A light in the flame

“Don’t,” he said softly, and I froze. “I have a few hours before anything needs to be done. I’m tired. You must be tired. So, here we are.”

“Arm’s reach?” I whispered.

“Yeah,” Nyktos said after a moment.

I nodded, but he and I both knew that keeping me in his bed wasn’t necessary during the day, when the palace and courtyard were teaming with gods. Honestly, it wasn’t really necessary at night.

It suddenly struck me as I stared at him that maybe he…he had to be just as lonely as I was, but for far longer than I. And right now, we didn’t have to be. I closed my eyes and just let myself be here, in the moment and nothing more.

“Sera.” I thought I heard Nyktos whisper my name as I began to doze off. “You were never a ghost to me.”

I woke sometime later, half-sprawled on my belly, toasty and covered in something far thicker and softer than a towel. A fur blanket.

Nyktos.

He wasn’t there. The warmth was gone from my chest, and as I lay there, I thought that maybe falling asleep together was entirely different than waking up together.

That was an intimacy I knew neither of us had ever experienced. One that seemed to go deeper than what we’d shared in the tub and the words spoken afterward.

You were never a ghost to me.

My chest tightened and then loosened. Had he really said that? The words sounded like something one would conjure in a dream, but if he had spoken them, they were…they were kind and far more beautiful than he probably knew, and I would cherish them for what they were.

Words.

I started to roll onto my side but stopped. Something was lying across my feet. My eyes cracked open.

Jadis lay on her belly much like I was, her limp arms and legs widespread. She made a soft, snoring sound as her nearly translucent, greenish-brown wings twitched before stilling. I had no idea how long I stared at her before I realized that she wasn’t the only one in the chamber.

I lifted my gaze, my breath stalling in my lungs as I saw Nektas sitting with his feet resting on the foot of the bed. A wicked sense of déjà vu hit me. But this time, there was an odd half-grin on his handsome face.

“Are you watching me sleep?” I asked, my voice a little hoarse. “Again?”

He shifted slightly, resting his elbows on the arms of the chair and loosely clasping his hands together on his lap. “Possibly.”

Frowning, I snuggled deeper into the blanket as I eyed him. “That’s…creepy.”

“Is it?”

“Yes.”

He shrugged a shoulder, drawing my attention to the single black-and-crimson braid lying there. “Jadis wanted to see you.”

I glanced at the softly snoring draken. “You mean she wanted to nap on my feet?”

“Well, she wanted to wake you, but Ash told her you needed the rest,” he shared, and my heart give a little wiggle. “It quickly became obvious that he spoke the truth since you slept through her jumping up and down on the bed.”

My brows rose.

“Anyway, she likes to nap like that,” he continued, sending his sleeping daughter a fond look. “I think it’s her way of making sure you don’t get up and leave her.”

“Makes sense,” I mumbled.

“And since she decided to sleep, I figured I’d wait for one of you to wake.” He uncrossed his ankles, letting one knee bend.

“Oh.” I zeroed in on his grin. There was something…satisfied about it. I became highly aware of the fact that Nektas had to suspect what’d led to me being in Nyktos’s bed in the middle of the day. Naked. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

“What does it look like?”

“Like I’m in his bed—”

“Because he wanted you there,” he cut in. “As did you?”

I snapped my mouth shut.

“Unless that’s not what you wanted, and he somehow trapped you here.” A pause. “Completely nude.”

My eyes narrowed. “He didn’t trap me here,” I muttered. “He let me use his bathing chamber, and I was tired afterward.”

“You don’t need to explain any of this to me.”

“I wasn’t.”

Nektas stared at me blandly.

“Whatever.” I tugged the edge of the fur up to my eyes, feeling my cheeks warm. “I think I’m just going to go back to sleep.”

His chuckle was rough and low. “Before you do that, I thought you would like to know that Erlina was here earlier while you were sleeping.”

I popped my head up. “Why didn’t anyone wake—?” I cut myself off. “Nyktos thought I needed the rest.”

“You would be correct.”

My head fell back onto the pillow as I let out a long sigh.

“He was only trying to be considerate,” Nektas began.

“I know.” I stared at the shadowstone ceiling.

“And that bothers you?”

“Maybe,” I muttered. “I don’t know.”

“Irrational emotions can be a symptom of the Culling.”

My head snapped up again as my eyes narrowed on the draken. “I am not being irrational.”

“Just thought you should know.” He gri

Whenever the coronation was held. My stomach took a tumble, and I decided that I couldn’t think about that right now. Doing so made me too antsy to remain still, and considering that I had a baby draken sprawled across my feet and was naked, pacing was out of the question. “Where…where is Nyktos?”

“At Court.”

The next breath I took could’ve ignited a wildfire, and it took everything in me not to launch myself from the bed and set something on fire.

Nektas arched a brow. “Your current expression reminds me of Jadis in the moments before she throws herself onto the floor and starts screaming.”

“I’m likely to do way worse than that. I told him…” I trailed off, realizing that Nyktos actually hadn’t agreed to any of the demands I’d made in the courtyard, not even the part about the Vale or going to see Ezra. Damn it. I flopped back, groaning softly as I closed my eyes.

“You told him that you wanted to attend Court with him,” Nektas finished for me.

I frowned. “How do you know? You weren’t there.”

“Ector and Rhain gave me a minute-by-minute breakdown of what happened.”

“Great.” I glanced at him. “I told him I didn’t want to wait on going to the Vale.”

“I haven’t spoken to him about that, but I’m sure he’ll address it soon enough,” he said. I wasn’t so sure. “Ash was supposed to hold Court this afternoon, but he was otherwise occupied. It had to be rescheduled for this evening.”

Nyktos had said he had a few hours before he was needed. He’d missed Court to be here with me? Or had he simply slept longer than he’d pla

“He is, but it’s not being held here. With you and the newly Ascended Bele lurking the halls, he is holding Court in Lethe at the City Hall. He figured it would be safer that way until the coronation and whenever someone figures out what to do with Bele.”

“I didn’t even know he held Court anyplace other than here,” I muttered. Hell, I hadn’t even seen the building the coronation would’ve taken place in. I’d only seen the city at night and from a distance. A City Hall wouldn’t likely have been visible from the places I had been, if they were anything like the old ones in Lasania. They were usually open-air, consisting of amphitheater-type seating surrounding a dais.

“He usually prefers to have them there,” Nektas said. “Ash likes to be seen in Lethe. His presence is welcome, and it’s also a reminder to those who travel in and out of Lethe that he is no absentee ruler.”

And, of course, I didn’t know any of that. “Gods, there’s so much I don’t know about Lethe or even the Shadowlands.”

“Have you asked him about Lethe?” Nektas asked. “Have you shown any interest in learning these things?”