"I am not yet a man who believes that cold-blooded revenge is always wrong," Dain said, still as if we were having a normal conversation. His heart thudded against my ear, where my face rested against his chest. "But while they may have been trying to kill me, you're the one who was hurt." A growl started in his chest, the approaching thunder. "You're the one who was violated." The word was almost incomprehensible, torn apart by his growl and rage. He took a deep, shuddering breath. "Their lives belong to you now. Tell me what to do, Leah."

I kept staring at the thing, no longer seeing it. Ciradyl. She'd told me, the first day I'd gone and flung myself in Dain's way, that he had her loyalty until the day she died. A statement like that was as good as a promise. It should have destroyed her to set him up for death, and to do something like this to me. She would have been able to hear every word spoken at that table, the table I could only see as a blur in my mind, two people with me and someone at the door.

"Dain," I said slowly. "What would let a fae act counter to a promise?"

He relaxed a fraction, and when I looked up at him confusion was washing away the anger. "What do you mean?"

"If a fae swore their loyalty to someone, what would let them betray that person?"

"Nothing, as long as they were still under that promise," he said, his brows pulling together. "If we forswear ourselves, unless we're released from that promise, we'll die."

"Okay, but say it looked like someone did that," I said. "Swore their loyalty until the day they died, and then did something awful to that person. How would that happen?"

Dain frowned. He opened his mouth, reconsidered, and closed it again, looking thoughtful. "A command geas could do it," he said after a moment. "Or puppetting their body, but in that case the person would know afterwards. The palace isn't up in arms, so that seems... unlikely."

"Is that like what Zhiolas can do?" I asked. "The geas thing?"

He shook his head, his arms tightening around me. "Zhiolas has an allure geas. It causes the person to become fascinated or obsessed with him, and eager to please or devoted, but they're still the one making the decisions." Dain's lip lifted up into a snarl. "He is to people what heartflower is to humans, and he doesn't often use it, and tries never to without permission. A command geas overrides the will of the person who's being commanded. The promises of the commander matter for those actions, not those of the actor. It's a rare gift, and those who have it usually only have it with either fae or humans, and not both, like Zhiolas does."