Ritual Magic

Tell me exactly what happened.”
    Rule had spent the next hour doing that, then answering his brother’s questions. Painstakingly thorough questions. Benedict could undoubtedly draw an exact map of where everyone had been, with notes on when they’d moved, what they’d done.
    Since then, Rule had gotten up twice to run the stairs. Arjenie had stood and stretched a few times. Benedict hadn’t moved. Rule knew why. Benedict lived closer to his wolf than most, and Benedict’s wolf was infinitely patient . . . on a hunt. What was he hunting now? Answers? The moment when the surgeon emerged and told them his daughter had made it through surgery and would be fine?
    “You need to decide what to do about Andy,” Benedict said abruptly. “You didn’t accept his submission before sending him away.”
    “I was too angry.”
    Benedict nodded. “Understandable, but too much time to brood on his failure will destroy him as a guard.”
    “It will be a physical punishment, obviously.” Nothing else would let Andy move beyond his guilt and shame. “I was thinking of letting you rebuke him.”
    “No. I want to kill him. He doesn’t deserve it, but I want to.”
    “Ah.” Rule glanced quickly at Arjenie to see if she was upset by her mate’s bloodthirstiness. Apparently not. She rubbed Benedict’s shoulders and made a sympathetic sound. Rule sighed. “I’ll do it, then. Scott can take care of the others, but Andy’s failure cost too much. I have to deal with him myself. He froze. Only for a second, but a second is too long.”
    “Scott reacted immediately.”
    “Yes.” Rule scrubbed his face again. “Maybe because you’ve worked with him, unlike the others. If I’d had some of your people with me—if the guards had been Nokolai instead of Leidolf—”
    “Maybe it would have made a difference, maybe not. No point in dwelling on it. Scott’s reaction proves you’ve got your best man in charge. That’s good.”
    “Being in charge means he feels this failure, too, but he isn’t to blame.”
    “No. He isn’t. I taught him what I teach Nokolai guards. Their first priority is always the Rho. Second is the life of their Lu Nuncio. When Scott signaled for only one guard to stay with Nettie, he was doing what he’d been taught.” Benedict paused. “What I taught him.”
    “Good,” Arjenie said.
    Rule stared at her in outrage. Benedict simply looked astonished.
    “It’s about time you two talked about why you blame yourselves. Neither of you has any
good
reason to do so, but I’m not going to argue with you. I know very well it won’t help. No one is going to oblige either of you by ripping you up so you can bleed out your guilt like you’re planning to do to poor Andy, but you can at least figure out that you don’t blame each other.”
    “Benedict doesn’t blame himself,” Rule said. “He wasn’t even there.”
    Arjenie snorted. “You cannot have been his brother all these years without noticing that there is no end to what Benedict can blame himself for. He thinks it’s his fault because of how he trains the guards, plus he wasn’t there, proving that he isn’t psychic. And you think it’s your fault because you didn’t see the threat in time, plus you failed the psychic pop quiz, too.”
    Benedict and Rule looked at each other uneasily. “I should have kept two guards on Nettie,” Rule said.
    Benedict stole a quick glance at his mate. “I think that falls under Arjenie’s psychic quiz. You couldn’t have known. You did what duty requires. You’re heir to one clan, Rho to another. Duty requires you to be guarded.”
    “And duty requires you to train the guards to keep me alive. Dammit to hell.”
    “Yeah.” Benedict sucked in a slow breath that shuddered on the way out. “I should call our father again. Nothing to report, but he’s got the hardest wait, back at . . . what is it?”
    Rule had straightened, his head turning. “Lily’s here. Not just at the hospital, but on this floor. It surprised me because I hadn’t noticed. Her experience of the mate-sense is more acute than mine, but normally I’d notice before this.”
    Arjenie reached across Benedict to squeeze Rule’s hand. “Things are not normal. I’m glad she’s here.”
    So was he. “We haven’t heard anything from Sam yet.” Lily would be stretched so taut by her own long wait . . .
    “No, and that has to be hard on her. But it’s better to wait together.”
    Rule heard Lily speaking to