A/N: Happy New Year! I am SO glad that all the holidays are over, guh. The hiatus was much-needed, and now I'm eager to double down and finish Higher Ground. SkyrimJunkie has been absolutely invaluable to me over the past month or so, giving me lots of encouragement and feedback as I start to pull the outline for the third book together. I'm beyond excited to get going on that, and I hope to start publishing it this spring.

[If you guys are into Slytherin and Snape, a friend of mine, TheBlondeMagpie, has recently started to publish her Harry Potter story "Bloodline of Cobras." She's under my Favorite Authors page on my profile. Check it out!]

[PS: if you can find the Iron Maiden lyrics in this chapter, then you deserve warm cookies and long backscratches forever and ever]

Chapter 35

The air around him was cold. It was very still and quiet, but Aldric could sense more than hear the closeness of a cave, or maybe a tunnel, around him—even the silence had a sort of sound, the way the rock refused to hold it.

Something floated past his face, glowing softly. He drew back as it danced shyly past his face and then off above his head. A spore, he thought. Then: I'm in Blackreach.

More of the tiny things drifted after their brother, trailing through the air in little pulsing waves. Aldric watched them go. Lured by the promise of rich soil and water, they marched on in search of new homes.

A second curious spore swept past him, closer than the others. Then a third. He leaned back, blowing gently out of the corner of his mouth at a fourth when it dove toward him. It spiraled away in giddy loops.

A fifth brushed against the tip of his nose. "Hey." Aldric snorted at the tickle. "Come on now."

Then they were on him—crowding his face, touching his chin, his mouth.

He came to suddenly, his arm slashing through the air in front of him. Instead of the cloud of spores hovering around him, Aldric was staring up at the stone ceiling of Vlindrel Hall. Blinking hard, he rubbed at his mouth with the back of his hand. It still itched.

Then something out of the corner of his eye moved.

Aldric flinched. Not a foot away from his head, Theo stood stock-still, looking down at him.

"What are you doing?" he croaked.

"I thought you were dead," Theo replied matter-of-factly.

"Dead?"

Slowly, the little boy reached a hand out. Aldric fought the urge to swat him away as he came closer. Theo's pointer finger tickled, feather-light, as it hovered up and down in the space just under Aldric's nose and upper lip.

"You were breathing." Theo withdrew his hand. "I checked."

"Sorry to disappoint you, kid." Aldric passed a hand over his eyes. He could still see Blackreach when he closed them.

"Where'd that come from?" his son asked. He pointed at the left side of Aldric's face.

"Oh, that?" Aldric unconsciously touched the long, smooth scar starting just beneath his eye. "Vampire. Big one. Ugly, too."

Theo's eyes crinkled. Not quite a smile, but close.

"A vampire left a scar like that?" Aldric looked past Theo at the door, where Rory stood leaning against the frame. "Your breakfast is getting cold, Theo," she said.

After Theo reluctantly pulled away with a last inquisitive look at Aldric, Rory walked inside and closed the door behind her.

Aldric flopped back on his pillow heavily. "I swear on every Divine, aedra, and daedra there is, I thought he was here to kill me in my sleep."

Rory grinned. "I don't think he's quite that brave. Ants in your sheets are more his flavor."

Jokingly, he lifted the sheets that had ridden low on his hips. "No bugs."

Her eyes swept over his naked torso. "Hmm."

Aldric stretched his arms up and cupped his hands behind his head. "You know, that door locks."

Just like he knew they would, Rory's eyes flicked to the way his muscles had bunched. "Does it?"

Turning on his side painfully slowly, the sheets over his hip slipped off. The entire right side of him—a long, clean line from his shoulders to his feet—was bared to her eyes, stretching the term 'chaste' to its limits. "It does."

Aldric sat up slowly. The sheets pulled away from his body and fell forgotten to the bed as he stood up.

Rory didn't move as he carefully padded toward her. When he was close enough to smell her, her eyes widened, but she didn't back away. "What are you doing?"

He smiled at the way her voice had gone thin and breathy. "Getting up."

She gently cradled the side of his face. "Now that you're up, will you tell me what happened here?"

