A Shadow in the Ember (Flesh and Fire 1)

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?”