“She’s also a woman in her prime who is, in fact, only a few centuries older than you.”

Lucivar stared at Saetan. “She lied to me?”

Saetan’s gold eyes gleamed with suppressed laughter. “Let me put it this way: Your floors won’t be swept, but you’ll have the cleanest windows in Ebon Rih—at least on this side of the eyrie.”

Lucivar spun around. Female faces were pressed against every window, watching him. Oh, there were cleaning rags pressed against the windows, too, but nothing was being done with them—until the women realized he’d seen them. Then there was a lot of vigorous polishing.

Swearing under his breath, he used Craft to vanish the coffee mug and call in a pair of leather trousers. As he pulled them on, he snarled, “It was easier when I could use my fists. If this was Terreille, I would have thrown the lot of them off the mountain.”

“You still can.”

It surprised him that the words hurt.

“You’re the Warlord Prince of Ebon Rih,” Saetan said quietly. “You are the law here and answer to no one but your Queen. If you want to use your fists, there’s no one who will stop you. No one here who can stop you since you wear the Ebon-gray Jewels.”

“What happened to that code of honor you live by and insist is followed in the court?” Lucivar snapped, letting temper ride the crest of wounded feelings. “What happened to the lines that are drawn for what a Blood male can and can’t do? If I hurt them for no good reason, what does that say to every other man? That he can strike out for the least little thing? We serve. We’re the defenders and protectors. I’ve hurt women, and I’ve killed women. They were the enemy and the court was the battleground. But I will not be the kind of man women cower from because they’re afraid of being brutalized.”

“I know,” Saetan said. “You’ll decide what is and isn’t acceptable in Ebon Rih, and you’ll stand as defender and protector. As volatile as your temper is, as physical as your responses are most of the time, I’ve never worried about you hurting the coven. If you’re pushed, you push back. That’s not a bad thing. I’m sure there were times in the past three years when something scraped a nerve and reminded you too much of what it was like living in Terreille, but you didn’t lash out automatically. You won’t now.”

The temper faded, but his feelings were still raw. “Then why did you say that?”