Page 52 of Twisted Magic

“Seliah… You see things in me that simply aren’t there.”

Losing her patience, releasing him, shoving him away, she stood and paced to the open windows. A vast, lovely estate had pushed back the woods with rolling gardens and countless fountains. More people than she’d ever seen at El-Adrel roamed the winding pathways or gathered on arched, picturesque bridges. “Look at what you wrought,” she said, mostly to herself. “This is something beautiful and important.”

He came up beside her. “The house did it. You did it. I never did anything like this before.”

She turned to face him, leaning her hip against the curlicued railing. “You’re not the same person you were, Jadren. You’ve changed, and grown. So have I. Stronger together, remember?”

“Can’t we be stronger together somewhere else, where I’m not risking your life?” he asked plaintively.

She nearly laughed, he sounded so put out. “How about we agree to this? If we can’t get alternate form to work, fine. If we do manage to do it and you lose the contest tomorrow, fair and square, also fine. But if we give up without even trying—Jadren, how can we look ourselves in the mirror if we do that?”

“Ah.” He wagged a finger at her. “See, that’s where you’ve gone wrong. The trick is to avoid mirrors. Denial requires relentless vigilance to evade anything smacking of truth.”

“Jadren.” She let her tone say everything.

“I know, I know.” He scrubbed his fingers through his hair, coming up short as he hit the snarls of dried blood. “I’m disgusting.”

“In a temporary, superficial way that can be immediately remedied.” She smiled at him, letting all her love show. “Go clean up already. And then we’ll start looking. Hopefully the house will help there.”

Jadren regarded her blankly. “Looking for what?”

She grinned. “The El-Adrel arcanium.”

Jadren fought her on it, of course, up to and including flat denial of even knowing what an arcanium was, until she told him that House Phel had one and that she knew Nic and Gabriel used it. He had rather a fit about that, saying she could know no such thing because—even if it was true and she wasn’t utterly deluded—it would be a secret and she therefore couldn’t possibly know about it.

She countered with the clear and painfully obvious fact that she did know about it, therefore it must exist, as he absolutely knew what she was talking about and so she hadn’t made it up.

“Do you even know what an arcanium is?” he demanded scathingly.

Well, not exactly. She knew about Nic and Gabriel’s because she’d eavesdropped on them when she was more than a little insane. Skulking around outside of windows, listening to conversations had been all in the course of a day for her. But even then she’d understood that they kept it a secret, as best they could, along with its location.

Then, after Lord Elal tried to take over the House Phel arcanium, when he and the Sammaels attacked, where and what the arcanium was had become pretty much an open secret. The denizens of House Phel didn’t discuss it, but that was out of loyalty and respect for Nic and Gabriel’s privacy, not ignorance.

“It’s for building and working a lot of magic,” she informed Jadren loftily. And for sex, she didn’t say. That was largely guessing from hints Nic had dropped, and the secret, sensual smile she got when making oblique references to it.

Jadren made a rude noise. “You’re guessing.”

“All right, yes, I’m guessing at some of it, but I know they used the arcanium to discover how to put Nic into alternate form in order to prove they were bonded to the Convocation proctor so she wouldn’t take Nic away.” Selly avoided adding so there, but just barely. “You were present for that,” she pointed out to him.

“Yes, but you were not,” he retorted immediately. “The last anyone saw of you between the proctor’s edict and Nic dramatically pulling a silver phoenix form out of her ass, was you escaping over the side of the house and disappearing again.”

“Yes, well…” She mostly remembered that part. She had been well and truly out of her head then. “I didn’t go far, and I spied on the goings on. And why are we arguing about these particulars? Every house worth their status, especially and including the high houses, has an arcanium. El-Adrel must also and you’re just trying to duck looking for it, even though it’s your right as Lord El-Adrel.”

“Except I’m not Lord El-Adrel!”

“This again? You are unless Bogdan proves otherwise. Quit being a marsh slug. Go clean up and let’s go find the thing. Or take a hot bath and a nap, if it will make you less cranky, and then we’ll go. Come on. It will be fun.”

He glared at her in impotent mutiny, clearly beyond annoyed to be called “cranky” and just as clearly unable to think of a retort that wouldn’t sound cranky. Looking down at himself, he muttered something about being filthy and feeling it, then stalked off into the bathing chamber.

Selly left him alone, figuring some quiet time with his thoughts could only help. She tested out her own power as, if not Lady El-Adrel, then familiar to the lord pro-tem, and summoned servants to bring food. It worked like a charm and by the time Jadren emerged in the clean clothes she’d had them bring from his old apartments, freshly groomed and looking wickedly handsome, she had a feast laid out for them.

“Am I being fattened up for sacrifice?” he asked sardonically, but much more in his usual vein and not the strained, sharp-edged sarcasm of his worst self.

“You’re welcome,” she replied smoothly. “It was no trouble to arrange for all of your favorite foods. Your happiness is my happiness.”

He snorted and sat, piling his plate with food and eyeing her half-empty one. “Glad you didn’t feel compelled to wait for me.”

“And clearly my happiness is your happiness, too!” she chirped, earning a grudging half-smile before he wiped it away with a mock frown.

---