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forty degrees as his magic surged. With retorts like human gunfire, the wineglasses on the table burst into shards.
    The funnel around Ani died. Frigid air sliced through her garments, and she broke into uncontrollable shakes. Her mind blanked. All she could feel was ice, inside and out.
    Frost crackled through her skull before dissipating so fast she wondered if she’d imagined it. That must be what it felt like to be dropped into the snowbanks surrounding the castle of the Seers.
    Ophelia’s body trembled as she too reacted to her brother’s chill. Her grip on Ani’s arm pinched. “If you don’t come to your senses, girl, your career is over. They won’t let you heal farm animals when I’m done with you. I’ll ruin you, you insipid bitch.”
    “As you so kindly pointed out, Talista already destroyed my future.” Her limbs blessedly functional, Ani shook free of Ophelia and ran for the door.
    “One more thing,” Ophelia said right before Ani twisted the handle. Her eyes were a cold, black fire, boring into Ani’s so deeply she feared she’d never erase the image. “Nothing happened to you tonight. That doesn’t mean nothing will happen in the future. If you file a complaint about us, you’ll be sorry.”
    Ani was already sorry. She fled the Torvals’ villa as if the stinking winds of Fet were at her heels.

Chapter Three
     
    The laundry fairy accepted Embor’s bundle of soiled fabric with a scowl. “This reeks. What have you been doing, Primary?”
    Embor raised an eyebrow but explained since it might help her cleanse the fabric. “I encountered the Serendipity triplets.”
    “In a pigsty?” The tiny blonde cast a stasis spell on the bundle to prevent cross contamination.
    “In the garden.” All Court members had PAs to lighten the workload, but since the Incident, it was frowned on to distance oneself from basic survival skills. For Embor that meant handling personal business like laundry himself. Sometimes.
    “Well, don’t do it again.” She tossed his clothing down a chute.
    “It’s not on my schedule.” His upcoming meeting with Jake would hopefully be free of children. And Talista. He stifled an abrupt yawn and frowned.
    Happily, the laundress missed his display of weakness. She scribbled his name in a paper book, a method of recordkeeping in vogue since the Incident as well. Much had changed in the past forty years.
    “Do you know how hard it is to get whites white?” she complained. “Who decided white exercise clothes were a good idea anyway?”
    The question seemed rhetorical so he didn’t respond.
    “Your sib’s outfits are bad enough,” she continued. “If she’d dress like a decent fairy, I wouldn’t spend more time on her clothing than anyone else’s at Court. Don’t think I didn’t notice that yellow leather outfit. Leather! Might as well have been wearing a meat sack. What is wrong with her?”
    Another rhetorical question, he hoped. He abhorred Skythia’s garish clothing as well but didn’t want to go on record as having stated it.
    The woman regarded him with a craftiness that didn’t match her apple cheeks and corkscrew curls. “I might not be able to get these done in time for your next workout.”
    Embor drew himself up to his full height. “I have several sets.”
    “The others aren’t ready either. You’ve been exercising so much lately. One might think you were working off steam.”
    That was no secret. Court became contentious as Primary assessments approached. At least he’d quit attempting to convince the Elders to fund a full-scale humanspace search mission and had redirected his energies. They were foolish to ignore the danger posed by the renegade agents and their insider knowledge about the AOC. Embor was many things, but he wasn’t a fool.
    But he did need to enhance his stamina with moderate exercise. If he encountered Anisette in the gardens at the same time, well, he was fond of multitasking.
    “A logical conclusion,” he conceded.