Page 36 of Gua rdian of Blood and Shadow

“To have his way with you?” Wes scoffed and glanced behind us at the four deadly immortals slumbering in my bed. “Soph, they would tear him apart in a heartbeat if he so much as looked at you wrong.” He bumped me with his shoulder, sending cool tingles cascading down my arm. “What if you’re right? What if heistrying to lure you down there—to talk? What if you discover heisthe Star consort? Or just an ally?”

I glanced at Wes, suddenly feeling like the uncertain girl I’d been when we first met. “When did you get so wise?”

He laughed under his breath. “Death offers perspective,” he said simply. “And I’ve had years to watch you build walls that keep out friends as effectively as enemies.”

His words settled in my chest like stones dropped in still water, rippling outward with uncomfortable truth. I’d survived by keeping people at a distance. Even now, even with my consorts, I struggled to lower my guard completely.

I returned my gaze to Reiji, who was now sitting on a stone bench, his head tilted back to take in the night sky, looking surprisingly vulnerable. Without the political posturing and calculated charm, he seemed almost…human.

“I should talk to him,” I said, surprising myself with the decision.

Wes smiled, that crooked half-smile that had always made my heart skip. “Yeah,” he agreed simply. “You should.”

21

Theherbgardenfeltdifferent in this liminal hour—not quite night, not quite dawn. Apparently, I liked it because I kept finding myself walking the garden’s stone paths in my robe in the predawn hour.

Reiji didn’t look up as I approached where he knelt by a raised bed, but his movements shifted—becoming more deliberate. Up close, I could see the aristocratic planes of his face softened by the dim light, the careful precision in his shadowed eyes. A silver chain glinted at his throat, disappearing beneath his collar. The moonlight caught in his long hair, the strands pulled back loosely, highlighting silver undertones I hadn’t noticed during our formal meeting.

Wes drifted beside me, his presence crackling against my skin.

“Your aura shifts when spirits are near,” Reiji said quietly, his fingers arranging sprigs of something fragrant into neat bundles with practiced grace. He glanced up, his gaze sweeping past Wes’s location without focusing on the ghost.

“You can sense him?” I asked, my curiosity overriding caution. “But not see him?”

Reiji shook his head, a half-smile playing at the corner of his lips. The expression softened his usually composed features, making him suddenly seem younger, less calculating. “Neither. I feel disturbances where the veil thins around you. Impressions of your ghost’s presence, but not the being itself.” He tilted his head, studying me with an intensity that made me more aware of my disheveled appearance in a T-shirt and robe despite the chill. “Your ghost watches over you with great devotion. Strong attachments leave deeper impressions in the fabric between worlds.”

“He was important to me,” I said, barely above a whisper. “He still is, even though he’s gone.” I touched my pendant through the T-shirt, aware of how Reiji’s gaze followed the movement. “He’s one of the few connections I have to who I was before all this.”

“Before you became the High Queen,” Reiji said quietly, his eyes holding mine. Something in them softened when I didn’t look away. “Though I imagine you were always meant for this role, even when hidden away. The stars have patterns that go unnoticed until we learn to see them.” He returned to his herb gathering.

“You’re out here awfully late…or early, depending on your perspective,” I said. “Couldn’t sleep?”

Reiji’s hands paused, just briefly enough that someone less observant might have missed it. A smile touched his lips that reached his eyes this time. “I was hoping we might speak. Somewhere away from politics and protocols.” He gave a self-deprecating shrug. “I thought perhaps we got off on the wrong foot yesterday.”

I nodded once, appreciating his candor. “Your proposal wasn’t exactly subtle.”

He blew out a breath and sat back on his heels. “I’ve been told diplomacy isn’t my strong suit. I tend to be too direct. It puts people off.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, testing his apparent sincerity. “Is that what you’re doing out here at dawn? Being direct?”

He studied me for a long moment, then gestured to the space beside him. “I’m trying to be authentic. There’s a difference.” He returned to gathering herbs, his movements fluid and practiced. “Not everything is political maneuvering, though I understand why you’d think so.”

I considered his words for a long moment. “What are you gathering?” I asked, sitting on the edge of the raised bed near him, tucking my hands into the pockets of my robe.

“Mostly protection herbs.” He lifted a sprig to his nose, inhaling deeply before adding it to his bundle. “Rosemary for clarity, sage for purification.” He glanced at me, his expression thoughtful. “Does your ghost approve of our conversation, I wonder?”

I glanced at Wes, who shrugged, his spectral features suspicious. “He’s reserving judgment,” I shared.

Reiji rose to his feet in one fluid motion. He stepped closer, close enough that I could catch his scent beneath the herbs—something like amber and warm spices, with a hint of something celestial, like stardust. “And you?” he asked, staring down at me.

“Still deciding,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt.

He held a hand out to me. “Would you walk with me?”

Hesitating only for a moment, I placed my hand in his. As I stood, he tucked my hand into the crook of his arm, like we were setting out for a good old-fashioned stroll like a couple in a Jane Austen novel. “I believe we face a common enemy far greater than the petty rivalries between our Houses, and I believe you may be the only one who can unite us against it.”

My eyebrows rose. Finally, we were getting to the point. “And your proposal yesterday? Was that just political calculation?”

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