Page 104 of A Reign of Embers
Understanding lights in me like dawn peeking over the horizon. I can’t hold back my smile. “It’s all right. It’s a friendly omen for once.”
Bastien sent that cloud, blown by his gift. Giving us a message in the most subtle way he can.
He’s on his way back to me.
With the afterimage of the rain, a vision wavers behind my eyes of a handful of streams streaking across the realms all the way from the other capitals to me. My princes coursing home as if there’s no other path they could follow, as if they’ve always been connected to me.
A deeper spark of understanding flares to life, and my posture pulls straighter.
The second vision that came to me by the river near Prospira’s temple—I think I know which godlen sent it and the means to gain his backing too.
If only I can convince the lower authorities of the empire to follow my commands, no matter how extreme they find them.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Aurelia
As soft as it is, the whisper of the hidden panel in my bedroom wall opening tugs me from the fathoms of my unsettled sleep. I open my eyes in time to see a familiar lean frame emerging from the wall, shaggy auburn hair falling across his eyes.
My heart leaps. I heave myself right over Lorenzo, who arrived yesterday afternoon and has barely left my side since, and wake him in the process. When he sees the source of my urgency, he only lets out a grunt that sounds amused.
I scramble off the bed and wrap my arms around Bastien. He hugs me back so tightly I can barely breathe.
All the things I wanted to tell him, all the new plans I’ve been making and the hopes I’ve been building, fall away. All that matters is having him safely here against me.
Bastien tips his head to seek out my lips. As we kiss, asnort reverberates from the other side of the bed, where Raul has apparently woken too. I didn’t want to lose any minute I could get with all of my newest husbands.
“You’re all right?” I murmur to Bastien when our lips ease apart. “I got your rainy ‘message’—very clever.”
He smiles crookedly and clasps my hand where I’ve rested it on his chest. It’s hard not to think of him as more breakable than the other princes, even though he’s proven himself hardier than the Darium court has ever seemed to give him credit for.
“I’m perfectly well,” he says, his eyes shining as he holds my gaze. “Just overjoyed to be back here with you. And tired. But there’s so much I need to report on?—”
The urge that stopped me from blurting out everything that’s been on my mind rises up again. I tease my thumb over his mouth. “Not yet. When we’re all properly rested and clearheaded. There’s a lot all of us need to discuss. Right now, I just want to enjoy having you with me again.”
Bastien’s expression softens even more. He kisses me harder, his hands tracing the sides of my body, and glances toward the bed. His tone turns dry. “Is there even room for me?”
Raul scoffs. “We’ve managed three before. Get your ass over here so our wife can have her rest too.”
Lorenzo grins to show his approval. I lead Bastien to the bed, and Raul scoots over so the prince of Cotea can align his body with mine. Raul has nothing to complain about when he had me all to himself the previous night.
My attention slides to the form lying on the sleeping mat in front of the door. If Marc is awake and watching our reunion, he gives no sign.
He’s allowing me this brief span of peace with my other husbands before we go back to preparing for war.
I aim a smile his way, in case he can see it, and pull my princes close around me.
I’m jolted right out of both sleep and peace hours later by a taut voice. “She didwhat?”
I flinch, my eyes popping open. When I peer blearily at the figures now sitting tensed on the bed around me, Bastien presses his mouth shut with a guilty expression. His hair is so adorably rumpled I want to run my fingers through it, but his green eyes look even darker than usual as his gaze sears into mine.
“Have you felt any unfamiliar physical sensations since you were ill?” he asks in an urgent tone. “Even something you might have dismissed as an aftereffect of the sickness or another passing discomfort?”
I knit my brow, sorting through my thoughts with sleep still blurring them.
Whatever my husbands have been talking about while I kept slumbering, it’s clearly riled them up. Lorenzo is watching me, his face as somber as Bastien’s. Raul has pushed right to his feet, clutching one bed post as if he thinks he’s going to wrench it off and wield it at an enemy. Even Marc has approached from the door, his jaw tight.
“I did have some lingering symptoms,” I say carefully, dredging up the memories. “Aches in my joints, sensitivity of my skin. But they passed within a few days.”
