Page 157 of Death of a Mortal

“So you eat in an office alone?”

“Pretty much.”

Well, that was depressing. But if he never cooked, why was his kitchen so full of food andthings to cook with?

I set two plates full of meat, potatoes, vegetables, and a savory sauce I’d made down on the table as he came to sit down, first pulling the second chair out from under the table for me.

“So he’s a gentleman,” I said with a smirk.

He inclined his head. “A certain female in my life long ago taught me to treat every female as if she could one day be my mate.”

I fought an eye roll and wondered if it was my mother or his who taught him that. A wave of sadness settled over my heart as he picked up a book from the table.

My mother’s journal. I’d made a habit of carrying it around with me from room to room and had left it here.

“Did she mention me?” he asked, swallowing and laying a palm over the cover but not opening it.

I had plenty of sarcastic, joking answers ready at the surface, but suddenly, his golden glow dimmed, and an overwhelming sense of sadness radiated from him. “I believe she did. Not by name, but the description made me think it was you. Described you as broody and menacing.” I nudged his arm with a sympathetic smile on my face. The comment earned me a small smile in return as he dipped his head. “She said she trusted you and that you trusted her. That she gave you a purpose, thought you were the future of the rebellion. And she absolutely said you were verynotstrong. Super weak.”

This made him let loose a laugh, lifting his eyes to mine. “Sounds like Keryth, actually.”

In that moment, I realized he’d known her and cared about her. I also felt like maybe I could trust him, too, if she had. “She…didn’t seem right. She seemed to be in a constant struggle between her obsession with the rebellion and her desire to come back home to me. Said she was foggy and confused about why. Even tried to come back a couple of times but always returned to base. Drayce, I think…I think she was being forced or influenced. Did you ever notice?”

He contemplated for a few moments, the corners of his mouth turning down before he answered. “Sometimes I wondered how she stayed away when she talked so much of you and your father. But shealways said the same thing, that she was here to create a better world for you, so I believed she just missed you.”

We both took small, tentative bites of our dinner. It was objectively delicious, but the heaviness of the conversation and the words left unsaid overshadowed it.

I swallowed. “I was angry at first because I couldn’t understand it either. But I think I do now. There was something greater than her or me, or Cassius, at play. And I…I don’t blame her.”

I thought for the briefest moment that his eyes glistened with the beginning of tears, but he blinked, and when he met my eyes again, they were clear. “Thank you,” he said. “For sharing part of her with me.” He slid the closed journal across the table to me. “Both the journal and…her. And dinner is truly exquisite, Naci.”

I felt he was being genuine, but I also got the impression from the way he was looking at me that the food wasn’t what he really thought was exquisite. It made my heart beat faster.

I watched him for gods knew how long, getting lost in the honey-brown eyes and the hidden emotion I could see so clearly behind them.

“You loved her.” It wasn’t a question. I knew it.

“I did,” he said, the sadness in his voice making my heart squeeze. “She found me at my weakest point. I had been wandering from town to town in Calyxmoor for years, decades maybe, I don’t really know. After the accident, I didn’t know who or how to be. I was so young to lose my parents, my whole family, and she filled the void without even trying. She cared, and that meant more to me than the entire world’s worth of magic. I don’t mind saying I owe her my life.”

I blinked back my own tears. Everything seemed to make sense suddenly. I wasn’t sure I believed in fate, but he had needed her more than I did. Even if there was foul play to blame, fate put her where she needed to be.

I reached across the table and gripped his fist, which was clenched next to his plate, and for a moment, we just looked into each other’seyes. Not heat in my core or flushing of my cheeks, but a different warmth built within me. In my heart.

Gods, I needed to be absolutely sure this pull wasn’t because of our shared ties to my mother. So with a tight smile, I released his hand and went back to my plate.

“She mentioned Aerie, too, I think, she said—”

“What do you want, Naci? From this, from here?”

His questions caught me off guard. “I…I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I know you don’t feel at home here, but I want you to. I’ll never take that choice from you, but I can’t help but feel that you’re conflicted about whether or not to stay. And the other night didn’t help this uncertainty, I’m sure.”

I opened my mouth to reply but found I didn’t have the words. Drayce had always been a male of few words around me, but now he seemed to be open and vulnerable. Whether I wanted it to or not, it was breaking down the walls around my heart and my trust, even if only a little.

A knock at the door saved me from having to answer. He got up and opened it to find Bramick and Aerie standing there, one holding a bottle of red wine and the other grinning from ear to ear.

“Heard there was a party here tonight,” Aerie said as they pushed past Drayce and came to sit at the table. “Damn, Dray, you didn’t tell us there would be a gourmet dinner!”