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Chapter Forty
Lonan
We didn’t leave the bedroom for three days.
Jora delivered food several times a day, and we would hungrily tear into it before stumbling back to the bed. Or just remaining on the rug in front of the fire. Or getting distracted in the bath.
I knew I’d been carrying much tension since that awful night in my mother’s palace, but I hadn’t realised how much Ash had too until I gazed at him from the bed one morning when he padded in from the bathroom. He was still naked, all his golden-brown skin on display as he stretched his arms over his head and yawned widely. He smiled sleepily at me as he approached.
His curls were wild and sleep rumpled. His gold-green eyes flashed in the morning sunlight streaming in through the window, but they were soft and sated. My throat closed up at the sight of him, and when he slipped back into bed I wrapped myself around him and rested my cheek on the centre of his chest. Over the faded oath etched into his skin.
He yawned again, his body stiffening with another stretch before it relaxed beneath me. Long fingers sifted absently through my hair.
“This bed is more comfortable than the one in the cottage,” he commented, his voice still throaty from sleep. And perhaps also from how hard he’d been yelling out in pleasure last night.
I chuckled. “And about three times as big.”
Ash went quiet for a minute before saying, “I do kind of miss the cottage. Maybe we can go and get our Solstice crowns from there once you’re king.” Before I could say anything, he blurted, “And my ring,” as if he’d only just remembered it. “I want your ring back. The one you gave me.”
I stiffened, a vision of Ash’s arm nailed to the post in the throne room flashing through my brain. I licked my lips nervously, not sure if he’d noticed it the day he came to get me.
“I saw my arm,” he said as if he knew what I was thinking. “She can keep it, but I want the ring back.”
I kissed his chest. “We’ll get it back.”
I wanted it back too. Not just because I’d given it to Ash and I wanted him to have it, but because it was the only thing I owned of my father’s.
Ash cleared his throat. “Why… why didn’t she eat it? My arm.”
The question made me feel sick. Licking my lips, I forced myself to answer. “It’s not attached to you anymore, so it has none of your power. It’s useless on its own. But she… I think she got it treated to keep it alive somehow. I imagine she made Belial do it. She was probably… planning to reattach it if she got you.”
I couldn’t bring myself to lift my head and look at him, my entire body tense. Ash said nothing for a long moment, his chest rising steadily under my cheek.
“I see.”
I cringed, biting the inside of my cheek to try and stop myself from apologising. Every time my mother came up, a part of me grew terrified that Ash would look at me in disgust. That he wouldn’t be able to stand the sight of me, because I was her son.
A soft knock at the door made me tense up, but Ash just kissed the top of my head before shifting out from beneath me.
“It’ll just be Jora with our breakfast.”
I got up and dressed hurriedly, not wanting to be seen in any state of relaxation by anyone but Ash. He pulled on his leathers and waited until I was pacing in front of the fire, doing up the last buttons on my shirt, before he opened the door.
“Morning, Jora.”
I glanced over in time to see her face flush as her eyes darted down Ash’s bare chest and back up. Then her gaze flicked to me briefly before she gave a hesitant smile.
“Good morning, King Ash. Prince Lonan.”
She passed him the tray but hesitated at the door, twisting her dress in her hands. Ash didn’t move, his brows twitching into a frown.
“Is something wrong?”
I went over to take the tray from him and carried it over to the table in front of the fire, which we hadn’t lit last night. It was growing increasingly warm on seelie land—something I wasn’t used to.
“I… I just…” she trailed off nervously.
“You don’t need to be scared of me, Jora.” Ash shot me a teasing grin. “Or Lonan, even though I know he’s scary.”
