His chuckle was deep and raspy as I lifted the lid from the dish. Jadis’s little head immediately whipped around, her chattering growing louder at the sight of the bacon, the mountain of eggs sprinkled with sliced peppers, and the buttery bread. There was also a hunk of chocolate.
I glanced over at her father and thought of Davina. “Did…did Davina have family?”
“She had an older sister, but she died years ago,” Nektas said after a moment. “But other than her, none that I know of.”
“Will there be a burial rite? Or has it already taken place?”
“We do not hold ceremonies for the dead,” he told me. “We believe that forcing those who cared for the deceased to see them in their death does nothing to honor the dead. We know they know the soul has already left the body to enter Arcadia. When possible, one who was not close to the deceased burns the dead within hours of their death, and each one mourns how they see fit—either together or alone.”
Having not known that draken entered Arcadia instead of the Vale, I took a sip of my juice. “You know, I kind of like that. I wouldn’t want those close to me watching my body burn.” I thought about seeing my old nursemaid, Odetta, wrapped in linen and placed on the burial pyre. “Burial rites are more for the living than the dead anyway. And, sure, I imagine it brings some closure. But I imagine it also creates more pain in others.”
Nektas nodded.
My hold on Jadis tightened as she reached for a crispy slice of bacon. “I don’t think you can have any of that.”
She tipped her hornless head up at me, her eyes woeful and bigger than before. “Sorry. I’ve been told you’re not allowed to have bacon.”
Nektas snorted. “Did Ash tell you that?”
I nodded as I picked up a fork.
“Does he think I don’t know that he lets Jadis eat whatever she wants?”
Since that was basically true, I said nothing as I got a forkful of eggs. Jadis huffed loudly as I took a bite. “Can she have eggs?”
“If you can get her to eat anything off a fork instead of with her grubby little fingers, she can.”
Grinning, I scooped up a tiny bit of eggs on the edge of the fork and lifted it to her mouth. “Open up,” I said as she eyed the fork as if it were a serpent. “Just take the eggs. Don’t bite the fork.”
Her head cocked as her tail thumped off my hip. She stretched out her slender neck, sniffing the eggs. She jerked back from the fork, hissing as she bared…shockingly sharp teeth.
Yikes.
“Watch me.” I lifted the fork to my mouth, taking a dramatically slow bite of food. “See? Yum.” I added some more eggs to the fork. “Your turn.”
It took several more displays of how to eat from a fork before Jadis eyed the utensil seriously and then snapped her head forward. She closed her mouth over the eggs, and there was only a slight tug on the fork as she retreated.
“Holy shit,” Nektas murmured, surprised. “Do you know how many people have tried to get her to eat off a utensil? Even Reaver tried.”
“Good job, Jadis.” I glanced at her father as I added more eggs to the fork. “I guess I have the magic touch.”
Jadis tugged on my arm and held on as I lifted the fork to her mouth again. It still took her a couple of moments before she took a bite.
“You just might.” Nektas cleared his throat, glancing away. “But I think you remind her of her mother.”
All I knew was that Jadis’s mother had died two years ago. I knew nothing else. “What…what was her name?”
“Halayna.” He straightened, his features tensing. “She had hair like yours. Not as pale, but close. I don’t think Jadis remembers much about her. She’s still too young, but how can we ever be sure what a child remembers and doesn’t?”
I ate the entirety of the chocolate, then took a small bite of bacon, aware of Jadis’s greedy little eyes tracking the crispy slice. “Were you married?”
“We weremated,” he corrected. “It is the same as marriage in many ways. It is not something we draken enter into lightly. The bonds we forge together in a mating can only be broken by death.”
Divorces were rare among most in Lasania, but it was far more common among the nobles than I suspected marriages built from love were. “You loved her, then?”
“With my entire being.”
I briefly closed my eyes. Hestillloved her. I didn’t need to read emotions to know that. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, smiling faintly when Jadis glanced up at me as she chewed her eggs. I wanted to know how Halayna had died, but I wouldn’t ask the question in front of Jadis. As Nektas had said, there was no way to know what a child remembered and didn’t. “My mother lovedmy father—my birth father. He died the night I was born.” I took another bite of bacon, deciding to leave out the circumstances of his death. “I wonder if they were mates of the heart, you know? Maybe the legends about such a thing are real. Because I think a part of my mother died that night, too.”