"I didn't lie to Theo." Aldric closed his eyes at the feeling of her thumb stroking the slick, taut skin of his scar. "It was a vampire."

"After all that we fought…" she said. "None of them left a mark on you."

"None that we fought were like Serana's father."

Rory's grasp tightened. "How did it happen?"

Aldric curled his fingers around her wrist. "There isn't much to tell. It was a brutal fight. I was flat on my back. Harkon was going for my throat. I threw my arm up at the last second. The talon on the end of his wing raked my face."

"And it didn't heal."

"Poison. Something I've never encountered before. Nothing I mixed helped. It didn't heal until Valerica returned to the castle."

"Valerica?"

"Serana's mother," Aldric told her. "She saved my eye."

"How?"

"She's a very, very talented alchemist. I learned much from her."

"I want to hear the story. All of it. What happened after I…" Rory swallowed.

"Someday," he promised her. Feeling bold, he brought his other hand around her and rested it on the dip of her lower back. "I saw many things that I would like to tell you about."

"Like what?"

"Darkfall Cave," he murmured. "A deadly, ancient cavern. Full of sea-like plants that glow a brilliant pink and hide when you come closer." At his words, Aldric pulled her nearer. "Forgotten Vale is maybe the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"Is it?" Rory asked, looking mesmerized.

"Well," he considered huskily, "maybe not."

She went still.

What had started out as something playful and teasing somehow turned serious. He locked eyes with her, not missing the way her pupils were blown. Aldric lowered his head to hers.

"Mama!" came an indignant cry from the kitchen. "I need more milk!"

Rory laughed.

Breakfast was a strange mirror of the evening they'd just had, only Lilly and her friend were missing. After pulling on his trousers, Aldric found himself sitting at the same seat, Rory and Theo across from him. He'd even elected to eat the same food, and set in to the leftover venison stew with satisfaction.

"Where's Lilly?" Theo piped up through a mouthful of bread.

Rory turned her head to Lilly's bedroom. "I think she must still be in there."

"She's sleeping a long time."

"Well, she's still growing, little man. Just like you."

"But I don't sleep a long time."

"No, you certainly don't." Rory agreed. "Put your plate into the basin, please."

"Can I wash it?"

She hesitated a second, and then nodded. "Please don't make a mess this time."

"Is that normal?" Aldric asked once Theo had scampered away. "The sleeping?"

Rory raised a brow. "You don't remember being a teenager?"

"Of course," he snorted. "I thought she might be upset."

"With you?"

He pushed his empty bowl away. "Not sure if I'm imagining it or not. I thought she seemed a little cold toward me last night."

"I don't think dinner went the way she thought it would," Rory commented.

"Neither do I." Even his most boring stories hadn't worked to divert Jannike's attention back to Lilly.

"I think she's supposed to come back in a few days." She sighed. "I'm not looking forward to it."

Wonderful. "Perhaps I should pick that night to spend some time at the inn."

"That might not be a bad idea, but I think it makes Lilly more comfortable to have all of us here," Rory pointed out. "She doesn't have a lot of experience with friends."

"Speaking of that." Suddenly he remembered what he'd seen in the marketplace. "Has she mentioned a boy recently? Er, well… a man, more like… he's young, but…"

Rory snapped to attention and cut off his awkward mumbling. "What?"

Judging by the intensity in her eyes, Aldric could see right away that he was unprepared for the topic—but before he could say anything else, Lilly's bedroom door opened. She stopped dead and stared at Aldric.

How did you know? was clearly painted across her face in a frozen mask of shock and betrayal. Aldric sat back and let his mouth fall shut, undeniably caught in the act of tattling.

Rory traced his gaze and turned to find Lilly in her doorway. "You were with a man, alone?" she asked. "And you're wearing a dress."

Lilly blinked first at Aldric, then at her sister, and then down at the pretty, orange-red dress she wore, blushing. Aldric could see the tips of her leather boots sticking out from under the long skirt.

It took a long time for Lilly to muster a reply, and when she did, she ignored her outfit. "Banner," she finally said. "I… he saw me and came to me."

Judging by Rory's sudden stiffness, she knew who that was. "Banner?" Aldric echoed.

"What did he say to you?" Rory asked.

