Page 66 of Swords and Curses

Balthasar looked over her shoulder and smiled, moving his arm around her. "Rosa, I'd like to introduce you to my Uncle Vincenzo."

Rosa's polite smile dropped to an embarrassed grimace as she turned to face the purple-eyed man.

"We already met. She brushed me off when she saw you. I don't believe that's ever happened to me before," Vincenzo said.

"I'm so sorry," Rosa replied, trying to keep the blush from erupting over her face. "I have problems concentrating when Bal is around."

"You are young and in love," he said, waving her comments away with a long brown hand. "You can make it up to me by dancing with me later."

"If you can handle your feet being stomped on, I'd be delighted."

"Don't listen to her. She is a good dancer," Balthasar said, kissing her cheek.

"I can imagine." Vincenzo gave her an appraising look that said dancing wasn't what he had in mind. She snorted before she could stop herself and tried to disguise it as a cough.

"Excuse me, I need to go and see Eli." Rosa gave Balthasar's hand a quick squeeze and moved away through the crowd. She wasn't in the mood to spar with an overly flirtatious Unseelie who was contemplating her sexual prowess. Besides, Eli wanted her.

She didn't know if it was his blood in her veins or the hazy pulse of power that she now recognized as essentially him, but being summoned by Eli now had a whole new meaning. She wondered how Balthasar had fought with it for so long when he had been off fighting wars.

Eli, dressed in dark grey, stood beside the set of doors that Rosa and Nimue had turned into the entrance to a hall of ice. Shewas ridiculously proud of it and was excited to see the finishing touches Nimue had made without her.

After using magic to decorate, Rosa was never going to make wreaths or bunting the old way again. Eli's green eyes rested on her, and a smile broke out across his stern face, making the likeness between him and Eldon even more striking. He looked Unseelie with his glamour half gone, but he was being careful not to reveal just how much magic was bubbling under his skin.

"You look beautiful tonight," Eli said warmly. "You and Nimue have outdone yourself with this ice pavilion."

"She wouldn't let me see inside," she replied excitedly. Rosa beamed as he offered her his arm.

"Then allow me to escort you, Lady Wylt."

"Lady Wylt? Please," she laughed.

"I would rather you be Lady Vane, but that's something for you and my son to figure out."

"We have bigger problems," Rosa said, trying to keep her stomach from fluttering. Eli responded, but Rosa didn't hear him.

All her attention was suddenly on the vaulted ceiling of ice that they had stepped under. She had only seen it in a roughed state and thought it grand, but Nimue had polished the ice to look like glass.

The ceiling above them was burning with illuminated lights in the shapes of elaborate snowflakes. There were no mortals at this ball, and no pretense was there that needed to be kept. This was magic with its hair down, and Rosa was rendered speechless at the sight of it.

"She always did such beautiful magic," Eli sighed and looked about him. "Never tell him, but even the tree she put Eldon in was almost too lovely to break him out of."

"I would've been tempted to leave him in there just for the quiet," Rosa said. "Where is Eldon anyway?"

"Where else?" Eli subtly pointed to the opposite side of the hall.

Nimue's red dress stood out like a drop of blood on snow. Eldon was bowing to her amidst a crowd of Gwaed Gam.

"Looking at them makes me feel strangely timeless." Eli smiled wistfully. "And yet I believe that a thousand years could pass, and those two would still be the same."

"You approve? Despite everything that has happened?"

"Look what she does to him! How could I not approve? She would burn the world for him, whether he believes it or not. His song brought her back from the dead. She was so young when Ryn approached her, and she had no idea what devil's bargain she was getting into."

"I know the feeling," Rosa replied, and Eli patted her arm.

"I tried to warn Bal off, and I tried to warnyouoff. Neither of you listened."

"And I don't regret a single moment of ignoring your warnings," she said firmly. "I love you guys. If there is going to be a fight against you, I want to be in on it. No woman is going to torture my family but me."

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