“You liked it?” I asked, even though I didn’t have to.
“I did,” he said after a moment. “You know that I did.”
Apex helped me to my feet. The bathroom was all but flooded from how long we’d left the shower running, and my pants were soaked from kneeling in the water. He stripped me out of them with surprising gentleness, and my top as well, before he guided me to bed. For the first time since I’d met him, his steps were heavy enough to make sound.
“Do you think you will still struggle to sleep?” he asked as he pulled me against him beneath the covers.
It took me a second to remember my excuse for going into the bathroom in the first place. I laughed as I grabbed his hand and pulled it to my heart, which was still thundering away in my chest with every beat.
“I might,” I admitted. “That was…a little too exciting to fall asleep after, I think.”
“Come here, then.” He pulled me closer still and pressed a kiss to my temple as I settled my cheek against his chest. “Listen to my heartbeat instead. Match your breathing to mine.”
To my surprise, it worked. Slowly but surely, my pulse started to match his.
We drifted off together, wet and exhausted, our hearts beating like they were one.
10
Apex
All night, no matter how deep I might have slept, I felt the slight weight of Atlanta’s head on my chest. She was positioned over my heart like a sacred stone, immovable and pleasantly heavy as I skimmed between dreams to waking to dreams once again.
I only hoped that the stone she represented would not be the one over my grave when this was over. Lady Idria’s commands to me while I was here on Nightmoor were many, but taking pleasure from Atlanta when I was supposed to be gaining her trust?
Lady Idria had certainly not mentioned doing that.
I awoke with a start as I heard, distantly, two sets of footsteps coming from down the hall. It was lucky that I had heard them at all. Sleeping in bed next to Atlanta like this was so comfortable, it would have been all too easy to drift off for days in the deepest sleep I’d ever known. Thankfully, my training would have never allowed it. Not here on Nightmoor, where snakes slithered between every crack in every stone and danger lurked behind every door.
“To the foot of the bed. Quickly.” I leapt from bed and groped around in the dimness of the room for a fresh pair of underclothes.
“Huh?” Atlanta blinked up at me and rubbed her eyes with a yawn. “Why? What’s—”
“Go. Now.” I yanked the blanket from the bed and threw it on top of her as she scrambled down to the end of the mattress, where obedient slaves were supposed to rest. “Someone is coming. Do not be afraid.”
I slipped back into bed where I had been sleeping so luxuriously only a few moments before. It did not surprise me that I found it less comfortable without Atlanta by my side. The nights here were chilly, and I found myself missing the warmth of her body next to mine.
I did not have to miss it long, though.
“Good morning, Apex!” Queen Lieja threw the door open and burst through it with a ridiculous amount of fanfare for how early it was. The first light from the planet’s distant, dying star had not even begun to crawl through the room’s window yet. “I hope I did not wake you?”
It was hard not to scowl. At this hour, waking me was exactly what her intention had been. Likely, she had hoped to catch me in some form of misbehavior.
To her credit, it had almost worked.
“Good morning, Your Highness.” I stretched and covered my mouth with the back of my hand, feigning a slight yawn. “It is never too early for an audience from you. To what do I owe this pleasure?”
Lieja shook her hair over her shoulder with a toss of her head and shifted her gaze from me to Atlanta, who was still pretending to sleep at the foot of the bed. When Lieja saw her there, she smiled.
“Just making sure that our little human is behaving herself. She is lovely when she sleeps, is she not?”
“And quiet,” I added, knowing that it would earn me a laugh.
Just as I hoped, Lieja tossed her head back and let out a howl of laughter so loud, even Atlanta could not pretend to sleep through it. Atlanta was a fine actress, a fact that did not surprise me given how she had behaved when I caught her bathing. If I had not known better, with the way she scrunched up her face and shifted beneath the blanket, I would have believed that she had just been awoken myself.
“I see the training is going as well as I had hoped.” Lieja gave me an approving nod. “Well. I will not keep you then. I merely wanted to ask…”
“Anything, Your Highness.”
“It is only…” Lieja pouted slightly. Her voice was as cloyingly sweet as the candied gilly-fruits I had seen her gulping down over breakfast the day before. “We have missed the entertainment our little human gave us very much at night. Would she perhaps be willing to dance for us again tonight, do you think? After she has been checked for weapons, of course.”
Lieja touched the place just above her breast where Atlanta’s dagger had nearly penetrated. As much as she enjoyed watching Atlanta dance, I was certain she would not be forgetting Atlanta’s assassination attempt anytime soon.
“She would be happy to,” I told Lieja. “Whatever you desire. She is at your disposal, as am I.”
“Careful, Apex.” Lieja batted her lashes at me and blew me a kiss before she turned to leave. “If you were truly
