Niamh hadn’t fled when she found him. Instead, she’d bound him in layers of magic as natural as he was unnatural and sequestered him a private room in her home so he might renew in peace.

He welcomed the solace, the brief moments of touching the living world, even when the soul of Tineroth and her cursed waters shrieked inside his head for him to return. That compulsion could not be conquered. The city he once ruled had become the city he now served. Once he was whole again, he’d left Niamh’s house, leaving behind a key to the city and a promise to offer aid if she ever needed him. He never expected to see her again. He never dreamed he’d meet her daughter.

A light caress glided across the back of his hand, breaking into his bleak thoughts. In the torchlight, Imogen’s features were soft with sympathy. Her fingers laced with his over the Senet board. “I am so sorry, Cededa. Was it the Waters that healed you?”

He nodded. The colossal power trapped inside a tiny stream hidden far beneath Tineroth’s caves made Imogen’s bane look like child’s play. Burned to a mound of ash and blackened bone should have ended him. The agony he suffered during the burning made him beg for death, but even fire couldn’t conquer the Waters’ effects. Cededa was reborn, cinder by cinder until he stood before Niamh, whole and unmarked by his immolation, except for the memories scorched into his mind.

“The Waters are a blessing then,” Imogen said.

His hand convulsed in her clasp. “Is that what you believe?”

Her grip tightened, and her gray eyes narrowed. She peered at him intently, as if searching for the right words. “No, I don’t believe it. I believe you’re more cursed than I am.” She used her free hand in a gesture that encompassed not only the room they shared but Tineroth itself. “What blessing is there in living an immortal life caught between worlds? Alone?”

Cededa chuckled and lifted her hand, turning it to place a kiss in her palm. He could name one blessing now—he’d lived long enough to meet and fall in love with Niamh’s extraordinary daughter. He lowered her hand but kept it clasped in his. “I ruled an empire, one built by my grandfather and expanded by my father, but empires are more slippery than eels and harder to control. I needed more time to expand my lands, consolidate Tineroth’s power, bring other kingdoms under my rule. More time than a single mortal’s lifespan.”