Page 72 of Crown of Light and Ashes
She pats my arm with mock sympathy, and I know she’s trying to distract me. "I didn’t think you wanted the potion to be fair. Not after all the talk around the palace. The walls have ears in this place. And mouths. And they're all talking about how the Shadow Lord and his new bride brought down literal stonework with their enthusiastic consummation." She fans herself theatrically. "Got to say, I am almost impressed. Did not think you had it in you. Or rather, had him in—"
"If you finish that sentence, I will personally pluck every feather from your wings," I threaten, though there's no real heat in it.
"Kinky," she replies with a waggle of her eyebrows. "Did you learn that from Shadow Boy? He seems the type for recreational feather-plucking. Or wait—was that what cracked the wall? Some elaborate bondage scenario involving—"
"BANU!"
She cackles, the sound like silver bells. "Your face! Worth it for that alone." Her expression shifts to something more serious. "But seriously, Nesi, what is going on with you two? Because one moment he is playing the possessive husband, deliberately trying to make youjealous, and the next he is practically pushing you out the door so he can be alone with Diplomat Desperate."
I slump against the wall, suddenly exhausted. "I do not know. I cannot figure him out." I glance back toward the observatory. "Through the bond, I could sense him withdrawing. As if something shut down inside him."
"Interesting," Banu muses. "Did anything specific trigger it?"
I think back, trying to pinpoint the exact moment. "It was after I admitted the observatory was beautiful. He said something about having the same reaction when he first saw it, and then... something changed."
"Huh," Banu says, her silver-blonde hair shifting to a thoughtful blue. "Sounds like you may have hit a nerve without realizing it. Certain places can trigger painful memories for someone who has lived as long as he has, especially somewhere as old as that observatory."
"What do you mean?"
"Just that when you have been alive for centuries, some locations become loaded with ghosts," she explains, her voice uncharacteristically serious. "And given how he was touching those star charts, I would bet there is a specific memory tied to that place."
"You think it reminded him of something? Or someone?" A name flashes through my mind—Isil. The name Kaan whispered during our encounter in his study, the one that made him recoil as if struck.
I'm about to ask more when I notice Banu's expression. Despite her flippant words, something in her eyes seems off—a tightness around the edges, a wariness I've rarely seen in her.
"What is wrong?" I ask, my anger fading to concern. "You are not your usual annoying self."
"Me? I'm perfectly fine," she replies, but her wings flutter nervously. "Just concerned about my favorite human messing upher assassination mission by developing inconvenient feelings for the target."
"I do not have feelings for him," I insist automatically.
"Uh-huh," she says, clearly unconvinced. "The wall-shattering sex is purely professional research, then? Know thy enemy in biblical terms and all that?"
"It is complicated," I mutter, knowing how pathetic it sounds.
"It always is with immortals," she sighs. "Look, Nesi, I need to tell you something important. Something I've discovered about the bond while trying to alter the potion and that you need to—"
She opens her mouth to continue, but her gaze shifts to something behind me, and her entire form shimmers with alarm.
"Someone is coming," she whispers urgently. "Light Court magic. I have to go—this is not safe. Find me later in your chambers." She vanishes just as footsteps echo down the corridor.
"Nesi?"
I freeze at the familiar voice. Slowly, I turn to face my brother, Zoran, rounding the corner with an expression that suggests he's been searching for me. His Light Court ceremonial armor gleams even in the dim corridor lighting.
"Zoran," I breathe, momentarily forgetting everything else. "What are you doing here? I thought you had returned to the Light Court."
"I was assigned to accompany Lady Ayla's diplomatic mission, which meant returning here sooner than planned," he says, his voice cool in a way I have never heard directed at me before. "I have been looking for you since I heard you had left the observatory tour early." His jaw tightens. "Since I have been here, I have heard the rumors."
"Rumors?" I repeat, though the sinking feeling in my stomach tells me exactly what he means.
"About my sister," he says, stepping closer, "and how enthusiastically she's embraced her role as the Shadow Lord's bride."
Heat floods my face. "Whatever you have heard—"
"Is it true the walls in the east wing cracked because of your... marital activities?" he asks, his voice sharp with accusation. "Is it true you nearly attacked a neutral territory diplomat out of jealousy over your monster husband?"
"It is not that simple," I protest, fighting the shame that threatens to overwhelm me. "The blood bond—"
