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“Do you seriously mean to end all warfare against the goblin tribes?” General Saxu asked.

“I will not be speaking about any plans until I have conferred with my consort,” Tallu said, and I tightened my hand on his arm. “But I have no intention of breaking the promise I made to the goblin tribes.”

General Saxu straightened, raising his chin, but Tallu held up a hand. The quick gesture of dismissal was taken with grace and General Saxu bowed again.

“I will go see to the men, and make sure that the goblins leave safely.”

As he walked away, I couldn’t help but worry. We may have been on our way to treaties with the other nations, but General Saxu was a man of war. He had spent his entire career in battle, and we would be asking him to give all of that up for the tenuous hope of peace.

We might have a better chance of asking the winter snows to avoid melting in the spring, or the salmon to swim downstream rather than up in order to mate.

Once inside our rooms, Tallu’s Dogs checked every exit, searching for any hidden dangers. With so many goblins nearby, I knew that they were not just being paranoid. After all, if an assassin could make his way into the emperor’s bed, surely it was possible for one to hide in the closet.

When they were satisfied, Tallu dismissed them. They protested, but he insisted that they could protect him just as well from outside his door. I loved his assurance, the expression on his face when he made his power clear.

Despite everything, despite who we had become, he was still the emperor of the Southern Imperium.

After the door shut, Tallu drew me down to a couch, the cushions shifting underneath us as we settled.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Something happened,” I said.

“Something to do with the animalia?” Tallu asked.

I nodded, unable to speak for a moment as I considered my next words. What I said next was going to change everything between us, and I wasn’t sure I wanted that. The idea of losing Tallu felt as impossible as losing my head. No matter how much Yorîmu and Eonaî suggested otherwise, I did have one that I used on most occasions.

“During the peace negotiations with the goblins, the animalia took me into their sanctum.” I looked down at my fingers and the scars that had reappeared when I wanted them, the crescent curve of one just beneath my thumb. Tallu’s hand landed on top of mine, anchoring me to the ground before I could float away. “While we were there, I realized something about my new powers.”

“The new powers that the animalia gave you?” Tallu asked.

“No.” I hesitated. “Yes. They gave them to me, but only because I gave them the power first.”

Tallu turned my hands gently, tracing the scars that hadn’t been there this morning. “I don’t understand.”

“They were able to give me their magic because of who I am. What I am.” I stopped again, wetting my lips, and Tallu brought my hand to his mouth, pressing a kiss to my knuckles, a kiss to my thumb, peppering my skin with signs of his affection.

“Are you still Airón?” he asked, his breath warm, making my flesh jump with excitement.

“Yes,” I said.

“Are you still my husband?” Tallu asked. He pressed a kiss to the underside of my wrist, paying attention to the delicate veins.

“Yes,” I said.

“Then what more is there?” Tallu asked.

“Have Lerolian and the other blood monks told you about the river?” I asked.

Tallu didn’t look up, tracing his thumb across the blue veins under my skin, following his thumb with his mouth.

“When they die,” he said, breathing the words against my flesh, “their souls are taken to the river again. They flow down it, catching inside a newly born child. They do not remember their previous lives. They do not remember who they were before. But their soul is the same. The weight of it. The value of it. All of that remains, even when the experiences and history of a life lived vanishes.”

Tallu looked up, drawing his mouth away from my wrist. I shivered at the loss, wanting him back, wanting to pull in my words because he was too smart to miss what my question implied.

His russet gaze pierced me through. He was no fool. “Who were you? Before your spirit was born as the man I love?”

I thought about telling a partial truth—during Wollu’s reign, I had been a small child in the Imperium, until I was sent to war where I died in the Ariphadeus, yearning for home. When Rellu ruled, I had been a child in the monasteries of the Blood Mountains, chosen by the father abbot to learn healing arts. Then I had been a hunting hawk, belonging to one of the fairies of Ristorium.