Just as she walked toward the steps that led down to the overhanging pool, she faltered, swaying.
“Kiyo,” she moaned in distress. And then her head slammed back on her neck with the force of an incoming vision.
“NIAMH!” Kiyo was a blur across the room to the deck, catching her in his arms seconds before she would have fallen over the security railing around the balcony. It was a hundred-foot drop.
Pulse pounding, he restrained her hard judders as he hauled her backward, fearing if he connected to the vision, they’d both go over.
This time, however, he saw no flooding of images; he felt no overwhelming swarm of emotions from Niamh that usually triggered his connection to what she was seeing.
Instead he fell on his ass on the floor, cradling her tight to his body as the vision seized hold of her. When she grew still, Kiyo’s pulse slowed.
Niamh’s eyes fluttered slowly open, and her eyes focused. Kiyo brushed her hair off her face, patiently waiting for her to return to herself.
“You caught me,” she breathed out in relief. “Would have survived but I didn’t fancy a broken neck this morning.”
His tone was bland, belying the terror he’d felt at the thought of her going over the edge of the tree. “Turns out this place isn’t so safe.”
She saw right through him. “Did I give you a fright?”
He glowered at her.
“I gave you a fright,” she answered her own question before pressing a reassuring kiss to his throat. “Sorry.”
“Not your fault. I got to you in time. Vision?” he asked somewhat reluctantly. The vision had brought home the reality that Niamh’s destiny waited outside the borders of the rainforest and one day, they would have to face Astra again.
It came at Kiyo suddenly that for once, he didn’t want to face something head-on. He wanted some peace and quiet with his mate, and he wanted it to last more than a few goddamn weeks. He wanted to cling to the idea of Phuket. To a hidden nirvana where there was nothing but a safe, happy Niamh, and the pleasures they could wring from one another’s bodies.
But he knew that wasn’t their fate.
He knew that even before Niamh took a deep breath and announced, “It’s time to get a flight to London.”39Three weeks later (mid-April)
Munich, GermanyIt was difficult to get anywhere near Margaret Lancaster. During the day, there was always at least one werewolf stalking her. At night, two vampires. The supes were well trained, and it seemed that Margaret had no idea she was under constant surveillance.
As soon as they’d spotted her twenty-four-hour guard from The Garm, Kiyo wanted to bail.
But as Niamh patiently explained to him, this was their current mission.
Margaret was a chess piece. She might not be the king or queen. Really, she was a lowly pawn … but a central one, and she needed to be moved to further the game.
So they’d gone to London where they found her and discovered she was under surveillance, which only signified Niamh’s vision was on point. Niamh had to travel into the financial building Margaret worked in on Canary Wharf to get a surveillance shot without drawing The Garm’s attention.
At forty-eight years old, Margaret Lancaster was still a very beautiful woman. And she was the spitting image of her daughter.
From there, Niamh had broken into the personnel department of Margaret’s company and stolen copies of her personal information. She and Kiyo had used it to track down photographs of her dead boyfriend, his medical files, and the death certificate for the daughter who had been stolen from them. During their own surveillance of the woman, Kiyo had discovered she visited a therapist every week. Niamh decided to break into the therapist’s office and steal copies of that file too. It wasn’t right for Niamh to look through it, but her daughter might be interested in what was in the file.
Information in hand, they’d finally arrived in Munich.
Much to Kiyo’s disgruntlement.
Munich was the new headquarters for The Garm. Probably Niamh’s most dangerous enemy since the Blackwoods didn’t want to kill her, but The Garm most certainly did.
However, Echo Payne, the adopted daughter of William “the Bloody” Payne, new leader of The Garm, was about to become an important player for the fae-borne. She was raised as William’s adopted human daughter until she was twenty years old, and then he’d turned her into a vampire. In human years, she was twenty-six—a newbie vampire in the grand scheme of things—but rumor had it she was powerful and intelligent. She’d also been raised by William to fear the fae-borne and to treat them as the enemy.
Now that just won’t do, Niamh thought to herself as she and Kiyo stalked through the streets of Munich at dawn.
Kiyo bristled at her side with heavy tension, his ears pricked, his gaze swinging from side to side.