Her mouth twisted into a snarl of outrage. That was what did it then, that snapped the last of her tenuous hold on her own control. No one would speak so ill of her darling Matteo, her rock, her husband, her companion, her brother in the last five hundred years of darkness. If he was gone, then she would make him anew.

She came at her enemy like a spitting cat, sharp nails and teeth bared.