"Can you leave your ship docked here?"
"Yes."
"Follow me."
Nero scowled. "What are we doing?"
"Something that is going to seriously wreck Trajen's day. Probably get my ass kicked. But since we rescued Jules, we're in luck. We have the one Andarion on board his ship who can back Trajen down. So let's go have some fun at his expense, I say."
*
Kyr Zemin, the prime commander of The League, went cold as he watched the latest report from Andaria. And he saw the images coming through.
Especially the one of Eriadne's head hanging from a flagpole that currently contained an Alliance flag with a Tavali, Sentella, and Andarion one below it.
And a League flag that bore an obscenity along with the name of one former Andarion prince he intended to hunt down and skewer.
His breathing ragged, he saw red. And it wasn't just the uniform he was wearing. Picking up his link, he called his second-in-command.
"How the hell did we lose Andaria?" he growled without preamble.
"The Sentella, sir. They came in without warning. They were led by the former tahrs himself."
"And no one picked up anything? Like, say, an entire fucking Sentella attack fleet flying through our airspace?"
"No, sir."
"Useless!" Kyr cut the transmission as his anger roiled through every part of his being.
Choking on it, he pulled out the single photograph he had of his wife and daughter. His one and only tie to them.
It was so old and tattered--like his withered heart and soul.
Even now, he could hear the sounds of Nisa screaming in his ear as she was murdered, calling out to him on his link to help her.
But he'd been on the other side of the galaxy on a bullshit assignment. Too far away to get to her or do anything other than die inside as they ravaged her. Agony tore him apart as he relived that day.
His beautiful daughter would be grown now. Every time he passed by a girl the age she would be had she lived, who bore any feature similar to her or her mother, he imagined her as his own. Imagined what it would be like to have her call him Dad and to greet him with a happy, loving smile.
It was all he'd ever wanted in his life. He'd given up everything to be with Nisa. His royal titles. His throne.
His father's love.
None of that had mattered.
Only her.
And after she was gone, all he'd wanted was the throat of the bastards who had taken his precious Nisa and Risald from him.
Nykyrian Quiakides had denied him that justice.
"Nemesis, my minsid ass!" he growled. That rancid bastard didn't believe in justice for victims. If he did, he'd have stood down and given Kyr what he needed to sleep at night. Nykyrian would have allowed him the satisfaction of ripping the heart from the one who'd gutted him. Instead, Nykyrian took the kill for his own selfish reasons.
And instead of killing Kyr when he could have and ending his fucking misery, once and for all, Nykyrian had taken his eye and left him here in this eternal hell.
For those sins, he wouldn't rest until he stood over Nykyrian's grave.
The Sentella may have won the battle today, but the war was far from over.
And Kyr still had one of their own he commanded. One not even Saf knew about. His little brother had no idea what he was playing with. Saf thought himself clever, but he was nothing more than a tenderhearted tool Kyr manipulated.
Before all was said and done, he would teach them the price of crossing The League. His family, and especially that hybrid bastard who had started this the day he failed to mind his place as a simple League assassin.
*
"Wow," Nykyrian said slowly as he came off the ramp to a sadly lackluster greeting of a large group that actually pouted to see his arrival. "Good thing my ego's solid or this would hurt my feelings."
Kiara laughed as she approached him with Zarina in her arms and kissed his lips. "Don't feel bad. They've been doing that to every ship that lands. They're waiting for your brother to arrive."
Dancer snorted irritably as he saw the huge group with banners, balloons, and flowers. "Damn. I need a better press agent."
Pausing at his side, Fain draped his arm around his brother's shoulders. "Hang the bitch's head from a flagpole, and we'll throw you a welcome party next time."
Kiara made a face. "Did he really? I mean, I saw the pictures, but I was hoping they were faked."
Nykyrian grimaced in a similar fashion. "Yeah ... no, they weren't faked. They were quite real. Jullien definitely had some leftover childhood trauma he needed to get out of his system." He flashed an exaggerated smile at her. "Been there."
Laughing, Syn and Shahara joined them as they disembarked from one of the other ships. "Drey, we all have, especially with your grandmother."
While waiting on everyone to return, they went to stand with Nykyrian's parents and aunt, and their own families, who were slightly segregated from the Gorturnum and Fyrebloods. Not because The Sentella had a problem with them. Just that the Gorts were an extremely mistrustful group.
And they seemed to have a lot of problems with Nykyrian's parents and aunt, which made Nykyrian rather nervous.
Nykyrian held Tiernan while he watched Jullien's daughters running around in a game of chase with their older brother, Taryn, Thia, and other cousins. "You didn't want to play with them?"
Tiernan pouted. "I did, but Mama was afraid I'd get hurt and made me stop."
He glanced over to Kiara.
"His heart rate was too high."
Nykyrian grimaced at something that always concerned them, and made them even more protective of their youngest son than they were of the others.
Tiernan's congenital heart defect. "Sorry, bug."
"Me, too, Daddy."
Finally, Trajen's ship began docking. The adult Tavali quickly rounded up the kids to a safe distance from the docking equipment and ship's engines and ramps. Nykyrian had to smile at the expert way they wrangled them in. It was obvious they had a lot of practice doing it.
