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Chapter One
Ash
I still wasn’t used to waking up and feeling completely safe.
Every morning, it took me a few moments to remember that I was in the one place where the Carlin couldn’t get me. That Nua and Gillie were safe, because the Brid was gone.
Every morning, I rolled over and smiled when I saw Lonan sleeping beside me. Or when I roused and felt his head on my chest and his long hair trailing over my skin.
The curtains were only partially drawn, so morning sunlight streamed into the room and threw the long, silvery scars on his back into sharp relief as he slept on his side, facing away from me. I moved closer and wrapped my arm around him, kissing the back of his shoulder as my eyes slid shut.
I’d nearly drifted straight back to sleep when I sensed him slowly wake up. I kissed his shoulder again, resting my nose there to breathe in his sleep-warmed scent.
He chuckled hoarsely, sliding a hand down the arm I had slung over his waist to tangle his fingers with mine. “You’re always so hot when you wake up.”
I smiled and eased closer, trying not to arch my hips when my morning erection pressed against his bare ass.
“Do you hate it, unseelie?” I murmured sleepily, my eyes drifting shut again.
Lonan shifted onto his back, dislodging me as he stretched with a little grunt. His black eyes were sleepy. He still looked tired, but he smiled at me and pushed the hair back from my face.
“How could I hate anything about you?”
I snorted and leaned in to kiss him. “That sounds like a fae answer, not a real one.”
He rolled his eyes and kissed me again before slipping out of bed. As he stretched his long, lean body with a yawn, my gaze drifted down his spine to his ass, and my morning erection bucked against the mattress. But Lonan was already padding into the bathroom, so I sat up and rubbed my eyes.
“It’s the first open court today, isn’t it?” Lonan called from the bathroom in his husky voice as I heard a stream hit water.
My gut clenched with nerves.
“Yeah,” I croaked, sliding out of bed to start getting dressed. “I’m really nervous.”
“You’ll be fine, Ash. Do you want me to join you for it?”
“Yes, please,” I said immediately as I pulled up my leathers. “Nua will be there too, but I’ll be less freaked out if you’re there.”
“Of course.”
I heard him start brushing his teeth, so I finished getting dressed before joining him in the bathroom.
“What kind of things do you think they’ll come to me with?” I asked worriedly as I took a leak.
Lonan rinsed his mouth before answering. “Probably fairly mundane things. You’ve already agreed to lower the tithes paid to the court. That would have been their main issue. Well, that and the slaughtering.”
As well as the senseless murder of her people, the Brid had demanded extortionate tithes from the seelie. Nua and I had spent an entire afternoon with the royal treasurer a few days ago, and it had been one of the most boring days of my life.
Once we were both dressed, Lonan encouraged me to have a few bites of the breakfast Jora delivered, but I was too nervous to have a true appetite. He wolfed down some eggs and toast before we left the bedroom.
As we approached the throne room with any and all staff we passed dipping into bows that made me wildly uncomfortable, I nervously adjusted the crown on my head. “There probably won’t even be that many people wanting to speak to me, right? I mean, it’s a new concept for them. Being able to come and tell the monarch their problems directly. Right?”
Lonan cocked his head. “I would think so. I can’t imagine many unseelie Folk having the nerve to ask my mother for something, even if she offered them the opportunity.”
When we entered the throne room, Nua was already there, speaking to Brahm, one of the palace staff who’d been tasked with announcing each fae as they came in to speak with me. Brahm was a driath, his wood-like skin a green-tinged brown, and his root-like hair tied back into a neat bun.
He was clutching a roll of parchment, and his green eyes looked anxious as he watched Nua intently while my brother spoke to him. When he spotted us making our way across the room, he jolted and dipped into a bow.
“You don’t have to do that, Brahm,” I told him uncomfortably.
