“No, he’ll be on horseback. It will be quicker and easier to travel that way once inside the Vale.”
Meaning it was quicker and easier formeto travel that way. Not Nektas, who could take to the sky. But I bet Nyktos had wanted the draken in his mortal form beside me.
He stopped, the dim light of the stables glinting off his cuff as he slid open a stable door. “Meet Gala.”
Peering around him, my lips parted as I saw a gorgeous mare standing in the center of the stall, already saddled as she nibbled on some hay. She was almost as large as Odin, quite a bit bigger than most horses in the mortal realm. Her coat had a unique roan pattern with white hairs on top of a black base, giving her a faint blue coloring.
Straw crunched under my boots as I walked to her. Gala lifted her head, twitching her ears at my approach. “She’s beautiful,” I said, slowly lifting my hand to her. She stilled, letting me run my hand down her smooth, broad muzzle.
“I’m glad you like her.” Nyktos had entered behind me without making a single sound. “She’s yours, after all.”
My head whipped around. “Come again?”
“I planned on giving her to you for the coronation.” Nyktos brushed past me, checking the straps on the saddle. “But I saw no reason to wait.”
Gala nudged my hand since I’d stopped stroking her in myshock.
“You’re surprised.” He glanced over at me, the tendrils of eather faint in his silvery gaze. “And, no, I’m not reading your emotions. I can see it on your face.”
I blinked. “I just…I wasn’t expecting a gift.” I cleared my throat. “Thank you.”
“Is it not customary to bestow a gift on a wedding day in the mortal realm?” Nyktos turned to the wall behind the horse, where several short swords were sheathed and affixed to the wall. I would’ve thought that was a strange place to keep weapons, but then again, there seemed to be stashes in every other chamber.
“It is.” I focused on Gala’s beautiful doe eyes as mine burned. “I don’t have a gift for you, though.”
“I don’t believe it’s customary for the bride to give the groom a gift, is it?” Nyktos walked to Gala’s side, thick lashes shielding his eyes, but I still felt his gaze. “And besides, you are giving me a gift. The embers.”
“More like your father is giving you that gift.” I scratched Gala behind an ear. “I’ve never had a horse.”
Nyktos drew closer. “I imagine that wasn’t for a lack of readily available horses. A Crown’s stables are usually filled.”
I shrugged.
“Did your mother believe that the promised Consort of a Primal didn’t deserve her own horse?”
My chest tightened. “I don’t think my mother believed it was necessary for me to have one. I wasn’t allowed to leave the grounds of Wayfair until I was seventeen. All I needed to know was how to ride one, and Holland taught me that.” I patted Gala’s side, forcing my breath out, slow and easy. “Will you be riding Odin then?”
“I will when I head back.” Nyktos lifted the reins. “You’ll have to share Gala with me for now.”
“Not a hardship.” I gripped the pommel, hoisting myself into the saddle.
Wisps of eather brightened in his eyes as he grinned faintly. “I have a feeling I’ll need to remind you that you said that at some point in the near future.”
“Probably.”
Nyktos chuckled as he easily swung himself up behind me.All of my senses immediately became hyperaware of the proximity of his body, the press of his thighs to mine, the arm around my waist, and the feel of his chest against my back. I’d fallen asleep in his arms last night, and it had felt different than him keeping me within arm’s reach. Our limbs had been tangled. Both of his arms had been wrapped around me. One of his knees had been tucked between mine. He hadn’t been in bed when I woke but had been in the quarters beyond the bathing chamber. I lay in bed, listening to him speak quietly to who I believed was Rhain.
“You said you weren’t allowed to leave Wayfair until after I refused you as Consort,” he said, and I guessed me trying to be polite about the timeframe had been unnecessary. “You left, though, to travel into the Dark Elms.”
I frowned as he reached around me and picked up the reins. I knew that Nyktos had had his guards, Lathan and Ector, keep an eye on me, but that was after he’d rejected me. “The Dark Elms are technically part of Wayfair,” I told him. “Was that one of the times you were watching me?”
He guided Gala out of the stall. “You don’t need to make it sound like I was stalking you.”
“You weren’t?”
“No,” he muttered.
My lips twitched, but then I thought of something else. “Exactly how much did Lathan and Ector see of my…travels in the mortal realm?”