"Well... yeah." She scowled. "You just held out your hand for my keys in that preemptory way, and then I had to argue on principle."

He sighed. He was truly mystified by how happy she made him. "Get in the car, Sophie."

She gave him an arch look. "I'm getting in the car because I choose to get into the car. Not because you told me to."

He barked out a laugh.

Happiness. The emotion felt foreign, breakable. On the way back he reached over and laced his fingers through hers and drove one-handed.

Turning onto the property, he saw the troops had started to clear away the cottage rubble and the downed trees. When he switched off the engine, they looked over the land. An army camp had been erected. The doors to the manor house had been taken down, and there were two visible cracks in the outer structure.

"Ten million pounds is so much money," she said doubtfully.

"You are the world's worst negotiator," he told her. "As serious as our problems are, Lyonesse's treasury is rich. Now that we have a viable crossover pa.s.sage, we need to have access to it. Take the deal."

"Well, I don't really have a choice." She waved a hand at the mess in front of them. "I don't have the means to fix this, and you deserve to have the property. I'm just a little sad about it. I had been planning on living here."

"The land can be healed," he said. "It'll be green again. We'll plant trees and restore the lake. We want to make this our permanent headquarters so you and I can build a house here. We'll need to build several structures to house a permanent fighting force to protect this place. That tunnel is our only viable crossover pa.s.sageway, at least for now. I think even the manor house can be repaired, at least enough to make the structure safe again, although Annwyn wants to tear it down. She says the very fact of it is offensive to her."

Sophie made a face and sighed. "When I think of why the house was built in the first place, and the Dark Court perspective on what happened here, I can't blame her. What would happen to the annuity?"

"That's a question we can ask Paul."

As they climbed out of the car, Annwyn stepped out of the manor house and strode to meet them. She touched Nikolas's shoulder in greeting and turned to study Sophie in frank a.s.sessment. Having grown so accustomed to the clothing fashions on Earth, Nikolas found Annwyn's boots, leggings, and tunic a disturbing combination of the familiar and the strange.

She was just as he had remembered her-sleek and racy as a cheetah, and just as dangerous. The sunlight touched on the strands of white at the temples of her auburn hair.

"I'm glad you've decided to return," Annwyn said to Sophie, offering her hand. "I've been hearing stories about you from Gawain, Rowan, and the others."

Color touched Sophie's cheeks as she shook Annwyn's hand. "I deny all the bad bits."

Annwyn laughed. "There are no bad bits. Do you accept my offer to buy this land?"

"Yes, on one condition. I want to explore the contents of the library with you. If there's anything relevant that pertains to the Dark Court, it's yours, but I want everything else." Sophie shrugged. "I don't even know if it will be interesting or if I'll want to keep it. I just don't want to give the whole thing away sight unseen."

Annwyn c.o.c.ked her head as she considered. "That's acceptable. It's a deal." She paused. "I want you to consider something else as well. There are other broken crossover pa.s.sageways. With some exploration, we might be able to make one or two of them viable as well. Will you help us?"

"I'll do what I can," Sophie said. "I'm not as Powerful as a full Djinn though. If we find I'm not able to help, you can always see what they might be able to do for you. If you go that route, just please be careful when you bargain with them."

"I have a condition of my own about that," Nikolas said. Both women turned to look at him, eyebrows raised. He said to Annwyn, "She doesn't go to any of the other broken pa.s.sageways without me."

"Done." Annwyn smiled. She strode off.

Sophie watched the other woman walk across the torn lawn. "What about the crossover pa.s.sageways Morgan has hidden?"

"We haven't figured out yet how to dissipate his spells." Nikolas crossed his arms. "He's also hidden the pa.s.sageways that lead to Avalon, the Light Court land, so if we can figure out how to reveal our pa.s.sageways, we can uncover theirs again too. That reminds me, have you seen Robin? Somehow he escaped from Isabeau, so he might have found a way to use their pa.s.sageways."

The corners of her mouth turned down. "He stopped by yesterday morning to say good-bye. He said he's going to strike a blow at the heart of her strength. I'm worried he might have meant he's going to attack Morgan."

Nikolas pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're going to have to trust he knows what he's doing-or at the very least that he can keep from getting captured again."

"He promised to come back when he could. I hope he returns soon." She squared her shoulders and turned to face him. "We need to get back to something you said earlier."

She looked like she was ready to go into battle again. He crossed his arms and readied himself. "What's that?"

"You said we'll build a house together, but Nik, I'm not going to move in with you."

His impulse to smile died away. He scowled. "Of course you are."

"No," she said, "no, I'm not. We've known each other for four days."

"Seventeen," he reminded her.

