“She shouted at Rune, “You did not just do that!” His deep voice sounded overhead. “How is that disbelief working out for you?”

“Are you purring at me?""I might be," Rune said. His deep voice was rougher, and lazy with intimacy. "Unless you've done something wrong. Then I'm growling at you again.”

“She frowned. “Did I do or say something yesterday that I should apologize for?”“Not you cupcake,” said Graydon. “But apparently a lot of other people in the Tower have. Rune thinks we should rename it Melrose Place. I think Peyton Place has a more classic feel to it, don’t you?”“Oh no,” she said. “You got the tablecloth away from Tricks.”Rune grinned. “Not before the little shit bit me.”

“All that time she had worked in the acquisition of Power. All that time she had been ruled by ambition. All those centuries that she had lived in such a vast yet fleeting journey, and here he was holding everything she had reached for, not striving, not continually learning to be better, not fighting to acquire any of it. He just was, the mysterious, magical rune, the riddle of a creature that nature decreed should not be able to exist, and yet he did.”

“Did you kill the Fae horses?”The whuffling stopped. Dragos said in a cautious voice, “Was I not supposed to?”She shrugged. “It just wasn’t their fault.”“If it helps any, I was hungry and ate one.”

“When she's in her manic phase, she's a little like trying crack for the first time," Rune said. He blinked at them, his face bland. "Not that I would know what that feels like.”

“Her mind whited out, and she coughed. It sounded suspiciously like a whimper. "Well, okay. I guess I blew that round again, didn't I?""I don't know," he whispered. "Did you? I found your choice of topic extremely interesting.”