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A breathy chuckle escaped her lips. “I should probably apologize, it seemed a bit harsh.”

“Absolutely not,” I snapped as my boots fell back to the floor with a loud thud. “Own your authority Cin. She is not our headmaster anymore and you are about to become her Queen. She is the one that should be apologizing for her condescension.”

Cin groaned. “Gods, aQueen. I am actually going to be a Queen.”

A grin broke onto my lips as I stood and bowed to her.

“Never do that again.” She laughed, draping an arm around my shoulders as we turned and walked into the sitting room to find Landers already immersed in maps he had strewn about the small table beside him.

She planted a kiss on my forehead before striding over to Landers and letting her arms fall over the back of his chair, her fingers caressing gently over his chest. He tilted his chin up toward her as a soft smile formed on his lips, his hands moving to slide over her forearms.

“I am going to bed,” she said, pressing her lips to his. I leaned against the hearth, flicking my fingers toward it and watching as the flames danced to life. “Try not to maim each other in my absence.”

I tilted my head, flashing a grin. “I can try, but I make no promises.”

She shook her head, giving Landers another kiss before walking into the bedchamber and closing the door.

“Have you seen Cyloe?” I asked, turning toward the bar cart in the corner of the room and pulling the stopper from the decanter to pour myself a drink.

“As a matter of fact, I have,” Landers said, grinning as I turned to face him. He gestured his head toward the home’s entrance and I followed his line of sight. “She almost gave Wren a heart attack on his way out.”

My eyes landed on the reptile coiled around the bamboo beams separating the small foyer to the sitting room and cringed.

I fucking hated snakes.

She slithered down the smooth surface and as her scaled belly hit the ground I watched as she morphed back into wolf form. It was such an unnatural, beautiful thing to watch and I wondered if that was what it looked like when I shifted from skin to skin.

“What you said to Gimara,” Landers started and I braced myself for a scolding. “It was needed and I am glad you said it.”

I blinked at him.

That was not where I expected this to go.

“We are lucky to have you on our side. You are lethal and unashamed of it. That is needed in times like these. I am glad you are back,” he said, glancing back down at his maps.

Back.

He said it so casually, as if I had been off on holiday and not actively destroying everything I loved.

But it was true, I was back. I had made it out of hell. A small smile crept onto my lips at the thought.

Maybe I wasn’t as broken as I’d believed.

“Why her?” I asked, as I turned to Landers and watched the flames dance across his features. “You could’ve had anyone, in all these centuries. Why choose her?”

A brief silence passed between us as he set down the map he was holding.

“I had no choice in it,” he said, a light chuckle falling from his lips as he glanced up to meet my stare. “You know, the first time the idea of loving her ever crossed my mind was in the safe house in Locdragoon, when she slapped me with her shadows.”

He smiled almost to himself, pulling his eyes to the fire as I fell into the chair beside him.

“I remember that,” I said, a faint smile pulling at the corners of my mouth. “You were being your usual insufferable self, as I recall.”

He let out a breathy laugh and nodded. “The first thought that went through my head when she did that was: ‘I think I could love this woman.’ It was fleeting and inconsequential in that moment, but it stuck in the back of my mind. And as I watched her, as I learned about her, that thought became louder, more persistent.” He ran a hand through his hair, leaning further intohis chair. “She is the most exquisite creature I have ever seen. Her beauty is unlike anything I have ever laid eyes on and still, it is the least interesting thing about her.”

It was such an accurate description of Cin. Her beauty could steal the breath from your lungs but it didn’t come close to the heart she had.

Nothingcould compare to that.