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“But you promised me the arcanium tonight.”
He paused, looking blank.
“Right before Lady El-Adrel arrived,” she prompted, though that brought to mind that whole set of problems, with Lady El-Adrel blackmailing Gabriel over the enchanted knife he’d made and forcing him to take on her wizard son, Jadren.A wizard with no MP scorecard—impossible—and who Nic had no idea about—almost as impossible.She should ask Alise.After she got through the long, complex, and complicated apology portion of the letter.Maybe her sister could dig up some gossip about the enigmatic, auburn-haired Jadren El-Adrel.Though Maman would frown on asking favors in the same letter as an apology.Nic would have to send two letters, with a respectful time in between.Speaking of which, maybe Alise would be able to check on their mother and determine if Papa had really kept her in alternate form all this time.
And if Alise didn’t respond, well… that would be an answer too.
“That was before we ended up in the arcanium this afternoon,” Gabriel said, and she had to wrench her thoughts back to the subject at hand.
“Guess what?”she asked, gliding toward him and hooking a finger in the open neckline of his shirt, his skin hot as fire-warmed velvet beneath.“We can go to the arcanium multiple times a day.”
“No,” he replied firmly, grasping her hand to hold it in place and sliding the other behind her neck.He kissed her, soft and deep.“I love you, Nic,” he said, catching and holding her gaze.
Her heart turned over with a dreamy sigh.“I love you, too.”
He smiled, boyishly pleased.“New rule: we visit the arcanium once a day only, at most.Less often if I deem it would be too hard on you.”
“Look at you being the autocratic wizard,” she complained.“What happened to partnership?”
“The care and feeding of familiars,” he replied, his smile warm and affectionate.“I reserve the right to protect you from your worst instincts.”
Her body thrummed with disappointment even as the rational part of her acknowledged he was probably right.She needed to take a break from all the magic inflow and outflow.
Gabriel drew her closer, placing a lingering kiss on her forehead, then on both eyelids as they fluttered closed.“I’ll still make love to you, my heart,” he whispered.“It’s my turn to tend to you, and I plan to take very long time with you.”
Oh my.He released her and strode out of the library.Well, that parting line certainly helped salve her disappointment, though it did the opposite for her state of arousal.Alas for that.At least her head felt clearer.She followed Gabriel’s path out of the library and turned in the other direction for the stairs up to the master suite.Reaching the bathing chamber, she caught sight of herself in the age-spotted mirror and gasped in dismay.
Though the Ophiel gown did its best, apparently no amount of magic could withstand the rigors of the day she’d spent in it.Mud spattered the hem, no doubt from the morning’s work at the levee, not to mention standing outside in the rain greeting their various visitors, most of them unwelcome.Gabriel’s magic may have kept the rain off, but he hadn’t wicked the water out of the soaked lawn.Then there had been wild sex magic in the arcanium, and several transitions from human to alternate form and back again.It all had left her pale, with shadows under her eyes you could hide an army of wizards in, eyes that were red and puffy from her crying jag in the library over her father’s cruel message, and strained lines around her mouth from… who knew?Repressing the sarcastic remarks she longed to make, no doubt.
And her hair… well the short cut wasn’t the miracle she’d hoped for back when she’d struggled to manage it long, dreaming of the day she’d be a bonded familiar and at least be able to cut her hair.The wildly curling mass had a life of its own.Losing the length made it easier to comb out, but that much more difficult to control.
It had been vain to keep the upper locks long, softening her too-high Elal forehead and beaky nose.And the price of that vanity was apparently a bristling halo of dark curls that made her look like the miniature troll dolls she’d played with as a girl.Nota good look.
Muttering imprecations at Gabriel for not mentioning her ghastly disrepair—though no wonder he hadn’t been tempted by her—she triggered the fastenings on the gown and stripped it off, along with the sweat-soaked lingerie beneath.Unleashing the grooming imp on her hair, she dipped a cloth in a basin of water to sponge bathe, gritting her teeth at its chill and missing her water elementals who’d bathed her so thoroughly, andwarmly.It was almost enough to make her want to reconcile with Papa.Almost.
Not that it was within her power to do so.
Besides, Gabriel, as impossible as it seemed, was even more stubborn than she was.When Lady El-Adrel had delivered Papa’s message—drink water—Gabriel had understood its meaning as well as Nic had.More, he understood how ruthlessly Lord Elal had cut ties with his eldest daughter with those simple words.He would not be sending Nic’s trousseau, nor the grape vines she’d requested as part of her dowry, or any dowry at all.She’d defied her father and her house by trying to escape Gabriel, then again by cleaving to her water wizard instead of returning obediently to House Elal.Drink water.The message was clear.She didn’t want it to hurt, but—oh, how deeply that had cut.
Exactly as her father intended.And Gabriel, in all of his protective fury on her behalf, would never forgive him for it.The only way House Phel would be acquiring helpful elementals was buying canned ones retail, an expense she did not relish absorbing and, besides, the canned ones never worked as well.
With her face clean, Nic reapplied her makeup, not trusting the grooming imp with the task, though it had restored her hair to a semblance of order.She found some thoughtful soul had left her velvet robe on a hook in the bathing chamber—her efforts to enlist help in running the house were beginning to pay off—and shrugged it on.Deciding what to wear to dinner wouldn’t take long, as she still only had only a few gowns to choose from and only one warm enough for the chilly, rainy evening.Thankfully, another kind and helpful soul, or possibly the same one, had laundered the burgundy velvet.
Nic sniffed it suspiciously, wary of the thing, as the last time she’d worn it, the gown had been soaked in fetid algae marsh water.It smelled fresh and clean, however, and she happily laid it on the bed.She was shrugging out of the robe when a knock sounded on the door.
Reflexively, she glanced at the balcony doors, black with night and sheeting rain, but they remained firmly closed.Not Selly, then, who had a penchant for climbing the manse and slipping inside.Though Selly wouldn’t knock anyway.Nic opened the doors and found Gabriel’s mother wringing her hands, expression tense.
“Daisy,” Nic said in some surprise.“Won’t you come in?I was just changing for dinner.”
“Oh, I won’t keep you,” Daisy replied, hesitating on the threshold.
“You won’t be, as long as you don’t mind me changing clothes.”
“All right, then.”Daisy went straight to the fireplace, holding her hands out to the cheerful blaze.“I swear, spring is the coldest season.The chill goes right to the bone.All that damp.”
“I wondered about that.”Nic doffed her robe and slipped on the fresh set of lingerie, shivering.“It’s full winter still in Elal, but somehow I’m colder here.”Of course, House Elal was heated by fire elementals embedded in the floors.The fireplaces there were all for pleasure, the temperature of the house not fluctuating much.She’d actually take the fire elementals—for both heat and light—before the water elementals for washing, and that was saying something.
Not that she’d have either anytime soon.
