“Eden,” Kiran began but had to clear his throat before he continued, “Avalon, this is Henri Moreau and Sophie Clement.” Kiran introduced them in his flawless French accent and then paused as they lifted their heads to acknowledge his introduction.

Eden gasped when the full damage done to their faces was revealed and I pushed down the bile that rose quickly in my throat. Looking past the swelling and disfigurement caused by torture I could see the softer lines and tilted eyes of Sophie accentuating her feminine features and distinguishing her from Henri’s more angular, masculine face. But in front of us were mere ghosts of Immortality.

Kiran continued, “They claim to have escaped a research facility of sorts where they were held after being kidnapped from their homes in Paris.”

“What kind of research facility would treat you like this?” Eden asked through thick emotion and watery eyes.

“The kind that tortures and murders Immortals for the sake of an unexplained research project,” Kiran spat, completely disgusted. My mind struggled to catch up, to fit pieces of this puzzle together that I was certain I was missing.

“They say it was run by a man who calls himself Terletov,” Talbott explained carefully. I watched his jaw tick as he waited for our reaction. “Dmitri Terletov.”

“That’s not possible,” Eden gasped. “I still have his magic…. I watched the Titan Guard take him away. I still have his magic,” she repeated desperately.

Kiran pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly to him while we all thought this over.

“It was…. Terletov….” Henri lifted his head to confirm our fears. His voice was a whispered rasp as if it hurt to just breathe in the oxygen it would take to speak. “I met him once…. as a child. I remembered…. him.”

I sucked in a short breath, trying not to be disgusted by the sound of the hoarse wheezing sounds that came with his effort to talk. I was not a compassionate person. I never had been even through everything we went through before. But these people demanded compassion and heartache. They were so broken, so…. haunted. Even as the effort to understand fell in large chunks of misinformation and was mostly still holes, I felt instinctively how this evil was worse than before…. how unprepared we were to face anything like this.

“And was he…. did he have magic?” I asked gently.

“Yes,” Henri rasped out.

“How is that possible?” I asked more to myself than anyone else.

The doors opened and several servants walked into the room. They gasped in unison at the sight of Henri and Sophie, all pausing, not sure what to do next.

“Henri, Sophie,” Kiran began, giving the servants a look that said they better do exactly as he asked. I held my tongue, now was not the time to point out his habitual royal snobbishness. “We are going to take you to your rooms, where you will be well cared for. We will talk more later, when you feel up to it.”

The two refugees nodded their agreement and struggled to stand, leaning heavily against each other. Titans were there immediately, slipping surprisingly gentle arms around them to aid in their exit. The flurry of servants followed them out and then the room was silent again.

“Talbott, I want you to post two Titans outside each of their bedrooms. For their safety and ours,” Kiran ordered.

Talbott gave quick instructions to the remaining Titans and then they too left to fulfill their orders with purpose glinting powerfully in their eyes.

The door opened again and another man walked through, a man I had only seen reflected in Eden’s memories. His magic was powerful and swirled around him like a vortex of power, if you got sucked into it you would fall into the unknown and never resurface. His flawless midnight skin reflected depthless eyes and the silky ivory turban wrapped around his head added to his mystery.

“Thank you for coming,” Kiran greeted him and it became obvious he had summoned the mysterious man. “There are two Immortals that need serious care. I am not positive of the extent of their injuries, but they are very severe.”

“Take me to them,” the man commanded and I suddenly realized who this man was. He was who they called “the Witch.” Lucan’s use of him was merely rumors and gossip until he oversaw the contract that Eden signed when she gave herself over to Kiran.

I realized then that he lived somewhere in the castle and that over the last two and a half years I had not seen him once. Although I didn’t really understand his set of skills, so I didn’t know why I would have needed to use him, or what I would have used him for.

“I’ll take you,” Eden offered. “Maybe we can work together. I’m positive this will be like no healing you’ve ever experienced before.”

“Eden, I don’t want you anywhere near that magic,” Kiran growled in response to her compassion. “We don’t know what’s wrong with them, where they’ve actually come from or if they really are refugees or spies sent by Terletov himself.”

“First of all, Terletov is dead,” Eden snapped back and I was surprised by her defensiveness. She was always so patient and loving with Kiran these days. Her flaring temper reminded me of the little firecracker she used to be, back when Kiran had to prove he loved her and that she loved him back. But I knew, because I could feel it, how responsible she felt for these Immortal’s suffering. She felt responsible for Terletov’s fate, whether he was dead or alive and if he was alive she felt like she was the one that released this evil against us. “Second of all, I have the power to heal other people. You can’t feel their magic. You can’t feel how…. unbearably miserable they are. They need my help.”

