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“Okay, how d’you do it?”

“It’s quite easy. You picture the thing you want to clean up and say these words,geilan dah.”

“Gay Linda?”

“Gey-ei-landah.”He repeated slowly. “If you forget to brush your hair one morning. You could fix the problem while you were driving to work without taking your hands off the steering wheel—not that doing that seems to bother you much anyway.”

She sat forward. “Are you saying my hair is a mess?”

“I’m not saying anything. I’m just giving you an example.”

“Fine. I should’ve known cleaning things would be your favorite spell.” She sighed and closed her eyes. As he watched, her hair magically rearranged itself into two neat shining braids.

“Did it work?”

“Yes.” His smile was enough to have her running to the mirror.

“I look like a Swedish tourist.”

“Nothing wrong with that.”

She returned to her seat, fingering one of her braids. “Now, if you’ve finished prevaricating, do you want to tell me what’s really going on?”

“I think I’ve told you most of it.”

“Bullshit,Morosov. I know how your devious Fae mind works. Even if I can’t quite access all the important bits, I can still sense when you’re hiding things from me.”

She could?

Damn.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

Perhaps it was time for the truth. “That you need to be on your guard, and that I would prefer it if we stayed together at all times.”

She wrapped her arms around her drawn-up knees and rested her chin on them. “You’re afraid for me?”

“You’re my mate. Otherworld knows that. You will be used against me.”

“Do you think I’d let myself be used?”

“Not intentionally.”

“Well, thanks for that, at least.” She considered him for a long moment. “What can I do to make myself less vulnerable?”

“You’re taking this much better than I thought you would.”

She shrugged. “Otherworld is your world. I’m a liability for you there. I don’t want to be one, so I’d like to improve our odds.”

“I appreciate that. With my magic, you aren’t without power. You just need to learn how to use it.”

“Can you teach me?”

“Not in time.” He grimaced. “I fear that someone will come after me fairly soon.”

“And when you say after you, you really mean afterme,don’t you?”

“You heard what Rossa said. Otherworld is interested in us.”