Looking at the trail, Breanna saw the man coming out of the woods. He was handsome, with his black hair and fair skin. He was too far away to see the color of his eyes.

“Jean, get in the house,” she said quietly.

“So you can impress him?” Jean replied nastily. She gave the man a sweet smile of welcome.

The man stopped and gave Jean a long, considering look. When he resumed walking toward them, the look he gave Falco was as scalding as Jean’s had been.

“So this is where you’ve hidden yourself,” the man said harshly, stopping a few lengths away from them.

“This is where I live now,” Falco replied.

“Where you live? Have you forgotten what you are? Have you forgotten your duty to your Clan?”

“I’m needed here.”

“To do what? To be what? A witch’s pet?” The man looked angry, disgusted. “When they told me you were down here, playing the tame Fae, I told them they were wrong. I told them Falco knew his duty to his Clan, and if he was cozying up to a witch here, it was only to seduce her into trusting him. Then he would persuade her to go back to Brightwood with him, and we would have a witch again to anchor the magic, to hold the shining road open. We would have a witch again who would perform the duty to the Fae she was meant to perform and free my sister from the burden. That’s what I told them. Now I see they were right. You’ve abandoned your Clan, abandoned your own kind. For what? Does she even spread her legs for you, or are you so pale a man that you don’t even demand that much for whatever favors you bestow here?”

Incensed, Breanna raised her bow, drew back the bowstring, and took aim at the center of the man’s chest. “Who do you think you are?”

“Tell her,” the man commanded, pointing a finger at Falco.

Falco hesitated. Then he said, “This is Lucian. The Lord of the Sun, the Lord of Fire. The Lightbringer.”

Perhaps it was because the two men expected her to be intimidated, awed, maybe even frightened about confronting the male leader of the Fae that power rose in her as sharp, sizzling temper.

“Well, good for him,” Breanna said. “You may see the Lord of Fire, but all I see is an intruder I’m going to shoot if he doesn’t get off our land.”

“Breanna.” Falco sounded shocked, almost breathless.

“Breanna!” Jean said, sounding equally shocked. “How can you say such a thing to our guest?”

Mother’s tits! She’d forgotten about Jean. “I told you to get back to the house,” she said sternly. She didn’t like the calculating look on Lucian’s face, as if he were considering a filly he wanted to add to his stables.