My fingers stilled as something moved—wiggled toward the end of the daybed, against my covered feet. I looked down, and my eyes widened. Curled into a little ball next to my feet was Jadis.

I blinked once and then twice, but the draken was still there, in her neat little ball with her wings tucked close to her body. “What in the world?” I whispered.

“She’s been there for quite some time,” a voice answered quietly.

A shock went through me. My eyes shot to the source of the voice, to the railing on the balcony. What I saw made me wonder if I was still asleep.

Barefoot and shirtless, Nektas crouched on the railing, which seemed impossible given how narrow it was. He appeared completely at ease as if he had no fear of slipping from the railing and falling to his death.

How did he even get up here? His position seemed like an odd choice for someone if they’d come from inside the palace.

“I’ve also been here for quite some time,” he added, his voice low. My brows lifted. “I was looking for my daughter. Figured she’d be wherever he was. I didn’t expect to find you with him.”

I couldn’t even formulate a response.

A shock of dark and red hair fell over his shoulder as he cocked his head to the side. Those eerily beautiful crimson eyes shifted beyond me. “I have never seen him sleep so deeply. Not even when he was just a babe. The slightest sound would wake him.”

Surprise rippled through me as the hand under mine remained relaxed and still. “You knew him then?” I asked, completely unable to picture Ash as a babe.

“I knew his parents. I called them my friends, and I call Ash one of my own,” he answered, head straightening. His gaze caught mine and held it. “I think I will call you one of my own.”

I really had to be asleep. “Why?”

“Because you’ve given him peace.”

Ash woke shortly after the draken jumped from the railing to the ground below. Like an adult, I feigned sleep when he eased his arm out from under me and sat up, lifting himself over me. He paused above me as I lay there. My heart started skipping as his fingertips grazed my cheek, brushing a few stray curls back. Then it stopped altogether when I felt the cool press of his lips against my temple.

That was sweet.

I didn’t want him to be sweet.

I didn’t want Nektas to claim me as his.

I didn’t want to give Ash peace.

“Liessa.” Sleep roughened his voice. “If you continue pretending to be asleep, Jadis will start nibbling on your toes.”

My eyes snapped open. “Yikes.”

His cool breath danced over my cheek as he chuckled. “I hate to disturb your pretend rest.”

“I wasn’t pretending.” I looked up at him, and there was a…softness to his molten silver eyes. Another silly leap occurred in my chest.

“Such a liar,” he teased. “I need to get ready for the day.” I heard reluctance in his voice, something that made me wonder if he preferred to stay here. “I hold court again this morning, and I have a feeling you’re not going to like hearing this,” he continued as Jadis stretched by my feet. “You can’t be there again.”

He was right. I opened my mouth.

“You haven’t been officially announced as my Consort,” he said before I could speak. “It’s too much of a risk until then.”

“Do you expect me to stay in my locked chambers—?”

“Not locked in your chambers,” he cut in. “Just in them until court is over. You won’t have to remain hidden for much longer, liessa.”

Hidden.

I struggled to tamp down the disappointment. I needed to agree. To make this easy for him. To make me easier for him. But I hated being hidden away. “And then after? Will you be at the Pillars? Or doing something else? Am I supposed to remain hidden then, too?” I asked, and Ash stiffened above me. “Or will it be okay for me to leave the chamber as long as one of your trusted guards is there to keep a close eye on me?”

He shifted, moving so he sat on my other side, his feet on the stone floor. Jadis lifted her head, yawning. “I know this arrangement isn’t perfect.”

“This arrangement can’t continue, is what you mean,” I said as the draken crawled over my legs onto the bed and then stretched, raising thin wings. “There will still be risks once I’m your Consort.”

“The risks will be less then.”

“And what if they’re not? What if a Primal attempts to push you by pushing me?”

He looked over his shoulder at me. “Then we reevaluate.”

“No.” I sat up, holding his gaze as his brows lifted. “I’ve spent most of my life hiding. I know it makes sense for me to keep a low profile right now, but I can’t do that forever. You decided to fulfill the deal because it was no longer safe for me in the mortal realm. But if I’m not safe here either, then what is the point of me being here, Ash?”

White pulsed behind his pupils. “You are safer here. Out there, in the mortal realm? Any god could find you. And now that the word is out that I have taken a mortal Consort, you won’t have any protection in the mortal realm. Not only that, but you’re likely to end up walking into another home without checking to see if it’s empty.”

I welcomed the burn of irritation as I narrowed my eyes. “I can protect myself.”

“That won’t be enough,” he stated.

“So what? Then I die.”

His eyes flashed. “Do you not value your life whatsoever, Sera?”

“I’m not saying that.” I reached out, scratching Jadis under the chin as she plopped down by my hip.

“Then what are you saying?”

What was I saying? I watched Jadis close her eyes and stick her head up. “I don’t know.”

“Really?”

I pressed my lips together. “It’s just that I…I know my death is inevitable—”

“You’re mortal, Sera. But most mortals don’t live as if their life is already forfeit.”

But mine was.

It had been forfeited before I was even born.

The tension was thick as Ash, with Jadis hanging over one of his broad shoulders, and I parted ways. I didn’t think it had anything to do with me not wanting to stay in my chambers but rather with the perceived lack of value I had for my life.

But how could I value it when it had never truly been mine?

Feeling so very tired, I shuffled into my bedchamber. I had ended up agreeing to Ash’s request, something I should’ve simply done as soon as he made it.

I picked up my robe, slipping it on. Rubbing my aching jaw, I sat on the settee and tried to figure out why I had argued with Ash. I didn’t like to be hidden away. I was so tired of that. And risk or not, I didn’t plan to spend however long it took for me to carry out my duty hidden away despite the risks. But what had provoked me earlier was more than that.

It was how I had shared things with him that I had never spoken out loud before. And how his words had lifted some of the darkness from me. It was the ink on his skin and what it represented. It was how last night had nothing to do with my duty and a lot to do with what Nektas had shared. All of that had left me reeling, feeling off-kilter…

Feeling as if I had been presented with something I must do that felt impossible in ways I’d never considered before.

I eventually dragged myself into the bathing chamber and got ready. Since my head ached as it did, I left my hair down and went to the wardrobe. With most of my clothing being laundered, the only thing left was one of the gowns.

Forcing myself to feel grateful that I even had clean clothing to wear, I changed into a simple, long-sleeve day gown a pretty shade of deep, cobalt blue. Hiking up the skirt, I fastened the sheathed dagger to the side of my boot. I’d just finished tightening the stays on the almost too-tight bodice when a knock sounded on the door. Hoping my chest actually stayed in the gown, I found Ector standing in the hallway, his hand resting on the hilt of a sword.