Adrial met his brother’s gaze in a brief exchange, then pivoted on his heel and left.
As the door closed, Rowan’s shoulders slumped. “This should have been a joyous time.”
Ellie’s heart ached for Rowan almost as much as it ached for his brother and Talisa Barrial diSebourne.
He drew himself up and turned to face Rain. “I must excuse myself from the honor of holding Fire in the Feyreisa’s quintet. I fight where I always have, at my brother’s side. Besides,” he added, “if Lord Barrial’s daughter does not accept Adrial’s bond and he is too far gone forsheisan’dahlein, then I must be the one to grant him peace.”
“Nei, Rowan,” Marissya protested. “We cannot afford to lose you, too.”
“He is my brother. It is my duty and my right.”
Rain nodded and held out an arm. After a brief hesitation, Rowan clasped it. “The gods be with you, Rowan, and your brother. I wait with joy for the day you both return to the Fading Lands.”
“May the gods be so kind,” Rowan murmured.
Then Rowan, too, was gone.
“Sheisan’dahleinis the Fey honor death, isn’t it?” Ellysetta murmured. “Why would Adrial kill himself now that he’s found his truemate, even if she doesn’t accept their bond? And what did Rowan mean by granting Adrial peace?” Ellysetta glanced around the room, but one after another, each Fey gaze slid away from hers. She turned to her own truemate. “Rain?”
He was silent for so long that Ellie thought he might not answer her. Then, at last, he spoke, slowly, as if each word were dragged from him against his will. “When a Fey finds hisshei’tani—as I found you, and as Adrial found Talisa—his soul is tied to hers. It cannot be undone, and he must win her bond inreturn or something we call the soul hunger will begin to drive him mad.”
Ellysetta’s stomach clenched. The Fey were creatures of power, some more dangerous than others, but even the weakest among them could wreak havoc if their magic was loosed upon the world without caution.
“As I told you earlier this week, all Fey have a bit of the tairen in them, a wildness that lives inside. It is very fierce, very powerful. When the soul hunger comes, that bit of tairen slips its leash. Even those who aren’t Tairen Souls become dangerous to themselves and all around them. You know what a Fey can do when madness takes him. It cannot be allowed.”
“So if Talisa doesn’t—”
“If Lord Barrial’s daughter does not accept the bond, Adrial must take his own life, or one of us must do it for him.”
“And ifIdon’t acceptourbond?” She stared up at Rain in dawning horror.
“Then I must die, Ellysetta. By my own hand or that of another.” He wasn’t wearing his usual expressionless mask, but she could neither see nor sense anything but acceptance in him. The day he had come out of the sky to claim her, he had embraced her as his fate, not knowing whether she would bring him joy or death.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before now? Why did you keep it a secret?” Since the beginning, she realized, they’d considered the possibility. They’d even built conditions to account for it into her marriage contract.
“It is what it is,” Rain said. “We can’t change it. Telling you would serve no purpose.”
“No purpose?”She gaped at him. “I’m supposed to be your truemate. Don’t you think I deserve to know that something I do or don’t do can kill you? Don’t you think I wouldwantto know?” She crossed her arms over her chest. It hurt to realize he’d deliberately kept this from her. “What happened to all that trust you keeptalking about? Or is it just me who’s supposed to trust you, while you can keep hiding things from me forever?”
Spots of color flashed on his cheeks. “I had hoped there would be no reason to tell you. You seemed... willing to entertain the idea of loving me. I thought the rest would come in time.”
“Who has sworn to kill you?” But she already knew. She turned to Bel.
“Rain and I are brothers in all but blood,” he said.
“Could you really kill him?Wouldyou?”
“If I must.”
“How could you ever bring yourself to do it? You love him, almost as much as I do.”
“It is not something we do lightly,” Marissya said. “A Fey cannot take the life of another Fey without losing his own soul and becomingdahl’reisen.”
Vadim Maur descended the final flight of stone steps to the bottommost level of his subterranean palace. Ten rings of power glinted at his fingers, andselkahrglittered darkly at his wrists. The voluminous deep purple folds of his robes dragged behind him. His sash had long ago become so heavy with the jewels of his achievements that he had ceased to wear it for all but the most ceremonial of occasions, and this was business, not ceremony.
He turned to the left of the stairs and walked down the long, shadowed hallway, past several dozen empty cells. Once, they had all been filled, as some of the cells in the right corridor still were, but over the centuries, all but a precious few of his Fey pets had died, and lately evendahl’reisenwere hard to come by.
The guards outside the last cell at the farthest end of the long corridor opened the heavysel’dor-banded-and-bolted door as Vadim approached. He stepped into the room and summoned light in the sconces high on the walls, illuminating the cage and the matepair within. Even before he’d entered, they had backed into a corner of their cage, and once again—predictable as time—the man had pushed his mate behind him. As if that puny gesture could protect her.
