by K. A. Linde
“Very well,” she said for now. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“I have heard so much about you,” Merrick said. “The pleasure is all mine.”
He said it, but his eyes said he did not believe it. How could Edric trust this man?
Her gaze darted to Kael’s, and he arched an eyebrow. She could tell that he felt the same way she did. At least he wasn’t the only one who got a bad feeling from the man. And her gut was never wrong.
“On to the matter of your kidnapping and escape,” Edric began.
“Actually,” Cyrene said, standing to make her point clear, “I wanted to discuss Ahlvie and Orden. You must have gotten my letter.” She flashed the Affiliate pin at him and watched Daufina’s face sour. “I would like to see them at once.”
Edric look to Merrick, who said, “They are being…detained.”
“Detained,” she repeated dryly.
“For now.”
“Detained where? How? For what reason?”
“Imprisoned,” Daufina spoke up with a whip in her voice. “They are imprisoned for treason.”
“What?” Cyrene nearly shouted. “On what grounds?”
“Kidnapping, murder, impersonating a High Order, among other things,” Merrick filled her in.
“None of those things are true,” Cyrene said. “You must release them at once. They were helping me the entire time we were together. They did not kidnap me. I even said that in my letter.”
“We were under the impression that the letter was coerced,” Merrick said.
“I was not,” Daufina said.
“We have more important matters to deal with right now,” Edric said.
“No, we do not!” she said, whirling on him.
“Cyrene.” Edric used the voice to try to calm her down, but she was furious.
Ahlvie and Orden were not criminals.
She turned to look at Kael for backup. She didn’t know when that had happened. When she had become so comfortable with Kael that she expected him to be on her side against his brother, the king. But, still, it happened.
Kael tilted his head and gave her a look that said, Choose your battles.
She huffed but conceded.
“We will figure this out later though,” she said.
Edric looked between Kael and Cyrene and seemed not to like what he saw. “Indeed, we will.”
“What we should be discussing is the change in consort,” Merrick said smoothly.
“Agreed,” Daufina said with venom in her voice.
“We are not discussing that. It has been decided,” Edric said. He waved his hand, as if he had a magic wand that would suddenly eliminate the concerns piling up around him.
“Your Majesty, you know that I have your best interests at heart,” Merrick began. His eyes slid to Cyrene, and he sneered. “After the attempt on your life, you need to keep your friends close.”
“Attempt on your life?” Kael asked at the same time as Cyrene asked, “What attempt on your life?”
“You know nothing,” Daufina said. “This is a mistake. I have been with you since the beginning, Edric. And you just want to turn me aside?”
“Beyond that fact, Daufina is a strong ally. The people know and respect her. The Affiliates and High Order respond to her. They listen to her. You are about to embark on a war. You do not change horses midstream,” Merrick reminded him.
“Brother, what attempt on your life?” Kael asked. “How was I not informed of this?”
“It was nothing,” Edric growled. “I dealt with the man.”
“It was two attempts,” Merrick said. “Someone wants the king dead, and they are doing everything they can to get it done. The first, you were lucky to kill yourself. The second killed his taster by poison. We had only instated a taster three days before it happened. If I had not suggested it, you would be dead.”
“It seems you have a common enemy with Cyrene then,” Kael said. “She was nearly killed on our own ship on the way here.”
Cyrene glared at him. She hadn’t wanted that information known.
“What happened?” Edric asked. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” she said. It felt like that was all she was saying. Fine. Fine. She was fine. Nothing bothered her at all. Certainly not death, war, poison, murder attempts, prison.
“I killed the man,” Kael informed him.
“Further proof that you need to be careful of your choices, sire,” Merrick said. “They are already making attempts on her life. What will happen if she becomes consort? She will not always have a prince at her side.”
“No, she will have your guards, Merrick,” Edric said. “So, you do your job and let me do mine. I am the king.” He strode to the desk and stood at the head of the table. “Must I remind you that I am king? I was born for this moment. Cyrene was born to be at my side.”
Cyrene shrank back at the vehemence in his voice. The last thing she thought she was born for was to stand at a Dremylon’s side.
Everyone remained silent at Edric’s proclamation. They all knew he was king and that he held all the power. He could make Cyrene his consort with a snap of his fingers. Who wouldn’t want the honor? His advisors might try to persuade him against it, but in the end, it was his decision.
“That is settled then. Daufina, you will begin to train Cyrene on her position henceforth.”
“And what will you do with me after that, Your Majesty?” Daufina asked defiantly. She used his title like a whip.
“We will discuss it at a later time,” Edric said dismissively. “Right now, I would like to understand the letter that my brother sent ahead from Albion. The king and queen of Eleysia are dead, and they executed one of our own Affiliates for the murder?”
Cyrene staggered back and put a hand to her heart. She had to close her eyes to block out the torment of the moment. Maelia. The crowd. The scaffold. Maelia’s head rolling into the basket. Cyrene could have prevented it. She could have stopped it. If only she’d had a moment to think, she could have made it right. And, now, she was here, talking pleasantries with another royal court, when she should have been hanged in the other.
