“Insult you?” Ivory-pale skin flushing, he seized her shoulders. “From the moment you crossed my path I have done nothing but protect you!”

“How?” she demanded, wrenching free of him. “Like this?”

Reckless, she snapped her fingers and tried to summon glimfire. The elementary incant set her on fire instead… and even though she’d been expecting it, still the furious pain knocked her to the ground.

Morgan Danfey leapt for her. “Barl!”

This time she managed to keep the screams trapped in her throat. Didn’t protest as he snatched her close, though his touch was another kind of pain.

“You little fool,” he said, his voice ragged. “You think to bully me? You think to force my hand by watching you weep?”

Eyes blurred almost blind by tears, she leaned back and looked at him. “Yes. Is it working?”

One explosive, obscene Trindeki oath—and he snapped free the binding incant.

She flung her arms around his neck, not caring that she looked desperate. Not caring that she wept. “Thank you. Thank you.”

“Barl…” Hesitantly, his arms closed around her. “Don’t thank me. I can’t leave you unbound.”

“Why not?” she demanded. “Oh, why not?”

He pushed her away, roughly, then stood and took two staggering steps backwards. Not supercilious now, no. And not haughty. His eyes were anguished, his handsome face ravaged with a resentful, angry grief.

“You know why not! On any day, at any hour, Lord Varen could come here to see how you conduct yourself. Or Sallis Arkley could come. Shari Frieden. Venette. You cannot deceive them!”

He was right. She couldn’t. “Then tell them they aren’t welcome!”

“What?” He laughed, despairing. “Barl, have you not grasped the truth of this yet? You are the Council’s prisoner, its property.”

“And you can stomach that, can you?” she whispered. “It makes you proud to be a councillor?”

“Barl, please, I—”

And then he was looking past her. Turning, she saw that she’d run out of time. Keeping his discreet distance, Rumm was waving his arm.

Oh, you horrible, inconvenient man.

Because now she was certain she could break Morgan Danfey. Just a minute or two more…

“Barl,” he said again, still pleading. “You cannot think it amuses me, to see you writhing in pain. That it gives me pleasure knowing how we waste your unique talent. A mage gifted as you are should be celebrated. Not bound. But I cannot sway the Council. Not in this. In my own way, I am as bound as you. And if you think that delights me…”

Silent, she stared at him. Unbound, so close, she felt his windstorm of power. She felt more than his power, and felt herself shrink. There was no denying the pain in his eyes. Pain for her… which hurt him.

Hard on the heels of sympathy came anger.