“What extenuating circumstances?” he thundered, the words cracking like lightning, echoed by the atmospheric versions outside.
“Mind your magic,” she cautioned him, fully aware that her words were blown away in the growing gale of his rage.
“He has her!” Gabriel shouted. “That treacherous, manipulative bastard abducted my innocent baby sister and took her to House El-Adrel. They’ll tear her to pieces. How can you stand there and ask me to mind my magic and consider extenuating circumstances?”
Following instinct—or unable to withstand her familiar nature and need to humble herself before his displeasure—Nic dropped to her knees and pressed her forehead to his boots. “I apologize,” she said, not sure if he’d hear, so repeating. “I’m sorry, Gabriel. More sorry than you know.”
For a long moment the only sound was the rain flinging itself viciously against the glass windows. Then Gabriel crouched, taking her by the shoulders, levering her up. “Don’t do that, Nic.” He thumbed away her tears. “Why are you crying? This isn’t your fault.”
“It feels like my fault,” she confessed. “I urged you to wait, to use Sabrina, to negotiate with House Sammael.”
“Now we’ll just negotiate with House El-Adrel,” he said with grim intensity.
“But you can’t!” she burst out, regretting it instantly as the storm clouds lowered his brows and darkened his visage. Gamely she plunged on. “Remember what Lady El-Adrel has on you: proof that you created an illegal magical artifact, transgressing on their trademark. The Convocation will revoke your house status without a trial, the evidence is that conclusive.”
His grip tightened on her arms. “I am beyond tired of being threatened with having the House Phel status revoked. At every turn I’m expected to give up another piece of what matters to me most, simply to please your bloody Convocation. And you expect me to sacrifice Selly too? The price is too high, Nic.” He shook her slightly, eyes wild. “It’s too cursed high.”
“They won’t harm her,” Nic said, willing him to listen. “She’s too valuable. The worst that will happen is they’ll bond her to a wizard and—”
“The worst!” he shouted. “That is the worst. How can you say that’s no harm to her? I can’t believe that you—”
“You bonded me,” she cut in fiercely, “and it was the best thing that ever happened to me.” She forged on in the face of his astonished silence. Wriggling out of his slacking grip, she threaded her fingers through his silver hair, tracing the single, thick lock of black that was all that remained of who he’d been before the wizardry took him. “Gabriel, you changed my life. Everything is different now because of you and I’ve begun to believe you can change the world—but not if you give up the game before it’s won.”
“This isn’t a game,” he insisted, but remained still in her hands, not pulling away. “This is Selly’s life, her autonomy, everything that matters.”
“If you attack House El-Adrel, we’re lost,” she replied. “All of us. With their weapons of war, they would crush us in an outright conflict and we’d have no support from any other houses or the Convocation because we’d be the aggressor. It’s incredibly likely that Lady El-Adrel staged this entire plan in order to draw you into that exact scenario. She plays a very long game and this is almost certainly a trap. If you take her bait, you’ll lose more than Selly.”
He was silent a long time, searching her face. “I can’t abandon my sister. I can’t do nothing about this.”
“I’m not suggesting that,” she replied on a rush of relief. She’d placed good odds on Gabriel storming out immediately upon hearing this news, ignoring all consequences. At least he was listening.
“If not hostage negotiation and not war, then what?” he asked grudgingly, not at all pleased.
“It’s our turn to lodge a complaint with the Convocation regarding a stolen familiar.” She hurried on, encouraged that he hadn’t argued immediately. “We make a case that Selly was awaiting testing—we’d offer a judicious mix of truth and lies there—as we’d brought her home and back to health. She was unbonded, yes, but only due to extenuating cir—other reasons,” she corrected hastily when his magic spiked at the tepid phrase. “The Convocation proctor can verify that much.”
“Even though I evicted that proctor in a rage?” he asked drily.
“Even so.” She risked a smile. “Your behavior was consistent with that of a mercurial wizard and lord of a house. She angered you and you expelled her from your house, but you were still complying with her instructions to recover Selly and arrange for testing. It’s not the fault of House Phel that a representative of House El-Adrel unlawfully stole her first. There’s a great deal of legal precedent on our side here. If they have bonded her to one of their wizards, then they’ll owe us a fortune. Plus concessions.”
“I won’t be paid off,” he snarled, breaking away from her and rising to pace in his renewed fury. The downpour increased and Nic cast a wary eye at the ceiling, hoping the roof—not in superb condition to begin with—would withstand the impact. “I’m not going to sell my own sister to enrich myself!”
Pushing to her feet, Nic took her time brushing the wrinkles from her skirts, even though the Ophiel gown didn’t need it. Giving Gabriel a considering look as he paused in his pacing, breathing hard and practically frothing at the mouth, she raised a brow. “Anything else to add?”
“It’s my line in the dirt, Nic,” he answered blackly. “I may have agreed to a precarious slide down a slippery slope under your political tutelage, but I won’t go there. Not even for you.”
She nodded, keeping a placid expression despite the pang of insult that he’d think that of her for a moment. “What about for Selly?” she asked pointedly. “For your parents who’ve lost their daughter? If you refuse this approach, Selly stands a very good chance of remaining in House El-Adrel forever. On the other—”
“I don’t understand how you can treat this like another business negotiation,” he growled, flexing his fingers, wizard-black eyes flickering with silver.
“On the other hand,” she said, raising her voice and letting her own temper show, “if you exploit this rare advantage, you stand to regain Selly, add to our accounts—which I don’t think I need to remind you sorely need it—elevate the status of House Phel among our peers, and shame House El-Adrel. To put a cherry on top of it, we have the ability to break any bonding they’ve subjected Selly to. You won’t get a cleaner win than this, Gabriel.”
He turned his back on her, staring out into the drenched night through the glass doors that led to the balcony. Rain pelted the roof. Silver condensed in the air of their bedroom, pinging musically to the wooden floor, the sound somehow evocative of grief. She went to him and slid her arms around his waist. Leaning her cheek between his rigid shoulder blades, she wafted her magic into him, giving him back the love and understanding he’d always shown her.
“Why do you have to be always right?” he finally said.
A smile trembled over her lips. “It’s a compulsion. If I’m not right all the time, my sense of self crumbles clean away.”
He didn’t laugh, but a tremor of amusement flickered through his magic, the rain abating somewhat. Turning in her embrace, he wrapped his big arms around her, muscles humming with tension. “I don’t like it,” he sighed, “but I’ll do it. As long as the priority is getting Selly back in the best shape possible.”
