"What was that?" Ellysetta whispered when his song died away into silence.

He tightened his arms around her and buried his face in her hair, breathing her in, rubbing his skin against her, like a tairen exchanging scents with its mate. "Tairen song.”

She tilted her head back to stare up at him, her eyes filled with as much wonder as his own. "I could feel it. Inside me, in my heart and in my head." She raised a hand and touched the cooling tracks of his tears.

"My song sang to you, as a tairen's song sings to its mate." His voice sounded low and husky to his own ears, rough with longing and long-buried emotion. Hope was a fragile flicker that he wanted to cup with both hands to protect against the harsh winds of reality.

Ah, gods, I know I am not worthy, but I will devote my life to becoming so.

He bent his head to kiss her, mating his lips to hers, his breath to hers, mating even the beat of his heart to hers. His lips tracked fevered lines across her face, her throat, her hands, then found her mouth again to give her back the passion and essence of his own self. He kissed her as if life itself lived in the wonder of her mouth, to be drunk from her lips lest he die.

Her hands fluttered against him, then clutched at him. Her fingers threaded through his hair, holding him tight. Her arms wound around his neck, slender, silken chains he knew he would never want to be free of. She kissed him back with an intensity to match his own, fearless and fierce, and the beast in his soul roared with triumph and desire.

"Shei'tani. Ellysetta." He gasped her name and tore his lips from hers while he still could. It was no easy task, when his instinct, driving and powerful, was to lay his body over hers and claim her. His body shuddered in protest, muscles trembling with enforced restraint.

"Rain?" Ellysetta laid her hand upon his face. Her concern lapped at the ragged edges of his control, as did the innate, calming power that soothed him from her first touch. She was so gentle, so endlessly giving, and yet so strong in ways he was only coming to recognize. For all her outward timidity, she possessed an underlying will of purest steel, tensile and enduring. Her courage was so quiet, most would never see it. Even she did not see it. She would bend, but never break. She would not fight unless she had no choice, but when she did, there would be no defeating her.

He kissed her once, fiercely, then regretfully started to pull back. «1 should go. You have already been through too much tonight, and my control is not what it should be.”

She clutched his hand. "Please. Don't go. Stay with me tonight.”

He shook his head. "Sieks'ta, shei'tani, but I cannot." He bent his head to hers and admitted softly, "This Fey aches to mate with his beloved, even if only in Spirit, and the need is more than I could bear if I stayed.”

Ellysetta tilted her head back and stared up into his eyes. "I don't want to be afraid anymore, Rain," she said. "I don't want to give him that much control over me. Teska." She guided his hand to her breast. "Take away the nightmare. Give me something else in its stead. Show me the wonders between a shei'tan and his mate. Ku'shalah aiyah to nei.”

"Ellysetta." Pride and devotion set his eyes aglow. "Your warrior's heart humbles me, shei'tani." Because he couldn't bear not to, he ducked his head and took her lips in a passionate kiss. "Aiyah, shei'tani. A thousand times, aiyah." Green Earth swirled around him, depositing his swords and weapons belts on the table nearby.

More magic gathered inside him, and she felt the throbbing heartbeat of living energy and harnessed power. Spirit exploded from his hands in a complex weave of stunning mastery. The shinning mass surrounded them both, alive with form, texture, tastes, and scents, so real that even knowing it was a weave, she could not tell the difference. No longer were they lying on the narrow bed in her room. Instead, they were stretched out on cushioned divans, in a silken tent where perfumed breezes flapped long swaths of fabric in a sensual, hypnotic dance. The air was warm and dry, smelling of cinnabar oil and magic. Outside the tent, the low, feline roar of tairen sounded in the distance.

"Where are we?" she whispered.

"This is my shellaba, a private retreat on my family estates, near the Feyls in the Fading Lands. When you accept my soul into yours and our matebond ceremony is complete, I will bring you here for the first night of our oneness, to mate with you on the lands of my ancestors, in the shadow of Fey'Bahren, and ask the souls of those who came before me to bless our union." Rain leaned over her, robes of purple satin sliding across her skin as he moved.

He trailed kisses down her throat, parting the satin of her own robes and laving devoted attention to each breast until her ni**les were tight, aching buds and her legs fell open in restless invitation. Obligingly, the warm press of his palm cupped her. The dance of his fingers, so much broader and stronger than her own, caressed her most sensitive flesh. She kept her eyes open, fixed on his face, watching the play of emotion as he felt her body begin to respond. He took his time, patient and thorough despite his own needs, smiling into her eyes as he drove her body wild.

Her hips arched, bucking up against his hand. Weave or no weave, her response was utterly real. Heat raced through her veins, and her breath grew shallow. She reached behind her head to grasp the sides of the divan. Her fingers gripped the softness of cushioned velvet, and the smooth, polished hardness of wood. She squeezed, hanging on tight as waves of sensation washed over her.

"I will touch you like this," he whispered. He kissed his way down her body, following the earlier path of his hands. The long, silken swaths of his hair trailed across her skin, adding yet another subtle friction to tease nerves left throbbing with heightened sensitivity in the burning wake of his mouth. "I will set your body afire, until you think you can take no more. Until you beg me to come inside you and unite our flesh as the matebond unites our souls.”