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More to the point, he inserted himself directly between me and the other seer.

I felt the very clear message there to the male seer who brought me over to him.

I felt the protectiveness behind that message.

And, okay, I also felt a good chunk of possessiveness there, too, if I were being honest?but given everything, it didn’t bother me. Revik didn’t like that the guy put his hands on me, and I didn’t really blame him.

My mind was still grinding over the details of what we were doing here.

My eyes drifted higher, taking in the white, city-like complex on the other side of the pier. I knew from holographic blueprints we’d obtained that those massive towers were separated by multiple pools, a shopping mall, a five-story casino, a palm forest, simulated beaches, deck chairs, walking paths, restaurants, massage parlors, saunas, gardens, and bars.

I knew all that, before we got here.

Yet, to see it in real life was… different.

Even apart from the holograms, the cascade of lights made everything look fairylike, surreal in parts, like parts of it existed underwater. The impression of being inside someone’s dream was reinforced by the beaches below, the forest of pineapples and banana trees, not to mention the mermaid swimming through the sky above the east tower.

I watched her dive down the side of the stucco and glass structure, her green-scaled tail undulating behind oversized breasts, black hair streaming past her shoulders. She dove into the sand at the base of the east tower and disappeared, even as the monkey on the west tower took to the air, battling with the phoenix by throwing flaming balls of light at its plumed tail.

My eyes returned to the east tower.

That time, I focused on the higher floors.

Palm trees and swimming pools covered staggered terraces up one end of the white building, lit by colored lights and fire pits, sprawling oases between layers of glass and steel. At the very top, on what must have been the ninetieth floor, an even bigger terrace spread over half the roof, lit by colored gels filled with spray from fountains. Fires blazed from massive bowl torches and elevated fire pits. Reflections of lit water wavered on visible parts of the overhang, implying at least one pool lived up there, likely several.

Revik squeezed my hand.

I glanced away from the tower, feeling my face warm. My eyes took in the length of him, maybe in part to get my mind off the lions’ den we were about to enter.

Looking at him didn’t exactly help my focus.

“Damn, husband.” I murmured the words so only he would hear, shaking my head subtly. I gave him a small smile. “There should be a law. There really should.”

He turned, quirking an eyebrow. “A law?”

“Yes. I’m not sure you should be allowed to wear suits. Certainly notnicesuits. Suits that were obviously tailored to fit you. It’s not fair.”

He quirked the eyebrow higher.

“Not fair?” A smile ghosted his lips. “Not fair to whom, exactly?”

I made a vague wave around us, indicating all of those who weren’t him.

“You know. The little people.”

He snorted a laugh.

He’d been looking out over the same view as me, but significantly more subtly, versus the open gawking I’d been doing since the boat pulled up to the dock. Now Revik gave me another smile, but I felt a whisper of that harder military sharpness in his light.

Neither thing helped my attempts to be blasé about him in the suit.

He grunted another laugh.

He clicked at me then, his expression mock-stern.

When he shifted his weight in the leather dress shoes, I glimpsed even more of his chest under the dark gray lines of the suit. His jacket lay open in front, contrasting an open-collared white shirt. He was tan from time spent on the boat deck, muscular from working out andmulei.The jacket and pants accentuated his long form, reminding me he’d been running again, and fighting enough to be in his lean and mean body type.

He quirked an eyebrow at me, pretending to adjust a nonexistent tie.