Chapter Ten
It wasn’t jealousy. It wasn’t. Ellie wasn’t stupid enough to be jealous just because Rain Tairen Soul responded like all men did when the beautiful Kelissande Minset cast a lure their way.
Betrayal. That’s what it was. She felt betrayed. He had dazzled her with his masculine beauty, his power, his tairen-fierceness, until she’d actually begun to believe that her plain drabness didn’t matter to him, that he saw beauty in her.
“Shei’tani.” His hand, so strong, so warm, touched her shoulder.
She shuddered from the instant wave of helpless need that flooded her.
Dear gods, when he touched her, all she wanted to do was fling herself into his arms. She wanted to forget about the tender way he’d cupped Kelissande’s perfect face, absolve him for the quiet words he’d murmured so close to Kelissande’s soft lips.
Ellie wrenched herself out of his grasp. Pride. It seemed she actually possessed some. And it would not let her accept a touch from the same hands that had just caressed Kelissande.
“Go back to Kelissande,” she snapped. “I’m sure there are many more sweet words you’d like to whisper in her ear.”
His eyes opened wide in surprise, then narrowed. “I was not—”
“Not that it matters to me,” she interrupted. “I haven’t put any claims on you. And despite the claims you’ve made, you’re free to do as you like.”
His beautiful lips compressed into a thin line. “And this would not concern you?”
“Of course not,” she scoffed.
“You lie.”
“I don’t lie.” But she was lying now. And wretched because of it.
?Shei’tani . . . Ellysetta . . . you don’t understand—?
“Get out of my head!” Angry, she wished she had the power to thrust him out of her thoughts, imagined the satisfaction of her anger taking the form of two giant hands that picked him up and flung him out of her mind.
A split second later, she felt his surprise followed by a bruising jolt of pain. His pain.
The Tairen Soul staggered.
She couldn’t stop the rush of concern that sent her lurching towards him. “Rain?”
He put a hand to his head. “Flames, woman, you pack a punch.”
“Are you all right?” She bit her lip to stop its trembling, tried to harden her heart against him. She failed miserably.
“Aiyah. Surprised mostly.” He shook his head. “Your jealousy is flattering, shei’tani, but unnecessary, I assure you.”
“Jealousy?” Her spine became a steel poker, her jaw a hard, thrusting rock of feminine outrage.
“Jealousy?” She clenched her fists and wished she dared to hit him.
Instead, she sniffed and turned away, forcing a tight smile to her face as she met the curious, interested gazes of a dozen or more children. “Come, children, let’s play Stones.”
As his young shei’tani presented Rain with her back, the sound of silent Fey laughter rang in his head.
He gave Bel and the others a scorching look, but that only made them laugh all the more.
Not that anyone but a Fey would know it.
They would not dishonor their King by any outward display of amusement.
He glanced over his shoulder. The Kelissande creature had wisely retreated.
She was now ringed by a bevy of panting Celierian fools, dull-witted mortals blind to all but her beautiful exterior.
Rain dismissed them. As long as the woman kept clear of his shei’tani, he would not concern himself with her.
He turned back to his truemate. She was smiling at the children, laughing as she played their stone-tossing game, doing her best to ignore him.
How different she was from the dark-souled one.
And how much more intriguing than he had first thought.
She was one surprise after another. Fey-gentle.
Tairen-proud. Woman-passionate. And jealous when she thought her mate’s attention had strayed.
He savored that thought. A woman did not feel jealousy if her emotions were not engaged.
And a wise man did not let it fester.
With sudden purpose, Rain shed his Fey’cha belts and the harnesses holding his sheathed swords. Naked of steel, he stepped towards the ring of playing children.
“It would please me to learn this game,” he announced. That earned him all manner of surprised looks, from the children, the Fey, and his shei’tani.
“It is a child’s game,” Ellie told him warily. “Surely nothing that would interest a king.” There was an emphasis on the last word, accompanied by a glance in Kelissande’s direction.
“Ah, but I am tairen as well,” he told her. “And tairen delight in games.” It was true, though he had not indulged in tairen games since the Mage Wars. She was his truemate, and he was pledged to win her. If a child’s game could help him achieve his aim, then play it he would.
