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was unpredictable and growing stronger every day.” He glanced at Malachi. “Obviously.”
    “You’re saying she didn’t mean to bring me back. This was some kind of mistake?”
    “Not a mistake,” Rhys said, his voice breaking. “Never a mistake, brother.”
    “Then why—”
    “No trained Irina would have done it. They have rules. Boundaries. As we do. Set in place thousands of years ago by the Forgiven when they gave us the gift of magic. To do something like this—to tear a soul from heaven—is… not done. I didn’t even know it was possible.”
    “There probably isn’t even a spell for it,” Leo added. “But Ava grew up among humans. She has power, a lot of it—especially since the mating ritual between you two—but she has no idea how to use it.”
    “Whatever happened to bring you back was instinctive,” Rhys said. “She’s probably unaware she worked magic at all.”
    His heart thudded. “So she doesn’t know I’m alive.”
    “I very much doubt it.”
    Max asked, “Did you find Damien? Is there any way—”
    “Damien and Ava dropped out of sight a few days ago. There’s no telling where they are now. The last point of contact was a car he picked up from the scribe house in Berlin. He didn’t say when he’d be returning it, though he asked the watcher of the house for something with all-wheel drive. There was GPS in the car, but it was disabled outside Hamburg. They haven’t used credit cards, and Ava left her old mobile phone here. The ones they have now are burners. Damien made sure of it.”
    Max crossed his arms. “So he’s gone to Sari.”
    “It appears so. We knew that was probably where they were going.” Rhys sat on the edge of the sofa, which seemed to give all the men permission to follow his lead. Malachi joined them as they sat.  
    Leo said, “Which means he’s in Scandinavia somewhere.”
    “Wasn’t Sari raised at a retreat near Gothenburg?” Max asked.
    “Yes, but her family isn’t from there,” Rhys said. “Her mother was a dissenter and only brought Sari there when she was ready for school.”
    Malachi asked, “A dissenter? And who is Sari?”
    “Sari is Damien’s mate. Ava will be safe with her.”
    “Why?”
    Rhys sighed. “This is so strange. You really don’t remember any of this?”
    Malachi crossed his arms and shrugged. “Bits and pieces.”
    “I just… don’t understand.”
    Of course you don’t. You haven’t lost every bloody memory that matters. Malachi pushed back his own annoyance and tried to explain. “Sometimes it’s like being reminded of something. Some of the things you’ve said, I remember immediately. As if I had always known them. Like my talesm .” He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “Almost as soon as Leo mentioned them, I knew what he was talking about.”
    “That’s so strange,” Leo said.
    “What?”
    “The way you’re sitting. You always sit like that. And your expressions. They are exactly the same. Sorry. Not important.”
    Max frowned at his cousin, then turned back to Malachi. “Please. Continue.”
    “Now I remember them in detail,” Malachi said. “I remember how they felt. I remember… scribing them. Is there any way of knowing whether or not they’ll return?” Hundreds of hours of careful work had vanished from his skin, and he felt the loss of power keenly.
    “None,” Rhys said. “Not unless Evren’s scribes find something in the archives that mentions Irin returning from the dead.”
    Max was looking at Malachi with narrowed eyes. “The more important question is are they still working? If they’re not, you’re aging right now. Your magic is channeled by your talesm . If they’re gone—”
    “You’ll be weak,” Leo’s face was pale. “Unprotected. Like… a human.”
    Max said, “Not to mention, you look a bit naked. It’s unnerving.”
    Rhys patted Malachi’s shoulder. “At least we know his natural powers are still intact. Language seems to come normally,