"He wanted me to visit him. To bring Theo." Lilly didn't look up from the floor.

"Did he touch you?" Rory had lost her concerned tone, and had dropped into the low, even, calm voice that Aldric immediately recognized as her warning signal for swift and gory violence.

Even Lilly looked nervous. "Yes."

A muscle in Rory's jaw twitched.

"All right." Aldric raised his hands plaintively. "Tell me what's going on."

Clearly affronted, Lilly cast them both one last wary look and then retreated back into her bedroom.

Rory stood and began to collect the dirty dishes. The plates and cups clacked together roughly, and Theo instinctively backed away before she all but threw them into the basin he'd been playing in. A glittering cloud of soap suds spattered out from under a plate and drifted down to the stone floor to pop one by one.

"Banner works the city's stables," Rory ground out.

"The old man?"

"That's Cedran."

"Oh." Aldric was quiet for a moment. The boy he'd seen with Lilly wasn't a laborer, and he was starting to think Lilly had pulled a fast one on both of them. "What's the problem with Banner?"

"I don't…" Rory wrapped her hand into a fist, her knuckles whitening. "Not right now."

Aldric started to object, and then gave in. Forcing Rory to do anything she didn't want to do was impossible. "I'll be here."

Only seconds after her bedroom door had closed, Lilly's flew open and she burst out, her face dark. "Are you spying on me?" she demanded angrily, all traces of her earlier meekness gone.

"No, I'm not," Aldric answered evenly.

"Then how did you see me with Elijah?"

His brows shot up. "So you did lie to your sister."

Lilly's jaw dropped, the fury draining out of her eyes at her slip-up. "How… you don't—" she sputtered.

"I'll tell you what." Aldric leaned his elbows against his chair. "You want to be a thief? Then you're going to have to learn the art of trading information."

"I don't want to trade anything with you," Lilly fired back.

"Oh, I think you do," he countered. "You tell me what the deal with Banner is, in your own words, and I won't tell Rory about your friend from the marketplace."

Lilly clapped her hands on her hips, her glare abruptly dissolving. "For once, I actually know something that you don't. Ha!" She smirked. "I think I'm enjoying this."

"If you're angry with me about something, Lilly," Aldric clenched the wooden back of the chair as he gathered his patience, "get it out now."

"Why would I be angry with you?" she asked sweetly.

Extended slumber was suddenly not the only thing he was starting to remember about teenagers. "Lilly."

"I'm leaving," she announced, swishing her way toward the doors. "And you don't have to worry about me robbing anyone anymore, in case you were wondering." The doors slammed behind her.

Lilly might have known something he didn't, and it might have been years since he'd been in the city last, but Aldric was halfway certain he'd heard the name Elijah the last time he was in Markarth. It was uncommon enough for him to remember, and he strained to recall who the boy was.

After a long, unsuccessful moment, Aldric straightened and let go of his chair with a bang. Trudging into his bedroom, he drew up short when he saw Theo stationed inside, busily digging through his nightstand. The stately, ever-present wooden horse of his rested on the corner next to his elbow.

"Lilly is mad at you," the boy observed without stopping his survey.

"I think she is," Aldric agreed.

"But she gets mad a lot."

"Does she?" he asked, taken aback. So far, she'd been exactly how he'd remembered her—kind, a bit shy, but friendly as always.

Theo shrugged and lifted a stray lockpick from the drawer to examine. "Mama says to be patient and don't yell back."

That seemed out of character for Rory—he couldn't picture her holding back from any argument, especially one purposely started by a volatile teenager, and patience was decidedly not one of her strong suits. "Can I ask you something?"

The boy looked up from the table. "What?"

"Do you know who Banner is?"

Theo nodded. "Mama hates him."

Feeling only slightly guilty at manipulating a child, Aldric pressed on. "Do you know why your mama doesn't like him?"

Another nod.

"Can you tell me?"

"He smells funny."

"He smells funny?" Aldric held back a laugh. "Like horses?"

"No." Theo glanced up at him quickly before turning his attention back to the nightstand. "Bad."

"Bad how?"

The little boy didn't seem to be able to explain it. "No one will tell me. But my mama doesn't like me to go to see the horses anymore." He sounded sad.

