Page 31 of Fate

A concession. To show him she could listen. That she cared what he thought and how he felt, even if it did not perfectly align with her own desires.

“Sleep,” she agreed. But his lips curled downward at the corners, and his eyes narrowed at her. “What? I didn’t argue!”

He hummed.

Didn’t take her hand to lead her back into the bed, which left her feeling more bereft than she should have.

By the time she followed, he was standing at his trunk, rifling through its contents. “The last time I possessed a sleeping shirt, I had not even moulted.” It was a grumble, more to himself than a revelation for her. He meant to dissuade her with clothing, then. She shook her head, and did not even watch as he put on another pair of trousers—knotting the cord that held them.

She did notwatch.But if her eyes drifted just to catch that last part, then... peeking did not count. Not exactly.

She stepped into her shift and tied up the shoulders, but she did not knot them.Shedid not mind if hewoke with newfound appetites.

“You do not need a shirt,” Firen assured him, climbing back into her side of the bed. The one she’d been all too happy to vacate when he welcomed her to do so. “I had to share with my sister for a while. I’ve been told I’m the perfect bedfellow. Might not even know I am here.”

He snorted, abandoning his search and taking to his own side. “That I do not believe.”

She needn’t be affronted, but there was a tinge of it. Most especially because she couldn’t reach for him and soothe the sting with physical affection instead. She needed to keep to her word. She would not be nosey. She would let him sleep and keep to herself.

Firen hated both promises immensely.

It felt... lonely. Even with him so near. His back was to her, his wings a proper barricade when the bedclothes went over the top of them. It would have been better to match his position, to close her eyes and pretend that he was curled about her. But that only reminded her he wasn’t. That there was no warmth behind her back, no solid chest and strong arm about her middle. Her wings made no pillow for his cheek, her hair did not move gently with each exhale.

Lucian groaned.

Rolled.

And her heart swelled with delight when he did just that. She did not even mind the grumbling under his breath. About bonds and how did she expect him to sleep when she was tugging so fiercely at it, and he would have words with her sister about lies and perfect bedfellows.

Which filled her with a new sense of peace. That hewouldspeak with her sister. That everything would be all right in the morning. They’d make sure of it.

Together.

“Sleep,” he insisted, this time a growl low in her ear.

Which was not at all something that could be commanded. And yet...

She could sigh. And it did not count as moving if she wriggled just alittlecloser.

He rolled away from her, eventually. Back to his side, where she wasn’t clinging, and he could have space to breathe without her intrusion in his every sense.

But that was all right.

Because she was sleeping by then. And he was still close. The bond said so.

4. Worth

He was dressed before she woke. Which was... something. Firen had always been a fairly light sleeper, bothered when Eris rolled too frequently, when her wings stretched and feathers ruffled and it wasloudand couldn’t she be more considerate?

And yet Lucian was able to stand there. Looming at the side of the bed before she had even opened her eyes.

She stretched, rolling her shoulders and watching as her shift slipped off one, then the other as she moved. “Fair morning,” she murmured.

He glanced toward the shutters, the light pushing relentlessly against the seams and edges, suggesting it was not as early as she’d thought.

“We’ve matters to discuss.”

Back to grim tones and stony expressions. Firen rolled over with a groan. She couldn’t sleep again, not so soon and not with him looking at her like that, but she would not be hurried, either. “Of course we do,” she agreed. Mostly about how quickly he wished to leave to meet with her parents and retrieve her trunk, and please do keep his nonsense about blood and old families to himself as they did so. “But I shall take a moment in the bathing room first.”