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Was Aric speaking French because she might be spying on us through her animals right now?
I guessed I owed it to Tee to accept this offer of protection, until I talked to Lark and solidified our alliance. “Okay, you can stay.” I opened the door and walked in.
Snow piled up outside the window, blocking the night’s sparse light, but a small lamp cast an intimate glow. As he’d promised, the room looked just as before. Even the white rose he’d grown for me was blooming.
The bed loomed large. A rush of memories—of every wicked thing we’d done to each other there—hit me.
I caught him staring at it too. Recalling the same? He clenched his fists, and his arm muscles bulged. His tell alerted me to his heightened emotions.
Despite everything, I desired Aric. I always had, even when I’d despised him. So what would the future hold in that area?
Voice gone low, he said, “In all the lifetimes that we’ve known each other, we’ve experienced the gamut of emotions between us, have we not?”
“Oh, yeah. Everything from murderous rage to love to weird awkwardness.” I headed to the closet and snagged my most modest nightgown and robe. Before, I would’ve changed in front of him or worn nothing at all. Clothes in hand, I told him, “I’ll go wash up.”
Nod.
So exquisitely awkward.
Once I’d enjoyed a steaming shower—would that ever get old?—I dried off with a fluffy towel, then pulled on my nightgown. It stretched tight across my belly and chest. I donned the robe, covering as much as I could, but the material clung to every curve.
Though Jack had done an amazing job sourcing baby supplies in Jubilee, he hadn’t been able to find a lot of maternity clothes. Another worry for another day.
When I returned to the bedroom, Aric had moved a chair beside the bed. From there he could watch me and the door.
He stood when I entered, his attention dipping to my body. All these changes were new to him. He cleared his throat behind a clenched fist, then seemed to force himself to meet my eyes. “You found everything you need?” His raspy voice called to me.
“Like you said—it’s as if I’d never left.” I bit my bottom lip.
With sadness in his gaze, he said, “More awkwardness?”
I sighed. “A last gift from Paul.” I crawled into bed, trying to ignore the sublime scent of sandalwood and pine on Aric’s pillow. Despite my emotional numbness over Jack’s leaving, my body felt electrified, nerves on high alert from desire—and a touch of lingering fear.
Aric sat beside the bed, elbows on the armrests, fingers steepled.
In time, sleep beckoned. As I drifted off, his amber gaze glowed in the dark, never straying from me.
3
The Empress
Day 600 A.F.
“Still not hungry?” I asked Lark. For the last couple of weeks, I’d left breakfast outside her door each morning. Today she’d finally allowed me to bring the plate into her room.
I’d been shocked by the dark circles under her bleary eyes. Her pointed ears peeked out from her mane of tangled black hair.
Her animals—monkeys on a climbing perch, her falcon, one of Maneater’s six wolf pups, and dozens more—appeared as listless as she did.
“Not really.”
I set the plate of scrambled eggs, toast, and fresh fruit on her bedside table. “You had better do more than pick at this. I spent an hour sourcing and cooking that meal.” Each morning, with Aric’s constant presence, I would harvest berries from the nursery, eating as many as I put in the basket. In the barn, I collected eggs and filled a pail of milk from one of the cows.
Cyclops had lain beside my stool today, his eye seeming to say, I’m sorry for almost mauling you. I’d petted his frizzy scruff until he’d nodded off.
Lark cast an uninterested glance at the food. “How much did you eat when you thought Jack had died?”
Touché. I gazed out of her windows. Lightning constantly flared among snow-laden clouds as the temperature continued to drop. Somewhere out there, he clawed his way through the Ash.
Astute Lark said, “Still can’t believe you let him leave.” When she sat up, sleepy creatures scampered across the animal-print coverlet for another warm spot to snuggle. “You still love him, right?”
“Love both him and Aric.” I faced her with a shrug. “But staying here makes the most sense right now, and Jack’s got a mission he feels strongly about.” To find our friends, and then to be . . . bait.
“Have you talked to him since he left?”
I sat beside her on the bed. “No.” Not once in two weeks. “Aric keeps the phone with him in case of emergency. And he updates me on Jack’s progress.” He’d told me that they were texting back and forth, and that Jack and Gabe were halfway to DC.
Two monkeys squabbled over a spot on the climbing tree. With a wave of her hand, Lark quieted them. “I’m surprised Death let you out of his sight to visit me.”
