Malvoria did not even pretend to be sympathetic.
She stood near the entrance of the alcove, arms crossed, dark eyes glittering with far too much amusement as Lara clung to Sarisa like an overgrown demon cat denied emotional justice.
"Stop acting like a victim," Malvoria said.
Lara lifted her head from Sarisa's shoulder just enough to glare. "I was attacked."
"You were spoken to."
"With cruelty."
"With concern."
"Concern can be cruel."
Veylira's brows rose slightly. "Interesting. I do not recall you having such delicate feelings when you called three councilors decorative fossils."
"They were decorative fossils."
Raveth leaned back against the opposite wall, grinning. "She has a point."
Elysia sighed, but Sarisa could see the smile trying to escape her mouth. The whole scene was absurd enough to loosen something in Sarisa's chest.
A few hours ago, she had faced the council, defended her place, agreed to marry Lara by Celestian tradition, and realized her life had become a storm wearing ceremonial gloves.
Now Lara was hugging her waist and accusing her family of bullying.
The contrast was ridiculous.
Beautifully ridiculous.
Sarisa threaded her fingers through Lara's hair and gave her a gentle tug. "Were they truly bullying you?"
Lara looked up at her with an expression so betrayed it would have moved kingdoms.
"Yes."
Malvoria snorted. "She is lying."
"I am wounded."
"You are dramatic."
"Runs in the family."
Malvoria opened her mouth, then paused. "Fine. That was good."
Lara looked smug for half a second before Raveth pointed at her.
"Look at her. Ten minutes as future Celestian consort and she is already hiding in Sarisa's lap."
"I am not hiding."
"You are wrapped around her like a tragic scarf."
Sarisa looked down.
Lara was, in fact, very much wrapped around her.
Lara noticed Sarisa looking and narrowed her eyes. "Do not betray me."
Sarisa gave her a soft smile. "I would never."
"You are about to."
"I am simply observing that Raveth's scarf comparison has some merit."
Lara gasped. "My own mate."
Malvoria laughed. "Gods, you are unbearable when you're in love."
Lara turned her head sharply. "You disappeared with Elysia for a month after mating. Do not speak to me about unbearable."
Elysia's cheeks colored faintly.
Raveth immediately perked up. "A month?"
Elysia raised one finger. "No."
Malvoria's grin turned wicked. "A very educational month."
"Malvoria."
"What? I learned a lot about marriage."
Veylira closed her eyes for one long second. "I raised disasters."
"You raised excellence," Malvoria said.
"I am reviewing that conclusion."
Sarisa laughed before she could stop herself.
It slipped out of her, light and sudden. Everyone turned toward her, and the warmth in the room changed at once.
Lara's arms tightened around her waist, not possessive in the harsh way, but comforted by the sound. Sarisa realized then that they had all been trying to make her laugh.
Perhaps not consciously.
Perhaps this family's method of emotional support simply involved insults, scandal, and enough teasing to stun a priest.
Still, it worked.
For one brief moment, Sarisa was not acting sovereign, not future queen, not daughter of a woman locked in a dungeon.
She was just a woman sitting in an alcove with her mate pressed against her side while demons bickered around her like affectionate thunderclouds.
Then Elysia, gentle traitor that she was, returned the conversation to politics.
"There is one more practical matter you should consider before the wedding rites are arranged."
Sarisa's stomach tightened. "Already?"
"The council will ask," Elysia said. "Better to decide before they try to decide for you."
"That sounds ominous," Lara muttered.
Malvoria's smile sharpened. "Family name."
Sarisa blinked.
Lara stilled against her.
Raveth pointed between them. "Yes. Which name are you taking? Is Sarisa keeping Nocturna? Are you taking Lara's name, Daemara? Is Lara becoming Lara Nocturna? Because that sounds cursed."
Lara's face twisted. "Absolutely not."
Sarisa, who had not even considered the question properly, stared at them.
Nocturna.
Her family name.
Her mother's name. Her grandmother's name. The royal house that had ruled Celestia for centuries. A name carved over doors, embroidered on banners, stamped on decrees, whispered in prayers and curses alike.
Nocturna meant legitimacy.
It also meant laboratories hidden beneath chapels.