He sent a warm, moist weave of Air, Water, and Fire whispering up her throat and curling around her ear.
She shivered and gave him a warning look.
The fire in her eyes made the tairen in him growl with appreciation.
Tairen females were not timid. They were, in fact, often more dangerous than their mates.
“Come,” he murmured, his voice low and seductive.
“Teach me this game.” Satisfaction rumbled in his throat when he saw her nostrils flare in awareness of his pursuit.
She explained the rules with a quick breathlessness that pleased him.
Stones was a game of aim, dexterity, and speed.
The object was to make a path from one side of a grid to the other by landing your stones on connecting squares, while keeping your opponents from stopping you and simultaneously doing your best to stop them.
If two stones landed on the same square in the grid, the two players had to race to it by stepping only on those squares occupied by their stones; whoever reached the disputed square and claimed the opponent’s stone first won control of the square, while the other player forfeited his stone.
The first player to build an unbroken path across the grid won the game.
“Are there any other rules?” he asked, when she was finished explaining. She shook her head. “Good.” Inside his mind, where Ellysetta could not see, Rain smiled. It was a tairen’s smile, full of teeth and cunning. “And will you grant me a boon if I win this game?”
“A boon?”
“Aiyah. Surely there must be some reward for winning.”
“Such as what?”
He ran a finger over her lips. “A kiss, I think.”
She swallowed. “A kiss?”
“I hunger for one.”
She blinked and visibly struggled to collect her thoughts. “And if you lose?”
“Then I grant you a boon.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.” What would she ask for? A shame he would not find out. He raised a brow. “Well? Do we have a wager?” He enjoyed her wary frown. She knew there was some catch, but she had yet to figure it out.
“Yes,” she finally agreed. “It’s a wager. If you win, I’ll give you a kiss. If anyone else wins, you’ll grant me a wish—anything I want.”
And with that, the game began. On all levels.
Ellysetta loaned him a spare bag of stones.
His were purple with a gold line painted across the diameter of each stone.
The players took their spots along the borders of the grid, four on each side, with Rain standing beside Ellysetta.
The game began with each player, in turn, dropping a stone on the grid square at his or her feet.
It was simple enough, and if truth be told, rather boring, but within three or four plays, things began to get interesting as throwing distances grew greater, paths crossed, and the play converged on the center of the grid.
To his surprise, Rain truly enjoyed himself, and not just because he was looking forward to his reward once he won.
In the Fading Lands, even before the Mage Wars, children had been rare and precious, adored and protected by even the most soul-shadowed warrior.
Their youthful innocence and wide-eyed delight in the world appealed to the gentle heart that lay at the core of every Fey.
The Celierian children, laughing as they leapt like little goats across the Stones grid, were no less appealing for all that they were not Fey.
Even the other warriors were not immune to the lure of childish joy. Fey laughter rang out across the common mental path, accompanied by the picking of favorites and good-natured teasing. No one placed bets. They all knew Rain Tairen Soul played this game to win.
At last, all the players but Ellysetta and Rain had lost their stones.
Rain tossed his stone, deliberately landing it on Ellie’s square.
Like two elf bolts fired from an Elvian fingerbow, the pair of them darted across the grid, leaping nimbly from square to square.
She was laughing as she raced across the grid, still laughing as she plowed into his chest when she made the jump to the disputed square he had reached first.
He absorbed her weight easily, and when she raised her face and laughed up at him, he was stunned anew. She was a gift from the gods, this woman with her gold-sprinkled skin, eyes clear and green as lush spring glades, and her soul that shone bright as the Great Sun itself.
Aching to kiss her, he instead stepped back and showed her the red-and-green-striped stone in his hand. “I believe your stone is forfeit, Ellysetta,” he told her. He tucked her stone into the pocket on the inside of his tunic, close to his heart. “Do you forfeit the game as well?”
Her eyes had followed the path of his hands and were now fixed on the small vee of pale flesh revealed by the opening of his tunic.
At his question, she blinked and dragged her gaze back to his face, the bright smile on her lips not quite masking the hunger in her eyes.
“Me? Forfeit a game of Stones?” She forced a laugh and danced away.
“Never!” She raced back to her home position on the grid.
Pleased with the exchange, he followed at a more leisurely pace.