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“I sincerely hope that whatever you plan to do with the dagger doesn’t involve me,” Nyktos warned as I quickly slid it into my boot.
“Don’t…don’t take it from me,” I ordered, but it sounded more like a plea, which brought heat to my cheeks.
“If I pla
I watched him warily. “You’re not afraid I’m going to slit your throat to your spine like you instructed?”
“No.”
My eyes narrowed. “You should be.”
He smirked, brushing his fingers over the cuff on his biceps, drawing forth a thin tendril.
I stiffened as the smoke rapidly spread out in the space before him, quickly taking the form of his warhorse. Odin shook out his black mane as he pawed at the ash-covered ground. I’d forgotten all about the fact that his horse apparently lived in his cuff.
“How is…?” I quieted when Nyktos glanced at me.
“What?”
“Nothing,” I muttered, attempting to quash my curiosity about how he could conjure Odin into existence from a silver cuff. I failed five seconds later. “Is that also magic?”
“Primal magic, yes.”
I thought about the chair he’d moved earlier, and the fire he’d started without touching either of those things. “So, he’s not…real?”
“He is flesh and blood.” He was silent for a moment. “I hope you’re not pla
“And if I was?”
“I would pick you up and put you on Odin myself.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
Nyktos faced me, and his expression told me he was willing to do just that.
“Whatever.” I pushed to my feet and sidestepped him, trudging toward Odin. I halted when the horse whipped his head in my direction. He pawed at the ground once more.
“He’s not that happy with you.”
“What did I do to him?”
Nyktos came up behind me, dipping his head as he said, “You held a dagger to my throat, and you hit me with eather.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t do those things—” I cut myself off. Primal magic. “He’s an extension of you. Got it.” I sighed, eyeing the horse. “I’m sorry.”
Odin huffed, turning his head from me.
“He’ll get over it.” Nyktos gripped my hips and lifted me into the air before I even had a chance to react. I grasped the pommel, seating myself before I was flung over the other side. Nyktos swung into the saddle behind me. “Eventually.”
Odin shook his mane.
I wasn’t sure about that.
Nyktos reached around me and picked up the reins. “The next time you put a dagger to anyone’s throat,” he said, his breath coasting over my cheek as he guided Odin toward the palace, “you’d better mean it.”
I stiffened. “Even if it’s yours?”
Nyktos’s arm folded over my waist, tugging me against his chest. “Especially if it’s mine.”
Orphine was waiting just inside the stable-facing doors, in the narrow entryway that led to the hall opposite Nyktos’s office. She wasn’t the only one. Ector leaned against the wall as she stepped forward, lowering herself onto one knee. “It was my duty to watch over her,” she said. “I failed. I’m sorry.”
Guilt rose. “It’s not your fault.”
“For once, Sera’s right,” Nyktos replied, and I shot him a narrow-eyed glare. “You don’t need to apologize for her recklessness—”
“Recklessness?” I hissed. He made it sound as if I’d been out for a jaunty stroll through the Dying Woods.
“Or her bravery,” he continued, returning my glare. I snapped my mouth shut, surprised that he’d even thought that, let alone said it. “Foolish bravery,” he tacked on.
I was starting to regret feeling bad for hurting him.
Ector pushed off the wall as Orphine rose, his curly hair even paler in the lamplight. “Bravery?”
“She was attempting to make her way to Dalos.” Nyktos took hold of my arm. “To kill Kolis.”
“Damn,” Orphine muttered, stepping back from us.
The blood drained rapidly from Ector’s face. “You can’t be serious.”
“I wish I wasn’t.” Nyktos steered me around them, starting for the back set of stairs.
Ector followed. “Why would you do something like that? Even think about doing that?”
I stopped. “Because—”
Nyktos was having none of it. He let go of my arm, pointing up the stairs. “Go—”
“Do not order me about as if I’m a child.”
“I wouldn’t if you didn’t behave like one.”
I saw red. “You sure as hell didn’t think I was behaving like one when you had me in your bed and your fangs in my throat!”
“Whoa,” Ector murmured.
Fiery, silver eyes locked with mine. “Sera.”
Choking on more words I really didn’t need to speak, I stomped up the stairs like a full-grown-ass woman. I made it to the fourth-floor landing before Nyktos caught up to me.
“Whatever you were thinking about saying down there,” he began, reaching around me and yanking open the door, “don’t think it again.”
“What?” I stalked into the hall. He’d been right. I had been about to tell Ector why I’d gone after Kolis. “You don’t trust your guards with the truth of exactly what I carry inside me? Or are you afraid that if they know, they might actually agree with me?”
“None of them would agree with what you were attempting to do, nor would they aid you in such a thing.”
I laughed. And, boy, did it sound scary. “You don’t know them all that well if you think that.”
“And you do?”
“I know them well enough to be aware of the obvious. None of them like me, and they’d be glad to see me gone—either walking out or being carried out dead.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Is that a serious question? They haven’t forgiven me for what I once pla
“What have they said to you?” His voice was low, but it hummed with the promise of violence.
“Nothing.”
He came toward me. “Tell me what they said and who said it.”
“They don’t need to say anything for me to know!” My hands closed into fists. “Look, the last thing I need to do is make them more unhappy with me. And I don’t want to. They already have every reason to dislike me. They’re loyal to you, and I’m just the Consort you never wanted—who pla
Thank the gods, Nyktos didn’t stop me. I reached my bedchamber, relieved to find it unlocked. I went in, closing the door behind me without saying another word. I moved past the bed and unclasped the cloak. It fell to the floor. I needed quiet. Time to think and plot—
The door flew open behind me. I whirled around.
Nyktos swept in like a storm. “No.”
I took a step back. “No, what?”
“No to this. I would like to get at least a few hours of rest tonight,” he a
“You’re the one in my chambers!” I threw up my hands. “No one’s stopping you from sleeping.”
“You have proven that you ca
“You ca
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
He looked like he wanted to murder an entire kingdom. “I’m not going to try anything right after you caught me.”
“I would like to believe that, but I know better. I ca
I had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer. “Magic? You know, those embers are really strong.”