It meant her mother's signature on documents that called Sarisa a vessel.
It meant white marble, silver chains, purity laws, closed borders, and generations of power polished until nobody looked closely at the blood beneath.
Daemara.
Lara's family name.
Demon royal blood. Fire. Scandal. Freedom. A hidden house built at sixteen. Markets full of people who refused to let Lara pay because she had helped them survive.
Malvoria's chaotic reforms. Veylira's terrifying elegance. Aliyah's yellow fire and silver chains.
Sarisa looked at Lara.
Lara had gone quiet.
That was rare enough to be its own weather.
Malvoria's teasing softened, just slightly. "You don't have to decide now."
Raveth tilted her head. "But you should know what it means."
Veylira stepped closer, voice calm and precise. "Keeping Nocturna would reassure traditionalists. It would signal continuity. It would make the transition easier for conservative houses."
Sarisa looked down at her own hands.
"And taking Daemara?"
Elysia answered softly. "It would signal rupture."
Malvoria's eyes gleamed. "A very loud one."
Veylira nodded. "It would mean the Nocturna reign, as it existed under your mother, is ending. Not erased from history, but transformed. A new royal house, or at least a new branch. A public declaration that you are not merely inheriting your mother's throne. You are changing it."
The room went very still.
Lara sat up fully now, though she kept one hand resting at Sarisa's waist. "Sarisa."
Sarisa knew that voice.
Careful. Worried. Ready to protect Sarisa even from a decision Sarisa might regret.
"You do not have to take my name," Lara said. "Not to prove anything. Not to hurt her. Not because the council pushed us into turning love into law."
Sarisa's chest warmed painfully.
"I know."
"I mean it."
"I know, Lara."
Lara searched her face anyway. "Nocturna is yours too."
Sarisa looked toward the garden beyond the alcove, where the clipped flowers stood in perfect rows. For years, she had believed being Nocturna meant enduring.
Carrying the weight. Protecting the realm. Staying elegant while being slowly buried beneath expectation.
But now?
Now Nocturna tasted like a locked door.
Like blood in a vial.
Like her mother's voice saying, I did everything for you.
Sarisa inhaled slowly.
Then she turned back to Lara.
"I don't want to erase where I came from," Sarisa said. "But I will not let my mother's name be the banner of my reign."
No one interrupted.
Sarisa's voice grew steadier. "If I keep Nocturna, people will call it continuity. They will say I restored order. They will try to pretend my mother was an unfortunate stain on an otherwise sacred dynasty." Her mouth hardened. "No. I want them to know that something has changed."
Lara's eyes softened and darkened all at once.
Sarisa placed her hand over Lara's.
"I want to take Daemara."
Lara stopped breathing.
Malvoria's brows shot upward. Raveth's grin vanished into surprise. Elysia's expression warmed into something almost luminous.
Veylira, unsurprisingly, looked as if she had already predicted the possibility and was pleased that reality had chosen elegance.
"Sarisa," Lara whispered.
Sarisa smiled faintly. "Do not look so shocked. You offered to marry me in front of twelve councilors. I am allowed one dramatic gesture too."
"One?" Raveth said. "Darling, that is a kingdom-sized dramatic gesture."
Malvoria leaned against the wall, looking delighted. "Sarisa Daemara."
The name entered the room like a spark.
Sarisa Daemara.
It sounded strange.
It sounded impossible.
It sounded like a door opening.
Lara's hand tightened around hers. "Are you sure?"
Sarisa laughed softly. "You ask me that a lot."
"Because you keep choosing things that change your whole life."
"And yet I keep being sure."
Lara stared at her for a long moment, then lifted Sarisa's hand and kissed her knuckles with such reverence the teasing in the room quieted completely.
Sarisa felt the warmth of it in her bones.
Malvoria, naturally, could not let tenderness survive unmocked for too long.
"Well," she said brightly, "that settles it. The Celestian realm is about to be ruled by a Daemara. Somewhere, tradition just fainted."
Raveth smiled. "Good. Tradition needed exercise."
Elysia shook her head, but her eyes were shining.
Veylira looked at Sarisa and inclined her head. "Then let it mean what you intend it to mean."
Sarisa lifted her chin.
"It will," she said.