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“You on the up-and-up?” Shade asked. “Because you pull any shit like you did last time, and I will gut you. Runa won’t stop me this time.”

“Shade!” Runa scolded. “He’s fine.”

“Overprotective, much?” Arik glared. “And what the fuck are you talking about?”

“Hey, everyone, why don’t we give Arik some time to rest?” Limos, changed into a bright blue sundress, hurried outside, her smile so fake and unsteady that it was obvious she was trying to keep Shade and Runa from answering Arik’s question.

“No deal, Secretariat. I don’t need any rest.” He swiveled around to Shade, knowing the demon would give it to him straight. People who didn’t give a shit about you were always the most honest. “Answer me.”

“Arik, this isn’t necessary.” Limos took Arik’s arm to lead him away, but he didn’t budge, and Shade didn’t seem inclined to listen to her either.

“Let me refresh your memory.” Shadows writhed in Shade’s dark eyes, and he poked Arik in the chest with one finger. “We were here yesterday. You beat the shit out of Runa. Broke her cheekbone, smashed her nose, and fractured three ribs.”

The ground shifted beneath Arik’s feet. “That’s not possible. I would never—”

“It’s okay, Arik,” Runa said. “You were out of your mind. You didn’t know what was real.”

“No way.” He shook his head, as if he could shake loose his memories. “I can remember my locker combination from boot camp, so I would have fucking remembered laying my hands on my own sister.” Just saying those words made his stomach turn inside out.

“There are a lot of things you can’t recall.” Limos moved toward him, and something inside him got all shivery in anticipation of her touch. She had a healing effect on him, as evidenced by the way she’d brought him out of the hellish existence inside his own head.

But right now, he didn’t want to be healed. He wanted to remember.

He wheeled around, slapping his palms down on the deck rail. Runa joined him, her caramel-honey hair blowing in the breeze.

“Arik, everything is fine. I shifted and healed most of it, and Eidolon healed the rest. No damage was done.”

It was nice of her to try to console him, but he knew better. She’d suffered so much as a child, and being beaten had to have brought back memories best left buried. And wait… buried… when he’d been at the engagement party for Cara and Ares, Cara had told him about how Ares had used his special skill on her when they’d first met.

“He erased my memories so I wouldn’t freak out,” she’d said. “Which, of course, I did the moment he unlocked them.”

“Son of a bitch.” He sputchourn around to Limos. “You erased my memories, didn’t you?”

“No.” She said it so easily, so convincingly that he wanted to believe her, but something was off. A flare in her eyes, or a twitch of muscle, or maybe it was just the same hinky sense of unease he’d felt whenever his father told him something Arik wanted desperately to believe.

I’ll be there for your ball game, I promise. This Christmas, we really will have presents. I swear I’ll quit drinking.

Yeah, Arik’s bullshit meter was pegged at the max.

“You want to try that again, Horseman?” Please, please tell me the truth. If she said no again, he’d take it. He’d believe it, just like he’d believed his dad all those years ago. But when she just stood there, his heart sank. “You did it, didn’t you? What else am I missing in my head?”

Her mouth opened. Closed. Son of a bitch. Of everything that had been done to him over the last month, this was what felt like the biggest violation.

He turned to Kynan. “I was wrong. I don’t want to stay here. Let’s go.”

It had been three days since Arik had gone. The house felt empty, which was weird, because Limos had never thought of her house as being empty. But then, maybe that was why she had the other, public villa on the other side of the island, where she always had a party going on.

She didn’t like empty.

She also didn’t like Sheoul, with its claustrophobic atmosphere, sinister vibes, and hazy light, but here she was, riding Bones along a path in the Horun region, sandwiched between