I had a servant bring her more juice. I then asked another to change the sheets and tidy Aramus and my tent for Finnie and Frey and see to it that Maddie and Apollo had appropriate accommodation. Last, I had another bounden pack a small bag with things for myself and my husband that we could take to The Finnie.

Frey and Finnie came back and Aramus loaded up the bag and rowed us to The Finnie.

And now we were there.

In the captain’s cabin.

After nearly a year of marriage.

Ready to consummate it.

I had the desire to rush back up the steps onto the deck and jump into the sea.

I quelled this by staring out of the paned window at the back of the cabin. Aramus had one like that on the Siren’s Scream, including the bench under it covered in pillows and cushions for lounging.

“Princess Seoafin and Lady Madeleine are lovely, aren’t they?” I asked.

“Ha-Lah.”

“Though odd. I can’t put my finger on it—”

“Ha-Lah.”

“But they’re charming. Just… peculiar. Though not in a bad way.”

“They’re from a parallel universe.”

My head swiveled around to my husband.

“Pardon?”

“They are not of this world. They’re of another one. A world that has all the same people as here, but different. Twins. All of the witches who defeated Minerva are from that other world. I did not know this, but while you were seeing to our tent, Apollo shared he’d noted our reactions and he told me.”

“They…they’re from another world?” I whispered.

“Yes,” he confirmed impatiently.

“By the seas,” I breathed.

“I have promised Apollo, thus we cannot speak a word of it to anyone. Particularly about Finnie. She is not strictly of royal blood. It would put the whole House of Wilde, which is the ruling House of Lunwyn, in disarray, and her son, who is to assume rule very shortly, in peril.”

“Those Lunwynian Houses don’t seem to get along very well,” I muttered, for I had heard some stories and not many of them were fairytales.

“I do not care about Lunwynian Houses. I care that my wife has situated herself all the way across the cabin and gives every appearance of wishing to avoid me while alone in a room with me, this along with being terrified of me.”

I realized then that I had done just that.

Far from him.

And far from the cozy, cocoon of a bed that was situated against the side wall.

A bed my husband was standing in front of.

I drew in breath and found his gaze.

Then I drew in courage.

When I had it, I said quietly, “I am not terrified of you, Aramus. I’m terrified that I will not please you.”

His powerful body gave a sudden jerk.

And then his face grew gentle.

So gentle, the very air in the cabin felt a velvet.