She absorbed his words, scarcely daring to believe that this man could find her more appealing than Kelissande Minset. She glanced at the other Fey around her. None of them had lifted a finger to help Kelissande out of her predicament. To the contrary, several of them seemed to find the situation amusing. Rain, it seemed, wasn't the only one unaffected by Kelissande's perfect beauty. Somehow, that made the possibility that Rain actually preferred Ellie more believable.

As the dripping, disheveled young woman was delivered from the watery clutches of the Velpin, she shot Ellie a look of such virulent hatred that Ellysetta actually flinched and stepped back. Immediately Rain and the Fey closed ranks around her. Faces hard, their eyes cold and lethal, they glared at the soaked girl. To Ellie's surprise, Kelissande turned pale and stumbled back into the arms of her rescuers. Fear contorted her face. Ellie followed the girl's terrified gaze to Rain, who was watching her coldly, his eyes glowing with faint lavender light.

"What are you doing to her?”

"I am making sure she understands what will happen if she persists in this foolish desire to hurt you.”

Ellie frowned. "Well, stop it. You're scaring her.”

After one last forceful look, Rain released Kelissande and turned to Ellie. "I am your mate. It is my duty and privilege to protect you, even from your own too-forgiving heart. She hurt you, wounded your feelings, made you doubt the bond between us, and now she thinks dark thoughts that give you fear. Such evil I will not allow. Those gentle words you thought I whispered to her were my first warning of what I would do should she persist in wounding you. Now I have shown her what sort of enemy she has made. Should she think to hurt you a third time, it will be the last." There was no compassion in his eyes, no hint of mercy, just cold, implacable promise. Ellie shivered, and his face immediately softened. "I make you fear me. This is not my intent." He raised a knuckle to her cheek. "Do not fear me, Ellysetta. Never will I harm you. I seek only to ensure your protection and your happiness.”

"I know," she whispered, surprised to find it true. Though the cold power and deadly promise in his eyes frightened her, she knew it was not directed at her, and her fear was more for others than for herself. She would not want to be witness to the unleashing of that power. She did not want to think of it being exercised on her behalf.

He held out his hand, palm down in the Fey fashion. She placed her fingers on his wrist the way he had taught her the day before. Now he did smile, the barest curve of his lips, but the warmth of his approval filled her with joy.

In a shadowed alleyway across from the park, two pairs of eyes had watched the passionate kiss, one gaze blazing with hatred, the other glowing black with hints of smug, satisfied red. "You see how wantonly she displays herself? Would the Ellysetta you know do this? He uses Spirit to force her mind to his will. She is his puppet. He has taken your bride and made her his whore.”

"Demon-souled sorcerer," Den hissed. "He's got her so besotted, she'll do anything he asks with her power.”

"Her power?" Captain Batay repeated with interest.

"She heals with a touch, finds things that are lost. And I've even seen her …" He broke off, flicked a quick glance at his companion, and remembered caution. "Never mind." He frowned and turned his head to study the man beside him. A moment ago, at Den's quick first glance, Batay's eyes had looked like dark pits filled with glowing red coals. It must have been a trick of the light. Now they were their usual blue-green.

White teeth flashed in the shadowy darkness. "Come, my young friend. There is much to be done.”

A dark-sleeved arm wrapped around Den's shoulders like a tentacle, making the butcher's son shiver with a premonition of dread. He shook off the feeling. To reclaim Ellysetta Baristani and all the riches that would come when he put her powers to lucrative use, Den would even deal with a Drogan Blood Lord. Compared to those vicious blood-drinking cannibals, what was there to fear from the captain of a Sorrelian merchant ship?

* * *

"What would you like to do now, Ellysetta?" Rain asked as they left the park.

She flashed him a surprised look. She had been expecting him to go off to do whatever it was kings did when visiting a foreign city. Surely King Dorian and Queen Annoura had entertainment planned for him. "Don't you have things to do?”

His eyebrows lifted. "You wish me to leave you?”

"Not at all. But I'm sure you came to Celieria for a purpose. Don't let me keep you from it." She bit her lip as his eyebrows rose higher. "That didn't come out right. I don't want you to leave, but I'll understand if you must.”

"You think there is business I must attend to, which I put off so I may court you?”

"Yes." She gave him an earnest look. "And you don't have to. I'll understand”

He was silent for a moment, staring so intently into her eyes that she forgot to breathe. His hand came up to cup her cheek, fingers sliding into her hair, the warmth of his palm cradling her jaw His thumb stroked the high ridge of her cheekbone. "You are the reason I came to Celieria," he told her. "My only purpose for being here”

"How can I be the reason you came?" she whispered. "You didn't even know I was alive until two days ago.”

"Three," he corrected. "You called to me three days ago. That was when I first knew of you." His thumb continued to brush across her cheek. "Do you remember what I said when we first spoke? I told you that I had seen the mist of your reflection in the Eye of Truth. It was the Eye that sent me here to find you, though I did not know it until you called me from the sky.”