Twilight's Dawn

to purge Dhemlan the next time someone tried to harm Jaenelle Angelline.
    Anyone who remembered that threat and learned Daemon was the High Lord of Hell now would be scared witless.
    “I’m going to indulge myself in the shops and let him fuss over me while I do it,” Surreal continued. “That should please both of us.”
    Zhara laughed. “Yes, it should. Ah. I think your husband has sent a negotiator.”
    Surreal looked over her shoulder and saw Lucivar walking toward her.
    Lucivar greeted Zhara, then held out his hand to Surreal. “We’re dancing.”
    “Do you know how to negotiate?”
    “Sure.You want to lead?”
    Surreal looked at Zhara, who shrugged. Then she looked back at Lucivar. “Why are we dancing?”
    “I think your husband figured if you didn’t kick me in the balls, you were ready to suffer a dance with him.”
    Suffer a dance. That didn’t sound like words from a husband who hoped for a warm welcome on his wedding night.
    “He’s really upset that I wouldn’t let him stay and watch me pee?”
    She wasn’t sure Zhara was still breathing. She wasn’t sure Lucivar was breathing either until he said, “Well, shit. Come on. I’ll dance with you and knock some sense into his head afterward.”
    “You’d have more luck knocking sense into a stone wall.”
    “Don’t push it, witchling.”
    So she danced with Lucivar, then was handed off to Holt. And she watched a roomful of Dhemlan’s Queens and their aristo companions stand there with their mouths hanging open when Lucivar grabbed his brother and almost yanked Daemon off his feet as he hauled Sadi out of the ballroom.
    When they returned, both looking a little rumpled but otherwise unscathed, Daemon asked her for a dance—a request she granted.
    “Lucivar says I’m being an ass,” Daemon said.
    “He could have been looking in a mirror when he said it,” she replied sweetly.
    He let out a startled laugh. “I like the suggestion, but he was right. I can’t protect you from morning sickness or the other physical discomforts that will come, but I do want to protect you. I don’t want you to hurt.”
    “Everything has a price, Sadi.” She smiled at him. “But it eases the discomfort some to know you’re suffering with me in your own way.”
    “Really?”
    “Shit, no.”
    Chuckling, he drew her closer. “All right, Lady. I will try to behave and be reasonable.”
    “So will I, Prince. So will I.”

    “Do you think Daemon and Lucivar have tossed the last of the guests out the door?” Surreal asked Marian hours later. Pleading fatigue halfway through the festivities, she had come up to the family sitting room, and Marian and the children had come with her.
    “Don’t encourage Lucivar by saying things like that,” Marian said. “We live on a mountain. When someone gets tossed out of our house, there’s a long drop after the first step.”
    Surreal set her dinner tray on the table in front of the sofa. “How did we end up playing hawks and hares by ourselves?”
    “We let Daemonar and Titian go up to the playroom with the Scelties. They ran around until they all fell asleep. I didn’t want to run around, and you’re not allowed to run around. So we ended up here, playing hawks and hares, eating dinner off a tray, and not having to be polite.” Marian looked at the clock. “Shouldn’t you get ready for your wedding night?”
    “Do you think there will be one?” She tried to smile, but her eyes filled with tears.
    “Why would you say that?” Marian asked as she reached over and held one of Surreal’s hands.
    “He flinched when I slipped the wedding ring on his finger.”
    “I didn’t see that, and I was standing right next to you.”
    “I doubt anyone saw it, but I felt it. He’d been steady until that point, but he flinched when it came time to wear a wedding ring again.”
    Marian looked alarmed. “It’s not the same ring, is it?”
    “No. He had a new one made, but what it stands for . . .” Surreal sighed. “He’ll never get over Jaenelle. She will always be the love of his life.”
    “That doesn’t mean he won’t love you.”
    “I didn’t ask him to.” She rested her head on the back of the sofa and looked at the ceiling instead of at Marian. “When the conditions for the marriage were set, that was something he couldn’t promise, so it’s nothing I can expect.”
    She sat up, brushed her hair back, and stood up. “Enough melancholy. I hope this baby is in a better mood once it’s