Page 66 of The Sunbound Princess
I shook my head. “I had nursemaids and tutors. The palace is always full of people. I wanted for nothing.”
“But they were paid to take care of you,” Nikolas said. “It’s not the same.”
“I had Helios,” I said. “Every chance I got, I visited the Grove. It was my mother’s garden. I tended it, and I practiced my magic. When I wanted someone to talk to, I captured the sun and asked it to speak. Eventually, it did.”
A hush fell over the room. The men stared at me for so long, I fought the urge to squirm. Just as I debated getting up, Nikolas touched my wrist. We looked down together, gazes falling on his fingertip covering the edge of a sigil peeking from my sleeve.
“Money isn’t love,” he said. “It can’t hug you or tell bedtime stories.” He traced the sigil’s edge, his touch as soft as his voice. “Perhaps you and Dain and I are more alike than you think.”
We looked up at the same time, something shifting in the air between us. The Dokimasi tugged, its pull stealing my breath. Although, if I was honest with myself, Nikolas had stolen it first.
“Three orphans,” Dain said softly, drawing my gaze to him. “Maybe that’s why we found each other. It was fate.”
His eyes were warm. So were Nikolas’s fingers on my wrist.
“Magic brought us together,” I said, standing. I didn’t look at them as I gathered their empty bowls and went to the chest. I couldn’t allow them to affect me. Iwouldn’tmake the mistake of sleeping with them again.
But as I stacked the dirty dishes, I had to wonder if Dain was right. And if that scared me more than the challenge of reclaiming my throne. My gaze strayed to the bed—theonebed.
Nikolas must have followed my glance. “I’ll take the floor,” he said, already tugging the blanket from the foot of the bed.
“You don’t have to,” I said. “The floor won’t be comfortable.”
He gave me a crooked grin. “I’ve slept in worse places.”
Dain shifted over on the mattress, making room. “It’s all right, Bel. The bed is warmer than the window.”
I hesitated, then toed off my boots and went to him. Dain lifted the blanket, and I slipped under it. I lay stiffly, my heart hammering. Even with space between us, his body heat beckoned.
Nikolas stretched on his back, his boots crossed at the ankle and his hands piled behind his head. He closed his eyes, looking every inch the careless rogue. But now I knew that wasn’t quite true. There was more to him than quick smiles and easy jests.
A comfortable hush fell over the room, broken only by the creak of old wood and the distant chirp of night insects. The Dokimasi pulsed steadily in my chest, present but restful. It was…content, as if it waited for morning. Whatever doubts I harbored about the men, the magic didn’t appear to share them.
Despite the uncertainty still plaguing me, I closed my eyes and surrendered to sleep.
I woketo warmth and weight. Dain spooned me from behind, his face buried in my hair and one heavy arm draped over my waist. His deep, even breaths fluttered over my neck.
Nikolas stood at the window. His feet were bare, and he’d discarded his shirt sometime in the night. Moonlight highlighted the thick mounds of his shoulders and the smooth muscle of his back. As if sensing my attention, he turned, and our eyes met across the small room.
Something stirred in my chest. Not the Dokimasi, but something deeper. It whispered under my skin, its words indistinct but impossible to ignore. I eased from under Dain’s arm, holding my breath when he mumbled and burrowed deeper into the pillows. When his breathing evened again, I slipped from the bed.
The floorboards were cool beneath my stockinged feet as I crossed to Nikolas. He watched me approach, his dark eyes serious in a way I’d rarely seen them. When I reached him, he extended his hand, and I took it without hesitation.
“My queen,” he murmured.
My breath caught. No one had ever called me that. No tutors, no courtiers, not even Helios in jest. Nikolas Taniakes, a thief from the streets of Saldu, was the first to acknowledge my birthright. Perhaps I should have wished for someone grander—a high-born lord with lands and titles. But somehow, Nikolas felt exactly right.
Eyes still solemn, he bent his head. “I am your servant,” he said in his quiet voice.
I shivered, my heartbeat quickening because I knew he meant it.
He lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss to my knuckles.
Light flashed over my hand.
We both gasped as golden fire raced up my arm, lighting my sigils. For a few breathless seconds, the tiny suns glowed with the magic of Ishulum.Mymagic. Pinpoints of light danced around us like dust motes on a sunny day. Heat grazed my skin as if I’d stepped outside after a long time in shadow.
Then, as quickly as it came, the light vanished. But the Dokimasi’s magic remained—and the tug was stronger now. It pulled me toward Nikolas.
