His lips brushed her cheek. "Parei is the Fey word for stop. Say it, and I will cease. No matter when, no matter why.

Ku'shalah aiyah to nei.”

There was no possible answer but one. Despite a lifetime of modesty reinforced by her parents' strict but loving guidance, ever since the moment Rain had given Ellysetta her first, searing taste of passion, she'd wanted more.

"Aiyah," she said, and her breath caught in her throat as the pleasures of Rain's touch multiplied exponentially. Real and Spirit hands held her, stroked her. Real and Spirit lips rained kisses on her mouth, her throat, the soft skin exposed by her gown's modestly scooped neckline.

He tracked nibbling kisses around her ear and the sensitive nape of her neck. His hand stroked a searing path down her side, then back up to cup her breast. Her back arched, filling his palm more fully with her flesh. He ran a finger down the center of her bodice, and the fabric parted without protest, forming a long, deep vee that exposed the inner curves of her br**sts. The warm summer air felt cool against her heated flesh. Rain stroked the soft, exposed skin.

Invisible Spirit limbs guided her hands to his chest, as swirling Earth magic effortlessly peeled away his black leather tunic and Fey'cha belts, baring the pale, leanly muscled perfection of his Fey flesh. At last she could touch him as she'd wanted to do just moments ago.

Fevered heat and naked skin filled Ellysetta's palms. Her fingers clutched at the rock-hard swell of pectoral muscles, felt the pounding drum of his heart. He brushed aside the remaining scraps of fabric covering her br**sts and lowered his head.

Incredible, searing, glorious heat consumed her. Coherent thought eluded her. She could not think. She could not speak. With a helpless gasp of pleasure, she surrendered. Her arms twined around his neck, clutching him to her.

Kolis Manza locked his door at the Inn of the Blue Pony, closed the shutters, and activated the privacy wards he'd set into every surface of the room. On the desk near the bed lay the paraphernalia he hated but was forced to use to avoid Fey detection: the silver salver, the sacrifice, and the Mage blade whose selkahr crystal pulsated with sated fullness.

It was time to return to Eld and make his report to the High Mage. He prepared the physical ingredients of the spell. then began to murmur the Feraz witchwords he had long ago committed to memory. Energy gathered, then pulsed in a bright flash. If not for the blackout spell laid on the window shutters, passersby in the street would have seen a curious blast of light emanating from one of the windows on the third floor of the inn.

When the light dimmed, the inn's bedchamber was empty.

The sensation of ice spiders came without warning, crawling up Ellysetta's spine and dousing passion with brutal force. She tore herself out of Rain's arms and jerked into a sitting position, gasping for breath and crossing her arms as violent shivers shook her body.

"Shei'tani?" Rain drew her back into his arms. He chafed his hands across her shivering skin. "What happened?”

"I—" Already the feeling was gone. She pressed a hand over her heart where a cold chill still throbbed with every beat. "I'm sorry. It's nothing." Suddenly conscious of her nakedness, she fumbled to draw the scraps of her gown over her br**sts.

He spun swift Earth to repair her clothing. His eyes held hers, full of concern and worry. "Ellysetta, that was not `nothing.' “

"It was just another ghost treading on my grave." She rose on unsteady legs. "I told you, it happens all the time." He rose to his full height, looking very intimidating as he towered over her, frowning. "This I do not like.”

She laughed without humor. "Believe me, neither do I" She glanced up at the position of the dual moons in the sky. "We should go. It's getting late.”

"Very well," he conceded with obvious reluctance. "But we'll talk of this again." He dispersed the magic woven over the glade, then moved to the center of the clearing and summoned the Change.

Throughout the return flight, occasional, involuntary shivers that had nothing to do with the chill of the high-altitude air shook Ellysetta. The ice spider sensations were happening too frequently. In the past, they had often preceded the other, more frightening episodes. The seizures that left her howling and shrieking like a wild thing, that made her family fear for her sanity and their own safety. That made her terrified of her own existence.

Because when those seizures came, she knew there was something inside her, something dangerous and evil that must never be released.

The twin moons had reached their zenith when a knock on Vadim Maur's door heralded the arrival of his apprentice. Kolis Manza entered and made a deep bow.

"Do you have it?" the High Mage demanded brusquely.

"I do, master." The Sulimage straightened and held out a sheathed Mage blade. "Her blood, my lord—more than enough to strengthen your seeking spell.”

Vadim snatched the knife, half pulled it from the sheath, and inspected the ruby lights flickering in the pommel's dark jewel. He pressed his thumb to the razor-sharp edge to test the blade's hunger and glanced up sharply. "You did not get this much blood without calling attention to yourself. How badly did you wound her?”

Kolis's skin lost some of its color. Vadim made a mental note to himself. Such a betrayal of emotion was a tell that Kolis would need to overcome if he was ever to become more than just a skillful tool. The younger Mage was a mere two hundred years old. Barely beginning his first incarnation. Gifted, but still too inexperienced to control his weaker emotions.