A light brush against his inner barriers. He opened the first barrier, and his father’s deep voice rolled through his mind as Saetan spoke those fluid words.

Suddenly he was a child again, listening to that voice teaching him phrases in the Old Tongue in exactly the same way. He thought he’d learned the language from the scholars, but they’d only awakened the memories of what he’d learned from the man standing before him.

He said the words over and over, until he wasn’t sure if he was hearing his father’s voice or his own.

Another light brush against his mind, and Saetan withdrew.

Folding the parchment, Daemon tucked it in his jacket pocket. “What does it mean?”

“ ‘You are my breath, my life, my heart.’ ” Saetan smiled. “Does that say enough?”

Tears stung his eyes. “That says everything.”

Saetan kissed him. “Your Lady is waiting for you.”

They opened the glass doors and walked across the terrace, side by side. Then Saetan stepped back and he was alone, walking the rest of the way across the grass to where his finest dreams waited for him to begin the next season of their lives.

Read on for an exciting excerpt from

SEBASTIAN
Anne Bishop

This darkly romantic fantasy begins
a stunning new series set in the world of
Ephemera—a land where the
only constant is change. . . .

Available from Roc

Present

Present

Standing at the kitchen counter, Sebastian closed his eyes and inhaled slowly and deeply to savor the smell of freshly ground koffea beans. Better than a woman. At least, a more sensual experience than the last two he’d been with

When an incubus found sex boring, it was time to take a break—or think about another line of work.

Pushing that thought into the mental trunk where he’d shoved so many unpleasant memories, he followed the rest of the instructions for brewing the koffea beans.

What would it be like to rise in the first wisps of dawn and come out to the kitchen to grind the beans while someone who truly mattered was snuggled in his bed, waiting to be awakened with a nuzzle and a kiss—and a cup of freshly brewed koffee? What would it be like to stand outside, cup in hand, and watch the day come alive?

Sebastian shook his head. Why was he rubbing salt into emotional wounds, thinking about things that couldn’t be? He lived in the Den of Iniquity, which consisted of a few blocks of crowded buildings and cobblestone streets—a place that, most likely, had been an unsavory part of some large city, nothing but a dark smudge in a daylight landscape. Then a Landscaper had altered the world, turning those streets into a separate landscape, and that had changed the feel of living on those streets, had changed the taverns, gambling houses, and brothels into a carnal carnival.