The Broken Crown

Chapter 60

Anaïs

 Anaïs watched as the Shadow worked. His body was covered in sweat and his skin glistened. His form had changed since he arrived here. He was still lithe and silent, yet his body had become more muscled and trained with hard work. When he looked up at her, he gave her a small smile, yet to someone who knew him, that seemed like a beam.

 She laughed and looked down at Aryavan, who was nestled against her. “Can you wave to your father?” she asked as she took his hand and lifted it in something that could be mistaken for a wave.

 The man below lifted his hand in reply. This was something she could have never anticipated years ago, when she first met him. Something strangely warm and gentle had entered him since they had their son, something that contradicted his very person, yet something she was quite sure she had known to exist all along.

 He was still rough along all of his edges, of course, and he still travelled for long weeks and sometimes months to the North. When he came back, it was still with blood stained hands. He did not lie about his work.

 There were rumours of strange going-ons in the North: a marriage to the Bad Family, a battle in which the son of Lamarck died, another princess and a speech held by the Queen for the people in the near future. She and the Shadow had discussed them and they had both agreed there was change in the air, but while Anaïs now listened to the spirits surrounding her, he still remained shackled to his realism.

 “I think I might have to do some rituals,” Anaïs told him as she lay in bed, watching him undress. She still loved doing that. There was something special about watching a man so enclosed bare himself to her.

 “That sounds terribly stressful.” There was an edge to his words, but she ignored it. She knew how against the system of the jakeen he was. He thought it unjust that they should not work just because they saw things when breathing smoke.

 “Yes, very,” she said instead. They had fought about this in the past and she still winced at the things he had said to her – and, even more so, the things she had said to him.

 He looked at her and his gaze turned softer. “What kinds of rituals?”

 “Private ones.” Anaïs drew off her clothes. “Asha will be wanting to go to war soon, I can feel it. The warmth is making her restless.”

 The Shadow kneeled on the skins of their bed and crawled to her. “Then it is good you know exactly what to do when our Kahari gets bored,” he muttered, taking her face in his hands and kissing her.

 She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment as she took him in. She really did love him, in spite of all that he had done. At least, she knew she had to, in order to accept him. Still, it felt nothing like she had imagined it would.

 “I also have a few ideas for you,” she whispered, “if you are bored.”

 She giggled when he crashed their lips together and pushed her back into the furs. His lips travelled down from her mouth and before long, she was gasping beneath his touch. Their lips met once more as he entered her, for a few moments, before he buried his face in the joint of her shoulder and neck. She felt his growls as much as she heard them and as they reached their peak, he bit her shoulder, marking her.

 As he rolled away from her, she could not help but laugh breathily. He reached for her and easily rolled her over so that she was lying halfway on top of him.

 “I hope this is not what you do to distract the Kahari, too,” he mumbled.

 She giggled and crawled up his body. “Not,” she whispered suggestively and kissed him, “quite.”