Disclaimer: Not mine. But you knew that already.

I have been incanting my heart

In how to unmiss you,

Spelling myself into mastering the art

Of forgetting the damage

You have done stitching back my soul

From the savage way you ripped it apart.

- Nikita Gill, The Art of Unmissing

His fingers clenched spasmodically around his wand as he watched Tom's whore escape from Malfoy Manor and sprint through the gardens, tears streaming down her face. He itched to make her squirm and scream in agony beneath him. He wanted to make her pay for every perceived loss in his life. The loss of a coveted position by Tom's right hand. The loss of his free will through the blasted signet rings. His right hand shifted to fuss with the aforementioned ring as he contemplated following her to wherever she'd fled to in the gardens. It would be so easy to kill her right now. She was unprotected, isolated, and alone. Tom was off somewhere with Orion who'd replaced him in Tom's hierarchy, Thoros and the others were off searching for him, and Abraxas wasn't even on the property.

The thought was extremely tempting but he knew that Tom could find him using the ring. Tom had simply chosen not to yet, allowing his knights to curry favor with him by attempting to track Dolohov down themselves. No, killing her would only bring Tom's wrath down on him that much quicker and he currently needed the breathing room to figure out how to remove the rings binding him to Tom. Which brought him to why he'd returned here in the first place.

He needed the plans for those rings but he was absolutely certain they'd be in Tom's study which was warded so only Tom could enter. The question was, how would he circumvent the wards without alerting Tom to the intrusion?

*HG*TR*

Abraxas sighed and slouched onto a couch in the drawing room. It had taken two hours for him to hammer out an agreement with Cadmus to spearhead Tom's campaign for power in the media. His eyes slid shut and he winced as he thought about what that agreement was going to cost Tom. There was something to be said about greedy power-hungry Slytherins like Cadmus though, he supposed, At least their desires were simple and easy to fulfill for the most part and it wasn't like Tom wasn't capable of fulfilling Cadmus' desires. It would just be a matter of convincing Tom Cadmus was necessary to their cause.

His eyes shot open as the patio door slammed open and he raised his head in alarm to absorb the sight of a bedraggled Hermione. She was barefoot with the skirt of her cotton day-dress tied up at her waist to give her more mobility. Mud streaked her bare legs with splatters flecking the skirt and bodice of her dress. More mud was splattered across her face, marred by tear trails. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her hair was so disarrayed that it looked as though a tornado had swept through it.

"Hermione?" he asked in dismay and was disheartened further to see her jump when he called her name.

"Abraxas," she said warily backing away, "I'm sorry… I didn't think anyone would be in here. I thought— I thought everyone was celebrating in the library." She made to back out of the room but Abraxas jumped up and grabbed her wrist before she could escape.

"Wait," he said more sharply than he intended as she tried to shake his hand off. She flinched at his tone and he cursed himself internally for not being gentler. "Hermione…" he said more softly, "What's wrong?"

"No-Nothing," she whispered, "There's nothing wrong."

Abraxas grimaced at the obvious lie and tugged her toward the sitting area. He shoved her onto the couch and kneeled down in front of her. He looked up at her tear-streaked face unhappily. "Come on," he murmured, "We both know that's a lie. What happened? I would have thought you'd be on cloud nine right now. Your plan achieved everything you and Tom hoped it would." At the mention of Tom's name, Hermione's face twisted and Abraxas' heart fell. Bloody hell Tom, he thought, What have you done to screw up this time? "Tom?" he queried as Hermione's closed off and she shook her head stubbornly.

"Not this time," she said sharply, her lips thin, but Abraxas could read the tension in her shoulders easily as she repeated the lie.

"Don't fucking lie to me," he hissed, and Hermione flinched at the sudden harshness he'd exhibited, "You asked Tom for a confidante and he gave you me. I'm your cousin in everything but blood and I thought we didn't lie to each other."

Hermione's lips twitched with a bit of a smile as he alluded to their many past conversations in which she'd confided her fears and hopes for the future with Tom. It seemed like it had been much longer than just 4 months since she'd arrived here.

"He doesn't trust me," she whispered brokenly and Abraxas felt his heart break for her. Tom was going to get an earful from him later. "I don't understand… why didn't he tell me about Dolohov, Abraxas? Did he expect me to defect as well? Doesn't he understand I don't have a choice in this? I'm stuck with him whether I like it or not. He's ensured it with the binding and everything else he's done to tie me to him."

Abraxas pulled her in for a tight hug. "Love," he breathed into her hair, "Tom's an idiot. You've been around long enough to know this. It's not that he doesn't trust you. It's that he's never had anyone he could trust. Believe me, he will sorely regret not telling you the changes to the plan. The two of us will make sure he does. But, love, he cares deeply for you as well. Don't wreck things just because he's a sociopath."

Hermione's shoulders shook slightly in his arms as she collapsed into him. Her body seemed to melt into his chest as she soaked up the reassurance he offered her. "I… I just don't understand how it is he doesn't understand what today meant to me. I spent months planning this Abraxas. How could he just change them without disregard for how that would affect all the variables and contingencies I'd carefully considered?"

Abraxas sighed heavily and pulled away enough that he could smooth her unruly hair back from her face. "Because he's not used to others having a say in his plans. And in this instance, I believe he made the changes in a misguided attempt to protect you."

