“But do you still love me?” I asked coquettishly, kissing his neck, oblivious to the hoots still coming from the great hall. “Will you love me if I don’t want to stay here in Yadosha?”

He groaned. “Of course I will, you outrageous little sot. You are going to wake up tomorrow with a terrible headache. The main reason you’ll not want to stay here after this will be because of your inability to look any of those men in the eye again. What song was that?”

“Song?”

“The one you sang. You never sang for me before.”

“I wanted you to like me. Nobody likes me after I’ve sung for them.”

“You sang it terribly, and I like you just fine.”

“How rude. Instructor Mia invested a lot of hours in my training, I’ll have you know.”

“I want you to focus, Tea. We need you alert, not with a keg’s worth of Mireth Light in you.”

“That’s its name? What a horrible name. There was nothing light about it. Is there a doohickey you can do?”

“A what?”

“You know. A—” I began gesticulating wildly. “A doohickey.”

Kalen closed his eyes. “A spell. You want me to cast a spell on you.”

“You already did!” I giggled. “I’m enthralled by you!”

“A spell to ease your hangover.”

“That’s what I said! A doohickey. Is there?”

My gaze couldn’t follow the weaves he made, mostly because I had double vision and he now had four hands, but as soon as he finished, I felt a warm, slow wave steal over my senses, gently washing away some of my sluggishness. I blinked, the hall coming back into focus. “It… Did it work?”

“It’s the Calming rune. The same one I’ve always used. You’ll still get a headache tomorrow, but at least you’re coherent now. Somewhat coherent. It doesn’t completely remove the intoxication.”

“I shouldn’t have gotten drunk.”

“You shouldn’t have.”

“I didn’t know Calming runes could do this. Did you?”

“It’s one of the spells Deathseekers learn before their first night out—for reasons that have nothing to do with our training. We used to draw straws over who had to remain sober enough not to fudge the weave.”

“Why didn’t you do this for me before I made a fool of myself?” I hid my face against his chest with a pained groan. The Yadoshans were never going to let me live this down.

“Because I thought it was hilarious. And before you start complaining,” he continued, “I had my eye on you this whole time. You might know Aden and his friends, but I don’t, and if they tried anything untoward, I would have bashed their faces in.”