“Yes,” Kael said. Though she could feel his eyes on her and not Edric.
“That is an act of war,” Edric said.
“And I have negotiated peace.” Kael removed another letter from his breast pocket and handed it to Edric.
“This is signed by the prince of Eleysia, not the new queen,” Edric said. “This is a cease-fire in exchange for Cyrene’s return. It is not binding. We will go to war.”
The prince of Eleysia. Dean.
Her heart ached at the thought of him. He had given her up for peace. He had traded her so that his people would not die at the hands of the Byern warships sitting so near their capital. Whether or not he cared for her, she now understood why he had done it at least. She would not let Edric spit on that offer.
“No,” Cyrene said. Her voice was strong and steady. She could not allow this.
“No?” Merrick asked in disgust.
“That’s right. No. We will not go to war. Too many innocent lives will be lost if we do so. I was there. I know the heartbreak in the country. I know what they did to Maelia was wrong, but it would be insanity to take this a step further.”
Edric shook his head and stared down at the map before him. “You do not grasp the whole situation just yet. I know you’ve had a trying trip. Perhaps my brother is right, and you need to rest.”
“I’ve rested enough,” Cyrene said. “What you are doing is morally abhorrent.”
“I hate to say that I agree with Cyrene,” Daufina said. “But I have been saying this for months. You have been looking for a fight since you marched our troops into Aurum. Now, you have found one that has a peace treaty staring you in the face, and you ignore it?”
“Enough!” Edric roared. “We are going to war. Get used to the idea. We must prepare. You are all dismissed.”
Cyrene stared at Edric as he turned his back to
the four people he listened to the most. It was clear he was taking no counsel. No one could sway him. Byern was going to war.
“He’s not going to go to war,” Kael said as he followed Cyrene out of the war room.
Cyrene shook her head as she headed for the Vines, which were the quarters for the Queen and her Affiliates. Her old room was there, and no matter what she said about being fine, she suddenly felt overwhelmed and exhausted.
“I don’t know what he’ll do.”
Kael touched her arm. “This way. They moved your rooms.”
“How do you know everything?” she asked.
“They set them up before I left.”
“Why is the castle full?”
“Edric called in all the Affiliates and High Order and bolstered court.”
“He wants them to rally more soldiers for him,” she said. “He does mean to go to war.”
“He’s not that stupid.”
Cyrene shot him an apprehensive look. “Since when are you defending him?”
“We’re in a different time, Cyrene. Surely, you know that much has changed. It was easier to act against my brother when our biggest differences were who our father loved more and you.” He grinned. “If we go to war, I need to be at his side. The court needs to see us united.”
Cyrene considered his point as they reached a room in a wing she had never visited before. “Where are we?”
“Your new rooms. Though I wonder if they will move you into the consort’s rooms,” Kael said.
He pushed the door open, and Cyrene strode inside.
Her jaw dropped. The space was even larger than the ornate rooms she had been given in the Krisana castle in Albion and the Lombardy palace in Eleysia. She had her own living area with space for at least fifty to comfortably sit, play music or cards, or read. Several adjoining rooms opened to her own bath chamber, a lush all white bedroom, a study, and her own patio with windows looking out across the castle grounds and the city.
“This is outrageous,” she said.
“You’re surprised?” Kael flopped down on the first available couch, as if he owned the place.
“I mean, making me consort.”
“That…I was not expecting.”
“Can I just say no?”
Kael’s eyebrows rose. “Do you want to?”
Dear Creator, she was having a heart-to-heart with Kael Dremylon.
“What I want? Creator, what I want?” She splayed her hands out in frustration. “Does anyone even care what I want? I am a tool to be used. That’s it. I am power and beauty, and that is all that matters. If anything else mattered, then I would have a choice in what I did with my life, but I have not had one since the day I stepped foot into this castle.”
“And, if you had the choice”—he straightened; the energy radiated between them as he drew near her once more—“what would you choose?”
A month ago, it would have been the easiest answer. Magic. Dean. Friends. Prophecy. Her loyalties had been black and white. Her life had been ruled by destiny. Her plans had been set in motion by a chance encounter with a peddler and a book and a letter.
Now, she didn’t know what she wanted. She felt adrift. Ruled by someone else’s decisions. Edric’s decisions. She hadn’t even thought about what she wanted.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Freedom.”
“That is not what you want. You are already free.” Kael pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. “What you want is vengeance. What you want is control. What you want is power.”
She clenched her hands into fists to keep from touching him. His words sang to her broken heart. She did want those things. Hearing them out loud instead of the ideas echoing around her mind put everything into order. She was not the same person she had been when she left this castle. She had seen and done things that Edric couldn’t even imagine. He might rule this kingdom, but he did not rule her.
“Yes,” she said.
