Dreams of a Dark Warrior

lolled, panic set in. She put her ear to his bloody chest, listening for his heart. Still alive. Just unconscious. Over her shoulder, she snapped, “Lothaire!”
    The vampire took a knee on Chase’s other side, thenbit his own wrist. “Hold his mouth open.” Brandr pried his jaws wide so Lothaire could drip a generous stream inside. Then the berserker shoved Chase’s mouth shut until he swallowed.
    “Now what?” she asked.
    The vampire stood, dusting off his hands. “Now you wait. The magister will wake within three days, or he dies—” Lothaire tensed.
“Nïx,”
he hissed.
    Regin jerked her head around. Through the rain, she spotted the soothsayer strolling along the beach toward them. Nïx?
She
was the one Regin had sensed?
    The soothsayer had white sunblock on her nose, high-heeled flops, a wide-brimmed hat—and Bertil perched on her shoulder. Her T-shirt read: I Lost My Heart on Immortal Island.
    “Nïx!” she cried. “Is Chase going to live?”
    “Dearling, it’s up to fate now.”
    “Back in New Orleans, you asked me what I would do to break the curse. I said just about anything then. Now I’m saying
anything
! Tell me what to do, Nïx!”
    “All that could be done has been. Now as soon as everyone gets here, Malkom will be a dear and trace us off the island.” She turned to Carrow. “Until then, good witch, a round of freedom for Regin’s friends! And for … him.” She pointed to Lothaire.
    He intoned, “Valkyrie.”
    “Vampire,” she said in greeting. The bat unfurled its wings aggressively.
    Regin gathered Chase’s head into her lap, frantically smoothing the hair from his cool forehead. WhenBrandr’s hand covered her shoulder, her tears fell, splatting against Chase’s cheek. “Wh-what are you doing here, Nïx?”
    “You know how it goes, had some miles about to expire. And it’s just like you said. A little vacay was all I needed!”
    Her voice thick, Regin asked, “Is Lucia safe? Did she face Cruach without me?”
    “Cruach is no more! She and Garreth MacRieve took him out forever.”
    Cruach’s dead.
Regin’s mind could hardly wrap around the idea.
    “The two lovebirds are here on the island,” Nïx continued, “hoofing it to get to you.”
    Lothaire stalked toward Carrow. “Free me, and be quick about it.”
    “That’s right,” Nïx said. “You’ll want to be at full power before the wolf arrives. Since you broke his female’s neck down in the Amazon. Directly after you woke La Dorada.”
    Regin gaped. “He did
what
?”
    “Witch,
now,
” he grated.
    “Don’t get pissy with me, leech.” With a glare, Carrow pressed her print to his torque. “Even tapped out, I can still do a love spell to make you fall in love—with the sun.”
    When the collar dropped to the ground, Lothaire rolled his head on his neck. But instead of disappearing immediately, he traced to stand mere feet from Nïx.
    A towering vampire with skin like marble andchillingly flawless features was staring down a petite Valkyrie with crazed eyes and a cryptic smile.
    The tension between the two was palpable. Even on the verge of flipping the fuck out, Regin couldn’t look away.
    “The Accession grinds on, does it not?” Lothaire said.
    “Just like old times.” Nïx winked. “Alas, Dorada will come for you once she rises again.”
    “I’ll be ready.” He narrowed his red eyes. “You’ve likely foreseen this moment. Tell me, are we to fight now? As in the past?”
    “You defy foresight, Lothaire.”
    “That’s only fair, Phenïx, since you’ve long defied insight.”
Phenïx?
    Nïx canted her head. “What does your Endgame tell you?”
    “That white queen will never take black king.” He gave her a formal bow. “Until our next match.”
    “There won’t be a next match, vampire.”
    His brow creased into a frown, the Enemy of Old disappeared.
    With a lackadaisical air—as if she just hadn’t been toe-to-toe with the Lore’s most-feared fiend—Nïx strolled over to Regin. “Tsk, tsk.” She gazed down at Chase. “He was such a cute boy. He gave me a hug good-bye that day at the fair, even though he thought I was a fortune-teller crone.”
    Regin swung her head up. “You
saw
him?”
    “Saw who?”
    “Nïx!”
    “Regin!”
    Inhale. Exhale. Pet Chase’s forehead. Don’t go crazy like her.
    Lucia arrived then, hand in hand with Garreth MacRieve. “Regin, thank gods, you’re al— who are you holding?”
    Out of the corner of her lips, Carrow said, “That’s