Ellie smothered a smile. There was something very endearing about lethal warriors living in fear of ruffling a tiny kitten's fur. "Let me take a look." Ellie stepped into the kitchen and crouched down to look under the icebox. Beneath it, huddled against the back wall, was a tiny ball of white fur dominated by a pair of big, gleaming blue eyes. The kitten opened her mouth to hiss and display needle-sharp fangs.

"Poor little Love," Ellie crooned. "I'll bet last night was even more frightening for you than me." As the Fey had discovered last week, Lillis and Lorelle's kitten could sense magic woven nearby-and to say she hated it was an understatement.

"Come here, sweetling. Come here, kit, kit, kit." Ellie reached under the icebox, hoping to scoop the little kitten out, but when her fingers were close enough to brush against soft white fur, Love gave a loud hiss and swatted out with razor-sharp claws. Ellie yelped and yanked back her bleeding hand.

Like a bolt of furry white lightning, Love shot out from under the icebox, raced across the main room, and leapt up the stairs towards the relative safety of Lillis and Lorelle's bedroom.

Ravel stepped towards Ellysetta, green Earth and lavender Spirit already spinning out from his fingertips to stop the bleeding and steal away the sting of the deep furrows scored across the back of her hand. "Shall I summon Marissya to heal it?”

Ellie gave a small laugh of disbelief. "For a cat scratch? No, I'm sure I'll be fine.”

Ravel frowned at her, black brows drawing close over remarkable violet eyes. "I will inform the Feyreisen," he insisted. "He will make certain Marissya's schedule permits her to attend you”

Ellie caught herself before rolling her eyes. She'd been wounded under Ravel's care, and both his masculine Fey instinct and his strong warrior's code of honor compelled him to see her healed. He couldn't do it himself. Though masters of extraordinary magic, Fey warriors could not heal wounds as their women could. They could only staunch the flow of blood and temporarily seal rent flesh.

"Thank you, Ser Ravel," she said, "but please, make sure they know it's only a scratch. Poor Love. I shouldn't have reached for her, I suppose, but usually even when she's frightened she lets us hold her.”

"Perhaps she has reason to be more frightened than usual," a grim voice announced.

Ellysetta gave a start of surprise and turned to find her adoptive mother standing in the kitchen doorway. "Good morning, Mama. I didn't hear you come down.”

Lauriana Baristani was already fully dressed, her mink-brown hair tamed in a bun at the back of her neck, her body covered from ankle to neck in a practical burgundy dress. She raked Ellie from head to toe with a penetrating gaze, hazel eyes sharp and probing. "How are you feeling this morning, Ellysetta?”

Ellie's heart sank. She knew that intense, scrutinizing look. Mama was looking for some remnant of last night's terrible nightmare, some visible sign of the dread affliction that had no doubt prompted Ellysetta's natural parents-whoever they were-to abandon her in the forests of Norban when she was but a babe.

An old, familiar tension coiled inside Ellie. "I'm fine, Mama”

"Are you?" Her mother's eyes had always seen too much, too clearly. It was one reason Ellie had grown up such a scrupulously obedient daughter. "Last night you were nowhere near fine. You haven't had such a terrible ... event ... since Hartslea.”

Silence fell between them. They never mentioned Hartslea, the northern city where they'd lived years ago, the city they'd fled after Ellie's childhood exorcism. Ellie had only been eight at the time, but she still remembered the smell of sago flowers and incense, the malevolent gleam of long needles in the flickering candlelight, the deep scarlet of the exorcists' robes and the dark fervency in their eyes.

"I'm fine, Mama," she insisted, shoving those old terrors to the back of her mind. She would not think of those awful days.

"Ellysetta .. " Her mother reached out to take her arm, then stopped as Ellysetta drew back. A hurt look crossed Lauriana's face but she suppressed it quickly. "I'm concerned, Ellysetta, and you know why. You also know I'd do anything in my power to help you." Her voice softened. "I love you, kitling. I only want what's best for you.”

Guilt stung Ellysetta. Her rigid shoulders slumped. "I know you do, Mama, and I love you too. But, please, don't worry. If there's any way to stop my nightmares, Rain has sworn he and the Fey will find it.”

"That's all well and good, Ellie, but what if he can't? Magic is more likely the root of your troubles, not the solution.”

Ellie bit back a sharp remark. Mama was as fierce in her loathing of magic as Rain was in his loathing of the Eld. There was no talking to either of them when those subjects came up.

Before Ellie could think of a response, her father's voice called out, "Good morning, Ellie-girl. I hope you're cooking a feast. I've a belly so empty, I could eat a dragon." Entering the kitchen, Sol Baristani greeted his daughter with a warm, broad smile and a casual joviality that didn't extend to his bespectacled brown eyes.

"Good morning, Papa." Grateful for his timely interruption, Ellie wound her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.

He smelled of soap and freshly laundered clothes rather than the scents of wood shavings and pipe smoke she loved so well, but the unfettered welcome of his embrace made her heart brim with love as it always did. He didn't ask her about last night, and she loved him even more for that. She would go to him as she always had when she was ready to talk, and he was patient enough to wait. Besides, unlike Mama, he actually liked the Fey. Despite their strange and magical ways, he'd welcomed them into his home because he knew Rain Tairen Soul was the man Ellie had dreamed of all her life.