His fingers threaded through hers and pressed their palms together. “This is what I can offer you.”
His magic pressed into her body, filling her, drawing out her own magic. She gasped, but instead of wrenching back, as she had done on the docks when he invaded her, she met his power with her own. He did not have the control. They were both matched. What she had once thought was darkness and light was really just power. Raw energy. There for the taking.
It was not like linking with Avoca. This was like linking with wildfire—dangerous and uncontrollable.
“Here is your freedom.”
His lips landed on her forehead, soft but inviting. She breathed him in as he came closer. Her attraction to him with their magic connected like this was uncontrollable. She was not sure she would be able to stop herself if he went further.
But he didn’t.
Creator, he didn’t.
He stepped back. He released her hand. He let his magic drop.
“Think on it, Cyrene.”
He did a low bow, one reserved for royalty, and then departed her rooms.
Kael might be on her side now that it was clear what he wanted from her. But she knew, from seeing his energy, that she did not want him as an enemy.
Edric was a fool for underestimating him.
Now that Cyrene had finally been returned to a room with a bed to herself, she thought that she would want to go meander the corridors of the castle. Maybe she could rediscover the home that she had lived in for such a short period of time when she first became an Affiliate. Yet her feet wouldn’t carry her out of the room.
She was exhausted. Mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted.
That brief connection with Kael had been more draining than the whole boat ride and everything with Edric combined. As much as she wanted out, she decided against it for the night. She had a target on her back, and she wasn’t prepared for all the questions.
With a sigh, she flopped back into the oversize bed in the middle of the day and slept soundly. Not waking once, as she had the entire time she slept in Kael’s bedchamber on the boat. Fear heightened her senses, and maybe she should have been on guard in the castle as well, but her body protested.
A tap on her door jolted her out of bed. She was shocked to see that it was still daylight out, if hardly. They were reaching the summer solstice when the summer sun stayed out long into the night. There was at least another half hour before the sun would set entirely, based on where it hung on the horizon.
Cyrene adjusted her hair and then hurried to the door. She wasn’t expecting visitors.
When she pulled the door open, the king was standing there.
“Edric,” she said in surprise.
“Hello, Cyrene. I had a maid come to fetch you for dinner, but she informed me that you were asleep, so I didn’t wake you.”
Cyrene shivered. Someone had come into her new room without her even noticing. She could have been dead by now. She would have to be more careful from now on. She needed a guard she trusted. Or perhaps just Ahlvie and Orden.
“That’s quite all right. I’m not hungry.”
“I was curious if you would accompany me for a walk this evening.” His smile was eager, his eyes excited.
He had been waiting for this moment. His earlier erratic behavior aside, he seemed like the Edric she had left behind. All-too anxious to please her.
“Of course,” she said smoothly. “I would be delighted.”
She might have misgivings about Edric’s rule, but she wanted to believe he was acting like this for the common good. And, if not, she wanted to know if she could change his mind about this war.
Cyrene walked with him until they reached outside. The hallways he used were mostly deserted. Though a few people stopped to bow to the king as they passed. Cyrene wondered if they were all about to run to Queen Kaliana to tell her what was going on.
Cyrene realized that she hadn’t even noticed Kaliana’s absence in all of this. It was odd that she hadn’t been there when Cyrene first arrived or in the war ro
om with Edric. Though, admittedly, she didn’t think he liked Kaliana to be in plans with him for that sort of thing. It was still strange that she hadn’t been around at all. The queen had made it her personal mission to make Cyrene’s life miserable since her first day in the castle. Perhaps Edric hadn’t wanted Kaliana’s presence looming over him when he came to greet Cyrene. Perhaps—
But when they entered one of the gardens, she realized exactly where he had brought her. The very garden when he had first made his intentions toward her known. It was a stunning garden with roses blooming in a kaleidoscope of colors and a sea nymph fountain jutting water from her mouth. Cyrene had been stunned by Edric’s advances at the time and terrified what Kaliana would do to her if she found out.
Now, she felt…nothing.
Being here with Edric was nostalgic. It made her wistful for the girl she had been. Ready to take on the world at a moment’s notice with no knowledge of what that meant or the consequences.
“I saved the garden for you,” Edric told her. “I knew you would come back.”
“You saved it for me? What do you mean?”
“With the water shortage, we had to prioritize. The entrance to the grounds had to be preserved for state business, and I had this garden maintained through the drought. I knew that you, a gardener, would want to see it again in its glory.”
Cyrene’s head spun. It was a romantic gesture. She could see that was what he had meant it to be. A year ago, she would have swooned and fallen for him all over again. Now, she was confused.
“Why would you waste the water?” she asked.
“It was not a waste to see your face light up when you saw it once more.”
Cyrene took a step into the garden and admired what he had done for her. For a moment, a glimmer of that girl she had been hit her, and she smiled. It was beautiful. It was also irresponsible.
“People don’t have enough water in the city. You shouldn’t have done this.”
