smiled.

Chapter 15

Deep in the castle that had once been the heart of Elden, the Blood Sorcerer fell to his knees with a bone-chilling scream, his entire body covered with hundreds of cuts seeping thickest crimson. He hadn't seen this much of his own blood in decades.

A banging on the door.

"Leave me!" He couldn't be discovered in such a weakened state.

Hissing out a breath, he struggled to his feet - it had been a mistake to probe that realm. It was protected by something that had never welcomed the dark magics.

He had ever hated the wall of black that stood between him and the vicious nightmare of the Abyss. Oh, he cared nothing for the sorcerers trapped within, but if he ruled the Black Castle, he would have access not only to wealth incomparable, but also to all that power. Sweet, deadly, beautiful power.

But he couldn't go there. Not yet.

However, there were others who could - because though he called her stupid, his daughter was very smart, smart enough to have found a way to hide in the one place he wouldn't follow. His minions didn't understand why he wanted her back, didn't comprehend that she was his possession. None of his possessions had ever dared leave him.

He was going to hurt Liliana a great deal when he dragged her back. She'd beg him for death by the time he was done. Maybe he'd give it to her...or maybe not. His daughter was his most amusing toy. But before he could indulge himself with her, he had to find her.

Swiping the blood from one of his cuts, he fed it to the palm-sized spider on his desk. "It's time, I think, to awaken your brethren."

Chapter 16

Liliana's ears were still ringing an hour later. "Have you ever seen anything like that before?" she asked Jissa as they sat in the stone garden, shelling nuts simply because they wanted to be out in the sunshine after the cold. Goosebumps broke out on Liliana's arms at the memory.

Reaching over, Jissa rubbed at her skin with a tsking sound. "Always here. The ghosts. Always here." She removed her hand after a comforting pat. "Never saw them do that before, never, ever."

"Their power was different." It had tasted of death, but been pure in a way her father's magic never would be. "Jissa," she said, still thinking of death, "does the thought of the Always scare you?"

Jissa gave her a curious look. "Why would it? Happiness and golden magic, that is the Always. I would like to see it, yes, I would."

"Yes." Yet her kind friend remained trapped on this earth because of whatever it was the Blood Sorcerer had done to her when he'd killed her, stolen her life force. "Jissa...I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"You'll know one day." Until then, Liliana would steal a little more time with the first true friend she had ever had. "Here." She handed the brownie a funny-shaped nut. "It matches the rest of this castle's inhabitants."

The other woman laughed, but the sweet sound was drowned out by the roar of violent rage that came from within the castle. Placing the basket of unshelled nuts haphazardly on the ground, Liliana stood. "Micah."

"Liliana, don't!"

She didn't listen, running headlong toward the house. Huge hands clamped over her arms before she would've raced over the doorstep. Bard's eyes were liquid dark with sorrow, the shake of his head slow, so slow.

"Let me go." She forced herself to sound calm, though her blood thundered through her veins. "Please, Bard, let me go."