Page 143 of The Last Syphon

“I thought because of what happened last night, you’d be taking the day off?” She rubbed her eyes, still feeling the alluring pull of her bed. “Do you not get a day off after almost being killed?”

“If I did, I would never get any work done.”

Fates.

She eyed him curiously, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned against the door jam. “Just how often do people try to kill you?”

He smirked. “Often enough for it to be…inconvenient.”

“Only you would call an attempt on your life inconvenient.” She chuckled, shaking her head.

He looked around, and for the first time since Inara had met him, there was a sense of awkwardness vibrating from him. “Did you…sleep…well?”

Inara found his hesitance at asking such a simple question quite…cute.

She smiled. “As well as one can sleep with a horse-sized kicking fool next to her. How about you?”

“What?” He frowned.

Felix’s frustrated voice cut through the air. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Inara! Either come back to bed or shut the door. Some of us are still trying to sleep.”

Prince Walder stiffened. His gaze drifted left, catching sight of Felix tangled up between her sheets. A fierce blue blazed in his violet eyes. The temperature dropped. Ice crawled over the walls behind him, racing down the hallway and swallowing up everything in its path with a thick, impenetrable layer of frost that Inara knew would be deadly to the touch.

Her eyes followed as the ice spread upwards onto the ceiling, her mouth dropping open. It expanded outwards from beneath his boots next until the hallway was covered entirely in ice.

What in the Fates-

Before she could say a word, he said stiffly, “I seem to have interrupted you.” His voice was rough. Emotionless. As cold as the air surrounding them.

He retreated a step, hands behind his back. “Take the day, if you need it.” He inclined his head in farewell, turned, and began to walk away.

“Wait,” she called out. The prince stopped, which surprised her, but he didn’t turn around. “Is everything okay?”

“Fine.” He grunted. “I have a meeting with the High Council that I must attend.”

That piqued her interest, almost as much as having him in front of her. “About what’s going on in the south?”

He finally faced her. “Yes.”

She nodded. “Give me a minute to change.”

A minute was exactly how long she took. Getting to the bottom of this problem was crucial. More important than anything else right now. She would not hinder it any further than she already had.

Inara re-emerged fully dressed in her Shielder robes, hair tied up in a high ponytail. The ice was gone, as if it had never been there to start with. She and Prince Walder walked in silence. He led the way, marching down the halls with a quick, hurried pace, one hand remaining on his sword at all times.

Inara got the feeling he didn’t want to talk, so she was surprised when he randomly uttered, “I did not realise you and your companion were intimate.”

She tripped over her own feet, stumbling. “Say what?”

“He was in your bed.”

Why the Fates did he care about that? A voice in her head said it was because he was jealous, but she couldn’t believe that for a moment.

“Because he has nowhere else to sleep.” She clarified. “Trust me, there is nothing intimate about my relationship with Felix. He’s like a brother to me. An annoying, pestering little brother whose sole purpose in life is to annoy me.”

Prince Walder seemed to relax slightly, though Inara could have easily imagined it. The topic did not reappear.

They arrived in a room within the main palace Inara had never been in before. A curved table sat in the centre. Banners draped along the wall behind it, all in different colours, and sitting in front of those banners were the High Council.