He was still there, solid and warm, his face pressed to her neck.
She should leap up and get dressed before her mother came in and found her like this, but she couldn’t seem to move. Instead, she lay there, staring at him in dazed wonder. Through her bedroom window the first pale rays of the rising Great Sun shone down upon them. Dawn was breaking, and Rain Tairen Soul was in her bed.
His eyes opened, and her breath caught again. The brilliant lavender irises were glowing, surrounded by thick dark lashes and centered by slightly elongated black pupils that were growing more catlike by the moment. The limbs draped over her body hardened and drew her more closely to the hard wall of his chest and the harnessed strength of his leather-clad legs.
«Shei’tani?»he prompted.«Were you having another nightmare?»
“No,” she croaked. When Rain looked at her with such intensity, she had no desire to speak of the horrifying visions that had haunted her sleep all her life. She cleared her throat and whispered, “It was just a dream.”
«You were weeping.»He touched the dampness on her cheek.
“It was a sad dream.”
His hand slid down the curve of her jaw. His thumb smoothed over her lips, tracing their outline. His gaze followed, so focused she could feel it brush across her face like a slow caress. The gaze lingered on her full lower lip and glowed a little brighter. The tingle of Spirit magic whispered over her skin. An invisible mouth tracked kisses in its wake.«Tell me.»
Breathless from the magic his hands and weave were working upon her, she stammered out a quick summary of the dream. His Spirit kisses slowed when she told him about Fey’Bahren and the tairen dying, and about him singing a vow to the great gray tairen Sybharukai, then stopped completely when she told him how he’d flown off and abandoned her on the mountainside.
He rose up on one elbow, his gaze fixed upon her face. His facewas solemn, expressionless except for the warm glow of his eyes.«You wept because you dreamed I left you.»
“No, I...” A blush suffused her cheeks when his brows lifted at her poor attempt at a lie. The dying tairen had torn at her heart, but that was not why she’d woken with tears streaming down her face. “I begged you not to go, but you just kept flying.”
He pressed a gentle finger to her lips, silencing her. “I would never leave you,shei’tani. Not for any reason. My place is at your side, and has been since the moment you called me from the sky.” His hand brushed through the tangled spirals of her bright, flame-red hair.
“I—it was just a dream.”
“You should not doubt me even in your dreams.”
In hypnotized fascination, she watched him bend his head over hers. Long black hair draped around her, enclosing her in a shadowy veil within which only she and Rain existed.
“Ver reisa ku’chae. Kem surah, shei’tani. Your soul calls out. Mine answers, beloved.” He whispered the vow ofshei’tanitsaclaiming, first in Feyan, then in Celierian, his voice low and stirring. “Trust in that, Ellysetta. Trust in me.”
Slowly his head dipped down and he claimed her lips. Illusion spun away. Reality took its place, so much better than the weave.
Mercy. Her eyes rolled back and her eyelids fluttered down. Good, sweet Lord of Light, was it possible to die of pleasure from a single kiss? It must be, because she had no doubt that she had just died and gone to the Haven of Light.
Flows of warmth wrapped around her, enclosing her in a snug embrace even as his arms did the same. His mouth trailed a burning path from her lips to the line of her jaw and below to the sensitive skin of her neck. She arched her back, baring her throat to his kisses, gasping for breath as sensation threatened to steal all reason. “Stop. You must stop. My parents...” But her hands clutched him far more fiercely than her words tried to drive him away.
She sensed the power gathering strength within him, knew thatthe tairen—the fierce predator that lived inside him—was preparing to spring, but before she could even think to be afraid, he released her and twisted in one smooth motion to sit on the side of her bed.
With a groan, he hunched his back and buried his face in his hands. She sat up, staring at the long curve of his spine, the broad strength of powerful shoulders, lean muscle, hard bone, sinew, all trembling.
“Rain?” She reached out a hand, but her fingertips scarcely brushed against his back before he sprang to his feet, scooping up the pile of leather and steel by her bed.
“Sieks’ta. You are right, this is not the time, no matter how much I wish it. Though in my defense, you make me lose all sense of reason. Dangerous woman.” He shook his head, his expression torn between admiration and dismay as he pulled on his leather tunic and tightened the laces. “I had not meant to fall asleep.” He glanced out the window at the lightening sky. “Nor stay past dawn.”
“What are you doing here in the first place?”
The hands knotting his laces went still. He turned to face her, his eyes narrowed. “You do not remember?”
Ellysetta gulped down a knot of fear because for a moment her mind was a complete blank. Then the floodgates opened, and the memories rushed back. “Of course I remember.” She laughed to hide her relief. “It’s not every day a woodcarver’s daughter dines with the king and queen and the heads of every noble House in Celieria.” Last night had been her first official function as the future Queen of the Fading Lands.
“I meant after dinner,” Rain prompted. “Your nightmare, do you remember that?”
Her pulse sped up. She recalled the hazy images of a nightmare more disturbing and horrific than any she’d ever had—and that was no small feat. Ellie saw things in her dreams that would have made battle-scarred veterans quake in their boots.
“It was a bad one.” She looked at him for confirmation. She had a wavering vision of blood, bodies, her room shredded into a shambles. She glanced around. Her room looked as it always had, small but tidy, not a thing out of place. But of course, the Fey would have repaired the damage.
“You were attacked in your sleep,” Rain clarified, “by someone using your dreams as a conduit to your unconscious mind. Someone most likely wielding Azrahn.” Azrahn, the soul magic, forbidden to the Fey but widely used and mastered by their greatest enemies.
