Through this, however, I would never belong to him. With my mother gone, I would never belong to anyone.

But in thinking on it, I decided this wouldn’t be so bad.

It could be worse.

And I knew one thing, if True could, he’d always try to make it better.

It just would never be…everything.

“Farah?” True called as if he knew the turn of my thoughts.

“I’ll wake you if I can’t sleep, True.”

“All right, love,” he murmured, rounding me with both arms and holding me to his body.

True did not fall asleep quickly.

I did not either.

But he fell asleep.

And when he did, his presence, his warmth, the steadiness of his breath…

Meant I did too.

King Aramus

Guest Suite, Second Floor, East Corridor, Catrame Palace, Fire City

FIRENZE

Aramus approached the bed his wife lay in, her back to his side of the mattress, the lamp at her nightstand blown out.

He did not sigh with discouragement.

He also did not hesitate.

He blew out his lamp and slid in beside his wife.

He then turned to his side and slid toward his wife, for the first time touching her in their bed by taking her in his arms. He then forced her rigid body into the curve of his.

“I was upset earlier,” he said into her curls when he settled with his arm holding her close.

She made no reply.

“I spoke in hurt and anger,” he admitted.

Ha-Lah said nothing.

“I said things, many of them I regret,” he told her.

His queen remained silent.

“Deeply,” he stressed.

She still had nothing to say.

“And the things I regret, deeply, are the things I said that hurt you.”

She still had no reply.

He pressed closer to her. “Wife, speak to me. Shout at me. Curse at me. Scratch at my eyes. Something.”

There was nothing but a stiff form in his arm, and in his nose, the scent of the oil in her hair.

“We began to bridge the chasm separating us,” he murmured. “Do not let pride force it to spread between us again.”

“I was taken from my home,” she said softly.

Thank Medusa.

She was speaking.

She’d said not a word to him since that morning.

Aramus pushed ever closer to her, at the same time pulling her closer to him.

“I was taken from my family, my friends, my village, all that I knew,” she continued.

And now, if her tone was aught to go by, he was learning how she felt about that.

Not the optimal time, considering. Especially with the words she was saying and how she was saying them.

But he would be glad to know it.

“My wife,” he whispered.