Chapter 84

That night I slept on that indulgently soft bed, beneath those fresh silk sheets. Muted light from the fires out on the desert sands patterned the curtain and sparkled in the stained glass. My body could not have wished for greater comfort, but my mind was restless.

Our need is shared. We are inevitable. The Prince's words swam through my head.

I saw the strange logic. If I was trapped here for all time, then it wouldn't matter how many years or decades or centuries I denied myself the taste of him; there would come a night when I would offer myself to him eventually.

So why resist at all, if it was inescapable?

I drifted, indecisive, between wakefulness and sleep. I rested my eyelids.

I dreamt of Krimeya. Scarlet with anguish as she discovered our home empty but for salt and smoke. Her hypocritical, heartbroken, howl cracking like a whip through the centre of my chest.

I lay awake terrified that she might come looking for me,