“Do not order me about as if I’m a child.”
“I wouldn’t if you didn’t behave like one.”
I saw red. “You sure as hell didn’t think I was behaving like one when you had me in your bed and your fangs in my throat!”
“Whoa,” Ector murmured.
Fiery, silver eyes locked with mine. “Sera.”
Choking on more words I really didn’t need to speak, Istompedup the stairs like a full-grown-ass woman. I made it to the fourth-floor landing before Nyktos caught up to me.
“Whatever you were thinking about saying down there,” he began, reaching around me and yanking open the door, “don’t think it again.”
“What?” I stalked into the hall. He’d been right. I had been about to tell Ector why I’d gone after Kolis. “You don’t trust your guards with the truth of exactly what I carry inside me? Or are you afraid that if they know, they might actually agree with me?”
“None of them would agree with what you were attempting to do, nor would they aid you in such a thing.”
I laughed. And, boy, did it sound scary. “You don’t know them all that well if you think that.”
“And you do?”
“I know them well enough to be aware of the obvious. None of them like me, and they’d be glad to see me gone—either walking out or being carried out dead.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Is that a serious question? They haven’t forgiven me for what I once planned—” I gasped, stumbling back as Nyktos appeared in front of me. “Stop doing that!”
“What have they said to you?” His voice was low, but it hummed with the promise of violence.
“Nothing.”
He came toward me. “Tell me what they said and who said it.”
“They don’t need to say anything for me to know!” My hands closed into fists. “Look, the last thing I need to do is make them more unhappy with me. And I don’t want to. They already have every reason to dislike me. They’re loyal to you, and I’m just the Consort you never wanted—who planned to kill you. If they had their way, I wouldn’t be here.” I stepped around him and continued down the hall, the exhaustion from earlier returning. “It is what it is.”
Thank the gods, Nyktos didn’t stop me. I reached my bedchamber, relieved to find it unlocked. I went in, closing the door behind me without saying another word. I moved past the bed and unclasped the cloak. It fell to the floor. I needed quiet. Time to think and plot—
The door flew open behind me. I whirled around.
Nyktos swept in like a storm. “No.”
I took a step back. “No, what?”
“No tothis. I would like to get at least a few hours of rest tonight,” he announced.
“You’re the one in my chambers!” I threw up my hands. “No one’s stopping you from sleeping.”
“You have proven that you cannot be trusted to be in here alone, and I need to rest. So, if I’m sleeping, you’re sleeping.”
“You cannot be serious,” I exclaimed.
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
He looked like he wanted to murder an entire kingdom. “I’m not going to try anything right after you caught me.”
“I would like to believe that, but I know better. I cannot have guards stationed outside your door and in the courtyard, dedicated solely to making sure you don’t do something reckless. At least, not until I have locks put on the balcony doors…” He swung his head in the direction of said doors and then snapped his attention back to me, his brows raised. “Howdidyou get down from the balcony, by the way?”
I had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer. “Magic? You know, those embers are really strong.”