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“That mark may have saved you from the king ordering you to the dungeon.”
“Awesome.”He drew out the sarcasm.“How long does it have to stay on?”
“You’ll need it for protection in public until we borrow a consort band from the royal jewel collection.But not here when it’s just us.The king has seen it.”She grabbed a cloth from the tray Jura had brought earlier.“Let’s clean you up.”She reached to wipe his forehead but stopped a few inches away.Touching him to keep his magic secret was one thing, but casual intimacy hadn’t been part of their bargain.“This okay?”
“Yeah.”He held still while she worked.“So what’s this about it giving me protection?”
“The mark shows everyone you’re mine.Not as a prize.Not as property.But as a husband protected by goblin law.”
“I still can’t believe we’re sort of married.”He didn’t sound mad.Was he holding back?She couldn’t tell.
“It doesn’t count in the human realm.”Where he would leave her.With a final swipe of the cloth, she said, “There, all gone.”
“Any idea why the king and his queen-wannabe appeared as human instead of goblin?”
“No.”She’d wondered the same.
“I think it was so your uncle could see you in this skin.To have a reminder of your mother.”
“Sad, but possible.”
“What color crown does your uncle have when he’s goblin?Gold like yours?”
“He has both silver and gold.Like our killer.His isn’t solid.More like little scrolls.”
“And Mykata wears a silver crown, which explains all the silver on the banners in the tunnels but not the red.”Perry switched off the electrical lights.The veins buried deep within the rocks of the ceiling and walls dimmed to a dark purple and gold.He pointed to the ceiling.“I suppose we’re leaving those on?”
“They’re the best part of nights here in the castle.”She lay on her back and stared at the twinkling overhead that made her think of goblin glass.Or maybe a violet galaxy.The bed dipped under Perry’s weight.
“Like having a magical night-light?”
“Sort of.My mother told me they dim to almost nothing when I sleep.”
He huffed a laugh so soft that she’d bet it would feel like feathers against her skin.“And you doubt your powers?”
“Making rocks glow is not the same as sparking lightning at your fingertips.”
“Mine is stolen power granted by a demon that kills me.This?Your ability to walk into a room and have it react to you?To slip skins?To run so fast?That’s real magic.”
She hadrealmagic, gifted from her mother’s queen.But a lifetime of hiding her ability to blend with shadows silenced her.She settled on another power he already knew.“I’m strong too.”
“And so very humble.”A smile shone through his voice, teasing in a way that was as warm as the lights above.
“I like your power better.”
“Don’t we always want what we don’t have?I did.Look what it got me.”He lifted a hand between them and let the currents dance over his fingertips with precise pops of power.
“Impressive control.”
“Since I’ve met you.”
“But you aimed it at a helicopter.”Stupid.Why bring up his crimes when they were getting along so well?
“I could control my powers for a month, maybe two.Afterward, the magic simply burned through me, killing me slowly.”
A stray arc jolted along his palm and toward the sheets.She grabbed his fingers, extinguishing the flare.His steady hum of power comforted her when nothing else here seemed to.She’d known coming back would be hard, but this?This wasbeyondhard.
Her mother?Gone.
