A glisten settled in the crease of his eyes, and he hugged her a little tighter, forehead lying against hers.
The noise of Dorian and Lex shouting at each other averted Nyssa's attention. She almost laughed at the sight of them. The grin on Dorian's face that he was trying to hide. Lex doing the same. She wondered what they were fighting about. But Dorian flinched, and Lex ran after him again.
"This is the night I want to memorize," Nadir uttered in her ear. "All of us—“
"On your beach," she smiled back at him.
He chuckled under his breath, his lips pressing to her shoulder. "On my beach," he agreed. "Even them," he added with an upwards nod to the stars.
Nyssa squeezed his arms. "I think they would be sitting like this," she said. "Draven would be so protective of her carrying their child."
"Like a dragon," Nadir grunted.
She laughed, and he rocked them side to side. Watching Lex continue to chase and knock at Dorian, Bala calling out the game. Reverie and Corbin continued to watch them, too, Reverie pulling on his hair and him glaring back at her.
"I think I like her," she said to Nadir.
"Who? The Dreamer?"
"Yeah," she said. "Seems to be taking care of my brother."
Nadir scoffed. "In every way," he uttered. "I went to change clothes earlier and walked in on her on his shoulders."
Her brows lifted as she looked back at him, and she remembered how Nadir had held her like that against the post of her bed at Magnice. "Did he make her beg?" she asked.
"I didn't stick around to watch."
"Maybe you should have," she joked. "My brother has some interesting tricks. Most of which were taught to him by Lex." She saw his eyes narrow, and she laughed. "He enjoys public fornication," she said simply. "It's hard not to walk in on his exploits sometimes when he takes them anywhere—including the hallway or my own room. He probably wanted you to walk in on them today."
"I suppose I should be grateful he was not on the porch."
"You really should be," she laughed.
His arms tightened around her, and she laid her head against his. For a moment, the noise of the laughter and drums simply filled her ears, and she vowed to memorize every noise, smell, and touch around her. Wanting to keep hold of this night with all her loved ones around her in the middle of a war.
"I don't want to go to sleep," she whispered.
"That can be arranged," he uttered, and she felt him grinning against her throat, to which she rolled her eyes playfully.
"Do you know what I would like to see?"
"What’s that?"
"You challenging my brother on the log tomorrow."
Nadir pulled back, forehead wrinkling but smiling nonetheless. "You want me to ask your brother to fight me on the rolling logs... In the ocean?"
She eyed the look on his face. "I can't tell if you're excited or scared," she mocked.
“Neither can I,” he decided. "But a chance to kick your brother's ass is a chance I'll gladly take."
She started to speak, but running footsteps caught her attention, and they turned just in time to see Dorian leap over the fire and nearly fall into Reverie and Corbin.
Reverie screeched, pulling Corbin's hair and causing him to shout. Dorian fell to the sand just as Lex's feet hit the other side of the fire, and she pressed her hands to her hips.
"Watch yourself tomorrow, Prince," she eyed him, two fingers moving in front of her eyes and then in his direction. "When you least expect it, I'll be there."
Dorian grinned from the ground, ignoring Corbin and Reverie smacking his arm for jumping on them. "Looking forward to it, Second Sun," he winked.
