"Yes, but I don't think she should be let out on her own, do you?"
Astrid hesitated. "You may be right."
Zarek sank to the floor and pulled her down with him. He checked his watch to see that it was less than two hours to sundown.
Less than two hours to be with the woman who had come to mean so much to him.
Lying down, he closed his eyes as she laid her head on his chest and traced circles over him.
"Tell me something good, princess. Tell me what you'll do when this is over."
Astrid stopped moving her hand in circles as she thought about that. What she wanted was to stay with Zarek. But how?
Artemis would have to let him go and she knew her cousin well enough to know Artemis didn't share her toys.
"I'll miss you, Prince Charming."
She felt him tense at that. "Will you really?"
"Yes, I will. What about you?"
"I'll survive. I always do."
Yes, he did. In ways that astounded her.
Astrid traced the line of his jaw. "You should be resting."
"I don't want to rest. I just want to feel you for a little while."
She smiled at that.
"Are you two going to kiss?" Simi asked. "Maybe I should go upstairs or something."
Astrid laughed. "It's okay, Simi. We won't kiss in front of you."
"Does she sleep?" Zarek asked.
"I don't know. Simi, do you sleep?"
"Yes, I do. I have a lovely bed, too. It got dragons carved on it and this big old ivory-colored canopy over the top. Akri had it special made for me long time ago and it has a windup dancer on the headboard. When I was a baby demon, akri would wind it up after he tucked me into bed and I used to watch it until I went to sleep. Sometimes he would sing lullabies to me, too. Akri a good daddy. He takes good care of his Simi."
"What about you, princess?" Zarek asked. "Did your mother tuck you in as a child?"
"Every night, unless she was judging someone and then my sister Atty would."
Astrid didn't ask Zarek who tucked him in. She already knew the answer to that.
No one.
She snuggled closer to him.
Zarek stared up at the jagged top of the tunnel. Funny how more than fifty years ago he'd dug this part of it never knowing that one day he would lie here with a lover by his side.
Astrid.
He had no business being with her. No right to touch her.
She was as close to heaven as a man like him was ever going to get.