Page 192 of The Dark Lord’s Guide to Honeymooning (and Other Acts of Tyranny)

She huffed off, and I continued toward the Great Hall, where Vex had promised to help me sort through accommodation complaints before I met with Kazimir to take the books to the dungeons.

The hall was suspiciously empty when I arrived. No arguing nobles, no children attempting to climb the columns to reach the chandelier, no sign of the usual chaos that had defined the last two days.

“Vex?” I called, setting the books on a side table. “If you’ve finally snapped and murdered them all, I need to know where you’ve hidden the bodies.”

Movement in the shadows by the main doors. I reached for my magic, ready to defend myself—

“SURPRISE!”

The lights blazed to life, revealing Vex, Griffin, Thorne, Sebastian, and—impossibly—Kazimir, all grinning at me like idiots. Well, Thorne was doing his version of grinning, which looked more like mild constipation. A banner hung across the far wall reading “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” in Griffin’s handwriting, complete with small explosions drawn around the edges.

And there, curled beside the feast table, was Nyx. A ridiculously large bow—bright pink to match her scales—had been tied around her neck. She lifted her head, silver eyes gleaming with what I could swear was amusement.

I stood frozen, trying to process what I was seeing. “What—”

“It’s your birthday!” Sebastian bounced forward. “Your twenty-fifth! Did you really think we’d let that pass without celebration?”

“Um.” I’d honestly forgotten. Between the invasion, the kidnappings, the Syndicate coup, and everything else, the date had completely slipped my mind. “How did you even know?”

“I told them.” Sebastian looked pleased with himself. “Well, I told Vex and Griffin, and they told everyone else. We’ve been planning this for weeks, since before leaving for the God Spire!”

Nyx rumbled a low, contented sound like distant thunder, and I felt her presence brush against my mind. Surprise, the feeling seemed to say, tinged with satisfaction.

“Weeks,” I repeated, looking at Kazimir. “You knew about this?”

He shrugged, but I caught the slight smile tugging at his lips. “Vex presented it as an urgent matter. Threatened me with creative dismemberment if I ruined the surprise, actually.”

“We thought you could use a break,” Vex added, moving to guide me toward the table they’d set up. “An hour or two where we pretend the world isn’t ending and celebrate the fact that you’ve survived a year of spectacular danger.”

“Even Nyx helped,” Griffin added proudly. “She only ate two of the decorative arrangements! And she let us put the bow on her without setting anything on fire.”

The dragon snorted, a puff of smoke escaping her nostrils as if to say she’d been extraordinarily patient with their nonsense.

The table was laden with food—not the formal feast fare we’d been serving our guests, but comfort foods. Roasted meats, fresh bread, potatoes, fruits that weren’t in season but Griffin had grown in the greenhouses under magical conditions, and in the center…

“A cake?” I stared at the magnificent creation—three tiers of chocolate, decorated with sugar flowers that bloomed and withered in an endless cycle.

“I made it!” Sebastian beamed. “Each layer tastes like your favorite dessert from a different period of your life.”

“Childhood, adolescence, and now,” Griffin added helpfully. “I helped with the temporal taste enchantments!”

“You helped by nearly setting the kitchen on fire,” Thorne rumbled. “Twice.”

“The second time was intentional! For the flambé!”

Nyx snorted, her tail swishing across the floor.

I sank into a chair, overwhelmed. After days of being Lady Blackrose, the Dark Lord’s wife, the mediator, the researcher, the woman trying to save the world—they’d given me this. A moment to just be Arabella. “I don’t know what to say.”

“ ‘Thank you’ is traditional,” Kazimir murmured, taking the seat beside me and draping his arm over the back of my chair. “Though ‘you’re all insane’ would also be appropriate.”

“Thank you,” I said, meaning it. “You’re all insane.”

Nyx came over to rest her massive head on my lap. The pink bow was even more ridiculous up close, and I couldn’t help but laugh as I stroked her snout.

“Now that’s settled,” Vex said, producing a bottle of wine from Kazimir’s private collection, “let’s eat before some crisis drags us away.”

The next hour was perfect. No one mentioned bloodlines, ley lines, or impending doom. Instead, Griffin regaled us with stories of his explosive failures before he came to Skyspire. Thorne demonstrated his party trick of bending spoons with his literally steel spine—it required odd contortionist movements that I was still doubting hours later. Sebastian made flowers bloom along the table’s edge every time he laughed.