“Or?” Gabriel asked, partly amused by the young wizard’s temerity. Her magic was strong, and might grow stronger still with maturity, but she was no match for him, even without the massive boost in power Nic provided him. He was also angry, the wizard’s instincts Nic liked to tease him about, bristling at the mere suggestion that he’d part with Nic.

“Or suffer the consequences,” Alise replied with cool poise.

Beside him, Nic shifted. She wasn’t going to interfere, but she clearly wanted to.

“Nic is my duly bonded familiar,” he replied, more gently than he would have, if not for what he sensed from Nic. “She is also my wife, my lover, the mother of our unborn child, and the lady of House Phel. Even if were I to agree to release her into your custody, which I emphatically refuse to do, she wouldn’t wish to go.”

He risked a glance at Nic, just to make certain, and she smiled warmly at him, her magic curling around him in wine-red, rose-suffused love. All right, then. It would be nice, however, if he could pass one day without someone threatening to take her away from him.

“If that’s true,” Alise replied in a hard voice, “then why did she bring shame upon House Elal, jeopardizing her entire future, by refusing and attempting to escape you?”

Nic groaned, pressing her lips together and shaking her head.

“You are free to speak up, you know,” Gabriel reminded her.

She cast him a startled glance, as if she had indeed forgotten in her ingrained response to a new wizard’s presence. “I assume Papa told you that, Alise?” she called.

Alise leveled a look on her sister, expression and magic roiling with conflicting emotions. “Yes. He thought you might have come to me for help, but you didn’t, did you?”

That guilt he’d sensed in her flared, but she answered with comparable poise. “No, I didn’t want to involve anyone else in my problems, least of all you.”

“Why would you be so imprudent?” Alise asked, indignant and pleading at once. “You had to have a strong reason. And there have been rumors. I heard he put you in an iron collar.”

Nic’s hand went reflexively to her throat where the hunters’ collar had weighed on her, though Asa had long since healed the abrasions and bruises. “You should know better than to credit rumor, Alise,” she replied with disdainful amusement. “Especially at Convocation Academy.”

“And the rest?” Alise persisted.

“The rest is a long tale best told by a nice fire and over a warm beverage, possibly breakfast,” Nic replied. “You and your companions appear to have traveled some distance and under onerous circumstances. I’m interested in hearing your tale as well. Won’t you all accept the hospitality of House Phel and be welcome?”

Alise’s gaze went to Gabriel, then his sword, and his clasp on his familiar.

Wiser now to the social signals of the Convocation, Gabriel released Nic’s hand—after brushing a kiss over the back of it—and sheathed his sword. “I welcome my sister-in-law to House Phel,” he confirmed. “And her companions?” He made that a question, as it seemed odd that Alise hadn’t introduced them.