He drew her closer, and she went without protest, dazed with wonder as his arms, so lean and strong, wrapped her in a close embrace. Her ear pressed against his chest. She felt the unyielding bristle of the countless sheathed knives strapped over his chest, heard the beat of his heart, and was oddly reassured. There was safety here as no other place on earth.

She felt him bow his head to rest his jaw on her hair, the touch feather light. Tears beaded in her lashes at the simple beauty of it.

"Ver reisa ku'chae. Kem surah, shei'tani." He whispered the words against her hair.

"You said that before," she murmured. "What does it mean?" It sounded familiar, like something she had heard or read somewhere. She felt the stillness in him, the hesitation, and she pulled back to look up into his eyes.

His gaze moved slowly over her face as if he were committing her likeness to memory for all time. "I don't even know your name.”

She blinked in surprise. Since the moment she had put her hand in his and he had pulled her into his arms, she felt as if he knew everything there was to know about her. It was surprising and disconcerting to realize that, in fact, they knew each other not at all. "Ellie," she told him solemnly. "My name is Ellysetta Baristani.”

"Ellie." Liquid Fey accents savored the syllables of her simple name, making it something beautiful and exotic. "Ellysetta." His pale, supple hand brushed the mass of her hair. His gaze followed the path of his fingers as they delved deep into the untamable coils. "Ellysetta with hair like tairen flame and eyes the green color of spring. I've seen the mist of your reflection in The Eye of Truth." His gaze returned to hers, filled with wonder and regret. "Ver reisa ku'chae. Kern surah, shei'tani. Your soul calls out. Mine answers, beloved.”

At last Ellie remembered why the Fey words seemed so familiar. She'd read them before in a slim volume of translated Fey poetry. It was the greeting a Fey man spoke to a woman when recognizing and claiming her as his truemate. The strange buzzing in her ears was all the warning Ellie received before her knees buckled.

Rain caught the girl as her legs gave way and held her tight to his chest, even as his own legs trembled beneath him. She was not the only one stunned by his claim.

Never in recorded history had a Tairen Soul claimed a truemate.

That was the price of the Tairen Soul, one he had accepted eleven hundred and eighty-seven years ago when his adolescent Soul Quest had shown him flame and fang. And on the day of his First Change, when all the tairen and Tairen Souls of the Fading Lands gathered in Fey'Bahren to guide him through his first transformation, he had trembled with fear and exaltation—but no regret—as his Fey form dissolved and re-formed as a massive, black-furred tairen who rode the winds on mighty wings. He had known then that he was destined for loneliness. Never to find a truemate, the one who was his other half. Never to bear a daughter of his loins. Never to know relief from the souls that darkened his own.

Sariel had joined her life with his, even knowing their souls would never follow where their hearts had led. Then she had died, and he had survived her death. Ah, gods, how he had railed against that. If Sariel had been his truemate, the mate of his soul rather than simply the mate of his heart, nothing could have chained him to life after her death. But he was a Tairen Soul, and Tairen Souls did not have truemates.

Until now.

Rain shook his head in disbelief. This girl in his arms was the first truemate to be claimed in a thousand years. The first truemate ever to be claimed by a Tairen Soul. Among the many wonders of the shei'tanitsa bonding, not the least of its benefits was the guarantee of fertility and the continuation of the strongest magics of the Fey.

There was no doubt in his mind that she was the reason the Eye had sent him to Celieria. Somehow, for some reason beyond his understanding, the gods had granted this slender Celierian girl—scarcely more than a child—the power to save the tairen and the Fey.

Somehow, though he did not want it, they had granted her the power to save him.

CHAPTER THREE

Ellie woke wrapped in warm strength, the music of a steady heartbeat sounding in her ear. His strength. His heartbeat. Rainier vel'En Daris Feyreisen. Rain Tairen Soul. The man who had claimed her as his truemate, the missing half of his soul.

"I'm all right," she murmured, pulling away to stare up into the watchful lavender gaze of the stranger who named her his beloved. "I just got a little dizzy for a moment." Something warm and hungry unfurled within her as their eyes met. She backed away from him, hoping he had not noticed. "Why did you … say what you did?”

"That you are my shei'tani?" he growled. "Because it is the truth. Because I must." A muscle flexed in his jaw. She was suddenly aware of a sense of driving need, of a hunger not warm like hers but hot and demanding; then the feelings faded as Rainier vel'En Daris turned his back to her and took several deep breaths. "We must go," he said abruptly. "Your countrymen grow restless and too bold by half. The girl children who were with you are worried.”

Her hands clapped over her cheeks. "Lillis! Lorelle!" How could she have forgotten about them? She spun around, only to find her wrist clasped in his hand.

"Stay close to me, Ellysetta Baristani. I can allow no harm to befall you." He gestured. The cone of magic surrounding them disappeared, revealing them both to the swarming crowds jamming the streets. The throngs were so thick, with more bodies pushing into the area by the second, that Celierians dared to crowd within five feet of the small, lethal army of Fey warriors. There was a dull roar of sound— thousands of bodies shifting restlessly, voices murmuring— but all fell silent when Ellysetta and Rainier appeared.