"I didn't mean to yell at you," Ellie said again. "I don't understand why I let them upset me so badly. It was as if there was some terrible, angry force inside me, and it kept growing stronger and stronger, and I kept getting madder and madder."

"It's all right, Ellysetta. Those people are gone." He stroked her cheek. "They won't be back, except by appointment, and I will be with you when they come.”

Despite the worry and fear coloring her emotions, she smiled against his hand. "So you can explode all the windows again if they bother me? Maybe we'd better not have them come to the house. Mama might get tired of cleaning up the glass.”

Rain stilled.

Ellysetta scooted back so she could look at him. "What?" He met her gaze. "It was not I who destroyed the windows, Ellysetta.”

She blinked. "It wasn't? Then Bel did it?" She gave a small laugh and shook her head. "I wouldn't have thought he was the type for such a display.”

"Nei. It was not Bel, nor any other of the Fey.”

Ellysetta's smooth forehead wrinkled in a confused frown. "Then … who?”

Rain gazed at her steadily, saying nothing.

"No," she said. "It wasn't me.”

"You used Air. An incredibly fine yet powerful weave that struck only the windows. Every window." He saw her glance at the perfectly intact bedroom window. "The warriors repaired them while you were unconscious. But they were all destroyed. Reduced to dust”

"It wasn't me," she insisted. "You must be mistaken.”

"I am not mistaken. There is power in you, Ellysetta. Great power.”

"No." She dragged her fingers through her hair, tangling the wild curls.

"Why do you fear what is inside you?”

"Why do you keep insisting that I'm magic?”

"Because you are. I've seen evidence of it several times now. On the day you called me out of the sky, you used Earth. Not much. It was only a small healing weave, but both Marissya and I sensed it. The night of our betrothal, you wove Spirit on your mother with so much power packed in so fine a weave that even most Fey would not have known they were being influenced, or been able to resist. Today, you used Air in a very concentrated and powerful weave. All the Fey sensed it this time.”

"Maybe it was someone else who destroyed the windows," she suggested. "You think there are Elden Mages in Celieria. Maybe it was one of them.”

His shei'tani was grasping at straws, so eager to deny her power. He still did not understand why she would fear it so. Lauriana's explanation of all Celierians' fear of magic- blighted forests didn't ring true. Ellysetta wasn't afraid of all magic like her mother; only her own magic truly frightened her. And Rain could not imagine why that would be so.

"This was no Mage, Ellysetta. I saw the weaves with my own Fey eyes, and they came from you.”

"Must we talk about this now?”

Rain sighed. "Of course not." He rose, held out a hand, and helped her to her feet. She looked so … lost, so worried. He brushed thick spirals of hair away from her face. "It will be all right, Ellysetta." And then, because he couldn't bear not to, he kissed her.

His mouth slanted over hers softly at first. A kiss of reassurance and the gentler side of shei'tanitsa. But as her warm breath mingled with his, and the honeyed sweetness of her mouth opened to his, tenderness blossomed into desire. He groaned deep in his throat, a rumbling sound of restraint and longing, and his kiss grew firmer.

Rain's fingers delved into the bright silk of her hair, curving around to the back of her head and holding her fast. All softness fled his body, only a remnant of it remaining in his kiss, but that too burned away the instant Ellysetta's arms wrapped around him and her hands pulled him closer with surprising strength.

The tairen stirred, and Ellie flinched. Rain clamped a ruthless hold on the beast within him. Not this time. The tairen would not rob him of this wonderful moment.

His hands pulled free of her hair, and he trailed them down her back, fretting at the layers of cloth that separated her skin from his. With just a small weave of Earth, he could banish those annoying layers. Rain summoned power to his fingertips. «Rain.» Bel's warning sounded.

Someone cleared a throat loudly from the doorway.

Rain released his power and tore his lips from Ellysetta's. A blistering torrent of curses battled on the tip of his tongue, held back only with great effort.

He dragged in a breath and turned to face Lauriana Baristani.

Color stained the woman's cheeks, but her accompanying narrow-eyed look made it clear the flush did not come from embarrassment at having interrupted an intimate embrace.

"I came to check on Ellysetta," Lauriana said. "As she is most definitely awake, there's no need for either of you to remain in her bedchamber.”

Ellysetta blushed. "Yes, Mama.”

Lauriana gestured for Rain and Ellie to precede her downstairs—so he couldn't steal another kiss, Rain surmised, cursing Celierians and their restrictive customs. As he entered the small home's main room, Rain met Bel's gaze and wasn't pleased to see amusement lurking in his friend's eyes beside the apologetic sympathy.

«I'm sorry, Rain.» «So I see.»

«Nei, truly.» But Bel's laughter broke free across their link. Rain scowled and turned his attention back to his shei'tani, who was staring at a wall heaped with packages."More gifts?" Ellysetta asked her mother. "Who are these from?”