A Shadow in the Ember (Flesh and Fire 1)

“There is only one room in the other wing, but most guests stay on the third or second floors.” She unlocked the door, and I glanced over my shoulder at the doors down the hall.

“What about the staff—you?”

A look of confusion briefly pinched her striking features. “I am not staff.”

“I’m sorry.” I could feel my face reddening. “I just assumed—”

“It’s okay. Anyone would assume that. There is no staff.”

“Well, now I’m confused,” I admitted.

A faint smile appeared. “There are those of us who help out because we choose to. We’ve sort of…forced our assistance upon Nyktos,” she said, and it was a little jarring to hear her use his real name. “Otherwise, Haides would be a mess, and he would probably never eat.”

I could only stare.

“Anyway, I tend to be around during the day.” She laughed. “I know. It doesn’t look like day outside, but you’ll see that the skies do tend to darken as the hours pass.”

“Wait.” I needed to make sense of this. “You help, acting as household staff by choice, but you’re not paid?”

“We don’t need to be paid. Nyktos provides for those who see to Haides’ functionality. Actually,” she said, her brow pinching, “everyone you will come across here and in Lethe are well provided for, even if they do have more official responsibilities.”

“Well provided for?” I repeated those words as if they were a language I didn’t understand.

“Shelter. Food,” she said, lips parting as if she wished to add more to the list but then changed her mind. Her smile turned a bit brittle. “But to answer your other question, no one else lives here.”

“Not even the god downstairs? Rhain?”

“No, he has a home in Lethe.”

“What about the men and women near the wall—I mean, the Rise? The draken?”

“The guards? They have their own quarters—a dormitory of sorts between here and Lethe,” she explained, gripping the handle. “The draken also have homes.”

Only Ash lived in this enormous palace? Normally, the core staff and a set of guards resided within a residence. “Why does no one else live here?”

Aios’s smile finally faded away. “It wouldn’t be safe for them to do so.”

Chapter 23

Icy fingers trailed down my spine. “What do you mean by it wouldn’t be safe?”

“Well, Nyktos wouldn’t want—” Aios’s eyes widened as she twisted toward me. “I’m sorry. I just realized how that sounded.” She laughed, but there was a nervous quality to it. “You see, all manner of people need to speak with His Highness, and some of them can be a bit…unpredictable. Of course, you are completely safe here.”

“Really?” I said doubtfully.

She nodded emphatically. “Yes. It’s just that Nyktos likes his privacy, and it’s…it’s better this way.” Turning back to the door, she pushed one side open and then motioned me inside before disappearing into the darkness.

I didn’t believe for one second that she had misspoken, but I took a tentative step inside as light appeared from another stunning, glass chandelier hanging from the center of a massive space.

A couch, a settee, and two armchairs in what appeared to be a lush, cream velvet were on one side of the room. A small, circular, low-to-the-floor table sat in the middle of the sitting area. Behind it, near curtained doors, was a table with two high-back chairs and a clear vase full of some kind of blue and gray stones. A chaise was positioned in front of an enormous fireplace, and it looked as if it were made of the finest, luxurious material dyed to a shade of ivory. A plush rug sat under the chaise. There was even a basket full of rolled blankets.

I turned slowly, my heart dropping upon seeing a four-poster, canopied bed that would’ve made Ezra’s appear fit for a child. The room had a large wardrobe against the wall by a window. There were three more sets of double doors: one beyond the sitting area, a set near the table, and another past the bed.

“This is my room?” I asked.

Aios nodded as she walked toward the nightstand. She twisted a switch on a lamp. “Yes. Is it not suitable? If not, I’m sure—”

“No, it’s fine. It’s more than fine.” It was unbelievable. My mother’s private quarters weren’t even this size.

“Perfect.” She breezed past the bed. “You’ll see a switch on the wall by the doors. That controls the ceiling light. The rest of the lights can be turned on and off by just twisting the switch. Your bathing chamber is here. Come. Have a look.”

I followed her in a daze. Aios flicked another of those wall switches. Light flooded the space, and I thought I might faint.

My bathing chamber at Wayfair had the barest necessities—a toilet, sink, and a small copper tub barely big enough for me to sit in. That was it. This was…extraordinary.

The claw-foot tub was large enough for two fully grown adults to stretch their legs and arms. There was not one but two standing mirrors, one on the other side of the tub, and another beside the vanity. The space was spotless and smelled like lemons.