A not-quite-smile trembled on her lips. "Seventeen," she agreed. "But no matter how you do the math, like we said, it hasn't been very long. So we've both agreed we're together, but that doesn't mean we need to live together. In fact, I think that would be disastrous. You go ahead and build your own house, and I'll find some place to rent in town."

"Unacceptable," he snapped.

She c.o.c.ked her head and planted her feet in a st.u.r.dy, immoveable stance. "I'm sorry you're going to have a difficult time with my decision."

"No, Sophie-I'm serious. It's not acceptable. If you move to town, I'm going to have to a.s.sign a security detail to you twenty-four/seven. That's going to cost me fifteen to twenty men."

Her eyes flew wide. She gave him a look filled with horror. "Oh no. You're not doing that. No security."

"Yes, security," he growled. "Put aside our personal relationship for the moment. You've become a major a.s.set to us, and that means you've become a major target. If Isabeau got her hands on you, she would have you disemboweled for half the things you've done."

"Ugh!" She dug the heels of her hands into her eyes and turned her back to him.

She was so clearly upset his frustration with her intransigence evaporated. Walking up behind her, he slipped his arms around her and rested his cheek on top of her head.

"I do hear what you're saying," he said after a moment. "There are five acres here, and Annwyn is looking to see if she can buy more." He pointed in the direction of the lake, or at least where the lake had been and where it would be again. "When we restore the lake, we'll build you a place there. How would you like that?"

She sniffed and leaned back against him. "I'd like that a lot."

He swiveled her around to face the opposite direction. "And we'll build a house for me over there. We'll be as far apart as we can possibly be from each other, all right?"

"Oh for G.o.d's sake," she exclaimed. "That wasn't the point. I didn't mean for us to be as far apart as we can possibly be from each other, I just think it would be healthy to keep our own s.p.a.ces so we don't kill each other while we work on developing our relat-"

He slipped a hand over her mouth, cutting off the flow of words, and said in her ear, "You need more o.r.g.a.s.ms, don't you?"

She froze. Then nodded.

"I thought so," he whispered. He bit lightly at her neck. "I might need a few more myself."

But where do we go? she asked.

He lifted his head. Urgency roughened his voice. "They'll have a tent set up for me."

He was correct. They did have a tent set up for him. As befitting a commander, it was a s.p.a.cious and comfortable two-room affair, with a bed in one area and a sitting room with table and chairs for meetings in the other.

Tearing off their clothes, they fell into the bed, and together they made again that pure, shining creation.

A love bigger than anything else.

That was their respite. Their refuge.

In the following weeks, Nikolas's duties took long, demanding hours. He coordinated an intensive search for Morgan and the Hounds that had escaped the battle, which ultimately turned frustrating.

"Morgan was wounded twice with silver-tipped arrows," Nikolas said one night, burning off his frustration by pacing in the sitting area of his tent. "I saw it. He won't be able to heal those wounds magically. He's at his weakest right now, yet we can't find him."

"Are you saying Morgan is a lycanthrope?" Sophie set aside the book she was reading.

"He's not just the Captain of Isabeau's Hounds," Nikolas told her. "He is a Hound himself. That's how he's survived all these centuries. If he had remained a human, he would have died a very long time ago. He must have reached Avalon to disappear so completely."

She uncurled from her position on the settee and approached to rub his back. "Don't get discouraged," she said. "We've still made so many strides."

We, she'd said.

That small, simple word warmed him.

Turning, he pulled her into his arms and soaked in the comfort she offered. Not that long ago, he had lived a barren existence where there had been no comfort to be found. "Yes, we have made huge strides."

As the summer turned heavy, ripe and golden, the sale of the manor house went through, and Sophie became a wealthy woman. They celebrated by having a picnic on the floor of her new, four-room cottage. When the needs of the Dark Court became less urgent, she talked about searching for what happened to her family, but it was never with any sense of personal urgency. She knew her parents must be dead. She just wanted, someday, to discover their story.

Sophie and three Dark Court scholars began to inspect the contents of the library. It would take a while to get through everything. Many of the doc.u.ments had been half eaten by mice, and none of it was organized. There were estate records, correspondence, bills of sale, and a hodgepodge of ill.u.s.trated books that looked to be in the best shape, as they had been stored in trunks and apparently never handled or read.

The army engineers got scaffolding erected throughout the manor house to support the areas that had been weakened. Knowing they needed to complete many of the new buildings by winter, the barracks, communal halls, and small, individual houses were built quickly.

Those who had an affinity for land magic worked on healing the scars Morgan had created. They trucked in mature trees to replace copses and hired workers from town to handle electrical wiring, gas pipelines, and other modern Earth techniques that were foreign to the Dark Court engineers.

Nikolas had been concerned about how the townspeople in Westmarch would react to having such a strong Dark Court force on their doorstep, but they were such an economic boon to the area, everyone he talked to professed themselves delighted, especially when he coordinated with the local constabulary to increase security in the area.

