Page 162 of Queen of Shadows and Ruin

Everyone turned towards the torn-up landscape. The dead bodies and the scarred earth. But in the end, it could all have been so much worse.

“Let’s focus on cleaning up,” Yasen said. “Give everyone their due.”

“And then what?” Miraan asked.

“Then we figure out what’s next. We’ve all just been given a second chance. Let’s hope we use it more wisely.”

Over the next many hours, they collected their dead as the sun set and then rose again. When everything was finished, Miraan insisted Yasen rest in the palace, and he was too tired to argue.

Plus, he wanted to be near Zarya to keep an eye on her.

They entered the courtyard to silence and stared up at the sky-blue palace.

“I was sure I’d never see this place again,” Miraan said.

“It’s a miracle,” Yasen agreed.

“We still need to deal with my sister,” Miraan said, then paused. “She cannot rule Gi’ana after colluding with Andhera and the Jadugara to wipe out the vanshaj.”

Yasen studied the prince’s profile. “What will you do?”

He shook his head. “I’m not sure. I’ll be able to think clearer after some sleep.”

They crossed the courtyard and entered the palace, where they were greeted by a flurry of servants no longer wearing collars. Their expressions and the fact that they kept touching their throats suggested they were still understandably bewildered.

“Your Highness,” a woman said, pressing her hands before her heart and dipping at the waist. “You’re okay?”

“We’re fine,” he said and then turned to Yasen. “Come. You’re staying with me.”

Yasen followed him through the palace and entered Miraan’s wing.

With the chaos now behind them, Yasen recalled what Miraan had said before the fighting began.

He loved him, and Yasen… loved Miraan, too. He’d been trying to deny it, but nothing could be the same again once Miraan uttered those words. Yasen had never said ‘I love you’ to anyone before, and he wasn’t sure he was ready yet.

“I’m not expecting you to say it back,” Miraan said as he stripped out of his blood-soaked clothing.

Yasen blinked, giving him a confused expression.

“What I said out there,” Miraan continued. “I meant it then, and I mean it now. But I don’t expect you to say it back. I only want to know if there’s a chance that you’ll ever feel the same.”

Yasen exhaled a soft breath. How could he read his mind like that?

He took in the scope of Miraan’s room. The opulence. The riches. The sheer grandness of it. This man was a prince, and Yasen didn’t belong here. They’d freed the vanshaj from their collars, and it was time to move on.

“I think I should check on Zarya,” Yasen said, stepping back and pointing his thumb over his shoulder.

“Yas—” Miraan said, his brows drawn together.

“Get yourself cleaned up and get some sleep.”

“Are you coming back?”

“Um, I’m not sure.”

Then he spun on his heel and left, walking very fast. Gods, he was such a fool. Miraan didn’t see things clearly. When they’d been working with the resistance, they’d been equals of a sort, but here in the palace, Yasen was nobody.

He asked a servant where to find Zarya and Rabin and then made his way through the palace. Entering their room, he found them lying on separate beds with about two feet of space between them.