“Can you show me how you did this?”

She looked at the various jars and small bowls on the table and nodded. “I have enough ingredients to make several more.”

So she showed him how to build a rosebush out of powders made from pastel chalks, dried rose petals, thorns, and a few other things. He mentally noted what she did and how much of each ingredient she used, but most of his attention was on Twilight’s Dawn.

Whenever he’d seen it before, the Jewel she now wore looked like a Purple Dusk accented by other colors. Now, as she worked through the illusion spell, he watched it change. When she began working on the leaves, the center of the Jewel became dominantly Green, then shifted to Rose with a strong touch of Red while she created the flowers.

He didn’t know why it was changing like that, didn’t know how it could change like that.

It played havoc with his ability to measure her strength against his own because hers kept sliding. One moment he would have sworn the woman beside him was a Rose-Jeweled witch. The next moment, her power resonated with his Birthright Red. It was as if she were dancing on webs of power, and the threads she plucked shone the brightest.

Webs of power. Lorn had created webs of power to help prevent Witch, the living myth, from plunging back into the Darkness after Jaenelle unleashed her Ebony power to save Kaeleer. And Lorn had given Ladvarian the Jewel that was called Twilight’s Dawn.

Fingers snapping in front of his face startled a snarl out of him.

“Hell’s fire, witch-child.”

“Well, you haven’t heard anything I’ve said for the past minute or so,” Jaenelle said. “I didn’t want you to come back from wherever your mind had wandered and find me gone.”

“Gone?” His heart leaped as memories of webs of power shattering in the abyss filled his mind. “Where are you going?”

We can’t lose her now. We can’t. She is everything. She is still everything.

Jaenelle studied him for a long moment, her sapphire eyes seeing too much. But she gave him a daughter’s tolerant smile. “First I’m going to wash up. Then I’m going to join the others for the midday meal. Which I already told you.”

“My apologies, witch-child. You’re right. My mind was elsewhere.”

“I noticed. Are you going to join us? Khary and Morghann are here, as well as Lucivar and Marian.”

“No, I’d like to stay here and play around with your powders if you don’t mind.”

Jaenelle kissed his cheek. “Please yourself.”

“What about you, witch-child?” He looked into her eyes. Still beautiful, still ancient. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had disappointed her in some way. “Are you pleased?” She knew him well enough to know he wasn’t asking about the illusion spell.