The Domina

by K. A. Linde

  “What happened?”

  “It’s nothing,” Vera said evenly. “Nothing has happened exactly.”

  “Okay. What do you need to discuss?”

  Vera took a deep breath. Preparing herself. “I want to go home.”

  Cyrene’s eyebrows rose sharply. “Home? I’m guessing you don’t mean to Eleysia?”

  Vera shook her head.

  “Domara,” Dean whispered in agonized horror.

  “Yes. I’ve been gone long enough, and there is nothing left for me here. I think it’s time for the gods of Domara to be done with Emporia.”

  “Oh,” Cyrene whispered. “But…how? Do you want us to show you the bridge?” She uncertainly glanced at Dean. “Only Dean knows how it works.”

  “You do not want to take the bridge,” Dean abruptly told her. “I don’t know if it’s different for a god. But it is not the way you want to go if you can avoid it.”

  “No, not the bridge. I truly believed that was a fairy tale,” Vera said. “I don’t know who put it there or how. Perhaps it predates Malysa and me. I was thinking…the diamond.”

  Cyrene touched the Domina diamond at her throat. “But I thought that it didn’t work to take you home. You tried with Malysa before.”

  “I suspect that Malysa purposely sabotaged it so that we could not get back. And I never had anyone powerful enough again that I would risk trying it with. When I had Selma, I didn’t want to leave. And, when Serafina was around, she did not know me as a god. Just as a Master Doma. I think you and I can do it.”

  “I’ll do it,” she whispered, even as her heart broke. “But I don’t want to see you go.”

  “I know,” Vera said. “I don’t want to leave you either. But I think my time is over here. You can do it all on your own. You don’t need me anymore. And I think it’s about time that I started living again.”

  “And you can’t live here?”

  Vera smiled sadly. “No, I’m afraid not.”

  Cyrene bit her lip and nodded. “I understand. Are you…ready to go?”

  “I am. But I’m bringing someone with me and Ameerath, if you don’t mind.”

  “Who?” she asked in disbelief.

  Vera turned around and gestured toward someone in the distance. Cyrene’s eyes widened as she realized she knew this man.

  “That’s my cue, I suppose,” Basille Selby said with a smile.

  “Basille, you’re going to go to Domara?” she gasped.

  He grinned devilishly. “I told you I needed a new adventure.”

  “But a whole new world?”

  “Sounds like my kind of adventure, girl.” He gallantly took her hand and kissed it. “I hope that you can get out of trouble without me.”

  She laughed. “Domara will have no clue what to do with you.”

  Vera smiled at Basille. “It’s time to go home.”

  Basille shot back a charming expression. His eyes were eager. This was his next great adventure, and already, he was anticipating seeing and doing things he had never done before. Cyrene just hoped he stayed out of trouble. But, knowing him…it seemed unlikely.

  “The diamond, if you will, Cyrene,” Vera said.

  Cyrene gently unclasped the chain around her neck and held the diamond out in her palm. It felt warm against her skin. As if it was just waiting for the opportunity to perform this little bit of magic.

  Vera put her hand over top of Cyrene’s, completely covering the diamond. “I just want you to channel your energy into the diamond. But let me do the work. I think that, this time, I can open a real portal with it into Domara without it just depositing the both of us onto a random hillside.”

  Cyrene chuckled. “Let’s hope so.”

  Dean froze at her shoulder. “If that happens, you come right back. You do not want to stay there.”

  Cyrene glanced into his eyes. “I won’t stay.”

  “I would never leave her there,” Vera said truthfully.

  He nodded in understanding and then took a step back.

  “Begin,” Vera said.

  Cyrene concentrated, channeling all of her magic into the little diamond instead of how it normally channeled into her. Then she felt Vera’s magic at the same time. For a second, she thought it hadn’t worked. That they were both pushing magic into a hunk of stone that could no more open a portal to another world than any other diamond in the Byern royal treasury.

  Then something happened. The diamond began to heat. Cyrene felt like she was spinning. Except that her feet were on solid ground.

  “Almost there,” Vera cried, seemingly yelling over the whirlwind that had picked up between them.

  Then a substance shot out of the diamond and straight into the portal erected before them. It was the same shimmery, iridescent material that made up the portal and that Vera had used to kill Malysa. Except this one looked as if it were on fire, burning up the inside of the portal window until all that remained was an opening to a hillside.

  One that looked so like the one they stood on…and yet so different.

  “The moor,” Vera breathed, tears rolling down her eyes. “Just as I remembered it.”

  Cyrene could see the gently rolling hills that Vera had declared the moor. In the distance, she could see a towering white city that rose up to the heavens. It was beautiful, utterly transcendent.

  And, for a moment, as she looked at the great world of Domara, the land of the gods, she saw her next adventure. It would be so easy to step through to the other side and see all there was to discover there. Just as Basille Selby was doing. It had been her dream to explore. It called to her. Sang a siren’s song of temptation.

  But she knew that she couldn’t.

  This was her world. Her responsibility.

  And there was no possibility that Dean would follow her through.

  And she refused to live without him.

  The Domina meant sacrifice and suffering. Maybe this was the last sacrifice. The last great adventure that she had to give up. The dream she had to abandon.

