There, on the soft, ivory swell of her left breast above her heart, revealed by the scooped neckline of her nightgown, a shadow lay upon her skin. A hideous, damning smudge.

Rain stared in horror at the mark on Ellysetta's flesh. If Gaelen was to be believed-and, gods help him, Rain did believe him-this was proof of Mage-claiming. The Eld had forged a foothold in Ellysetta's soul.

"Only one Mark," Gaelen was saying. "It could be worse. It takes a full six Marks to completely subjugate a soul.”

Rain only half heard him. His mind was reeling. The instinct to kill anyone infected with Eld evil was so strong, his hand actually ached for the feel of red in his palm. And yet .. . this Mage-claimed woman was his shei’tani, his truemate, the miraculous bright and shining soul who had brought him out of the shadows of despair. She was the one he'd been sent to find and bring back to save the Fading Lands.

Wasn't she?

She stared at him, weeping, hands outstretched. Silently pleading with him for reassurance, for proof that he would not revile her.

Gods help him, he could not give her that.

He stumbled back a step, and then another and another, retreating from the promise and damnation she represented. Better to have died a thousand years ago than face this torment now. His hands rose to his face. His fingers curved like tairen claws. He ached to rend his own flesh from his bones, to rip out the helpless need and hunger that bound him to her.

He was the Defender of the Fey, sworn to slay the enemies of his homeland, and she was Mage-claimed. How could he let her live?

He was the Tairen Soul, last repository of the greatest of all Fey magics, and she was his shei’tani. How could he let any harm befall her?

How could she possibly be the key to saving the tairen and the Fey while bearing the foul taint of the Eld on her body and in her blood?

Madness tore at him. Howling fury and mindless rage fought to consume him. Only the smallest sliver of control kept him clinging to sanity, and Ellysetta's devastated emotions threatened to undermine that.

"Rain." Marissya called to him. Her shei'dalin's voice throbbed with power, with peace.

He fought it off. Marissya could not help him. Not this time. "I've got to go. I cannot stay here." His eyes met Ellysetta's and flinched away. He lurched for the glassed balcony doors and flung them open. "Keep her safe here tonight. Return her to her family in the morning." Without a single look back, he flung himself into the night sky.

"Rain!”

She called after him in desperation. Ellysetta. Truemate of the Tairen Soul. Daughter of the High Mage of Eld, Rain's most deadly and despised enemy.

With a scream of fury and a scorching blast of flame, Rain Tairen Soul raced into the darkness of the night.

"Rain," Ellysetta whispered. He was gone, swallowed up by the night. He'd cut her off from his emotions, leaving her nothing, no tie to him, no way to reach him. She covered her face with her hands and wept.

"Come away, little sister." Marissya tugged her back from the balcony. But beneath the compassion, Ellysetta felt the shei'dalin's involuntary flinch. Even Marissya could not completely hide her revulsion at the taint in Ellysetta's blood.

She pulled her tattered emotions tight. "I should go home now. Tonight. There's no reason for me to stay here”

"There is every reason," Gaelen corrected. "You are still the Feyreisa, and you are still in danger." He nodded towards the window "The Feyreisen will be back. He has no other choice. He will realize it soon enough"-he paused, then added softly-"once the soul hunger begins.”

Rain flew hard and fast towards the Fading Lands. Blind instinct more than conscious thought drove him towards the haven of Fey'Bahren and his tairen kin. For centuries they had guarded him when no other creature could, and he knew that when the soul hunger began to consume him and madness claimed him once more, the tairen would grant him final peace through the fiery embrace of tairen flame.

Ellysetta. Just the thought of her name made the tairen roar in fury.

When first she'd called him from the sky, he'd thought the gods had sent a miracle to save him. Now he realized they'd sent her to complete his damnation.

Daughter of the High Mage. Mage-claimed. Bound to his soul forever.

He would give his life before risking the Fading Lands with a Mage-claimed truemate.

Marissya and the Fey called frantically to him from Celieria, but he ignored them. Summoning a fierce tail wind to speed his flight, he raced across the sky towards the west. Towards the protection of the Fading Lands and the tairen's waiting fire.

The tairen had other ideas. No more than a few bells into his flight, a rich, resonant chorus of golden notes filled his mind, tairen song from Fey'Bahren, authored by Sybharukai, leader of the Fey'Bahren pride. The rich notes poured through him, not soothing and restful as they so often had been in the past, but crisp with power and command.

«We sense your approach, Rainier-Eras,» she sang. «Why do you return alone? Where is the one you were sent to find? Where is your mate?»

He had not spoken with Sybharukai or any other tairen of the pride since leaving the Fading Lands, but it did not surprise him that she knew of Ellysetta. Quickly, weaving as much information as he could into his tairen speech, Rain explained what had happened.

«You left her, your mate? You left here there, among the humans? »

«What else was Ito do? I could not bring her to the Fading Lands.»

«Tairen do not abandon their mates.» Even across the vast distance between them, the great cat's disapproval vibrated down to Rain's bones. The glorious symphony of tairen speech rang cold with deep, discordant notes.