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didn’t have a choice. She walked with him through the hall, down toward a set of glass and metal doors and past half a dozen guards.
    When the doors opened without anyone touching them, she looked at her companion, but his face was filled with delight as they moved from the still air of the palace to the wildly scented air of the gardens.
    Ari wanted to stand and take in the expanse of the manicured and wild pattern that mixed and swirled away from the palace as far as the eye could see. It was gorgeous and she was hauled into it.
    The twenty-foot descent was managed with forty steps, and Usorn supported her for each one. As he hauled her into the pathway through the green, she inhaled the wild scents in the air.
    When they were hidden from all views, she asked him what was on her mind.
    “Is there anyone else here, Emperor Usorn?”
    “No. Call me Usorn and I will address you as Ariadne.”
    Blinking in surprise, she realised that he had brought her out here for the lack of protocol. “Usorn, why are we here?”
    “So that I could speak to you as a peer, not as master to servant.”
    She whispered, “You are not my master.”
    He paused and smiled. “No, but I do wish to try something.”
    To her amazement, he pressed his lips to hers, cupping the nape of her neck in his hand.
    Her second day on a new world and she was making out with the emperor. She definitely wasn’t on Earth anymore.
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    He tasted cool and his lips moved over hers slowly, easing her into responding.
    Ari clutched at his arm and pressed her palm to his chest, feeling the beat of his heart speed up when she moved toward him.
    He raised his head with a quick lick at her lips. “That answered that. Would you like to continue the tour?”
    She nodded. “Please.”
    They walked further into the maze of green.
    He asked her, “What are you thinking about?”
    “That the paint on my face is very sturdy stuff. You aren’t wearing any of the blue on your lips.”
    Usorn smiled. “I am gratified that you are looking. The makeup is protective and sealed against damage. It goes back to the days when Hredu was contaminated and masks were required for even the smallest task.”
    “Would you tell me about it?”
    He cocked his head. “Don’t you know all about it?”
    “I did some research, but it is cold facts when you don’t know about how the Hredu came to be under an emperor.”
    He smiled and took her hand in his, “Well, when this world was younger and the people were ruled by a series of kings around the globe, they fought for industrial supremacy. The air became contaminated, the environment rebelled and the people began to die. Masks became common. No one entered or left their homes without one. The first emperor was Kriako, a weather elemental. He travelled the world and agreed to fix the environment if his people would simply accept his will over the globe. Any area that did not agree was excised from his balancing of the elements. They soon came and begged to be included in the empire.”
    He was rubbing his thumb over the back of her knuckles as they walked.
    “The masks became a symbol of the world before the empire. They shifted from gas filters to symbolic representations of a dying population. Your makeup is a mask of sorts. No airborne contaminant can get through to the surface of your skin.”
    “Why don’t you wear a mask?”
    “Because, as emperor, it is my duty to die for my people if necessary. As a Guardian, I face the same option.”
    She swayed closer to him as they walked through shadows, and she got a little cool. “All the Guardians are elementals?”
    “We each have an affinity for one particular season; our talent mimics elements of it. Winter, for example, withdraws heat from an object or subject. Summer has the opposite effect; he uses heat to get his manipulation of surfaces going.”
    She smiled and shivered, moving closer to him. “I am guessing that Spring has a water