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“How much does he know about us?” I tilt her chin. “About what we have?”
Her cheeks redden and she kind of buries her face in my shoulder. “He knows enough.”
“And he doesn’t want to skin us alive? Queen Maab, do I have to look over my shoulder for a stray knife every day of my life?”
“No, he won’t try to kill you,” she says, her voice muffled. “He promised.”
“Well, phew. That was a close call.” I kiss her sweet-smelling hair. “Still weird to think that our father-in-law is the Headmaster. No offense.”
Muffled laughter against my shoulder.
“Guys, what about our demonblood? The spell the arrows put on us?” Ashton lies down so that his head is on my thigh. I ruffle his hair absently. “How do we remove it?”
“I don’t think that spell is still active,” I say.
Mia lifts her head. “Sin is right. I think that your elemental magic has grown so strong now it naturally suppresses your demonblood.”
“Is that a good thing?” Emrys frowns. “I’m a demon. Can I be a demon without demonblood?”
She huffs and tries to kick at him. “You’re a darkling, child of fire. That will never change.”
“Sneaking out of the Academy will be a bitch every time, though,” I sigh and Ashton lifts a hand to poke me in the ribs. “How is your brother, Batboy?”
“He’s out of the hospital. And my sister has promised to look after him better.”
“Has she taken the throne of your clan?”
“No. She says…” He blinks up at the ceiling. “She says she tried to stop my father, and then realized she was turning into him, and that I should be the heir, not her. Because I am different. But the fact she says that means she’s not like him, right? I—”
“Stop overthinking this, Ash.” I twine the silky strands of his hair around my fingers. “You need to ascend. All of us should.”
“And why is that?” Jason mutters.
“Because,” Mia says, sitting up, her face grave. “We need to fix this world. Bring the races together in peace. If I am to be a Queen, I need my four princes to have the power to help me with it.”
“And if not?” Jason whispers.
“If not…” She smiles. “Then we’ll just be a family. It is enough for me. But we could help bring peace to our world. Don’t you want that?”
Jason scoots closer, against Mia’s side. “We can try.”
“Trying is good.” She turns to give him a kiss on the cheek.
“I can fucking try, too,” Emrys growls. “Do I get a kiss?”
“Come here and get your kiss,” she says and opens her arms for him.
It makes my eyes fucking burn and my smile widen and I’ve never been happier in my whole abesh life. My mind keeps telling me that it’s a bad sign, that good things don’t last and that being so happy means the end of happiness is close.
I tell my mind to shut the hell up. It’s not true, what it’s telling me. This happiness is here to stay.
“I want to give this back,” Jason says.
“Give what back?” I’m distracted, trying to draw Mia as she sleeps curled up on the mattress, hair loose around her like dark rivers, her body made up of pale curves and hints of shadows.
“This.” He extends something toward me, something wrapped in a soft cloth.
I take it, unwrap it. Stare at it. It’s the enchanted stake Mia got for him all those weeks ago. “Why?”
