“Kit! Marvelous! Brilliant and honorable and unexpected all at once! I could never have forgiven myself if Clent had come to harm. He would be dead by now if it wasn’t for you.”

She struggled to pull back just far enough to see his face. She didn’t want to free herself from those demanding arms, oh no. “You know him, then? What’s his name—Clent?”

Jex kissed her on the mouth, then continued kissing her right through his next words. “Yes. He came to town—with my father. I know him from Geldricht, and he—mmm, I’ve missed you—he wanted to stay. Hecht put him up. I don’t know where he—mmm—met this blueshi bitch.”

“No one told me. I can’t imagine why she would have thought of inviting him to this party, and why he would actually go—”

“I told him he should. I thought he would intimidate them. So—if something had happened to him—the fault would have been all mine. Except for you—for you—for you—!”

He tightened his arms again, flattening her against his chest and covering her face with kisses. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t even protest, and she felt a moment’s physical panic. Something would break, her bones would snap in his hold … She tried to choke out a plea, but his arms loosened of their own accord, and she drew two long, hard breaths.

“Intimidate them,” were her first gasping words. “Intimidate the indigo? On their own territory? Jex, what were you thinking?”

“Bad idea. I realize that now. As soon as he started telling me the story, I couldn’t believe he’d gotten out alive. And then, he told me how you had come to his rescue—”

She couldn’t help a weak laugh. Her ribs still hurt. “Funny, the indigo all think I came to Aliria’s rescue.”

“And I was so proud of you! And I had to thank you myself! And tell you how much I’ve missed you. And ask you if you’ve missed me.”

“Of course I’ve missed you,” she said in a low voice, but had no time to add anything else, for he kissed her again. Part of her mind wanted to protest, to slow him down, to say, What about the explosion at the Carbonnier Extension? What about the quarrel we had last time I was here? How much do I really matter to you, and do you care about this stupid Clent more than you care about me? But she could not think, she could not speak, she could not be anything except almost painfully elated to be in his arms again, existing through his kiss. How had she survived a day without this, how had she survived an hour?