“The Tuatha Dé decided they could no longer remain among mankind. That very eve, they vanished. ’Tis said that for three days after they left, the sun was eclipsed by dark clouds, the oceans lay still upon the shores, and all the fruit in the land withered on the limb.

“In their fury, the thirteen Druids turned to the teachings of an ancient, forbidden god, ‘one whose name is best forgotten, hence not scribed herein.’ The god to whom the Druids supplicated themselves was a primitive god, spawned in the earliest mists of Gaea. Calling upon those darkest of powers, armed with the knowledge the Tuatha Dé had given them, the Druids attempted to follow the immortal ones, to seize their lore, and steal the secret of eternal life.”

“So they really were . . . er, are immortal?” Chloe breathed.

“’Twould seem so, lass,” Dageus said. He skimmed the text again. “Give me a moment, there are no comparable words for some of this.” Another long pause. “I think this is the gist of it: What the thirteen did not know is that the realms—I can’t think of a better word—within realms are impenetrable by force. Such travel therein is a delicate process of . . . er, sifting or straining time and place. In their attempt to brutalize or coerce a path between the realms, the thirteen Druids nearly tore them all asunder. The Tuatha Dé, sensing the distress in the . . . weaving of the world, returned to avert catastrophe.

“The Tuatha Dé’s fury was immense. They scattered their once-friends, now bitter enemies, to the far corners of the earth. They punished the evil ones, the Druids who’d chosen greed over honor, who’d loved power more than they’d valued the sanctity of life—not by killing them—but by locking them into a place between realms, giving them the immortality for which they’d lusted. Eternity in nothingness, without form, without cease.”

“By Amergin, would that not be hell?” Silvan breathed.

Chloe nodded with wide eyes.

Dageus made a choking noise. “Och, so that’s who the Draghar are!”

“Who?” Chloe and Silvan said as one.

He frowned. “The scribe tells that even before the disagreement with the Tuatha Dé, the thirteen Druids had formed a separate, secret sect within the larger numbers of their brethren, with their own talisman and name. Their symbol was a winged serpent, and they called themselves the Draghar.”

It was Chloe’s turn to make a strangled sound. “A w-winged serpent?”

Dageus glanced at her. “Aye. Does that mean something to you, lass?” he asked swiftly.

“Dageus, that man who attacked me in your penthouse—didn’t you see his tattoo?”

He shook his head. “I saw it, but I didn’t get a good look at it. I doona ken what it was.”

“It was a winged serpent! I saw it up close when he was on top of me in the kitchen.”