“Nothing,” Rain said. He stalked off to one corner and stood there, arms crossed, glaring out the window.
“Not nothing,” Marissya corrected. “Tell her, Rain. Tell the Feyreisa what hershei’tanhas been doing. She has a right to know.”
Ellie stared at Marissya as if she’d grown a second head. Theshei’dalinactually sounded...angry. Furious even. And with her veils thrown back, her cheeks hot with color, her appearance confirmed it. If she weren’t seeing the proof with her own eyes, Ellie would never have believed it possible. She glanced at Dax. His head was down, shoulders slumped, and he was pinching the bridge of his nose as if he were painfully resigned to suffer through an argument he’d already heard many times over.
“Tell her, Rain,” Marissya barked again. When he didn’t, theshei’dalinturned to Ellie, hands on hips, and said, “He’s been using the Lords of Council fortarget practice!”
Ellie’s jaw dropped and she stared at Rain with wide, disbelieving eyes. “You didn’t.”
Flags of red darkened his cheeks.
She put her hands to her face. “Oh, gods, you did.”
His jaw clenched. “It wasn’t like that. I didn’t start firing off Fey’cha by the dozen. It was only one Fey’cha, and I was making a point.”
“The point had to be made with aweapon?”
“I was trying to explain about the return weave that is spun into Fey weapons when they’re forged, to prove that finding a Fey’cha where a crime has been committed doesn’t necessarily meandahl’reisenare involved. I thought a demonstration would be more effective.”
“He nearly pinned Lord Bevel’s ears to his chair,” Marissya interjected.
“I usedblack,” Rain exclaimed when Ellysetta continued to gape at him in horrified disbelief. “That insolent littlebogrotwas never in any danger.”
“That insolent littlebogrotis a lord whose vote we needed in Council,” Marissya retorted. “I asked you to meet with those nobles to befriend them, not alienate them still more. They’re never going to support us, Rain, if you can’t show them more than anger and threats.”
“I tried reason—and that got me nowhere. If they’re all too blind and too arrogant to secure their own safety, then let them choose death! After these continued affronts to Fey honor, this pervasive contempt for our many sacrifices, I no longer care what happens to these fools!”
“Well, I care,” Ellysetta said.
Rain turned towards her in surprise. Dax started to say something, but Marissya caught his arm and shook her head, thenturned to watch Ellysetta with an encouraging look.«Speak, little sister. You can make him hear.»
“This is my homeland,” Ellysetta said. “These are my people. My family. My friends. Hate the nobles, if you must, but they aren’t the only ones in danger.”
“Ellysetta—” Rain stepped towards her. Her raised hand halted him.
“No, listen to me. If the Mages are rising again, as you believe, then Celieria is in danger. We have no defense against magic. Without you—without the Fey—we will fall to them. You know that.”
“You speak of Celieria as if you still belong with them and not with us,” Rain said.
“You have all accepted me as if I were one of you, and for that I’m more grateful than I can say, but IamCelierian, Rain. Thisismy homeland. What happiness can we ever find together if I abandon my country and my people to destruction?”
He went very still. “Are you saying you will refuse our bond if I cannot stop the Eld agreement from passing?”
“No, of course not—”
“Because Celierians are free to make their own choices, but that freedom has a price. They must live with the consequences of their choices, just as the Fey do. I have warned Dorian. I have told him that opening the borders will end the alliance between our two countries. I have begged him to invokeprimus. He could put an end to this right now, but he will not. Without stone-hard proof, he will not act against the wishes of his Council. They have usurped his power, and he allows them to do it.”
“And if the Council passes the agreement because you made no effort to prevent it, what then?” she returned, refusing to back down. “If you’re right about the Mages reconstituting their power, then abandoning Celieria to them will only give them millions more souls to claim, millions more soldiers to swell the ranks of their armies. Can the Fey affordthat?”
The corner of Rain’s mouth lifted in a snarl.
“What I’m saying,” Ellysetta concluded quietly, “is that you must at leasttry. It doesn’t matter how you feel about the nobles, because this isn’t just about them.” She gave a short laugh. “I’m terrified about tonight’s dinner. I’m terrified that my presence will do more harm than good. I know the nobles will be watching every move I make, and many are likely hoping to find something to mock, something with which to discredit you. But King Dorian asked us to attend, and so I will go, because, no matter what I think, I knowyoubelieve the Mages are a very real threat, one that must be stopped. I’ve done my best to adapt, to change how I dress, how I speak, how I act, because I know you’ll need every advantage you can muster to win over the Council of Lords, and I couldn’t bear it if I were the cause of your failure.”
“I’ve already told you, you don’t have to change. You are perfect just as you are.”
“That is Rain, my mate, speaking, not Rain, the Fey king. I’m a woodcarver’s daughter, a commoner without a drop of noble blood in my veins. There are lords who will consider it an insult even to have me in the same room with them. And that makes me a liability.”
He made a sound—half guttural snarl, half bitter curse—and came to her. His hands reached for her, slid over her cheeks into the thick spirals of her hair. Gentle, unyielding pressure tilted her head back, forcing her to look up into his face.
