Be reasonable, Severine. You know multiple mages. There was no reason to panic. All I needed to do was call Brendan, and he would come back and heal the injury. Even if it hadn''t been incurred during sex, he would have healed it. Brendan wasn''t the type to tolerate an imperfect Catalyst, not when he could fix it. He would fix it. Simple. Look at how calm and rational I was being.


    Shit. I hadn''t thought this part through. I swallowed past the awkwardness and tried again. "Brendan was here and…" And I don''t want to tell you that part; I want you to think better of me. Another conversational dead end. I fumbled over words, landed on: "Can you do a healing tonight?"


    What did he think had happened? Brendan could be rough, but not…


    into me. That feeling I had never quite gotten used to, the tingling sensation that was halfway between uncomfortable and sexual as it sank down into my flesh, made my whole body come alive until my teeth were chattering with it.


    Offered me a choice, and I was the one who picked the Shadowmage as my lover for the night. But I couldn''t bring myself to say that, to admit my own deviant tastes to Kasimir.


    all the bruises were gone. Not just on my left arm, but on my right as well, and on both legs. "Won''t he wonder why they''re gone?"


    and telling Kasimir was something else entirely. But Kasimir was worth the risk. I gave in with a sigh. "There''s a ring. He wasn''t wearing it in the morning, and he didn''t have it on when we returned to the office, but Juhan wore it when he kissed me. I didn''t see it, but I felt it. I think it''s part of the test. An amulet of some sort."


    He''d kissed me. Twice. In one night. Not on the lips, but he''d kissed me. He hadn''t so much as blown me a kiss in six years of flirtations.