A light in the flame

Blinking, I lifted my gaze to his. “I’m sorry. Did you say something?”

There was that warmth in his eyes again, turning them a molten silver. “Perhaps if you stopped ogling me for five seconds, you’d hear me.”

“I’m not ogling you,” I muttered, blinking.

Paxton frowned. “What does ogling mean?”

“To look at someone amorously,” Nyktos answered. “And rather impertinently.” He paused, his eyes meeting mine. “As if they have no control over where their eyes stray.”

The boy gri

I turned to Paxton. “You don’t know what ogling means, but you know what amorously and impertinently are?”

“Pax is well familiar with all the various phrasings of impertinent,” Nyktos said, and the boy’s skin crinkled at his eyes as his grin grew. “You didn’t use the water brought in this morning?”

“Not really, but I—”

“The water has to be freezing by now.”

Paxton threw up his arms. “That’s what I said.”

Walking forward, Nyktos dropped his hand to the top of Paxton’s head as he passed, ruffling the boy’s floppy strands of hair. The gesture was…it was kind of sweet. “I’ll heat it up.”

“That’s not necessary,” I repeated to no avail as Nyktos brushed past me and entered the bedchamber. Wait a second… “How are you going to heat the water?”

“Magic,” he tossed out in a light tone that I hadn’t heard from him in far too long.

“Really?” I replied dryly, ignoring whatever silliness my heart and mind were engaged in. “You can use eather to heat water?”

“He’s a Primal god,” Paxton said, sounding incredibly exasperated for someone his age. “There’s nothing he can’t do.”

“That’s not entirely true.” Nyktos glanced at the bed, a slight frown pulling at his lips. “There are many things I can’t do.”

“Name one,” Paxton challenged.

“Getting my soon-to-be Consort to follow instructions would be one of them.”

Paxton giggled as my eyes narrowed on the center of the spiraling ink scrawled across his back. I crossed my arms over my chest. “That’s going to get even harder for you now.”

“As if it would have gotten easier.” Nyktos stopped at the entrance to the bathing chamber.

I inched forward, followed by Paxton. I wouldn’t admit it, but I was curious to see just how Nyktos would warm the water.

However, much like I did every time I entered the space, Nyktos just stood there. The breadth of his shoulders tightened. He looked over his shoulder, first at the made bed and then me.

“Are you heating the water with your mind?”

“He has to actually touch it.” Paxton shook his head as if I’d suggested something ridiculous. “I don’t know what he’s doing.”

“Well, then, that makes two of us,” I said.

Nyktos closed the doors and faced us, drawing his lower lip between his teeth, showing just a hint of fang. “Pax, why don’t you go see if Nektas has returned?”

“Will he have Jadis with him?” the boy asked, his chin jerking up and eyes aglow with excitement.

“He should. And I’m sure he could use your help keeping her entertained.”

“Awesome.” Pax wheeled around and shuffled toward the door. He stopped suddenly, hastily bowing at the waist. “Good day, Your Highnesses.”

“Bye,” I murmured, thoroughly confused by…well, just about everything.

“He’s not really going to be of any help to Nektas,” Nyktos said after Pax had disappeared into the hall. “He’s just going to join Jadis in whatever trouble she gets herself into, and then together, they will likely terrorize Reaver.”

I turned to Nyktos, discovering that he’d moved closer in that silent way of his. A long moment passed as he studied me. The silence and the intensity of his stare got to me. I cleared my throat. “Did you…finish training with your guards?” I asked, which was an asinine question since he was standing in front of me.

“I did.” His gaze finally left mine. “Wait here. This will take a couple of minutes, but I will be back.”

I nodded, and it was only when he walked out my doors that I wondered why he hadn’t used the door that adjoined our chambers.

Then I remembered. The door was obviously locked from his side, remaining only unlocked when he saw fit. Then again, if he could truly heat water with his fingers and had a warhorse living in his cuff, he could probably unlock the door with a thought.

Sighing, I returned to the chaise and sat. A little achy from handling the sword, I closed my eyes. I had no idea how much time passed, but it was more than a few minutes when the adjoining door opened, startling me.

Nyktos stood there, all softness gone from his features. The now-familiar hardness had settled into the set of his jaw, and his eyes had cooled. He hadn’t even looked that cold—that detached—when I’d cut his arm or held the dagger to his throat only an hour or so ago. “Come.” He held the door open. “I have something for you.”

“Uh…” I rose slowly, peering into the darkness of his private quarters. “You sure about that?”

“I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t.” He waited. “Are you coming?”

Too curious for my own good, I got my legs moving and quietly followed him into his chambers and past the unmade bed. He went to where I knew his bathing chamber was located and pushed open the door to the softly lit space.

“You want to show me your bathing chamber?” My steps slowed.

“Not exactly,” he replied, looking back at me. “You can come closer.”

The stone floors were cool against my bare feet as I crept forward, feeling out of sorts as I stopped beside him. I had only caught a glimpse of this space before, when he had been standing at the vanity cleaning up the blood from when the dakkais attacked. There was another door straight across, but I had no idea what it led to. The space was like everything else about him—bare except for a few bottles lined up neatly on a shelf above the vanity and the—

My eyes went wide. I’d only seen a hint of the tub before, but now I saw that it was at least three times the size of the one in my bathing chamber, with a wide enough ledge to sit upon. Big enough for several people. Maybe even a small draken. Made sense. Nyktos was a large man, but the tub was…

It was full of steaming water and frothy bubbles, and my chest constricted. It had nothing to do with breathing. This was what had taken him so long.

“Baines said that he didn’t think you were making use of the bath in your chambers,” he stated, and I felt my skin start to warm. “It should’ve occurred to me that bathing in the chamber where you were attacked would be less than appealing.”

“I haven’t—” Whatever lie I had been about to tell got caught on the knot forming in my throat. I stared at the wisps of steam rising from the tub, my eyes blurring.

“You will be safe here,” Nyktos told me, his tone softening, and a faint shudder rolled through me. “I will make sure of it.”

I couldn’t speak. Not yet. My mouth was clamped shut so tightly that my jaw was begi

“Sera?”

I inhaled deeply through my nose. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“Yes, I did.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I…I don’t deserve this.”

“Everyone deserves fresh water to bathe themselves in, and to do so in peace.”

“I don’t deserve this from you,” I corrected.

Nyktos stiffened beside me. I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t. But I felt the tension coursing through his body. “What you didn’t deserve was to be strangled in your bathing chamber.”

“I agree with that, but—”

“You must be covered in a fine layer of dirt from being out there in the courtyard. I’m sure you want to bathe. It’s simply a bath,” he said, but it wasn’t simply anything. “One you’re more than welcome to use at your discretion.”