Page 134 of A Reign of Embers

His voice has gone a tad wry.

I have to smile. “I can’t argue with you there.”

And maybe I shouldn’t be depriving myself of the non-brotherly company I’ve earned now that I don’t have to.

My heart thumps faster, but I let myself weave through the crowded room toward the spot where Aurelia is cradling Coraya in her arms. She murmurs something to our daughter, who babbles cheerfully in return, drawing a laugh from the nobles clustered around them. Her wooden toy hisses with the beads jostling together inside it.

At the sight of me approaching, a gleam more pleased than I’ve seen from her recently comes into my lover’s—mywife’s, I have to remind myself—eyes. She beckons me closer and adjusts Coraya against her bosom. “Prince Bastien, I think our imperial heir needs a change of scenery. How would you feel about entertaining her for a spell?”

The nobles glance over at me. My pulse outright stutters.

Will they realize I’m acting as more than just a substitute fatherly figure—that Coraya truly ismydaughter, not Marclinus’s? Is it really safe to get this close to her?

I can’t deny the affection in Aurelia’s gaze. If I’m being honest, the desire to hold my daughter here before everyone, to finally be a real part of her life, overwhelms my fears too.

I accept our little girl carefully, bracing her against my chest so she can gaze at the room around us in her wide-eyed way. Coraya hiccups and then giggles, gripping the front of my shirt with her tiny fingers while she waves her toy with her other hand.

She’s so wonderfully, gorgeously alive. And so wonderfully, miraculously mine.

But no one else appears to suspect a thing. The nobles return to their conversations, focusing on the empress in their midst. Raul shoots me a quick smirk, but he smirks a lot, so no one would find that unusual.

And I hold and cluck my tongue at my daughter, accepted as part of the empress’s inner circle. As if I truly belong here.

We really succeeded. We won this victory, however long it’ll last before Valerisse might smash it to pieces.

Coraya looks like she could be Marclinus’s daughter, and that’s the story we’ve presented. So that’s all anyone sees.

As I grin down at my daughter, a deeper well of joy rises up inside me—and brings with it a flare of inspiration that stops me in my tracks.

Maybe the answers I’ve been searching for are right here in the family we’ve created.

Chapter Forty-Eight

Aurelia

As I gaze down into the dark, stone-lined pit, my fingers curl into the sleeves of my dress as if trying to pull my body away. The frenetic thump of my pulse urges me past my hesitation.

I glance up at the Kosmelian cleric who led us to this isolated room in the temple. “I’m ready.”

He looks even more hesitant than I feel. “Are you sure, Your Imperial Highness? We wouldn’t normally expect— The meditation hollow is typically only used by myself and our devouts— You can commune with Kosmel in the main worship chamber far more comfortably.”

My smile tightens. Every inch of my skin prickles with the awareness of my guards, my princes, and Axius watching. I have faith in my husbands, but will the others look at me differently if I lower myself into the shadows this way? See me as tarnished?

But Kosmelisthe patron of shadowy places and tarnished souls.

“I can’t commune with him anywhere near as closely there,” I say. “It’s important that he see how committed I am to honoring his will.”

The trickster godlen is the last divinity of the nine—the only one I haven’t made a direct appeal to yet. Maybe some part of me hoped I wouldn’t need to when he’s such a significant figure to my home country. Surely he’d feel some sympathy to my struggles.

I can’t take his support for granted, though. We set off to confront Valerisse’s forces tomorrow. Every detail of every strategy could make a difference in how many survive, in the fate of the entire continent.

This is no time for my courage to fail.

The cleric dips his head in acceptance, hands me the offering pouch I requested, and eases to the side. A narrow spiral path runs along the wall of the pit, leading down to its base some twenty feet below.

The stone floor is shrouded in shadow… but I can make out traces of movement within the darkness.

A creeping sensation runs through my nerves. My limbs balk, every instinct reminding me of the maladies rats can carry, of the fragile balance of my health that I’ve needed to consider since my sacrifice.

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