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“I only remember small details of Noidrir. I was only a few years old when we left, and considering my age now…” He shrugged. “It is just glimpses of things.”

“The book with the weapons?”

“Came from Noidrir.”

“Do you have other books from there?”

“Not many, but a few, yes.”

She took another sip of wine, her nail tapping on the glass a few times. “The Fire Court is not my homeland.”

Razik’s glass paused for the briefest of moments as he raised it to his lips before he said, “Oh?”

Her nail tapped again. “I was born in the Earth Court. My mother had Earth gifts.”

“Cross-breeding is frowned upon among the Fae here,” Razik said in confusion.

“Indeed. It will be interesting to see how the Courts react to the news of Ashtine and Briar.”

Razik hummed an acknowledgment.

“Anyway, I was supposed to marry the Earth Prince. The pairing had been arranged before either of us were born,” she went on.

“Prince Azrael?”

She nodded. “My mother and her husband were both powerful Earth Court Fae. I got that power, but it was fire.”

“Her husband was not your father,” he said quietly in understanding.

Eliza nodded, draining the glass of wine. Razik was already reaching with the bottle to fill her glass, emptying the last of the wine.

“He forced you to leave?”

She huffed a harsh laugh. “Something like that, yeah.”

Neither of them said anything for several minutes, and she was reaching for a cheese cube when she said, “If your…father?” She glanced up at him. “Is that what you want me to call him?”

“I don’t want you to call him anything,” he said, settling back deeper into his chair. His brown hair curled around his ears, a few stray strands hanging forward and brushing along his face. He seemed relaxed, despite the topic she’d just brought up. His legs were spread, arm resting casually atop the table, and his fingers were loosely curled around the stem of his glass.

“Okay, well, if he is Temural’s Guardian, why did he come here? Why wasn’t he with Temural?”

“I already told you. One of the reasons he came here was to leave me with Tybalt.”

“But…why?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

She didn’t know. She didn’t know why she cared or why she was asking. So she said, “Because I’d like to think that if I wasn’t who I was, hadn’t experienced what I have, that this would be different. That you wouldn’t need to be questioning why I care enough to ask.”

His sapphire eyes held hers, and she saw it in the depths of them. Saw what should have been. Saw what he wanted. Saw what she couldn’t give him.

He didn’t say anything, and she couldn’t blame him. He owed her nothing. If he didn’t want to tell her about his father or why he’d been left behind, that was fine. She finally broke his stare and stood, using the bathing room once more before she climbed into the bed. Razik hadn’t moved. Was still sitting at the table, his eyes tracking her every move.

She was opening her mouth to bid him good night when he spoke first.