“Eden’s right,” Talbott agreed. “There is something seriously wrong with their magic. It’s not right. Whatever happened to them, happened at a molecular level. It’s unnatural.”

“The Queen will go with me,” the Witch announced in a deeply melodic voice. “But neither one of us will try to heal them until we have diagnosed their injuries.”

“Fine,” Kiran ground out. “But Eden, speak with me before you try anything. Please,” he finished on a whisper.

“Alright,” Eden consented, her demeanor softening now that she was getting her way. She turned on her heel to follow the Witch from the room.

“Eden,” Kiran called out desperately before she could completely leave the room. When he had her attention again he smirked that annoying smile of his and confessed, “I love you.”

Relief and a sense of security washed through Eden so strong that I felt it to my core and practically reacted from it. “I love you too,” she smiled back at him. “Now let me leave so you and Avalon and Talbott can figure out how to stop this fake Terletov before this happens to anyone else.” And then she let the Witch lead her from the throne room.

The brass doors closed and Talbott, Kiran and I were left alone. For the first time today I noticed how empty this room felt without the rest of my council. Angelica was not here, but that wasn’t surprising since Silas and Gabriel were off hunting a lead.

“First things first,” I started, not wanting to waste another second. “Terletov? What are the chances he is actually alive?”

He’s not alive. Eden broke into my consciousness and I realized she was eavesdropping. I couldn’t stop the smile that made Talbott look at me like I was crazy. This felt like old times.

“Tell my wife to mind her own business,” Kiran said sternly, although I watched his lips twitch like he was trying not to smile. When I gave him a confused look he explained, “You two always have this far-away look on your faces when you’re communicating telepathically.”

“And here I thought we were so sneaky,” I complained.

“Not at all,” Kiran laughed. “Tell her.”

Your husband wants you to mind your own business and stop eavesdropping. I conveyed to Eden even though I knew she was already aware of what Kiran had said.

How about you just get better at hiding our conversations? Eden replied with a good bit of snark in her mental tone.

Done. But don’t you dare get me in trouble later. And I’m talking about Terletov and you can’t stop me. I declared, feeling proud of myself for standing up to Eden.

Fine. She grumbled, but then I felt her attention get pulled away as she entered one of the refugee’s rooms with the Witch.

“I don’t trust you two,” Kiran narrowed his eyes at me.

“Uh, she’s with one of them now,” I answered honestly, feeling my own attention wanting to be pulled into the room with Eden. I forced myself to get out of her head and focus on Talbott and Kiran. Eden would save the problem, but we were the ones who needed to solve it and it would do nobody any good if I wasn’t here one hundred percent.

“Alright,” Kiran nodded, satisfied with my answer. “Talbott what are the chances Terletov is not dead?”

Talbott thought it over for a minute. I watched the wheels in his head turn as he thought carefully over whatever he was about to say.

“There is a chance,” he finally admitted. He looked at Kiran first and then directly at me, his dark brown eyes a steely cage of anger. “I did not witness his execution, although the Titan Guard was informed that it happened. And he was not among the prisoners that I released the night of the final battle. In fact, there were no actual criminals in the prisons that night; only captured Resistance members.”

I thought about that for a minute and wondered if that was strange. I had not thought about the phenomenon that the prisons were empty of criminals completely until just now. Talbott released everyone from underground before Eden went down and destroyed the dungeons. I had to wonder if there were criminals down there, if Talbott would have released them or kept them locked up; but now I realized the decision had been taken from him, I had to wonder if it was by design.

“Hmmm,” Kiran mused and my suspicions were confirmed. “If I remember correctly, there were four other men with Terletov from that Latvian farm?” Talbott nodded his affirmation and Kiran finished. “Were you told they were all executed or just Terletov?”

“Just Terletov,” Talbott answered.

“But it’s possible my father did not have him killed, isn’t it?” Kiran pressed, looking for an answer to a question that would only make more questions.

“It is possible, but I don’t know why he wouldn’t. Terletov was planning a Rebellion of his own, and he had kidnapped Eden right from under your father’s nose,” Talbott explained, his accent thick and tainted with frustration.

I chomped down on my thumb nail taking in every detail of the conversation and dredging up my own memories of that time.

“Ok, let’s assume we are operating with the truth and that these are not spies. That means that either Terletov escaped this Citadel and Lucan either didn’t know or didn’t want to admit that it happened again…. or it means that Lucan let him go,” I deduced, realizing there were at least a hundred other possible scenarios.