Annwyn began to search for physicians who might be able to help with the malady that held Oberon in its icy grip. After talking with Sophie, Annwyn researched Kathryn Shaw's background and made an initial approach to hire her for a consultation on Oberon's condition.

Kathryn turned Annwyn down. While, Kathryn replied, she was sympathetic to the Dark Court's plight, as the official doctor for the sentinels who governed the Wyr demesne in New York, she had her own duty to attend to, and the time slippage between Lyonesse and Earth was too extreme.

Nikolas moved into his house and got a new car since his Porsche had disappeared. Sophie moved into hers. In theory, separate dwellings were a good idea, but the reality was, either he slept at her place, or she slept at his.

Unless they fought. Then five acres didn't seem like nearly enough s.p.a.ce to put between them.

We, she had said.

Nikolas couldn't let it go.

One morning in her cottage, Sophie announced, "My visa is going to expire in a few weeks. According to Paul, I'm going to have to leave the UK and come back in. It shouldn't be that big of a deal. I'll show proof that I have an income and apply for residency."

"You don't have to go through all that." Nikolas gathered his clothing off the floor where they had dropped it the night before. "Apply for Dark Court citizenship. Annwyn will grant it in two seconds."

"Not going to happen." She shook her head.

He pulled his shirt over his head and frowned at her. "Why on earth not? You can still keep your American citizenship. You'll have more legal protections, and you won't have to leave and come back again."

"No, Nik. I'm not going to become a citizen of your demesne." She sat on the edge of the bed to tie her shoes.

"Of my demesne." What happened to we? "You need to think about this rationally."

"Oh, believe me," she said. "I have."

He planted his fists on his hips and glared at her. "Prove it."

"If I become a citizen of your demesne, I become subject to your laws. And because you're high up in the governance of the Dark Court, and you're the commander of the military, I become subject to your authority. That's not going to happen. You're overpowering enough as it is. Remember, I am my own sovereign state."

"That's ridiculous," he snapped. "n.o.body is their own sovereign state. You're subject to all kinds of laws. Besides, when you marry me, you'll become a Dark Court citizen anyway."

She wagged a finger. "Nope. Nopers. Noperooni."

"Those aren't even words!" he shouted.

She fixed him with a glare. "First of all, n.o.body has asked me to marry him, and I don't randomly marry people because they order me to. Secondly, Sophie don't do nothing Sophie don't want. I'm not your employee, I'm not a soldier in your army, and I'm not going to become your subject. I am a consultant on vacation."

He strode around the bed to take her by the arms. "You're not on vacation! This-you-me-you made a commitment. Why wouldn't we get married?"

"Wait a minute. Maybe this will bring it home to you." She pulled out her phone. Holding on to his patience, he waited while she did some incomprehensible search. She stuck the screen of her phone into his face. "Here. This is me."

He watched a clip of an octopus running away along the ocean floor. The words, "Nope. Nope. NOPE." appeared at the bottom of the screen.

"What the h.e.l.l am I looking at?" he barked.

"It's a nope GIF. You've never seen a nope GIF? There are hundreds on the Internet." She smiled. "We literally never have to have this conversation again. You'll bring it up again, and I'll just send you a GIF. Subject closed."

But she didn't wait for the topic to come up again. She started sending him nope GIFs anyway. In one, a gorilla stood on his hind legs and walked off into a forest. In another, a cartoon character built a rocket, climbed inside, and shot to the moon. In yet another, a dog wearing a Christmas sweater ran under a sofa.

For some reason the dog was the last straw. When Nikolas's phone pinged and he saw that she had sent him yet another email, he stormed out of his office, which was located on the ground floor of his own house.

Sophie was supposed to be cooking dinner instead of hara.s.sing him. As he rounded the corner to the kitchen, he thundered, "Stop sending nope GIFs to my work email, or I'm going to plant my old-timey foot in your a.s.s."

There was silence in the kitchen. Sophie had opened the back door, and Annwyn and Gawain stood just outside. All three of them stared at him as if he had lost his mind.

He understood why Annwyn and Gawain looked at him that way. It was Sophie's utterly unjust expression that sent him ballistic.

Gawain did that thing he did when he was trying to cover up a laugh by coughing into his hand.

Amus.e.m.e.nt gleamed in Annwyn's eyes. She said, "I understood only three words in that sentence."

Nikolas angled out his jaw and rubbed the edge of it. "I'd explain, but it's a long, exasperating story."

Sophie twirled a curl around her finger. "I'll leave you three alone to talk."

She slipped out the door before Nikolas could stop her. After he, Gawain, and Annwyn had settled their business, Nikolas went to hunt Sophie down.