Page 25 of A Reign of Embers

When I open the trunk and take out the cauldron, Marc lets out a puzzled sound. “Aren’t you going to bed?”

I shake my head. “I have something I want to start brewing first. It shouldn’t take long.”

My gift is already unfurling behind my eyes, adjusting the giddying hallucinogenic I concocted so many times before without its aphrodisiac aspect.

I turned the worst side of my husband into putty plenty of times with a prick of the hidden needle on my ring. Perhaps I can use a similar tactic to diffuse one or another future hostility so no swords need to be drawn to begin with.

Chapter Ten

Aurelia

By the time my potion is ready to cool, its herbal scent drifting through the room, Sprite has curled up on my lap and my head is drooping. I set the cauldron aside with a rub of my ring. I’ll bring it into the bathing room to fill it so Marc won’t see the trick.

I’d rather not give him any more information he could use against me than he already has, claims of full allegiance or no.

As I give my cat one last pet and displace her gently to stand up, the hidden panel whispers open. Bastien emerges, tentatively and then striding across the room with more confidence and only a flick of a glance toward Marc.

He wraps his arms around me and just holds me for a moment. “You were amazing this afternoon. I’d have been standing right there by your side if I could have been.”

“She did have plenty of protection,” Marc intones from where he’s standing stiffly on his bedroll.

Bastien ignores him, peering into my eyes. “How are you holding up? I can’t imagine the strain, after all the extra training you’re doing on top of it…”

I give him a playful swat. “I’m fine.”

But then a yawn stretches my jaw with a wobble that runs right down my body. The prince of Cotea notes it, and his gaze firms alongside his tone.

“Sit down on your stool. You need to stop worrying about being fine for a bit and let someone else look after you.”

I’d argue, but that commanding voice he can bring out never fails to send a giddy shiver down my spine. And I don’t actually object to sitting anyway.

I sink onto the cushioned stool in front of my vanity. Bastien leans over me, sweeping my hair back with a subtle caress of my neck. He rests his hands on my shoulders and meets my gaze in the mirror. “Lean into me. Let me take as much of the weight you’re carrying as I can.”

As I tip into his steady hold obligingly, there’s a rustle of fabric by the door. Marc keeps his voice low, but the edge is still cutting. “That’s not how you talk to your empress.”

As if he and his twin didn’t order me around hundreds of times in the past year?

Bastien’s attention remains on me. He digs his thumbs into the crook of my shoulder with the start of a massage before answering. “It’s how I talk to the woman I love.” His voice softens without losing its possessive note. “The mother of my child.”

He dips his head lower to press a kiss to the top of my head. Only then does he glance Marc’s way. “Someoneneeds to care about how she’s coping.”

Even from the corner of my vision, I can tell Marc bristles. “I’ve been ready to defend her every second of?—”

“What, for the last four weeks after months of torturing her?”

“I never?—”

I pull away from Bastien, cutting my gaze toward Marc. “Stop squabbling. I don’t need any defending right now, definitely not from Bastien.” I tilt my head backward to look up at my prince directly. “And it’ll be a lot easier to relax if you’re not taking jabs at each other.”

Bastien grimaces apologetically. “Message received. I meant to focus on you anyway.”

In the silence that follows, he resumes his massage. As he works at the knots along my shoulders and upper back, I gradually sag into his touch. I hadn’t realized just how much tension I was holding in my muscles until now, feeling the aches he’s drawing out of them.

Bastien eases lower, running his thumbs down either side of my spine. When his hands come to rest on the sides of my waist, he leans in to brush a quick kiss to the side of my neck.

There’s no demand in the gesture. He immediately continues kneading at the kinks strung through my back. But the warmth of his lips wakes up a quiver of sensation that travels straight to my core.

One of my princes has slept beside me every night since the fire, but their embraces have stayed relatively chaste. Between my body being in flux after giving birth and the stress caused by Valerisse’s threats, there hasn’t been much room for desire to bloom.

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