I didn't go to the council meeting.
I couldn't.
My skin felt too tight, like it was vibrating from the heat of the springs and the way Athan had looked at me…I went back to our rooms instead. I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the stone floor.
The beast, he'd said.
I looked at my hands. They were shaking. Was I actually ready? Or was I just being a brat? I didn't even know.
My brain felt like a bowl of soup. One second I was terrified of him, and the next, I wanted to go find that servant from the bathhouse just to show him how much of a "Queen" I actually was.
When the heavy doors finally creaked open hours later, I didn't move. I heard his footsteps. They were heavy…tired even. I heard the rustle of his wings—that soft, leathery sound that usually made my heart skip three beats.
"The Lords are idiots," Athan muttered. He sounded like he'd spent the afternoon eating glass.
He threw his heavy black cloak onto a chair. He looked at me, then looked away. The tension in the room was so thick I could practically taste it…It tasted like copper and old smoke.
"Are you okay?" I asked. It was a stupid question. He was a demon king. He was never just "okay."ugh Celeste be cool.
"Fine," he said. He sat down on the bed next to me. Not too close, but close enough that I could feel the heat coming off him. "They want more border patrols. They think the Aetherians are scouting the lower passes."
"Are they?"
"Probably." He rubbed his face with his hands. "It doesn't matter. Not right now."
I shifted closer. My heart was doing that annoying thing where it tries to jump out of my throat…I wanted to touch him, but I didn't want him to pull away again. That rejection still stung a little, even if I knew why he did it.
"Athan?"
"Yeah?"
"Lie down."
He frowned at me, his golden eyes narrowing. "What?"
"Just lie down. You look like you're about to collapse. I'm not going to bite you." I paused, my face heating up. "Unless you want me to."
He let out a short, dry laugh. It wasn't his dark, scary laugh. It was just... tired. He kicked off his boots and fell back onto the furs. He didn't take off his shirt this time. He just lay there, staring at the canopy of the bed.
I crawled over to him. I felt small—I was Infact small—I felt like a little silver mouse next to a mountain. I hesitated for a second, my mind screaming that this was a bad idea, but then I just did it. I laid my head on his chest.
I froze.
I blinked, pressing my ear harder against his black tunic. I moved my head an inch to the left, then an inch to the right.
"Wait," I whispered.
"What's wrong?" Athan's voice was a low rumble beneath me. I could feel the vibration in his ribcage.
"I hear... I hear two."
I sat up a little, propping myself on my elbows so I could look at his face. He wasn't looking at the ceiling anymore. He was looking at me, his expression unreadable.
"Two what?" he asked, though I think he already knew.
"Two hearts," I said. "There are two different beats. One is slow. It's like... a drum in the distance. Steady. Heavy. But the other one..." I pressed my hand flat against the center of his chest. "The other one is fast. It's frantic. It sounds like it's trying to break out of your ribs."
Athan stayed very still. His hand came up, hovering near my waist before he finally let it rest there. His grip was firm.
"Demons are different from other beings, Celeste," he said quietly. "We have the physical heart. The one that keeps the blood moving. That's the slow one. It's been beating for four hundred years. It doesn't get excited. It just works."
"And the other one?" I asked. My voice was barely a breath.
"The core," he said. "The demon heart. It's where the magic lives. It's where the soul lives."
I leaned back down, resting my ear against the spot where the fast beat was loudest. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. It was wild. It felt dangerous. It felt like a trapped animal.
"It's so fast," I murmured. "Is it always like this?"
"No." His hand tightened on my waist. "It usually sleeps. It only wakes up when there's a threat. Or when I'm... when I'm with someone I Love."
I felt a surge of something—not fear, but a strange kind of pride. I did that to him. The "Beast" he was so afraid of was currently losing its mind just because I was lying on his chest.
"Why do you have two?" I asked. I knew it was a simple question, maybe even a dumb one, but I wanted to hear him talk. I wanted to keep him here, in this quiet moment, before the war or the Lords took him back.
"Because one isn't enough to contain what we are," Athan explained. He started to stroke my silver hair, his claws retracted so he wouldn't scratch me. It was a messy, awkward movement, like he wasn't sure if he was allowed to do it. "The first heart is for the man. The second is for the monster. Most of my kind let the monster heart take over. It's easier. You don't have to feel things like guilt or doubt when the core is in charge. You just hunt."
"But you don't," I said.