And when Jullien came down the ramp, it sounded like a rock star was in the bay. Nykyrian had never heard such a cacophony of joyous screams or seen so many rush forward in greeting in his life.
When his parents started to join the crowd, he stopped them.
His mother scowled at him. "What are you doing?"
"We're not his family, Matarra."
"I'm his mother."
Nykyrian jerked his chin toward Unira, who was embracing Jullien with tears streaming down her face. She clutched at his shoulders and held on to him in a way he knew his own mother had never done with Jullien. That was someone who only wanted the best for her child and who never wanted to let him out of her arms.
"Not anymore. Trust me. If you have any love for him at all, the kindest thing you can do is let him go with your blessings. Don't try to tether his heart to our broken past. He's right. We've all hurt each other too much. Maybe in time we can reunite as friends. But for now, he's where he belongs. Look at how much they love and accept him. That's what he needs to heal. Don't taint this moment for him."
His father swallowed hard. "What made you so wise?"
"It's not wisdom. Some of it's self-preservation. While I like the new Jullien, I haven't forgotten or forgiven the old one. One day, I might have a bad flashback or psychotic episode that ends with his bloody demise. The farther he stays away from me, the less likely he is to be within my striking distance should that happen.... I am, after all, a fully trained League assassin."
*
Jullien's eyes watered as he held his little girls against his chest and they bounced with giddy laughter. He never wanted to let them go again. Love and relief overwhelmed him so much that he couldn't speak. He'd never expected a homecoming like this. It looked like half the base was here to greet him.
Nadya stood at his back, hugging him with her sisters and cousins. Even little Taryn was here with his Dagger Ixur Canting still pinned to his slee
ve.
One by one, Jullien hugged and kissed each child there.
As he rose to his feet, Sheila shook her head at him. "You are ever our bane, Shithead. What are we to do with you?"
"No idea."
As if on cue, Anders, the XO of the Hadean Corps who'd arrested Jullien and Davel for fighting back in his early days here, walked up nonchalantly and clapped Jullien on the biceps. "Glad to have you back, Admiral," he said dryly. "Glad to have you back."
The instant he walked off, Ushara burst out laughing.
Jullien scowled at her. "What?"
Pointing at his arm, she fanned herself as she continued to laugh.
Thraix took one look at it and also laughed, along with Mary. "You've been officially marked now, boy. IRIS."
Jullien looked down and groaned at the sight of the red, black, and gold Tavali Special Forces patch that was reserved for their lunatic brigade they sent out on the most dangerous runs through the deadliest sectors. These were the kind of pilots who made Psycho Bunny and Jupiter appear timid in comparison. Two inverted pyramids, split with a divided skull and flanked with lightning bolts and wings, and topped by a rising sun and an explosion over the IRIS acronym, which stood for I Require Intense Supervision.
Trajen also held such a patch from his non-HAP days.
Yeah. Jullien would be offended, if it weren't true.
Ushara sighed. "I guess this means that the day will never come when I can leave you alone and you won't find trouble?"
"Nope. Face it, my love. You're stuck with me."
Ushara would have it no other way.
And as they left the bay, surrounded by loving family, to head for their home, and the party her parents had prepared for his arrival, and Jullien didn't ask about his brother or birth parents, she realized something....
After all these years and all this time, the phantom pain that had lingered behind his stralen eyes was no longer there.
Since the day his grandmother had attempted to kill his brother, Jullien had felt that he'd stolen Nykyrian's life away from him and done his brother irreparable harm. Now that he'd saved Nykyrian's wife and children that Nykyrian needed most to be happy, and returned them to his brother's side, Jullien finally felt that he'd evened the score.
That he could now live in peace, free from the family that had anchored him in misery. Free from the guilt that had flogged him relentlessly.
His ghosts haunted him no more.
EPILOGUE
Unira smiled as she handed Jullien his infant son. Ever dutiful in their roles, Vasili and Trajen stood by his side for the exordiom.
"What name is he to carry?" Unira asked.
Jullien hesitated. That had been a hard decision for him. Andarion custom dictated that mothers and grandmothers choose the names of daughters, and that fathers chose the names of their sons so as to honor their fathers and those they admired. There was no way in Tophet he was going to name his son for his birth father.
And both Gavin and Dimitri carried Petran's name already. However, after much consideration, there was only one name he wanted for what might be the only son he would ever be blessed enough to name....
"Trajen Vidarri."
Ushara's grandfather smiled proudly. Trajen's eyes widened as if he was shocked by the choice.
"And the name he will use?"
"Vidarri."
Unira hesitated before she finished his exordiom--which concerned him. Had he broken some kind of Demurrist custom out of ignorance?
Even Ushara was looking at him strangely as she took the baby from his hands and cuddled him to her shoulder. While they had agreed on the name, they had also decided that Trajen would be his daily name, even though they'd been calling him Vidar between them. But now that it was time to make it permanent, Jullien preferred the Vidarri they'd been using over Trajen. Besides, it would be less confusing.
Why would that be a problem?