  Or maybe it wasn’t sacrifice at all. Maybe it was acknowledging that what she had here, what she’d accomplished…it was enough. It was what she wanted. And Domara was a pipe dream.

  The grass always looked greener on the other side. This time…on the moor. But that meant nothing. What she had here was exactly what she had been fighting for. Exactly what she wanted.

  So, she turned away from Domara and back to her friend.

  “Be safe,” Cyrene said. “And find a way to come back if you can.” She hugged Vera.

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “Take care of him, too.”

  Vera laughed. “If he’ll let me.”

  Basille tipped his head at her and then stepped up to Vera’s side. Then, they walked through the portal and onto the moor of Domara. Ameerath flew through the portal overhead of them. Back to her true homeland once and for all. Dean came up and took her hand as they watched them disappear into a new world. Then Cyrene released her hold on her magic in the diamond, and Domara fell away, too.

  Gone.

  “For a second, I thought you might follow them through,” Dean admitted.

  She tilted her head to look up into his endless dark eyes. “For a second, I thought about it.”

  He winced.

  “But I realized one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You’re my next great adventure.”

  Then, she sealed that promise with a kiss.

  Epilogue

  Three Months Later

  “Are you ready?” Cyrene asked Avoca.

  Avoca turned in a slow circle before coming to a stop. “Yes, I’m ready. We’re already married. I shouldn’t be nervous.”

  “But this is different. This isn’t you two getting married in the middle of the night in Kinkadia. This is the queen of Eldora marrying her king consort in front of her people.”

  “Thank you for that,” Avoca said sarcastically, shaking out her hands. “That makes me
feel much better.”

  “Your people love you. Ahlvie loves you. This will be perfection.”

  Avoca nodded. “You’re right. I’m ready. I’m so ready.” Her gaze slid to her ruined hand. “I wish that I didn’t have this though.”

  The black hadn’t spread, just like Helly had said. But it hadn’t diminished any either. In the last three months, Avoca had had several of the other healers look at it. But, short of going to Kinkadia and subjecting herself to more Bryonica healers, nothing more could be done. It wasn’t clear that going to Kinkadia would even help since Helly was the best of the best.

  Avoca had embraced the change. She was wearing a sleeveless wedding dress in the soft forest green of her people. The black spreading up from her hand to fan out before it met the green strap on her shoulder. Her mother’s diadem was nestled into her white blonde locks. She looked regal and utterly exquisite. But Cyrene understood why Avoca had wished her hand weren’t deformed. That she had better control. It was as if the limb had been severed, except the darkness had consumed it and they had no idea if it would wither further.

  “You look beautiful just as you are,” Cyrene said.

  “Thank you,” Avoca said. “It feels silly to wish for something else when we’ve lost so many friends.”

  “It doesn’t. It is a piece of you. It’s important.”

  “You always know just what to say, Cyrene.”

  She smiled. “I was bonded to you for two years. I know where your heart lies. With Ahlvie and your people. Neither care about your hand. It is your head and heart that are more than capable of leading.”

  Avoca straightened. “Should we go do this?”

  Cyrene nodded. “I think we should.”

  “Have you and Dean set a date?”

  “Not yet. We’re just too busy getting the academy off the ground. You’ll be the first to know when I do.”

  “Good,” Avoca said. “You deserve some happiness after all of this.”

  Her eyes watered at the words laced with affection. Then she swallowed back that knot in her throat and walked down the leaf-strewn aisle in the middle of the wooded home of Eldora.

  Ahlvie and Dean were at the front of the aisle. Her eyes flicked from one to the other. Ahlvie looked over her shoulder, waiting for his bride. But Dean snagged her attention and held it, admiring her gold dress that shimmered in the dying light on this late October afternoon.

  His eyes said everything he couldn’t in that moment. That he couldn’t wait for the moment when she was the one walking down the aisle to him in a white dress. When he could put a ring on her finger and call her his forever. And she felt like maybe it was time. She had mourned long enough. Put all of her energy into running the country and the court and the academy. Maybe she should take some time for herself. For them.

  Cyrene stood at the front as everyone else rose to their feet. Avoca slid gracefully down the aisle. The queen of Eldora with all her poise and stunning beauty. She took Ahlvie’s hand with her healthy one, and they turned toward the holy official for the ceremony.

  Cyrene barely heard a word that was uttered. Her eyes were locked on Dean’s through the whole thing. Messages being conveyed with no words.

  “I do,” Avoca and Ahlvie said together. They laughed softly at having broken tradition, and in some way, that felt right, too.

  “You may kiss your bride.”

  Ahlvie growled low in the back of his throat. A picture of the beast breaking through as he put his hand on her neck and tugged her close. Their lips met to a chorus of cheers. And Avoca’s cheeks were a soft pink as she turned to face the crowd again.

  Then, it was over, and they were all exiting the ceremony and flooding the banquet space where Avoca had given up her life to Cyrene so long ago. They took their places of honor as congratulations were heaped up to the bride and groom. Young love was a buoyant thing after such a gruesome war.

