Which should’ve been frightening. And yet it wasn’t, at least not to Ludo, and, he suspected, not to Bryony either. Instead, there was a certain symmetry to it all that wasn’t lost on him. The last time the three of them—Ludo, Bryony, and the Fire Eater—had been in the same vicinity had been on a night filled with fire, too.

Which made the lion man the odd one out.

“What do you want with her?” he demanded as he rose to his feet. The lion also clambered up to stand on two paws like a man rather than four like a beast. Then he bent to pick up Bryony, holding her across his powerful arms as if she weighed less than nothing.

“Want? Nothing. My name is Dagr and I was her guide to Comman Dur. That is all. She grew ill during the journey, but then paid me and told me to leave. Which I did. But something made me come back.”

Ludo nodded. He understood the pull toward something deadly. “Thank you. I owe you a debt, one I swear I will repay one day. But now you can leave. I have this handled.”

“Thank you for the invitation, but I think I shall stay.”

“Whoever you are, this isn’t your fight.”

“It never is, but I have a very bad habit of making it mine.”

“Fair enough, but I’ll take her from here.” He took a step forward, arms out, but the lion—Dagr—retreated a step.

“Maybe not,” he said.

“Listen, she is my responsibility and I’ll be damned if I let you—”

He cut off when a groan sounded a short distance away.

Cainan, the Fire Eater, dragged himself to his feet. His shirt sleeves had bunched up around his elbows, revealing blackened flesh that was too shiny, reminiscent of the skin of a charred log.

“Put me down,” came another voice, one that made Ludo’s heart skip a beat.

Bryony, eyes fluttering open, was placed back on her feet by the lion man, though she grabbed onto his arm for support. Ludo wished she would look in his direction, but she only had eyes for her father. Her lips opened, her voice weak and yet, ironically, full of more strength than he’d ever heard.

“You were supposed to be my rock, the one thing immovable in the flood, the only one I could cling to so as not to be swept away by the current. Instead, you turned your back on me. You walked away from us like we were nothing. Like we meant nothing. You’re a monster. And a monster must always be vanquished.”

Ludo was stunned by her words. “But I thought you were searching for him to…”