Hermione's face burned a deep angry red. "Protect me?" she spluttered, the pitch of her voice rising to earsplitting levels as her anger was stoked "Protect me?! He almost got me killed, Abraxas! How can you honestly—"

Abraxas cut her off with a hand over her mouth as she threatened to explode with righteous anger. "Yes," he said in a low voice, "Protect you. Dolohov has had it in for you since day one and you have a tendency to goad him – particularly since you realized Tom threatened him if you were harmed by him in any way." When he saw the color of her face deepen to purple he hurried on in his defense of Tom's actions. "You haven't hidden the fact that you are a Gryffindor at heart dear. You act reasonably well given time to prepare and under pressure to perform well but you still have a tendency to wear your feelings on your sleeves. Tom wouldn't have wanted you to give anything away accidentally by telling you." Finished, he removed his fingers from her mouth warily, waiting for an inevitable explosion.

"So you agree with Tom's decision then," she said in an icy tone that was almost worse than the fiery response he'd expected.

"What?" Abraxas asked, appalled, "No! I think you should have been apprised of Dolohov's betrayal and any subsequent changes to the plan immediately. I told him to tell you. I thought he had until halfway through the mission today. And I'm so sorry. If I'd known he hadn't told you, I would have made sure you knew before we left today, Tom be damned."

Her body seemed to sag as she absorbed his words and her tense form relaxed slightly. "Very well," she said after a few moments, "I don't pretend to understand why Tom chose not to tell me anything and I don't believe he does trust me at all but I'm willing to accept that you do and that you believe I should have known about the changes."

Watching her, Abraxas realized that whatever affection or emotion that had been there before had well and truly been walled off. She hadn't curbed her feelings for Tom so harshly even after he'd betrayed her trust and violated the sanctuary of his mind. And Abraxas knew that Tom had made a grave error in not telling Hermione about Dolohov or allowing her to take part in reworking their plan to account for betrayal, because Hermione Granger-Malfoy was not a witch to give second chances. Not when she was well and truly done with the games Tom insisted on playing.

*HG*TR*

Tom's fist clenched as he and Connla stared at each other. Connla's blue eyes seemed to see deeper than Tom's skin, and he disliked the sensation of the other man delving into his psyche. Connla's question reverberated between them.

Tom swallowed. Waited. How could he answer that question? Had he thought about the cost of immortality? Not particularly. A soul seemed a pittance for what he wanted – the opportunity to live forever. He was afraid of Death. It wasn't something he would admit to anyone – not even himself generally but Connla had hit something deep within him and it resounded between them.

"No," he said finally, watching the other man's eyes acknowledge the truth. He watched them harden with disbelief and loathing, but there was respect there now too. "I didn't," he paused, "I'm beginning to see the extent of my misjudgment though. Hermione has seen to that."

Connla glanced at Orion standing in the corner of the room before he turned his attention back to Tom. "A truthful answer," he said, "I didn't expect that."

"I dislike doing what people expect on principle," Tom quipped back, and the tension broke in the room, relief from it washing around them as Orion snorted and the two immortals grinned at each other.

"And that is what will get the two of you through this mess," Connla said, "The Morrígu think linearly. A nudge here will cause that to happen. The right or wrong word spoken there will cause this chain of events. They do not deal with the unexpected well."

*HG*TR*

Orion was reeling with the information that both his mentor and the prisoner they'd come to interrogate were immortal. The prisoner had said something about splitting his soul and the cost of that. His thoughts raced through what little he knew about soul magic and the destabilizing effect it had on a person's sanity. Part of the reason for the recurring madness in his family, beyond their insistence on inbreeding, was due to Soul Bonding, a favorite marriage bond in past ages. He couldn't believe Tom had had the guts to go through with such a ritual but then again, he possibly hadn't known the full extent of the effects he'd experience either.

He glanced between Tom and the Celtic prisoner trying to gauge what had changed between them. The tension that had been building since they'd entered the room had dissipated abruptly as the two immortals seemed to come to an understanding.

"You understand I can't help directly," Connla said, "The Morrígu must not know of my involvement if we are to deceive them."

Tom nodded. "But you can give us advice."

"Yes," Connla said, "I will not be able to stay but I should be able to contact you at regular intervals."

"As long as we win."

*HG*TR*

Hermione jerked upright as Tom and Connla entered the library laughing. Her eyes widened at the sight. Hermione shuffled to the edge of the couch, glancing at Abraxas as she did. An irrational anger seemed to build in her chest until she couldn't contain it any longer. "What," she asked icily, "is going on here?"

"I spoke to Connla," Tom replied, a note of warning in his voice.

"Without me," she said flatly, her meeting his accusingly, "Have you planned out your world domination now? What, fearless leader, is our next step then? Or are you not going to disclose that information and let your minions dive into action unaware of the dangers they face?"

She smiled thinly as her words hit home and he flinched. "Hermione," he said sharply.

"What?" she hissed, "No one is here that doesn't know the truth of our relationship. Abraxas has known since the beginning, Connla is aware of my circumstances because I told him," She nodded toward Orion who had trailed into the library after the Celt and her fiancé as she continued, "and I'm assuming you just informed young Orion of them because you brought him with you to talk with Connla."

Beside her, Abraxas flinched at her boldness. Tom, for his part, remained impassive. "We've planned nothing," Tom murmured, refusing to rise to her provocation. She bit back a retort as Abraxas placed a hand on her shoulder, silently reminding her that despite her desire to start a fight with Tom, it wasn't a good idea. Her circumstances had not changed. She was still bound to Tom whether she liked it or not. Everything she'd told Connla still stood. She'd been backed into a corner with only one way out: through Tom. Through ensuring he never made the same mistakes he had in her timeline. But she was no longer confident that she'd be able to change him enough to matter in the grand scheme of things.

"I think," Connla said slowly, as he glanced between Hermione's stony and Tom's impassive countenance, "That I should speak to Hermione." Hermione glanced at him sharply, and back at Tom who appeared to be about to say something. "Alone."