Dorothea shuddered. Sadi was out there, somewhere, with no leash to hold him. They could try to use the Eyrien half-breed as bait to draw him back, but Yasi was so nicely tucked into Pruul’s salt mines, and it would be a shame to pull him out before he was sufficiently broken in body and spirit. Besides, she doubted that even the Eyrien would be sufficient bait this time.

The sitting room door opened for the hooded figure.

“You sent for me, Sister?” Hekatah said, making no attempt to keep her annoyance out of her voice. She looked pointedly at the small table, empty of her expected carafe of blood. “It must be important to have made you forget such a paltry thing as refreshment.”

“Yes, it is.” You bag of bones. You parasite. All Hayll is in danger now. I am in danger now! Careful not to let her thoughts become apparent, Dorothea held up a note, slipping it in and out of her fingers. “From Greer.”

“Ah,” Hekatah said with barely suppressed excitement. “He has some news?”

“Better than that,” Dorothea answered slowly. “He says he has found a way to take care of your little problem.”

12 / Terreille

Greer sat on the white-sheeted bed in one of Briarwood’s private rooms, cradling what was left of his good hand.

It could have been worse. If that limping stable brat hadn’t slashed at him with a knife, slicing through his little finger so it only hung by a thread of skin, he never would have gotten the secondary controlling ring off in time when Sadi broke the Ring of Obedience. In that moment when he’d felt the Black explode, he’d ripped the finger off and flung it away from him. A guard, seeing something hurled toward him, grabbed instinctively, his hand closing around the ring.

Foolish man. Foolish, foolish man.

With the Ring of Obedience broken and with no way to know if Sadi had been hurt by the effort, Greer had run to Briarwood, where the healing would be done without questions. It was also the only place the Sadist wouldn’t strike at blindly. Here they had some leverage—at least for a few hours more. After that he would be gone, speeding back to Hayll to melt away among the many, encircled by Dorothea’s court. Briarwood and its patrons would still be here to quench Sadi’s thirst for vengeance.

Greer lay down on the bed, letting the painkillers lull him into much-needed rest. In a few short hours, the Dark Priestess’s little problem would be no more, and Sadi…

Let the bastard scream.

13 / Hell

Saetan made another erratic circuit around his private study. He stared at Cassandra’s portrait.

He stared at the tangled web he’d finished a short time ago, at the warning that may have come too late.

He shook his head slowly, denying what the vision in the tangled web had shown him.

An inner web still intact. A shattered crystal chalice. And blood. So much blood.