“My lord?” A concerned warble had entered Aiko’s voice. She was right to sound worried. I sounded like a half-mad fool.

“Never mind. Thank you for everything, Aiko. You are dismissed,” I said, rubbing my fingertips viciously across my forehead. Aiko bid me a guarded goodnight, then turned tail and disappeared down the stairs and into the tunnel.

I went into my room. It was essentially a larger version of the one I’d just left upstairs, complete with a bed, a bath laid into the floor near the fire, a table and two chairs, and a smaller chamber with a toilet and washbasin off to the side.

My eyes landed on something that had not been there before. Though I’d dismissed them, either Shoshen or Ashken had brought a bowl of stew and a goblet of ale and left it all on the table for me. Considering how many stairs it took to get here from the kitchen, I was betting it was Shoshen.

Good lad...

I sat down heavily in the chair and took up the goblet, staring at it broodingly. The goblet was made of silver tree crystal carved into such a thin cup that it was transparent as a newly-formed sheet of ice. Inside, the ale was a dark umber swirl.

I tilted the glass, letting the firelight filter through it, turning the brown to red. But that reminded me of the light hitting the human’s hair upstairs, and suddenly all I could feel was the fine, silken strands sliding across the skin of my hand.

I chugged the ale, fuming.

Was I going to have to make sure she ate every meal?

The Sionnachans would be too timid for such a task. But I didn’t have time to watch her at every meal, making sure she didn’t starve. I still had to deal with Skalla. My fangs tightened, wings tensing against the chair’s back when I thought of him out there, unhinged and unleashed, with no one to hold him or help him or stop him. No one to help those he encountered, either.

Curse the council!

I finished the last sip of ale and wiped a violent hand across the back of my mouth, breathing heavily. They should have opened their gates! Without their power, there was no way I could deal with Skalla. Even Maerwynne and I together hadn’t been able to stop him and bind him. And even if I could somehow track him down and subdue him without killing him, what then? Bring him back here?

Impossible.

I thought of trying to hold Skalla prisoner here, the way I was doing with the human, and laughed bitterly. I’d be dealing with a lot more than pouty refusals to eat, that was for certain. I’d likely be faced with dozens of Sionnachan corpses in Skalla’s wake, and I absolutely refused to let anything like that happen. It was why I’d fought with him, forced him out of this world and nearly died facing him when he’d appeared here so long ago.

I ran my thumb back and forth over the crystal goblet, remembering what Maerwynne had said. That he was going to find his mate, cure his star-darkness, and join the council. Considering that seemed to be the only way to find out what was going on in Heofonraed, it seemed a decent enough plan. But finding one’s mate could take eons. Would he even find her in time? Before his star map went out like a candle burning down into nothing?

I blew out a weary sigh when I realized that I should be doing the same as Maerwynne. Trying to find my mate before this star-darkness began to affect me, too. But I couldn’t in good conscience begin such a search now and leave all my other duties unattended. Not while Skalla was smashing his way through the cosmos.

But the only way I’ll be able to speak to the council about Skalla is if I join, and I can only join if I have a mate...

My wounds ached, and my head throbbed at the maddening circle of it. I couldn’t let Skalla continue his berserker rampage. The only way to stop him required that I find my mate. But finding my mate could take many mortal generations, which meant Skalla would continue his rampage anyway.

I hurled the goblet. It hit the wall above the fireplace, shattering into a dizzying storm of falling fragments, like snow.

“Oh, my lord! Let me help you clean that up!”

I rose, finding Aiko on the landing outside, staring wide-eyed at the mess.

“I suppose neither you nor Shoshen quite knows what it means to be dismissed for the night,” I replied wryly, trying to keep the bite of impatience out of my voice. I should have closed the door.

“Forgive me, my lord! I was bringing the firestone you requested for the landing!”

I noticed the flickering light out there now, catching on her orange and white mane of fluffy hair.

“Thank you. Now you may go. Get some rest,” I said wearily, approaching the door and laying my hand on it.

For the second time, she said goodnight and hurried down the stairs. I liked her, and her brother and father, but stone of the cursed sky I hoped they’d all stay away now, in the other tower for the night, so that I could have half a heartbeat on my own to think.

But despite my need for solitude, I called out and stopped her before she disappeared.

“Aiko?”

The Sionnachan instantly turned back to look at me from her place below on the steps.

“Yes, my lord?”

I wasn’t seeing Aiko now, but rather the human’s little face as I gripped her hair, her delicate throat exposed, her eyes narrowed in accusatory triumph. I could practically hear the echo of her voice in the hallway. In my head. Lord Wylfrael...

I blinked away the memory, focusing once again on the waiting servant on the stairs. For a moment, I thought about telling Aiko, “Never mind,” and sending her on her way once more.

The human is my prisoner. I need to know more about her people, what their capabilities and goals are, what their crimes were. I do not need to wonder about things like –

“Find out the prisoner’s name.”

If my command surprised Aiko, she did not show it. She merely gave me a silent “yes” with her fists before finally descending for the night.

I closed the door this time upon re-entering the chamber, trying to give myself some space and silence to think. But thinking didn’t get me very far. My thoughts chased each other, each duty before me seeming more important than the last but unable to be completed until I dealt with other things first.

But I wouldn’t be able to deal with anything at all, except maybe handling the tiny weak human, if I didn’t get some rest. I could feel my power retreating, sputtering like wind-whipped flame inside me. Before I could even attempt to do anything else, I had to let my strength recover.

I stripped out of my blood-stained trousers and tossed them aside. I ran a little water into the intricately tiled bath, splashing it over my legs and my wings, washing any remaining dried blood away. My wings were in good shape, at least. Luckily Skalla hadn’t shredded them. Wings took so much longer to heal than the wounds on my torso would.

Naked, I stalked across the room, water dripping on the floor in my wake. I tossed myself on top of the white sotasha fur bedspread and lay on my back, wings spread out beneath me, my hands behind my head. I glared up at the room’s ceiling, wondering what the human was doing on the other side of the crystal. Even being unfamiliar with her species, I knew she was exhausted. Had she fallen into bed, like me? Or was she still awake, pacing the room like a caged animal, thinking of ways to escape?

She won’t escape. Of that much, I was certain. If she tried, I’d hear her on the stairs outside my room, even in my sleep. And if she did somehow get past me, she’d never make it far in all that snow.

Trying to content myself with the fact that at least one part of this situation was under control, I let my eyes slide shut.

But behind closed lids, all I could see was her face as she said my name.