I often imagined Cair and me having a patch of land away from the capital, with a small cottage and gardens where I could grow flowers and we could live a simpler, more peaceful life. The palace was everything I could ever have imagined it to be. A fairy tale, really. It was the type of luxury most people would kill for, and a far cry from what I’d expected for my future, but it was still daunting.

While I knew in my bones that I belonged in the Otherworld, that this was my home, I often felt out of place in the palace. It was easy to get lost amid the opulence and sheer scale of everything, and the thought of one day having to rule over it all filled me with dread, but I guessed that discomfort was a small price to pay for unconditional love.

Besides, knowing Cair and his high-maintenance ass, he’d never give up those finer things, or his penthouse back in the human realm. Nor would I ask him to. I was content as long as we were together, truly, and that would never change.

Our cozy little hamlet could live rent free in my fantasies for now.

A pointed cough startled me, and I twisted on my knees to see Orian hovering a few steps away. His hands were behind his back, and his distant gaze was glued to a spot over my head. I hadn’t even heard him approach, which was mildly concerning, but as I so often wandered off into my own little world, it wasn’t entirely shocking. Once I was focused on a task or engrossed in a daydream, an elephant could trample through and I would be none the wiser.

Recovering quickly, I wiped my face with the back of my gloved hand and smiled up at him. “Hey, Ri! Sorry, I was lost in my head. I didn’t even hear the gate.”

The space between his brows creased ever so slightly at the nickname, but his otherwise wooden exterior didn’t change except for a slight nostril flare. I really hoped that was a natural reflex and not him smelling Cair on me. That would be mortifying.

“I should have announced myself, but you looked…” He hesitated, eyes still not meeting mine, but he glanced briefly to the side as if caught in an internal panic. His throat bobbed on a swallow, and I could have sworn the tips of his ears had turned pink. “My apologies.”

“It’s okay.” I frowned, concerned by his behavior. Granted, he’d never been overly animated, but we’d spoken more in the last few months—as I had with all of Cair’s siblings bar Maeve, but she was impossible.