Page 228 of The Spider Queen

I swallowed.

“He wants what he can’t have. It’s why he starts wars with his brother.”

“Lucifer wants what he can’t have,” I murmured in repetition. “What will he take from us?

“There’s no way to know, Poppy,” Thane said gently. “So we worry about things we can control, and when the time comes…”

“When the time comes, we pray that Lucifer’s anger has diminished enough that he doesn’t completely destroy our lives.” I slid off his lap and headed for the steps. “Thank you.”

“For?”

“Making a deal with the devil for my life. I’m—I wasn’t ready. To leave you.”

“I don’t think you’ll ever be ready. I don’t thinkI’llever be ready. But prosperous times are ahead of us, and when war comes again, let us hope you become a better warrior.”

I reached for a towel on the edge of the bath and wrapped it around me. “Better warrior? I savedyou.”

He snorted as he followed me, naked, back to our tent. The gossamer curtains reflected sunlight. “I guess we saved each other.”

My mouth curled up into a small smile. “Guess so.”

Thane leaned down to kiss me. “Hungry?”

I let the towel drop. “Famished.”

Chapter 48

The next morning, I stepped out of the tent at the edge of the battle encampment. The field already looked completely different from the day before. There were piles of burning demon corpses, and the green lawn was scorched in patches. Dragons flew overhead, every now and again letting loose a stream of fire to incinerate the ground. Wisps of smoke spiraled into the air and then disappeared.

I’d asked my spiders for clothes, and they’d woven me a pair of soft brown breeches and a loose-fitting shirt, very reminiscent of Queen Aisling’s outfit. But after days in the spider suit, it was nice to wear something different. Not that Thane had let me put on any clothes during the night.

I wasn’t complaining, despite the ache between my legs.

“Burning the fallen?” I asked, pulling the tent flap aside so Thane could join me outside.

He was still dressed like a warrior for battle, his sword sheathed at his side. “Yes. Burning the defeated. Those who fought on our side and fell will be taken back to their families and domains.”

I was silent, unsure of my role, unsure of what I was supposed to do. I never actually thought we’d win. I assumed Thane and I would die, and whatever state the world was left in, it would be up to those that remained to restore it.

Thane glanced down and smiled at my clear confusion. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his side. Even though we still had privacy, he leaned down and whispered in my ear, “We get to live now, Poppy. As we were always supposed to.”

I leaned back to look up at him and raised an eyebrow. “Naked? Right? You want me naked? For like, days?”

“Years. Try years.”

I laughed. “We never did talk about any of the life plans we wanted.”

“What do you mean? Three point two children. Country house. That sort of thing?”

“Well, yeah. Then again, do immortals really have those kind of discussions?”

“We don’t need a country house,” he teased.

“And the three point two children?”

“You want to talk about this now?”

“As you pointed out, we’re not fighting for our lives. So yeah, Thane. I’d kind of like to talk about what our future is going to look like.”