I bit my lower lip, contemplating what would be worse—the stairs or admitting defeat. “Tomorrow, I’m going back to being livid about what you told me in the bell tower.”
“Yeah?” he asked with an intensity that unnerved me.
I nodded as we began climbing the stairs.
“What about after tomorrow?”
Why were there so many stairs in this house?“Then you’ll keep teaching me how to use my Reverist abilities against Caym. He has Em in his control, and I will consider whatever it takes to release him.”
Each step felt like a hammer against my skull, and I couldn’t help but wince and stop halfway up.
“And what are we to do now?” He steadied me as I wobbled.
“Now, if you’ve got the strength to, you’re going to carry me to bed because every part of my stupid body feels like it is swollenand has been run over by a carriage ten times and walking up the bath steps felt like three miles.”
He looked at me with a deep intake of breath. When he exhaled, it was as though all the hard lines of his face softened. He scooped me up like a child being carried off to bed, and I closed my eyes, trying not to revel in how good the weightlessness felt.
It was foolish.
Krait set me down just inside his bedchamber. The balcony door was open, letting in fresh air through the curtains.
“I’ll be right outside.”
“No,” I urged him.
He tilted his head, staring down at me with a creased brow.
“You have been up all night—sleep. It’s your bed.”
“I don’t think that—”
“Oh, shut up and get in bed,” I demanded before crossing the room and pulling the sheets down. I slipped beneath them and patted the place next to me. “You’ll need your rest for the fight we’re having tomorrow.”
He smirked. “I am only listening because you nearly died on me.Tomorrow, we are back to you not telling me what to do in my own house.”
Wrapped in soft silk sheets, I rolled over to face him as he lay down over the covers. Despite the growing heat of the morning, I’d never felt more comfortable than I did spun up in the cool fabric.
Krait lay on his back, but he looked toward me. I should not have felt safe, but lying there next to him, I did.
Still—he was the Shadow Origin. He had been plotting long before the moment he knew I was the Last Daughter of Isleen.
It would benefit me to remember that none of his intentions had ever been pure. When he finally closed his eyes, minefollowed. While we weren’t touching, the rise and fall of his breath lulled me to sleep.
I awoke to the sound of clattering dishes. A form in a black robe with long dark hair poured tea into a cup at the desk across the room.
“Asterie?” I croaked before sitting up. My head pounded.
“Stay there, my Queen,” she said as she brought over a tray and set it across my lap.
The smell of fresh jam and bread made my stomach churn with hunger. An untouched bowl of broth that was no longer steaming sat on the bedside table.
“They searched me extensively. You’ve found quite a protective friend in that silver-haired warlock.”
Offering a weak smile, I added jam to a piece of bread. But my smile faded as I thought of the reason why my newfound friends had searched her.
“Emmerick—he is an envoy...”
Asterie nodded before taking my free hand in hers and sitting beside me. “They told me. He has not returned any letters from me, Fen or Amara. He lets no one in that castle to visit him. Not even Angeline or Leo.”
