Before Ellysetta could answer, the front door of the Baristani home opened, and Sol stepped outside. "What's going on here?”

Ellysetta drew a deep breath. "Nothing, Papa," she said. "Den just thought it might be a nice night to make trouble. Kieran has convinced him otherwise." She met Kieran's gaze. "Release him," she ordered. "If he comes here again, take him to the palace and let the king's justice deal with him." She turned on her heel and climbed the stairs to enter the house, trying desperately to quell the fear rising inside her.

For one frightening moment when Kieran had asked what should be done with Den, a terrible voice deep inside her had responded, kill him.

"There's no way Dorian can invoke primus now without risking open rebellion. Krekk!" Rain spun away and paced to the high, arched windows overlooking the carefully manicured acres of fountains and gardens at the rear of the palace. "I've been a poor Feyreisen. Too caught up in my own misery to do my duty.”

"Nei, Rain," Dax countered. "If anyone is responsible for the deterioration of our relations with Celieria, Marissya and I are. We've come every year since the Mage Wars and never realized what was happening. We were too complacent, thinking vol Serranis blood in Celieria's royal family would ensure our alliance.”

"You are not the Defender of the Fey. I am. The responsibility is mine." His jaw clenched. "You and Marissya should leave tonight. Take a hundred men and go. Ellysetta and I will follow as soon as we can complete the marriage rites." He gave a curt, humorless laugh. "At least her father agreed we could hold the ceremony tomorrow.”

"We're not leaving until you do. We-" Dax frowned suddenly and turned to his truemate. "Marissya, you are not well?”

The shei'dalin had retreated to a chair in the corner of the room. She was rubbing her temples, her skin paler than usual. "There are too many strong emotions around me tonight. It has been very difficult to block them, and I haven't managed as well as I'd like.”

Dax was at her side in an instant, curving his arm around her waist. "Shei’tani, why did you say nothing? Come lie down. You should rest.”

She patted his arm and smiled wearily. "There will be time enough for rest when we reach the Fading Lands.”

Concerned by the shei'dalin's pallor, Rain added his insistence to Dax's. "There is time now, Marissya. We can do nothing tonight to alter our course.”

"I don't think I could sleep even if I tried. There's too much anger, too much sorrow. Such pain .. " She closed her eyes.

Rain and Dax exchanged a worried look.

«Marissya! »

«Rain! »

The blasts of Spirit hit Dax, Marissya, and Rain simultaneously, the urgency unmistakable: Talisa's quintet calling for the shei'dalin, Rowan summoning his king. Rain, Dax, and Marissya bolted for the door and raced down the palace corridors towards Cannevar Barrial's chamber.

The High Mage brought his whip down in a brutal blow, shredding flesh from bone.

Shan's body arched, every muscle seized in agony. His scream was a roar that echoed off the carved rock walls of his prison. Beside him, sobbing, Elfeya screamed too.

Despite his best efforts, pain blasted beyond his control, screeching down the link that tied him to the unfortunate girl in Celieria.

Clad in a simple blue-gray nightshift, Ellysetta paced her room. Jeweled hairpins lay scattered like rain across her dresser, and her hair tumbled down her back in an unruly mass of curls and braids. Her silk ballgown lay crumpled in a heap in the corner, the golden Fey crown tossed carelessly atop it.

Kill him.

Except during her childhood exorcism, when pain had driven her to the brink of madness, she'd never consciously had such a desire in her life. Where had it come from? How could she ever have even thought such a thing, so coldly and with such frightening venom?

Kill him.

Dear gods, if her father hadn't cone outside, she might have given voice to the thought, and Kieran would have obeyed her. Den would be dead. At Kieran's hand but by her command.

She pressed her hands to her temples. Her head hurt again. It was throbbing with a steady, squeezing pain that set her teeth on edge.

Without warning, agony slashed across her nerves, flinging her to the floor. She clapped her hands over her ears to block out the screaming, but the horrifying sound came from within and would not be silenced.

The attack didn't last long, a handful of seconds at the most, and when it ended, Ellysetta scrambled to her feet and ran, racing down the stairs, past her startled quintet, and through the kitchen to the tiny walled garden at the back of her parents’ house. There she stopped, hemmed in, heart pounding. Desperately she dragged in deep gasps of cool night air and shivered as the clammy sweat that had broken out across her body evaporated.

Calm down, Ellie. Calm down and get control of yourself.

It was hopeless, of course. Once an episode started, nothing could hold back the violent seizures that ensued. Demon possession, the priests had proclaimed when she was a small child, Something not right in her soul had left a doorway for evil to gain access.

The sounds of fighting reached Rain's ears long before he turned down the final corridor. He rounded the corner at a dead run to find Lord Barrial's door barred by Talisa's quintet, and scorch marks from blasts of Fire on the walls around them. Rowan lay dazed against one wall, and Adrial stood in a crouched fighting stance in the center of the hallway, teeth bared in a snarl, red Fey'cha in each hand.