“I woke up and you weren’t there.” Her voice was still thick with sleepiness. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I went for a run, and was just enjoying the sun rising.”
She leaned forward until she was nearly burrowing into my neck. “It’s so weird that you like to wake up early.”
I held her close. “I like the quiet before everyone is up.”
“Does it bother you that we’re not alone here anymore?”
“No.” I rubbed my hand down her back. “This is good. Don’t you think?”
She nodded. “Really good. I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy.”
“Me either.”
She stiffened a little and I felt her worry through the bond as if it were my own.
I rubbed my hand up and down her back. “What’s wrong?”
“I just…I keep having this nightmare that everything’s going to go wrong. Like this is a dream and it’ll shatter and—”
“Stop.” I pulled her shoulders back, making her sit up so I could see her face. She wouldn’t look at me. Her gaze was darting here and there and everywhere but me, so I put my hand against her cheek until her brown eyes met mine.
“I know your father’s plans are bothering you, but we don’t know what they are yet. And I can’t tell you what’s going to happen tomorrow or next week or next year, but you know how I know everything’s going to be okay?”
“How?” She chewed on her lip.
“Because we have each other. We can get through it. No one is throwing me in a pit again. No one is going to try to assassinate you anymore. Whatever happens next, we’ll get through it together.”
She smiled. “I think we scared my mother.”
“I know we did, and I swear she was going to piss herself when your dad showed up.”
That got a chuckle from her and breathed a bit more energy into her eyes.
“The courts are in trouble, and I feel like it’s my fault.”
“It wasn’t your fault. None of this was. As an outsider looking in, your courts look really fucked up, and if all of the archons showed up to let them know how horrible they were being, then I think that says a lot.”
“Probably.” She was quiet for a second. “Do you think Van’s going to be okay?”
Things were a little tense between Cosette and Van for a minute. Once we were back together, Cosette’s anger at everything that had happened died down. She didn’t really need revenge anymore, because I was alive. We just wanted some peace and quiet to be together, but we both knew her mother was going to be a problem.
I didn’t think Van was ever going to get over how broken Cosette was—that she’d tried to fade. Seeing her like that changed him. He was on a mission against the Lunar Court and its queen.
“I think Van needs a distraction from his revenge plots. We just need something interesting enough to take his focus off your mother.” I watched her and waited for the next question to come. She didn’t like using the bond to talk silently when we were alone, but I could feel that she was leaving something unsaid.
“Do you think I’ll ever see him again? That he’ll come visit or something?”
She didn’t have to say who she was talking about. I’d gone over and over my time with her dad. She’d had a lot of questions, but I think the most important thing to her was that he cared about her.
“I don’t know if we’ll see him again, but I do know that he’s watching and that he loves you in his own way.”
She rested her head against my shoulder again. “That’s good. Right? Even if he has plans, if it involves us, then it’ll be okay. Right?”
“Right.” I stood, holding her to my chest as I walked inside. “Let’s chase the rest of that nightmare away.”
She pulled away just enough to look at me. “What did you have in mind, Mr. Matthews?”