"And there's a reason for that, little man," Rory interjected. For the second time that day, she stood in the threshold of the bedroom and looked in on the two of them.

"I don't care that he smells funny!" Theo burst out. The lockpick dropped from his hand to ping on the stone floor. "He's a nice buddy!"

"He is not a nice buddy," Rory said sternly.

"Yes, he is!" Theo burst out, the lockpick dropping from his hand to ping on the stone floor. "You just don't like him because you're mean and you don't like anyone!"

She stopped leaning on the doorjamb and stood straight, her face serious. "That is enough. I'm going to talk to Aldric now. Go to your bedroom."

Theo glowered at her, his little jaw set.

"Now."

A painfully long moment stretched on as they stared at each other. Theo broke first, stomping his feet belligerently loudly on his way out of the room. Rory sighed once he'd gone, rubbing the space between her brows.

Aldric spoke after a moment of quiet. "Wow."

"You have no idea."

"I think we both know which one of us that attitude comes from," he observed, deadpan.

Rory gave him a dirty look, working hard not to ruin it with a smile.

"Can you tell me what's going on with the man at the stables?"

The warmth immediately faded from Rory's eyes. "Cedran, the stable owner, took a liking to Theo. I let Lilly take Theo down once a week to visit the horses since he loves them so much. It didn't take long for Banner, his worker, to notice her. He started to get worse and worse with his advances—"

Aldric's mouth dropped open a little. "She's thirteen!"

"She is," Rory acknowledged patiently, "but I'm sure you've noticed that she's grown quickly for her age. Very few people get her age right when they first meet her."

"She's taller than usual, I'll give you that, but…" Aldric trailed off. Then he thought of her new dress and the startling way it had made her look so grown up. He flushed a little. "Oh. You mean, uh… everything."

"It's not uncommon for girls."

"Did it happen to you?"

"No." Rory smirked. "I was a skinny little tree branch until I was sixteen or so, though my mother was early to womanhood like Lilly. But Banner's attention is only part of the problem, anyway, which Theo told you."

"He said that he smells funny."

Rory looked over her shoulder, and then pushed Aldric's bedroom door closed, coming in to sit on the edge of the bed next to him. "Lilly noticed it after a few months, when he started coming around her. She smelled…" Rory looked away distractedly, thinking. "She said that he was rotten. Smelled like death. It made her ill."

Aldric raised a brow. "And?" he prompted.

"Well, I went to see for myself," she replied irritably. "I went every day for a week, and on the fourth and fifth days I smelled…" Rory broke off and shook her head, frustrated.

"What?"

"I didn't tell Lilly, because things like this bother her easily. Banner reminded me of the way vampires smell after they've consumed human blood," she said bluntly. "It alters their scent. It's subtle, but it's unmistakable. He's not a vampire, so I'm not sure what it means."

"That's what Lilly was smelling?" Aldric asked, trying hard to keep the doubt out of his voice.

Rory noticed it anyway. "Even Theo scented it, Aldric," she pointed out. "You heard him. He says Banner smells bad, funny. He's too young to understand what he's smelling, but he knows it's wrong. I know this sounds strange, but I can't explain it in words. Your wolf would know."

Aldric opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it when he thought, really thought, about what she'd just said.

Theo could smell it.

Rory's eyes searched his face, sharp as ever. "What is it?"

"I just…" He swallowed. "He's like you. Like us."

She waited quietly.

Aldric tried again. "He has lycanthropy. I didn't…" He blew out a long breath, feeling stupid. "I didn't realize. With everything else… just finding out that he existed…"

"I understand," she said gently. "But yes. He was born with it, Aldric, just like I was."

For some reason, that made the sudden turmoil in his head worse. He fought to compose himself, fully aware that Rory was carefully watching him.

"We don't have to talk about this right now," she offered after a long pause. She rose from the bed and made for the door. "I'm not sure what I need to do now with Banner. I'll talk with Lilly later tonight."

"You're Silver-Blood's thane," Aldric reminded her. "Speak to him."

