At least we didn't have to deal with repairing the Antlered Palace. The damn thing really was alive, at least magically, and it healed alongside us. Not the furniture or trappings, but the walls and floors, the palace slyly putting itself back together from what was not-insignificant amounts of destruction. When we finally held open court again, I found to my shock that the palace had responded to the knowledge of having a King and Queen instead of a Queen and crown prince. Dain's throne was gone, and where one monarch's throne had sat on the dais, now two did.

It didn't feel strange to sit at his right hand, an iron crown on my head. It felt natural, like I was exactly where I belonged, as if I'd been born to sit on this throne next to this man. Maybe I had been.

Perhaps a week after we'd finished the burials, Dain came into my office to find me rubbing my temples, staring down at a report that was blurring into an incomprehensible mish-mash of letters and numbers. I'd taken off my crown hours ago; the thing had been giving me a headache, and now served as my paperweight.

Dain draped himself over my shoulders, leaning his not-inconsiderable weight on me with a purring sound of pleasure. "I've heard squinting at papers like that will ruin your eyesight," he said, sounding way too cheerful.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, and shoved the report away, putting my elbows on the desk and my chin in my hands. "You here to drag me off to eat or something?"

"Much better, I think," he said, sounding quite pleased with himself. Dain ran his nose behind my ears. "Do you remember what you told me to come home for, when you sent me to the Court of Mercy?"

I had to think for a minute, trying to cudgel together some amount of thinking capacity after my long day of paperwork. "Orchids and hot springs?"

"Mhm." He nuzzled me again. "It's the proper time for them to bloom. As soon as you get dressed in something suitable for riding and eat something light, we'll be ready to go."

Smiling, I reached a hand up and started rubbing my fingertips against his scalp. "Isn't the full moon up in, like, an hour?" I asked.

"Mhm," he said again, and nipped my ear. "I don't mind starting on two feet, if you get ready quickly, but we can travel much faster once I'm on four." Underneath the cheerfulness and confidence, I could hear his nervousness, something not even the bravado could erase.

I craned my head to the side so I could look at him, raising an eyebrow.