The next morning, sunlight filtered softly through the sheer curtains of the Palace bedroom, spilling across the tangled sheets in pale golden stripes.
Cassian lay on his back with Cixi tucked snugly against his side. His heavy arm was draped possessively over her waist, while her head rested on his bare chest, where she could hear the slow, steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath her cheek.
She remembered the words Cassian had once said to her: whenever she was near him, his heart remembered how to beat.
Listening to it now, strong and unhurried against her ear, Cixi wondered whether he meant it, or if it had been just another of his playful games.
She stayed curled against him for a while longer, letting the warmth of his body chase away the last traces of sleep, before she finally decided that she could no longer put off an important call.
