Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
“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.”