The nursery was thick with the scent of lavender and the muffled, rhythmic breathing of a child finally spent.
Rael had cried himself into an exhausted stupor, his small body now tucked under the heavy furs of his bed.
Eris sat on the edge of the mattress, her fingers moving in a slow, hypnotic rhythm through his dark hair, smoothing the damp strands away from his forehead.
Every time she pulled her hand away, his brow would furrow in his sleep, and she would immediately return to soothing him.
Soren stood a few paces back, his shadow long and imposing against the nursery wall.
He watched the way she touched the boy, the raw, maternal tenderness that seemed to exist in a different world from the fire-starting Empress he knew.
He saw the soot still smudged on her jaw and the way her shoulders slumped when she thought he wasn't looking.
