But she’d obviously heard the rumors. She knew what was being said about him. That’s what had brought her here. Someone’s vicious lies had created a chasm between them, and if he didn’t find a way to bridge that distance, if he lost her now . . .

Despair and fury twisted together, became a roar of pain. “I have not been unfaithful!”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” Jaenelle replied. “I know you, Daemon. I know you. Even if there had been no hope of me healing, you would have stayed with me, celibate and faithful.”

“Of course I would have. I love you.” The bitterness under her words frightened him, but the fury was turning cold and sharp.

“I know.” Jaenelle looked away, adding, “Maybe it would have been better if that weren’t true.”

“Meaning what?” he asked too softly, taking a step toward her.

“If you were capable of infidelity, it would be easier to believe you were staying with me because you wanted to stay and not because you felt you had to stay.”

“What in the name of Hell are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you . . . and me.” Pain flickered in Jaenelle’s eyes before she looked away. “I know I don’t look . . . that a man wouldn’t be attracted . . .”

“Damn you.” He didn’t think about it. He grabbed the back of a stuffed chair and let his rage flow.

The chair exploded. Startled, Jaenelle stumbled back a step.

Daemon smiled bitterly. He’d instinctively created a bubble shield to contain the debris so that nothing sprayed over the room, so that not even the smallest sliver would strike Jaenelle and possibly harm her.

But that release was enough to shift ice to heat, so he snapped the leash that held his temper. “Is that why you’ve been pushing me away? Because of how you look?” He moved away from her, needing whatever distance he could get within the confines of the room as the insult churned through him. “I waited for you my whole life. Yearned for you my whole life. After Tersa told me you were coming, I spent seven hundred years searching for you in the court of every Queen who had bought my service as a pleasure slave. I searched in every Territory in Terreille that was within reach of wherever I’d been sent. For you. For Witch. For dreams made flesh. I never gave a damn what you might look like—tall, short, fat, thin, plain, beautiful, ugly. Why would I care what you looked like? The flesh was the shell that housed the glory. It was a way to connect with you, please you, be with you. Even if I couldn’t be your physical lover, there are other ways to be a lover, and I know them all. So don’t stand there and tell me what I feel for you depends on how you look!”