"I try not to," he corrected. "But today... in the springs... the core was the only thing I could hear. It wanted to claim you. It wanted to mark you so that every living thing in the Underworld knew you were off-limits."
I closed my eyes, listening to the dual rhythm. It was like a song. A weird, monstrous song.
"Does it hurt?" I asked. "Having them fight each other?"
Athan was silent for a long time. I thought maybe he'd fallen asleep, but then he spoke. "Every day. It's like having two kings in one throne room. They don't like to share."
I shifted, sliding my arm across his stomach so I could pull myself closer. I wanted to be as close to those heartbeats as possible. I wanted to soak them into my skin.
"Which one is the one that saved me?" I whispered. "The man or the monster?"
"Both," Athan said. He turned on his side, pulling me flush against him. His wings curved around us like a tent, shutting out the rest of the room. It was dark and warm inside the circle of his feathers. "The man wanted to protect you. The monster wanted to keep you."
He took my hand and pressed it directly over the fast-beating heart. It was pulsing so hard I could feel it through his shirt and my palm. It felt like a living thing, warm and terrifying.
"Listen to me, Celeste," he said. His voice was different now. It wasn't the King voice. It was just... him. "I've spent four centuries holding this part of me back. I've never given my hearts to anyone. Not the slow one, and definitely not the wild one."
I looked up at him. His eyes were glowing in the dark of his wings. He looked beautiful and horrific all at once.
"They're both yours," he said.
The words hit me harder than any of his physical touches. It was a confession. It was a surrender. The Demon King, the man who could level cities with a wave of his hand, was telling a wingless girl that he was her property.
"Both?" I repeated.
"Both," he growled softly. "If the slow one stops, I die. If the fast one stops... I'm just a shell. They both belong to you now. Do you understand what that means?"
"It means I have to be careful," I said, a small smile tugging at my lips.
"No," Athan said, his thumb brushing my lower lip. "It means you are the only person in this world who can truly kill me. You don't need a blade, Little Bird. You just have to walk away."
My heart…my single, human, very overwhelmed heart…stuttered. I didn't know what to say. I wasn't used to this. In Aetheria, love was about contracts and bloodlines. It was about who had the biggest wings and the brightest magic. It wasn't about monsters sharing their heartbeats in the dark.
"I'm not going anywhere," I said. I meant it. Even if I hated the cold stone of this palace, even if I missed the sun, I couldn't leave this. I couldn't leave the sound of those two hearts.
"Good," Athan murmured.
He leaned down and kissed my forehead. It was a simple, chaste kiss, but I could feel the monster heart spike underneath my hand. He was struggling. I could feel the tension in his muscles, the way he was holding himself back from crushing me against him.
"Athan?"
"Hmm?"
"Can I hear it again? The fast one?"
He sighed, but he didn't pull away. He let me tuck my head back under his chin. I listened to the chaos of his demon heart and the steady thud of his human one. It was messy. It was complicated. It was probably going to end in a disaster.
But for the first time since I'd been brought to this dark kingdom, I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I wasn't a weapon. I wasn't a piece of equipment.
I was the keeper of two hearts.
"Sleep, Celeste," Athan whispered. "Before I change my mind about being a gentleman."
I didn't argue. I closed my eyes, let the rhythm of his chest lull me into a dreamless sleep, and for a few hours, the war didn't exist. The wings I didn't have didn't matter. There was just the heat, the dark, and the double heartbeat that promised I would never be alone again.
The next morning, the sun…or whatever version of it reached the Underworld…didn't feel as cold. I woke up before Athan. He was still asleep, his arm draped heavily over my waist, his wings sprawled out across the bed like a messy inkblot.
I stayed still, watching him. He looked younger when he was asleep. The hard lines of his face softened. The glowing sigils on his skin were dim, just faint silver outlines in the morning light.
I reached out and touched his chest, right where the hearts were.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
They were still there. They were still mine.
I sat up slowly, trying not to wake him. I had to get ready. Argenta would be coming soon with news of the council, and I had a feeling the "Peace" I'd found last night wasn't going to last. The Lords were restless, the Aetherians were moving, and my own shadows were starting to itch under my skin.
But as I looked at the sleeping King, I knew one thing for sure.
I wasn't the little bird in a cage anymore. I was the one holding the key. And I was going to make sure no one…not the Aetherians, not the Lords, and definitely not the "Beast" took that away from me.
I climbed out of bed, the cold stone floor feeling a little less hostile than before. I had a kingdom to help run. And I had a monster to keep in check.
I could do this.
I think.