"That's exactly what limits me." She shook her head. "I can't handle this the way I normally would. I can't threaten Banner. I can't find him and break his nose. And Silver-Blood will care very little about my problems with a stable assistant. He has a lot of other things to worry about, things that he unloads onto me." Rory pushed her hair back, eyes stormy and tired. "I'll have to think of something. In the meantime, I have something in the city I need to do today."

"I'll stay here with Theo," Aldric volunteered.

"I shouldn't be gone more than a few hours. We can talk more when I return, if you'd like."

He nodded. He would need the time to think.

Theo didn't waste any time. As soon as Rory was gone, he burst into the room, a fierce scowl on his face.

"Give me my horsie," he commanded.

Aldric's brows shot up, but he picked Kai up where she'd been abandoned on the table and passed the toy along. Theo snatched it possessively.

Leaning over to grab his boots from their spot next to his bed, Aldric sat down and started to pull them on.

"Are you going somewhere?" Theo asked, grudgingly curious.

"Actually," Aldric said casually, "I was thinking the two of us could go down to the stables right now."

Rory may have been limited by her title, but he wasn't.

"But…" Theo's eyes were huge. "My mama will kill you if we go there."

He grinned. "You know what they say. If you're gonna die…" Aldric smoothed his pant leg down after strapping the buckles at his ankle. "Die with your boots on."

Horses. It had to be horses. Couldn't be any other animal less prone to kicking.

Theo pulled yet another apple from the sack on the ground next to him and held it up over his head. The horse's ears swiveled as it spied the fruit, and Aldric started in alarm as one massive, heavy hoof took an eager step forward. The long hair of its mane drifted across its thick neck, drooping to tickle Theo's forehead as it delicately accepted the treat.

Aldric eyed the black and white beast in front of him from a safe distance. Shouldn't there have been a gate on the stall to fence it in? What if it decided it wanted to leave?

"It has been quite some time since you've been around these parts, young man!" a weathered voice exclaimed.

He turned to see a thin old man coming out of the door between two stalls, a thick book tucked under his arm. "You must be Cedran."

"One and the same," Cedran said cheerfully, gripping his hand in an impressively tight shake.

Aldric glanced at the locked door of the stable's quarters behind the hostler. Since they'd arrived, there'd been no sign of Banner. "Just you here at the stables?" he asked offhandedly.

"My worker, Banner, handles most of the tasks these days—when he's not wasting his time with his overpriced mutts." Cedran snorted and hefted the book under his arm. "He's at the Treasury House now, but he forgot the ledger, so I'm off to bring it up."

Theo squawked. Both men turned to see the horse snuffling the top of his head, giant lips flapping as it gently tugged on his hair. Cedran cracked a wide grin. "You know this little troublemaker?"

The horse behind him gave a loud, sudden snort. Aldric's eye twitched. "I do. He's my—"

"Theran, no!" Theo screamed. His little face was bright pink as he giggled uncontrollably.

Cedran laughed. "He knows you have more apples, boy!" He strode forward and good-naturedly pushed the horse away. "I see you've remembered his favorite, but what about his brother's?"

Theo fished around in the sack for a moment and withdrew what he was looking for with a triumphant flourish. "Carrots!"

"Very good! Another test: do you remember the name of their coloring?"

"Uhh… piebald?"

"Excellent!"

A second horse poked its head out of the next stone stall, eyes zeroed in on the carrot. Theo ripped the long leafy greens from the vegetable and fed it to the horse as a separate treat after the carrot had disappeared.

"You interested in buying one?" Cedran called over his shoulder, looking hopeful. Aldric shook his head. "No? What about one of these fleabags?" He nodded to the unconscious dog parked in front of a bale of hay behind Aldric. "No again? Ah, I don't blame you. Looks a worthless sight, sleeping in the sunshine like a milk-bloated cat. Hey! Wake up and look good, lazy!"

The dog rolled over.

Despite his purpose at the stables, Aldric found himself smiling. Cedran was harmless, and he seemed to enjoy Theo's presence instead of running him off with a broom like he was vermin the way most tradespeople did.

"Aw." Theo's shoulders slumped, and he turned over the empty sack. "No more apples."

"That's just as well." Cedran patted his mussed hair. "Too many of those, and they'll start to think they're some noble's fat little ponies."

