Azriel crossed his arms, still smiling faintly. “I don’t need to resort to it.”
Mor let out a crow of laughter, and I snorted, earning a jab in the ribs from Cassian. I batted his hand away, but refrained from the shove I wanted to give him, only because it was the first I’d seen of him since Adriata and shadows still dimmed his eyes—and because of the precarious-feeling thing atop my head.
The crown.
Rhys had crowned me at each and every meeting and function we’d had, long before I was his mate, long before I was his High Lady. Even Under the Mountain.
I’d never questioned the tiaras and diadems and crowns that Nuala or Cerridwen wove into my hair. Never objected to them—even before things between us had been this way. But this one … I peered up the stairs as Rhys’s strolling, unhurried footsteps thudded on the carpet.
This crown was heavier. Not unwelcome, but … strange. And as Rhys appeared at the top of the stairs, resplendent in that black jacket, his wings out and gleaming as if he’d polished them, I was again in that room he’d brought me to late last night, after I’d awoken him with my thrashing and twisting in bed.
It was contained a level above the library in the House of Wind, and warded with so many spells that it had taken him a few moments to work through them. Only he and I—and any future offspring, he added with a soft smile—were able to enter. Unless we brought guests.
The chamber was a cool, chill black—as if we’d stepped inside the mind of some sleeping beast. And within its round space gleamed glittering islands of light. Of jewels.
Ten thousand years’ worth of treasure.
It was neatly organized, in podiums and open drawers and busts and racks.
“The family jewels,” Rhys said with a devious grin. “Some of the pieces we don’t like are kept at the Court of Nightmares, just so they don’t get pissy and because we sometimes loan them to Mor’s family, but these … these are for the family.”
He led me past displays that sparkled like small constellations, the worth of each … Even as a merchant’s daughter, I could not calculate the worth of any of it.
And toward the back of the chamber, shrouded in a heavier darkness …
I’d heard of catacombs on the continent, where skulls of beloved or infamous people were kept in little alcoves—dozens or hundreds of them to a wall.
The concept here was the same: carved into the rock was an entire wall of crowns. They each had their own resting place, lined with black velvet, each illuminated by—
“Glowworms,” Rhys told me as the tiny, bluish globs crusted in the arches of each nook seemed to glitter like the entire night sky. In fact … What I’d taken for small faelights in the ceiling high above … It was all glowworms. Pale blue and turquoise, their light as silken as moonlight, illumining the jewels with their ancient, silent fire.
“Pick one,” Rhys whispered in my ear.
“A glowworm?”
He nipped at my earlobe. “Smartass.” He steered me back toward the wall of crowns, each wholly different—as individual as skulls. “Pick whichever crown you like.”
“I can’t just—take one.”
“You most certainly can. They belong to you.”
I lifted a brow. “They don’t—not really.”
“By law and tradition, this is all yours. Sell it, melt it, wear them—do whatever you want.”
“You don’t care about it?” I gestured to the trove worth more than most kingdoms.
“Oh, I have favorite pieces that I might convince you to spare, but … This is yours. Every last piece of it.”
Our eyes met, and I knew he, too, recalled the words that I’d whispered to him months ago. That every piece of my still-healing heart belonged to him. I smiled, and brushed a hand down his arm before approaching the wall of crowns.
I had been terrified once, in Tamlin’s court, of being given a crown. Had dreaded it. And I supposed that I indeed had never fretted over it when it came to Rhys. As if some small part of me had always known that this was where I was meant to be: at his side, as his equal. His queen.
Rhys inclined his head as if to say yes—he saw and understood and had always known.
Now striding down the town house stairs, Rhys’s attention went right to that crown atop my head. And the emotion that rippled across his face was enough to make even Mor and Cassian look away.
I’d let the crown call to me. I hadn’t picked it for style or comfort, but for the draw I felt to it, as if it were that ring in the Weaver’s cottage.
My crown was crafted of silver and diamond, all fashioned into swirls of stars and various phases of the moon. Its arching apex held aloft a crescent moon of solid diamond, flanked by two exploding stars. And with the glittering dress from Starfall …
Rhys stepped off the stairs and took my hand.
Night Triumphant—and the Stars Eternal.
If he was the sweet, terrifying darkness, I was the glittering light that only his shadows could make clear.
“I thought you were leaving,” Nesta’s voice cut in from atop the stairs.
I braced myself, dragging my attention away from Rhys.
Nesta was in a gown of darkest blue, no jewelry to be seen, her hair swept up and unadorned as well. I supposed that with her stunning beauty, she needed no ornamentation. It would have been like putting jewelry on a lion. But for her to be dressed like that …
She strode down the stairs, and when the others were silent, I realized …
I tried not to look too obvious as I glanced at Cassian.
They had not seen each other since Adriata.
But the warrior only gave her a cursory once-over and turned toward Azriel to say something. Mor was watching both carefully—the warning she’d given my sister ringing silently between them. And Nesta, Mother damn it all, seemed to remember. Seemed to rein in whatever words she’d been about to spit and just approached me.
And nearly made my heart stop dead with shock as she said, “You look beautiful.”
I blinked at her.
Mor said, “That, Cassian, was what you were attempting to say.”
He grumbled something we chose not to hear. I said to Nesta, “Thank you. You do as well.”
Nesta only shrugged.
I pushed, “Why are you dressed so nicely? Shouldn’t you be practicing with Amren?”
I felt Cassian’s attention slide to us, felt them all look as Nesta said, “I’m going with you.”
CHAPTER
42
No one said anything.
Nesta only lifted her chin. “I …” I’d never seen her stumble for words. “I do not want to be remembered as a coward.”
“No one would say that,” I offered quietly.