As she suspected, when Kyra walked into the bedroom that'd been hers until this peace began, Zane was curled up on the bed asleep. Judging from the tenseness written into his features, it was a restless slumber. Kyra supposed it was because he was alone in this cold community after being around people who thrived in touch for his entire life.

Her hypothesis was proven correct when, after she'd changed and joined him, he automatically plastered himself to her side. A fond smile crawled its way onto her face at the sight of his face relaxing into a more normal, peaceful one. For a man that was rumored to be among the most dangerous people in their world, Zane proved to be rather predictable once one got to know him.

Kyra didn't bother to lay down fully, instead choosing to sit up with her back resting against the headboard. Sleep wasn't something that would come easy to her that night, she could tell.

It seemed that being in the place that saw so many of the wrongs done to her was a place that would permanently be a trigger for nightmares. She could not help the minute slivers of fear that crept into her mind in the silence that surrounded her. It was almost easy to conjure the image of her mother throwing something at her for taking off the circlet in public when she was a child while she cowered across the room.

This room in particular had housed cruelties from various parties. Guards that'd been assigned to her had never truly cared if someone managed to sneak in to either try to get a closer look at the royal family's freak or to carry out more sinister desires. It was only natural that Kyra take up training with Rei so that she could protect herself from such intruders.

Assassins had always been fond of testing their abilities on Kyra since they knew the punishment would not be horribly severe like they would be if they attacked someone like Danica. They almost reveled in the challenge of sneaking to the upper floors that housed the hawks and seeing if they could sneak into Kyra's room to further test themselves.

A light hiss from beside her drew Kyra's thoughts from the dark past she'd been reminiscing about. She glanced down at her mate to see that he appeared to be having a nightmare judging from the furrow in his brows and the way his mouth was parted just enough to display the fangs of his half-form as he hissed quietly. It seemed that she was not the only one that was having trouble with sleep.

Instinctively, Kyra knew that waking the cobra would likely end in her getting bitten. Since there was no anti-venom in the Hawk's Keep, that would lead to her dying a slow, painful death.

Instead, Kyra decided to employ a tactic that she'd used on Danica when she was younger and suffered from nightmares. Her fingers started carding through his smooth, black hair in an effort to soothe him. With her other hand, Kyra gently traced the bones of the pale hand that'd placed itself on her leg when he'd moved closer to her.

With Danica, it had always been hit or miss as to if this would work—such as when her Alistair died when she'd been absolutely inconsolable for months—but with Zane it seemed to work. Gradually, his face relaxed again. Kyra did not stop her gentle touches for she knew that the nightmares would likely return if she did.

She continued to soothe the cobra until she nodded off, fingers still resting in his hair.

When Zane woke up the following morning, he was confused. Instead of seeing either Kyra's face or her black hair, he was greeted with the black leather pants that were so common among his people. It wasn't until he glanced up that he understood why he was seeing Kyra's legs in front of his face. Judging from her somewhat awkward position, she'd fallen asleep sitting up the previous night.

Of course with his luck when it came to timing, that was when a knock came from the door before one of the Flight opened it. Judging by the momentary look of absolute surprise on the extraordinarily ordinary Avian before he managed to school his features, he clearly hadn't been expecting to actually come face-to-face with Zane himself. Zane assumed that his knocking on Kyra's door to wake her up was to prevent him from having to wake Zane, instead the guard would've likely made Kyra do it.

The guard, meanwhile, was barely containing his fear at seeing Zane. One spike of panic, especially, had initially been to the sight of those garnet eyes flashing up to meet his own brown ones. The cobra stared at him evenly even as he internally squirmed. He didn't allow these emotions past the Reserve he'd fallen back on after recovering from that initial fright.

"Yes?" Zane prompted somewhat impatiently as he sat up. He was also forced to control his expression since the transition from that panic to absolute calm made him extremely uncomfortable because of his sixth sense. It felt as if he'd suddenly gone blind in that particular sense.

The guard cleared his throat to allow him to speak without alerting the snake to his fear. "It is only a matter of hours until the ceremony. Milady Shardae requested that I wake her sister. She would like to speak to the two of you before the ceremony. You, especially . . . sir." The hesitation before the honorific wasn't overlooked, nor was the slightly sullen tone in which he said it.

"We will be ready in a few minutes. I assume Danica will be coming here since they want to hide me until the last minute?" Zane asked, raising a brow.

"Yes. I will go inform her at once."

Once the man was gone, Zane flopped back down on his back with a huff. "Kyra? Wake up, my Naga," he called quietly to wake her up. He was surprised that conversation with the guard hadn't done the trick. It wasn't until he gently shook her leg that those scarlet eyes flashed open.

"What is it, Zane?" she managed to say through the fog of sleep, muffled as it was.

"Your sister is apparently going to be here shortly."

"You scared the guard when he came in, didn't you?" Kyra asked knowingly. She bent over to lean her head against his for a minute.

"Perhaps. It wasn't exactly my fault though. He didn't give me any time to respond before he burst in."

She shrugged, trying not to succumb to the sleep that was still pulling at the edge of her mind. "They've always done that. Why do you think I have such a hard time whenever Adelina barges in like that?"

"It seems like I'm going to learn something new about you every day," Zane chortled, amused.

"Isn't that the point of a relationship?" Kyra smirked. "Anyway, I can't wait to see Danica's reaction to meeting you. As much as I love her, I doubt she'll be unaffected by your reputation."

"We shall see."

They moved to the suite's sitting room. The only changes they made since both still had to see one Eleanor Lyssia, whom Kyra had been aware was one of Zane's spies for years, for what they would be wearing in a few hours, were for Zane to put his shirt back on and for Kyra to change into cotton pants instead of the black leather. The seamstress was talented enough that they would be able to tell her what they'd decided and she could find them something fitting of the occasion.

From then, it was just a waiting game until Danica arrived.