Oran tossed his head.

"You be sure and bring that little boy around again, will you?" The old man peered up at Aldric. "I swear, both of these big bastards are happier for days after he visits."

Aldric managed a smile, watching Cedran go until he reached the city gates.

Theo looked up at him. "Do we have to go now?"

He hesitated. There was no way to tell how long Banner would be gone, and they'd run out of a reason to linger at the stables. "Don't you want to see Banner?"

The boy shrugged. "He's not here."

Aldric blinked. No one was there. His eyes slid to the door that was only a few paces away. If he could be quick enough… "Théodyn, stay where you are for just a minute."

Theo immediately narrowed his eyes. "Where are you going?"

He wasn't going back to Vlindrel Hall empty-handed—not after that conversation. A quick rummage through Banner's personal belongings was even better than meeting the man.

Already backing toward the stable doors, Aldric waved him off. "Cedran asked me to look at something for him."

"How long are you going to be gone?"

"I'll be back before you know it," he assured Theo. "Don't go anywhere."

Aldric ducked in front of the entrance to the living quarters with his wrench already in his hand. The stable's lock was flimsy and basic, and gave to his first pick with barely any resistance.

"Did he ask you to look at his door?" came a doubtful little voice directly behind him.

Aldric fumbled to hide his tools. "Do you remember what I said?"

"Yes."

"Say it."

"'Don't go anywhere.'"

"That's right." Aldric stood and placed a hand on the door, and Theo scurried back to his station in front of the horse. "You move one toe from that spot again, and we'll be eating horse stew for dinner."

Wrapping his arms protectively around one of the horse's front legs, Theo glared at him. "All right, all right! I heard you!"

Smiling to himself, he slipped into the building and closed the door behind him. Silent and dim and empty, the long hallway before him pitched downward to the space ahead.

Like the rest of Markarth, the little residence kept to the Dwemer design. It boasted no windows, as usual, but even so it wasn't hard to tell that it was belowground. Even with a hot fire roaring away in the hearth, there was still a chilly bite to the air. Aldric wondered how either of the Reachmen living there could tolerate it, especially Cedran with his old bones.

"He smells funny." Theo's words sounded again in his mind, right there along with what Rory had told him.

Nothing was off in the home. It was filled with scents that Aldric readily expected—fresh hay piled in the corner, a musty bundle of animal hides next to a bed, some kind of soup cooking over the flames. The air also smelled heavily of dog, but it didn't surprise Aldric that the hound from outside slept indoors.

He walked to the smaller, less cushy bed in an open room off the common area. A quick sniff to the blanket told Aldric that it wasn't Cedran's, and he knelt to the floor in front of Banner's simple footlocker.

The lockpick snapped the second his forefinger applied pressure. Aldric frowned and drew a few more from the pack on his hip—the steel lock on Banner's chest was far more advanced than the one on the door.

It wasn't the hardest one he'd ever tackled, but it was no training exercise, either. Banner had clearly spent a lot of money on the device; money that ordinarily would have been well spent, if not for one fatal, common mistake: the trunk itself. No seasoned thief would trouble himself wasting a dozen picks trying to crack the impressive lock—they'd simply bash it in with a boot and break the cheap wooden chest.

"Hiding something, friend?" Aldric muttered, holding the broken pick between his teeth as he set in to working the lock.

One blossoming headache and three broken picks later, he lifted the lid of the chest and found… nothing extraordinary. A few coin purses. Two pendant necklaces, one inlaid with a tiny emerald. A thick stack of old, yellowed mail tied with a strip of leather, addressed to Banner from his mother.

Aldric sifted through disinterestedly. This warranted the expensive lock?

Then he noticed a faint smell. It wasn't quite blood, the way Rory had described it, but it wasn't right.

Under the letters, his fingers brushed against fabric, and he plucked out a neatly folded handkerchief. A little black velvet pouch dropped from the kerchief when he opened it. Aldric rolled it around his hand, feeling that it was light but not empty. He plucked at the drawstring and upended it into his palm.

Recoiling, he flung the contents of the bag into the chest, where they scattered and bounced with little pattering sounds.

