“I would have liked tonight to have been much different for you and me. Not just tonight, today as well. I have no power over that. It was how it was and the only thing I can say about it is that it is done. And now, we’ve both had trying days. As I told you last night, we will do as you wish, only what you wish. But most importantly for me, for this night, is that my wife gets some rest.”

He slid his hand out of my hair so he could run the pad of his thumb gently under one of my eyes.

“I do not like these shadows, my queen,” he finished on a whisper.

That was the Mars that I knew, now, I was coming to love.

But the Mars I knew now was also someone to fear.

He could cut a man in half with one swing of his sword.

And he did not hesitate to climb over bodies of dead.

He had told me I would know what it was like to be Firenz.

Now I knew.

It scared the daylights out of me.

And was vastly confusing.

For there was that Mars.

And there was this one right before me.

“Silence,” he called, and I focused on him again. “You’re drifting, amore.”

“I’m tired,” I mumbled.

“Then upstairs.” He bent and touched his lips to mine, pulling not far away. “Time with your pet. Your woman. And then your husband. No?”

I nodded.

He smiled, and it was not wolfish.

It was kind and doting.

Why could this not be the only Mars?

And why could this Mars not be only mine?

“I will see you up there,” I told him.

“This is an absolute,” he replied, humor being added to the kind and doting.

I gave him a small smile back.

He hugged me (a barbarian, hugging) before he let me go.

I looked back at him as I walked away and saw him standing there, watching me.

Most assuredly doting.

What had I done to earn that?

I could not battle, like Elena and Serena.

I could not clear guests without seeming impolite, like Elpis.

I could never wear a gown that showed my knickers and had swirls of silver sequins that claimed me the queen of an entire country through just a garment and do it with grace and majesty, like Ha-Lah.

And yet there he was.

Doting on me.

I was caught only thrice by royal guests on my way to the stairs, and when I turned at the first landing, I realized that Elpis (or possibly Mars, or alternately Tril) had a servant boy waiting for me.

I knew this because he caught one glance at me and took off running.

Thus, by the time I moved through the door to Mars’s bedchamber, Tril was dashing toward me.

“I watched through the windows, love,” she cried. “It’s all so terribly exciting.”

Hmm.