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“Just James, I think,” the king said with a tiny sigh. “If you don’t mind. Things are a little upside-down right now, and I need to feel a bit like myself.”
Jeremiah nodded, staring down at his hands. “I’m sorry it’s taking so long, James.”
“So am I. I’ll never regret sending my children away, but not seeing them every day is hell. My time with them is limited as it is, with how busy I am. I… I love my wife, and I’d do anything for her, but there are days when I miss who I was.”
“Human?”
“Average. Unremarkable,” James said. “The spare to an heir who married young and has given me so many nieces and nephews I never stood a chance of inheriting the throne. No one paid any attention to what I did. But now…”
Jeremiah snorted. “That’s where he gets it.”
“Who?”
Jeremiah flushed. He hadn’t meant to blurt that out, but it was too late now. “Your son seems to think he’s entirely too human to be worthy of the throne.”
James glanced away, pain flooding his face. “They would have hated him here, even if we weren’t royal, but it’s so much worse because we are. His entire life, he’s been told by strangers that he’s unworthy. That he doesn’t belong. That’s he’s not Siren enough, not human enough. And I think my own inferiority has been a bit too obvious.”
Jeremiah stared at him for a long time. He could see so much of James in his son and so much of his mother as well. He was the perfect blend of the two—a brand-new creature that belonged only to himself. There was a sort of tragic beauty in it that he doubted Remi would ever see.
“He doesn’t think of you that way, if that helps,” Jeremiah said quietly. “If anything, he wants to be more like you. I think this has just taken a toll on him in ways he wasn’t expecting.”
“I’ve noticed.” James froze suddenly, and before Jeremiah could panic that something was wrong, another figure filled the door.
The queen walked in wearing a matching pajama set to her husband’s, her feet bare and tapping on the cool stone floor. Her hair was tied back in a long braid, and she was wearing a small smile as she carried three mugs filled with steaming liquid on a tray.
“A little birdie told me that we had a midnight wanderer.”
Jeremiah jumped to his feet and started to bow, but she scoffed, and he stopped halfway. “Ma’am.”
“Gods, please don’t. I know James has already been on you about it tonight.”
Jeremiah glanced down at the king, who was smirking. “I can show myself back to my room.”
“Or you can sit and drink some cocoa,” Grace said, holding out two mugs.
James took his, and after a beat, Jeremiah did the same because the last thing he wanted to do was refuse the Siren queen. She smiled, satisfied, and took a seat in the row in front of them, twisting her body so she could stare over the back of the short chair.
“Is it a personal crisis or just work keeping you up?” she asked.
Jeremiah rubbed his temple with two fingers as he brought the mug to his lips, and at the first sip, his entire body went warm. “What…”
“Old family recipe,” Grace said with a wink. “Don’t ask me what’s in it. I’m sworn to secrecy until my death, and that’s going to be a long time from now.”
Jeremiah’s eyes cut over to James, and he couldn’t help but wonder if being fated to her meant his life was extended. It seemed a rude question, so he kept it to himself.
“Well?” Grace demanded after a long beat.
Jeremiah blinked, then remembered she’d asked him a question. “Both.”
“I suspected as much. James was a lot like you when he moved in here. Wandering, trying to find his place. Trying to figure out why I’d chosen him.”
“Oh, you’re making it out to be so much more complicated than it was,” James grumbled into his drink, failing to hide a small grin. “The simple fact was, a queen of an entire species saw me—a throwaway son from a tiny human kingdom—and decided I was for her.”
“The simple fact was that I saw the man fated to be mine,” Grace said, her voice low and silky. “And it helped that he had an amazing, huge—”
“Grace!” James said, lurching forward to slap a hand over her mouth.
Her laughter was like bells ringing through the empty room, and even a man as heartless as Jeremiah couldn’t help his own grin or the way their love made him warm in ways his hellfire never could.
