Raintree: Sanctuary (Raintree 3)

“I’m going higher,” Eve called. “Watch me. Watch me!”

When Eve levitated a good twenty feet in the air, Mercy jumped up and motioned to her daughter. “That’s high enough, sweetheart. That was great.” She clapped several times. “Now come back down.”

“Do I have to?” Eve asked. “This is fun.”

“Come down, and you and I will play a game,” Judah said.

Eve came sailing down, slowly and carefully, as if showing Mercy that she shouldn’t be concerned. The minute her feet hit the ground, Eve ran to Judah.

“What sort of game are we going to play?”

He eyed Mercy, his look daring her to interfere. “Have you ever played with fire?”

Eve snapped around and looked up at Mercy. “Mother says I’m too young to play with fire the way Uncle Dante does. She said when I’m older—”

“If one of your abilities is psychopyresis, the younger you learn to master that skill, the better,” Judah said directly to Eve as he laid his hand on Mercy’s shoulder. “My father began my lessons when I was seven.”

“Oh, please, Mommy, please,” Eve said. “Let Daddy give me lessons.”

Any decision she made might prove to be the wrong one. She couldn’t be certain that a negative response wouldn’t be based on her resentment toward Judah for intruding in their lives.

Mercy nodded. “All right. Just this once.” She glared at Judah. “You’ll have to stay in control at all times. When she was two—” Mercy hesitated to share this information with him but finally did “—Eve set the house on fire.”

Judah’s eyes widened in surprise; then he smiled. “She was capable of doing that when she was two?”

“I’m very gifted,” Eve said. “Mother says it’s ’cause I’m special.”

Judah beamed with fatherly pride as he placed his hands on Eve’s little shoulders. “Your mother’s right—you are special.” He grasped Eve’s hand. “Come on, let’s go over there by the pond and set off some fireworks. What do you say?”

Jiggling up and down with excitement, Eve grinned from ear to ear.

Despite having reservations, Mercy followed them to the pond. To watch. And to censure, if Judah allowed Eve to do anything truly dangerous…

Eve had exhausted herself practicing first one talent and then another, all under Judah’s supervision. He realized that what Mercy had feared was Eve revealing to him just how truly powerful she was. And there was now no doubt in his mind that his daughter possessed the potential to be the most powerful creature on earth, more powerful than any other Ansara or Raintree.

He glanced down at Eve as she lay curled in a fetal ball on the quilt, deep in a restorative sleep. A feeling like none he’d ever known welled up from deep inside him. This was his child. Beautiful, smart and talented to the extreme. And she had instantly recognized him as her father and accepted him into her life without question.

He recalled Sidra’s words: If you are to save your people, you must protect the child.

In that moment Judah realized that he would protect Eve for the sake of the Ansara, but more important, he would protect her because she was his child and he loved her.

He turned and gazed out over the meadow as he struggled to come to terms with what was happening to him. In his position as Dranir, he made instant life-and-death decisions without blinking an eye. His word was law. Like his father before him, he ruled supreme over his people. As a boy, he had known he would grow up to become the premiere Ansara, the most powerful member of the clan, the Dranir. He could be ruthless when the occasion called for it, but he believed he was always fair and just. He had lived his life by the Ansara code of honor, and had sworn his allegiance to his people the day he was crowned Dranir.

And he had accepted the burden that fate had placed on his shoulders: to lead his people in another great battle against the Raintree.

For most of Judah’s life, Cael had been little more than a nuisance, a brother he neither loved nor hated. But gradually, Cael had proven himself to be a vile creature controlled by the evil insanity that had doomed his mother. And now he had to be stopped once and for all.

“Judah?” Mercy called quietly as she came up behind him.

He glanced back at her.

“We haven’t talked about the reason you returned to the sanctuary,” she said. “I’ve allowed you time with Eve. But you can’t stay here. You can’t be a part of her life.”

“Eve is in danger from my brother. Until she’s safe from Cael, I’ll remain a part of her life, with or without your permission.” Narrowing his gaze, he issued a warning. “Don’t try to force me to leave.”

“Or you’ll do what?” Mercy marched straight up to Judah and stood in front of him. Defiant. Fearless.

He wanted to tell her that he found her foolhardy but brave