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come."
    Bride made an air kiss at him while she cradled her son's head with one hand. "Only when I'm protecting you and Baby Boo, sweetie. Now get Fuzzhead in bed. We'll be fine."
    Angelia stepped back to allow Bride to lead the way back into the nursery. The walls were a pale baby blue decorated with teddy bears and stars. She put the toddler in his matching white-and-blue crib before she lifted the side into place.
    Feeling awkward, Angelia folded her arms across her chest. "How old's your son?"
    "Two years. I know I should take him out of the crib, but he's a kinetic sleeper and I'm not ready for him to accidentally fall out of bed yet. Silly, huh?"
    She bit back a smile at Bride's concern. "Protecting your family is never silly."
    "No, it isn't." Bride sighed as she brushed a hand through the baby's dark hair. Turning, she faced Angelia. "So you want to tell me what's going on?"
    Angelia debated on the sanity of that. Telling her that she'd helped kidnap Fury and then stood back while two of her tessera ruthlessly tortured him didn't seem like an award-winning act of intelligence.
    More like suicide given the nature of these "people."
    "I'm not sure how to answer that."
    Bride's gaze narrowed. "Then you must be one of the ones who hurt him."
    "No," she said indignantly. "I didn't torture him. I wouldn't do that to anyone."
    Bride cocked her head suspiciously. "But you let it happen."
    She was smarter than Angelia wanted. "I did stop them."
    "After how long? Fury was in pretty bad shape and I know how much damage he can take and still stand and fight. To pass out like he did. . . someone beat him for a while."
    Angelia looked away, ashamed. It actually hurt her on a deeper level than she would have thought possible that she hadn't intervened sooner. What kind of person stood by while someone was brutalized? Especially someone she'd once called friend.
    Yet twice now in her life, she'd allowed Fury to almost be killed and done nothing to protect him.
    She wasn't any better than the animals she hated, and that part of herself she despised even more.
    "I'm not proud of it, all right. I should have done something sooner and I know it. But I did keep them from doing anything more to him."
    "You're rationalizing your cruelty."
    Angelia clenched her teeth. "I'm not rationalizing anything. Honestly, I just want to go home. I don't like this time period and I don't like being here with my enemies."
    Bride gave her no reprieve. "And I don't like what was done to Fury, but until I know more about it, we're not enemies. The hostility at this point is only coming from you. I told Fury I'd keep you company and that's what I'm doing. No enmity here."
    Angelia cut a vicious glare toward the woman and her patronizing tone. "You have no idea what this feels like."
    "Oh wait. . ." Bride said with a sarcastic laugh. "I was minding my own business when Bryani sent in a demon to kidnap me here in my time period and take me to her village in medieval
England—this back when I didn't even know such things were possible. Once there, everyone I came into contact with threatened me when I'd done absolutely nothing to any of them, ever. And that included Dare Kattalakis . Then the males of their patria tried to rape me for no other reason than I was mated to Vane. . . Oh, wait, what am I saying? We hadn't gone through the mating ritual yet. They were willing to attack me for nothing more than bearing his mark. So, I think I do have a little clue about what you're feeling here. And in our defense, you're not being manhandled."
    Angelia put more distance between them. What Bride described had been four years ago. And though she hadn't participated in it, she knew from the others how much damage they'd intended to do to the woman before her, and that sickened her, too. "I wasn't there when they did that to you. I was out on patrol. I only heard about it afterward."
    "Well, bully for you. It was still extremely traumatic for me. And unlike your people, I