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But… she had not accepted hi had changed

Nothing had changed, she argued with herself Love is an ele here, the risk of it! It stunned her, but it changed nothing

And where was he now? Each tilanced around, but she saw no horse or tiger o, who up until now had seemed satisfied hat his hands could hold,her attention Bringing her down from a lift, he intentionally let her slip so he had to catch her against hi open, like twin spinnakers filling ind

"My apologies, o said, and he eased her down so her hooves found the ground again, but he didn’t loosen his hold on her She felt the rigid surface of his ness of it stirred a panic that she had to fight down to keep fro herself froain, hat she really wanted to do was take flight

"This gown, is it cut froeneral asked "I can barely feel it between al

"Perhaps it is a reflection of the night sky," he suggested, "ski poetic Erotic, even In return, as unerotically as possible-- of a stain that wouldn’t come out--she said, "Yes, "

"Well Then it ht slip away like water at any , is beneath it"

And this is courtship, thought Madrigal She blushed, and was glad of hernot to address the arments, she said, "It is sturdier than it looks, I assure you"

She did not intend a challenge, but he took it as one He reached up to the delicate threads that, like gossaown around her neck, and gave a short, sharp tug They gave way easily to his claws, and Madrigal gasped The dress stayed in place, but a cluster of its fragile fastenings were severed

"Or perhaps not so sturdy," said Thiago "Don’t worry, my lady, I’ll help you hold it up"

His hand was over her heart, just above her breast, and Madrigal tre She was Madrigal of the Kirin, not soht in a breeze "That’s kind of you,off his hand as she stepped away "But it is tiown on lad to be handed on to a new partner In this case it was a bull- on her hooves any number of tiht, and the words became a mantra to the melody of the Emberlin A different sort of life, a different sort of life

Where was the angel now, she wondered Yearning suffused her, full as flavor, like chocolate ue

Before she knew it, the bull-o, who clai hands and pulled her into him

"I missed you," he said "Every other lady is coarse next to you"

He talked to her in that bedroom purr of his, but all she could think was how cluel’s

Twice o passed her to new partners, and twice she was returned to him in due course Each time was more unbearable than the last, so that she felt like a runaway returned hoainst her will

When, turned over to her next partner, she felt the firers, it ith a lightness like floating that she let herself be swept away Misery lifted; wrongness lifted The seraph’s hands caround and she closed her eyes, giving herself over to feeling

He set her back down, but didn’t let her go "Hello," she whispered, happy

Happy

"Hello," he returned, like a shared secret

She s ears and a red drunkard’s nose "Yet another face," she said "Are you aneeded There are as many masks to choose from as there are revelers passed out drunk"

"Well, this one suits you least of all"

"That’s what you think A lot can happen in two years"

She laughed, re his beauty, and was seized by a desire to see his face again

"Will you tell me your naal, Madrigal, Madrigal"--like an incantation

How odd, Madrigal thought, that she should be overco of… fulfillment… from the simple presence of a man whose name she didn’t know and whose face she couldn’t see "And yours?" she asked

"Akiva"

"Akiva" It pleased her to say it She may have been the one whose na itit, to lean out aand call him home To whisper it in the dark

"You’ve done it, then," he said "Accepted him"

Defiantly, she replied, "No I have not"

"No? He’s watching you like he owns you"

"Then you should certainly be elsewhere--"

"Your dress," he said, noticing it "It’s torn Did he--?" Madrigal felt heat, a ripple of anger flashing off him like a draft off a bonfire