Cardual was too late. He wasn’t sure what spell his daughter cast, but her lips glowed crimson, and she pressed them to the boy’s and then forced air into his lungs. She kept breathing into his mouth, steadily, like a heartbeat.

Time seemed to hold still, and then she raised her head and smiled. At first Cardual couldn’t tell why, but then he noticed the slight rise and fall of Sardi’s chest. She had done it, somehow. That was the breathing of a living person, not a vampire.

“What have you done, my dear?” Cardual had let his professional mask slip, utterly amazed by what she had done here. ‘Human magic is indeed powerful,’ it sent a shiver through his spine. His daughter was powerful, and dangerous.

Mimi smiled up at him, a smile he hadn’t seen since she was a little girl. “I saved my betrothed. It was the least I could do, right?” Her head dipped a little after she spoke. She was drained of energy. Cardual knew that magic tired her, and she was injured earlier, and jus