  “We have one announcement before dinner begins,” Avoca said at the head of the table with Ahlvie standing at her side.

  Everyone quieted to hear her.

  “As you are all well aware, our fair Prince Ceis’f was killed by the dark goddess. It was an honorable death in combat. But he was the last Leif of Aonia. To honor his memory, Ahlvie and I have decided to open a new Leif colony on the ruined grounds of Aonia. Leifs are out in the open again, and the portals make the transition very easy. It is about time that we spread across this world once more and have our voices heard. I want us to stop hiding and play a role in all that is to come.”

  Cyrene put her hand to her mouth. It was such an honor to Ceis’f’s memory to rebuild Aonia. He would have been beyond pleased to know what Avoca was doing.

  There was a rumble of approval down the banquet hall. And out of the crowd came Leifs young and old, volunteering to help build the colony.

  Avoca graciously thanked them all. But Cyrene could see how this affected her. That her people were behind her new vision. That they wanted this as much as she did.

  The rest of the reception went off without a hitch. They ate and laughed and danced. Avoca was twirled through paces of the traditional Leif wedding song more times than Cyrene could count. She cheered and danced as much as she could. Even as the night waned and day drew near and her eyelids began to close of their own volition. She had no desire to return to Byern.

  Dean took her hand. “Let’s go home.”

  “Is it time already?” she whispered.

  “Avoca and Ahlvie have already retired for their wedding night. I think it is our time to retire as well. We can come back after their holiday to congratulate them further.”

  Cyrene nodded sleepily and allowed him to direct her back through the portal. She smiled lazily at the sight of Byern. Her Byern. They were still working on building a new castle to house the Doma court and the academy. The builders were taking old stones from the Nit Decus castle to build a newer castle on the other side of the city. It was quite an endeavor. She knew it would be worth it, but it would be years before it was ready.

  In the meantime, Cyrene and Dean had built a small house just outside of the city, near the portal but not far from where the new castle was being built. Reeve, Aubron, and Cal, who they had all but adopted as their own, had moved into their parent’s home. It hadn’t felt right for Cyrene to be there. And Cyrene liked having her own space with Dean.

  Plus, she liked being near the portal. Never too far from her next jump.

  “I’m so…sleepy,” she said around a yawn as they moved through their home. So similar to one that she had dreamed about with him in her first Bound ceremony. It’d felt like déjà vu when they first began to live there, but there was no letter from Edric calling her home. This was where she belonged.

  “How sleepy?” Dean asked, kissing her shoulder. “I do like this gold dress.”

  She laughed. “Never too sleepy.”

  He turned her around and stared down into her bright blue eyes. “I want to tell you.”

  “Tell me what?” she asked.

  “Everything, Cyrene.” He threaded their hands together, drawing her closer. “I want to tell you about Domara.”

  Suddenly, she was very awake. “Are you sure?”

  He nodded. “It’s time.”

  She put her hand to his cheek. “We have our whole lives for that.”

  “Yes, we do,” he told her. “Our whole lives to move past it. Let’s start today.”

  “Okay,” she agreed easily. She let him draw her down the hallway to their bedroom where he began to tell her all that he had endured and all the pain that he had withstood. She listened intently but didn’t interfere.

  They had both experienced more than their fair share of suffering. Still, somehow, they had come out on the other side of it. Together.

  When he finished, she knew more than ever that this man, this strong man, was the one for her.

  And this world had been made for them to guide into a new future.

  The End

  L
ove Cyrene’s story?

  Get ready for Kerrigan Argon of the…

  * * *

  HOUSE OF

  DRAGONS

  (Royal Houses Series, #1)

  * * *

  Kerrigan Argon is half-human, half-fae and belongs with neither. Which is why her pure blood Fae father drops her off discreetly into the care of the House of Dragons.

  * * *

  With her coming of age quickly approaching, she must start to make her own choices about her future…and who she’ll fall in love with.

  * * *

  Coming October 13, 2020!

  Preorder now!

  * * *

  Turn the page to get a sneak peek of chapter one!

  House of Dragons

  Chapter One - The Tournament

  “You are going to be in so much trouble.”

  “I know. I know. Don’t remind me, Clover,” Kerrigan said to her friend as they dashed through the crowded city streets.

  “It’s nice to see a Dragon Blessed acting out. You’re all made out to be saints.”

  Kerrigan shot her a green-eyed glare. “We’re not saints. We’re students.”

  “You’re going to be a dead student if you don’t get around this crowd,” Clover joked.

  “You are the worst friend.”

  Clover snorted. “Why thank you.”

  “Just stop talking.”

  Kerrigan finally pushed out of the crowded alleyway and to the entrance of the arena. She caught her breath for a second at the sight of the giant construction and the swarm of people pushing into the facility. It was a marvel and though it had been damaged in the midst of the rebellion five years ago, it had been repaired bigger and better at the heart of city of Kinkadia for the revered Dragon Tournament.

  The Draco Mountain stood stark and mysterious behind the arena, rising up high above the bowl of the valley. Even from this distance, she could pick out the dragons circling overhead. She could almost distinguish them from one another well enough to put names with the incredible beasts she had dedicated much of her life helping to raise.