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The Darkness swirled around hi like this!

Jaenelle studied his right hand for a long ti her hand over it He shuddered, unable to control it, seeing the truth for just a moment before she kindly shut him out

"This ishis eyes off Jaenelle "Helene, this is Lady--" He hesitated, at a loss To say "Lady Jaenelle" was too familiar

Jaenelle turned her ed but, with the instinct of a selline" The word rolled out of her in a elline" Saetan looked at Helene, willing her to reht have for us today?"

Helene reh Lord," she replied with dignity Turning around, she left the great hall with a steady, measured step that Saetan silently applauded

Jaenelle moved away from him, her head down, her shoulders sluently

The eyes thatthat twisted his heart because he didn’t knohat caused it--or, perhaps, because he did

He hadn’t shuddered because, with her touch, he had found hi at power as far beneath him as he was to the White He hadn’t turned away from her It hat he had seen there that horrified hione, she’d learned the one lesson he had never wanted her to learn

She had learned to hate

Now he had to find a way to convince her that he hadn’t turned away froe the distance between the her back He had to understand

"Witch-child," he said in a carefully neutral voice, "ere you going to strike Helene?"

"She’s a stranger"

Rocked by her cold response, Saetan’s weak leg buckled Her arms immediately wrapped around his waist, and he didn’t feel the floor at all Somewhat bemused, he looked down and tapped the floor with his shoe He stood on air, a quarter inch above the floor If he walked normally, it would take a keen eye to realize he wasn’t walking on the floor itself That and the lack of sound

"It will help you," Jaenelle explained, her voice so full of apology and concern that the ar around her shoulders pulled her to hi

As they walked toward the dining rooive hiht out that ferocity in her

Helene was a stranger, true But he had a score of names on a sheet of paper locked in his desk drawer, and all of theers once Because Helene was an adult? No Cassandra was an adult So was Titian, so was Prothvar, Andulvar, and Mephis So was he Because Helene was living? No, that wasn’t the answer either

In frustration, he replayed the last fewhimself to view it froe in Jaenelle, her predatory glidein front of hied along for a fewto walk

He’d wondered what her reaction would be to being with hi with him outside the Realm he ruled, and now he knew She cared for him She was ready to protect hiht ainst an adversary

Saetan sain

Geoffrey had been right He had a more potent leash than Protocol to keep her in check Unfortunately, that leash worked tays, so fro to have to be very, very careful

Saetan looked with growing dis with a bowl of stew and sticks of cornbread, there were fruit, cheese, nut cakes, cold haetables, fresh bread, honey butter, and a pitcher of milk It ended there only because he’d refused to allow the foot in the last heavily laden tray The volurown irl

Jaenelle stared at the dishes arranged in a half-circle around her place at the table

"Eat your stehile it’s hot," Saetan suggested lass of yarbarah

Jaenelle picked up her spoon and began to eat, but after one bite she put the spoon down, once an to talk in a leisurelyelse to do and nowhere else to go and was going to sit at the table for quite soain He noticed that every ti she put the spoon down, as if she didn’t want her eating to detain hi her about Mephis, Prothvar, Andulvar, Geoffrey, and Draca, but he ran out very quickly The dead don’t dodiscourse about the book he’d been reading, completely unconcerned hether or not it was over her head

He started feeling a bit desperate about what to say next when she finally leaned back, her hands folded over a bulging tuave him the sweet, sleepy slass up to his lips to hide his se in front of hi that last tray back to the kitchen

"I have a surprise for you," he said, biting his cheek as she wrestled herself into a sitting position

He led her to the second floor of his wing The doors along the right side led into his suite of rooms He opened a door on the left

He had put a lot of thought into these rooms The bedroom had the feel of a seascape with its soft, shell-colored walls, plush sandy carpets, deep sea-blue counterpane on the huge bed, warrass The adjoining sitting rooed to the earth The rooms still required personal touches that he’d deliberately kept absent to make them feminine