Fingers. They were fingers—thumbs, if he wasn't mistaken. All different shapes, sizes and colors. Some were calloused, some soft and feminine. Most had hardened and shrunk, the flesh and muscle withering around the bone; but a couple of them were still—Aldric looked away—soft.

Anger gripped him as adrenaline started to take over. Aldric plucked them out of the chest one by one and put them back into the bag. As quickly as he went, it was difficult not to notice that each of the thumbs was different from one another. If the severed fingers meant what he thought they meant, he was looking at trophies from more than half a dozen victims.

Aldric closed the lid of the chest, taking the bag with him. He didn't bother to re-lock it before he left.

He exited the stables much less cautiously than he'd gone in and came face-to-face with the sight of a dark-haired man kneeling on the ground in front of Theo. His small face was pinched and anxious as he nodded solemnly to whatever the stranger was telling him. As Aldric watched, the man laid a heavy hand on the boy's shoulder and pulled him closer.

Breathing hard through his nose, Aldric's long strides tore up the ground between the two as he approached. Theo scurried backward when he saw the look on his face. The stranger rocked back on his heels and slowly rose to his feet.

"Morning."

Aldric bodily forced him back, away from Theo. "Are you Banner?"

"Yes." Banner looked him up and down as he moved backward, face hostile. "Do I know you?"

A rippling vibration worked its way down Aldric's spine as he stared into Banner's wary eyes. "Stay away from Theo and Lilly."

The man turned his head to glance at Theo.

"Don't look at him." Aldric gripped Banner's shoulder hard, close to his neck. "Look at me. Did you hear what I said to you?"

"Get off me!" The smaller man pulled away angrily. "What is this? His mother send you? I'm not afraid of that bitch."

The most recent finger in Banner's gruesome stash was tiny. It had belonged to a child no bigger than Theo. It would be a long, long time before Aldric would be able to get the memory of the sight—and everything else it implied—out of his head.

Rage overwhelmed him. One of the horses neighed uneasily as Aldric slammed Banner's back against the stable's stone column. He locked his forearm across the man's throat, pinning him there.

"You should be afraid of me," Aldric snarled. "Stay away from them, or I'll kill you."

"Wonder what the jarl would have to say if he knew his precious thane was sending thugs after his city's workers," Banner spat, and gave a sudden, violent lurch, fighting to get free.

Aldric shoved his arm up tighter under the man's jaw until he saw the whites of Banner's eyes. He thrust the black bag into his face with his free hand. "I wonder what he'd have to say about this."

Banner went still and stared at the velvet pouch for a long moment. "What is that?" he managed, voice strained. His face was blank and guarded when he looked back at Aldric. "You gonna give me a present?"

Aldric smelled the raw, naked fear that had flooded Banner's scent. A low, heavy growl began to build in his chest as they locked eyes.

A sound to his right distracted him. Aldric turned his head to see Theo. Hiding behind the edge of the horse's stall, the boy watched the two of them, wide-eyed and pale.

Banner tore away from him, half-falling to the ground as Aldric let him go. Without another word or glance to either of them, he picked himself up and disappeared inside the stables.

Aldric watched the door, struggling to calm the energy that still ripped through him. He shut his eyes tight, angry with himself that he hadn't realized what it might do to Theo to see him lose control.

"I'm sorry." He approached soft and slow. "I'm sorry if I scared you, little man."

For a second that he thought Theo might cringe away, afraid, but he let Aldric come to him. As soon as he was close enough, his small face crumpled. He leaned against Aldric, burying his head in his legs.

Theo's tiny hands tightly gripped the leather of his trousers. "Is he gonna hurt my mama?"

"No." Aldric knelt on the ground and looked into his tear-streaked face. "I won't let him. I promise."

Theo's chin quivered, and then he wrapped his arms around Aldric's neck.

He froze, surprised, and gently patted Theo's curls. They were very soft and warm with his scent. Aldric closed his eyes again. Theo was safe, but another little boy or girl had been hurt by the man that had earned his trust.

Aldric stood, holding the boy securely in his arms. "I'll take you home, Théodyn."

His son whispered to him as they left the stables behind and headed back to the city. "You can call me Theo."