Page 37 of Hers to Keep

With a nod, the sphinx left, closing the door behind them.

Ashdei’s gaze never left Mari.“What happened that night?”

Dohal chuckled, his grin wicked.“Looking for pointers?”

Mari swallowed.So much had happened that night, including things she wasn’t ready to discuss yet.The heat of a blush rose in her cheeks.“It was the first time we’d been together since I freed him.I made him promise to not hold back.”

“You claimed him as yours.”Ashdei looked thoughtful.“And then you called me to you, because I’m the last piece you need to complete the circle.”

She didn’t understand what was going on in the slightest.She had noticed that something had changed that night—it was when she had started to be able to sense things from all of them—but she’d thought it was just because Dohal had finally given her what she craved, and she’d done the same in return.“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ashdei examined her again, more slowly.The wait was interminable before he spoke again, “I’m not the one that’s going to become a Prince of Earth.You are.”

Next to her, Dohal startled.“Of course,” he said in a thoughtful murmur once he recovered.

“That doesn’t make any sense.I thought you said that you can’t make yourself a monarch.That’s why my father couldn’t take the spot.”

Ashdei smiled, his expression warming.“You’re already a monarch.”

“Becauseshewas,” Dohal added.

The goddess.Before she’d been forced into the body they now grudgingly shared.“Was she banished?The same way the Old One was?”

“No,” Dohal said, “Not exactly.It was more like she was slowly forgotten, and her power waned.”

Ashdei closed his eyes for a moment.“I’m probably going to regret this.”He shook his head, sending his hair flying.“In order to claim your place, you need to close the circle of your magic that was opened with the first ritual.”

Mari narrowed her gaze in his direction.“And what precisely does that mean?”

Dohal grumbled.“That you need to bed him again.”

Ashdei responded with a nod.

Mari straightened her back.“Convenient that what you now say I need is what you said you were here for.”

“It’s not entirely selfless on my account.While I won’t be a Prince because you’ll take the place that’s vacant, I will gain a great deal of power from the exchange.”

“You mean you’ll steal my power.”

Ashdei met her eyes without wavering.“No.Magic like ours isn’t a zero-sum game.We’ll both gain from the act of completion.The two of us will become more powerful than the sum of our parts.”

She looked to Dohal for confirmation, but he only shrugged.“I don’t know enough about the magics involved to say if he’s being honest or not.It’s certainly possible, especially at the levels of power you’re discussing.”

“I will never keep anything from you.”Ashdei repeated the pledge from earlier that Mari still didn’t know if she could afford to believe.“Ask the goddess, if you don’t trust me.”

Mari searched inward, looking for the goddess who had been mysteriously silent throughout the exchange.As a matter of fact, she’d been curiously quiet since the night with Dohal.

The response to her inquiry was as predictable as it was confusing.Everything is as it should be.

Did that include what Ashdei wanted from them?Mari got no answer to her follow-up question.

She sighed.“It used to be much easier to get a straight answer out of her.”

With a wry smile, Dohal leaned to kiss her cheek.“A goddess’s prerogative.”

She wasn’t sure if the contact was meant to calm her or him, but she appreciated it, nonetheless.“Annoying, is what it is.”

Ashdei stood with his arms crossed.“What did she say?”

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