It wasn't until temple ended that he found out the answer.
Ushara let out a tired breath. "Vidarri Samari? Really? Was it your goal to have him beaten up in school?"
Jullien slapped his forehead as he realized what he'd unintentionally done to his poor child. "Shkyte! I didn't even think of that. In my mind, I always referred to him has Vidar."
"It's all right. I forgive you." She kissed his cheek. "However, your son probably won't.... Ever," she breathed teasingly.
But as they entered the banquet hall, Jullien drew up short to find Nykyrian and his family, along with their parents and the entire Sentella High Command there.
Nykyrian handed him an ale. "You didn't really think we'd miss your son's exordiom, did you?"
"I had no idea you knew about it."
Ushara grinned. "I invited them. I hope you don't mind."
"Not at all. Thank you."
Fain and Dancer laughed as they looked at Nykyrian and Jullien standing together.
"You know," Dancer said to his brother. "This is the one thing I never thought I'd live to see ... the two of you in one room without bloodshed. Damn, we're getting old."
Nykyrian snorted. "I'm not what's aging you." He inclined his head toward Hauk's daughter, who was dancing with Nyk's son Jayce.
"Lea-lea!" Dancer snapped before he went to separate them.
Fain laughed even harder. "Those two are going to get married one day."
"Gah, I hope so. It's the only thing that'll keep that boy out of The League."
Jullien scowled at his brother. "Why do you say that?"
"It's all he talks about. Him and Adron. They terrify me with it."
Jullien narrowed his eyes as he remembered a verse in the Book of Harmony. "Careful what seeds you plant. For the most bitter harvest is the one you could have prevented."
Nykyrian lifted his brow. "What's that?"
"An old Trisani saying.... Speaking of, has anyone heard from Bastien lately?"
Nyk shook his head. "Not since he went after his family."
Jullien had expected to hear something by now. But as each day passed with no word, he began to fear the worst.
"How can you possibly be sad today?" Ushara placed Vidarri in Jullien's hands.
He smiled instantly. "Not sad at all. Just worried about Bastien."
"Shara!" Mary and Ana cried in unison. "Presents!"
She sighed heavily. "Please put him down for his nap for me?"
"Absolutely." He kissed her cheek, then tucked Vidarri against his chest to sleep.
Nykyrian frowned at him. "Is that down?"
Trajen snorted as he joined them. "For him, it is. I think the girls were ... what? Three before you let them sleep in their own beds without supervision?"
"About that age."
An instant later, an alarm went off.
Vidarri woke up as everyone realized The League was attacking one of the Gorturnum's bases.
Ushara rushed to take Vidarri from Jullien. "Stay out of trouble."
"I'll do my best."
She screwed her face up, then looked to Thraix. "Keep him out of trouble."
"How did I get to be his keeper?"
Ushara turned her gaze toward Mary, who then looked at her husband.
Mary kissed him. "Keep Jules out of trouble, Thraix."
"Yes, ma'am," he said dutifully. Then he glared at Jullien. "I hate you."
With a sad countenance, Vasili sighed as he met Jullien near the door. "I know, Paka. Stay and watch my sisters."
Jullien fisted his hand in his son's white-blond hair and pulled him in for a hug. Then he made the hardest decision of his life.
"Grab your gear."
Vasili gasped. "What?"
"Are you not part of my crew?"
"Yeah ... I mean, yes, sir!"
"Then grab your gear and haul your ass. We have a battle waiting."
He took off like a jackrabbit.
Tears filled Ushara's eyes as fear wedged in her heart. But she knew Jullien was right. They couldn't hold Vasili at home forever. He was
old enough, and it was better he learn under someone who loved him than a callous captain who wouldn't lay his life down to protect him.
This was how life was meant to be. It was scary at times, but you had to trust in the ones you loved to see you through the madness of it.
Jullien winked at her. "Don't worry, Shara. I won't break your heart. You are my Darling star, and no matter how dark the night or how perilous my journey, your divine light alone will always guide me home."
ALSO BY SHERRILYN KENYON
THE LEAGUE
Born of Night
Born of Fire
Born of Ice
Born of Fury
Born of Defiance
Born of Betrayal
THE DARK-HUNTERS
Fantasy Lover
Night Pleasures
Night Embrace
Dance with the Devil
Kiss of the Night
Night Play
Seize the Night
Sins of the Night
Unleash the Night
Dark Side of the Moon
The Dream-Hunter
Devil May Cry
Upon the Midnight Clear
Dream Chaser
Acheron
One Silent Night
Dream Warrior
Bad Moon Rising
No Mercy
Retribution
The Guardian
Dark-Hunter Companion
Time Untime
Styxx
Dark Bites
Son of No One
Dragonbane
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times bestselling author SHERRILYN KENYON is a regular in the #1 spot. This extraordinary bestseller continues to top every genre in which she writes. More than 60 million copies of her books are in print in more than one hundred countries. Her current series include The Dark-Hunters, The League, and Chronicles of Nick. Her Chronicles of Nick and Dark-Hunter series are soon to be major motion pictures. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
An Ancient Andarion Legend