by Jane Kindred
After she’d laced my corset and helped me on with my dress, she took the coat from him, still wearing only her own under-bust corset over a cotton bodice and pantaloons, and began to darn the holes with a needle and thread I couldn’t imagine where she’d kept.
“When you didn’t get back right away, I told Rita.” She glanced up at me. “She said you gave her an interesting good-bye.”
I blushed. “She took me by surprise.”
“Yes, well, as it was our first kiss and I didn’t even get to participate, it took me by surprise as well.” Her tone was sullen, but her eyes were smiling, and I guessed she and Margarita had more than made up for it. It was a little disconcerting to think of Margarita being intimate with my form while I was away.
I paused in lacing my bodice. “What do you mean, I didn’t get back right away? We’ve come back early.”
“No.” She spoke with exaggerated patience as if I were a child. “It’s been nearly three weeks. I got back a week ago, and I’ve had a devil of a time trying to avoid everyone and shirk your official duties. I’m sure they think you’re a terrible queen.” As usual, the Unseen World had kept us longer than it seemed.
Lively tied off a knot on her darning and held the coat out for Kae, finished already—she really was amazing with a needle and thread—and then wriggled into her dress. “And in case you were worried about it, I did not touch Vasily.”
“I wasn’t.”
Kae’s pale grey eye regarded me somewhat sadly. “I didn’t realize you and he were still intimate.”
Astute as ever, Lively brushed down her skirts abruptly, opened the door, and slipped out without a word.
I drew Kae by the hand to sit with me on the bed. “My ascendancy to the throne was not conventional. Neither will my reign be. Even without all that has happened to bring this to pass, I realize looking back that I could never have behaved as I ought. I am alive because I didn’t behave as I ought.”
He looked away, the stormy-ocean grey of his eye beside the patch full of sorrow, but I turned his head back toward me with a gentle hand.
“But I have loved you all my life, Kae Lebesovich. And you and I have had pain enough.” Though it seemed right, the promise I was about to make was not an easy one. “If it hurts you to think of me with Vasily, then I shall not be with Vasily. If you ask it of me, if you need it of me, I shall be yours alone.”
“Mine?” He leapt to his feet and gaped at me in disbelief, as if he’d thought I was talking about something entirely different. “You can’t possibly want to be with me. Nazkia, I don’t expect that of you. Not at all.”
“Well, I expect it of you,” I said, a bit taken aback.
“Nenny.” He regarded me fondly. “You’ve saved me from such darkness, and I am so grateful that you love me—”
“Grateful?” I recoiled from the word. Had his kiss been gratitude? “Derrmo.” I breathed the Russian expletive out of habit after so long in the company of demons. “I’m such a fool. I just assumed…” The heat rose in my cheeks and I swallowed my babbling and my pride. “You don’t love me after all. Not that way.”
“No, of course I love you.” He spoke the words low and rough, his own cheeks now flushed with color. “But I don’t want your pity.”
“Pity?” I was genuinely insulted now. I rose and stepped in close to him, slipping my fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck. When Kae shuddered and turned his head to the side, taking a preparatory breath for some tepid argument, I kissed the pulse at his throat and felt it quicken beneath my tongue under the sweet musk of his skin. His eye closed and he set his palms lightly against my waist as if he meant to push me away, but I took one of his hands and slid it up the side of the dress to the bust to press it inside my corset, drawing his thumb over my taut nipple as I held his fingers against my pounding heart.
“Does that feel like pity?” I whispered at his ear when his eye flew open.
Kae looked mortified, but his other hand had moved to my lower back almost involuntarily, drawing me to him, and the skin-tight elkskin breeches of the Supernal Army beneath his open coat confirmed he was feeling no such lackluster emotion toward me. “But I can’t,” he protested, while his body told me in no uncertain terms that he could.
I clenched my fingers in his hair and kissed his startled lips. “Consider it a command performance, then,” I murmured against them before I pulled back. “I require your attendance at a ceremony this evening. And afterward, I want to see you in my chambers. You’ll not get any pity from me.” I gave him a wicked smile as his grip tightened around me. “You’ll be lucky if I show you mercy.”
Before he could respond, the door swung open, and Vasily’s gruff voice preceded him into the room. “Dammit, Nazkia. I can’t believe you didn’t tell…me…” The end of his sentence fizzled out and he stared with a look of profound disbelief while I let go of Kae and put myself together.
“Vasily…” I brushed at my skirts, at a loss for words.
Shutters seemed to close over his expression. “Pardon me, Your Supernal Majesty. I didn’t realize you had company.” He gave me a stiff bow and stepped back.
“Vasya, wait.”
He ignored me and closed the door.
“I think I’d better go.” Kae took my hand, looking surprisingly more at ease, and I suspected he took some degree of pleasure in Vasily’s discomfort. “I cannot presume to make any claims upon your affection. What you do with the demon is your affair.”
“Grand duke.”
“Pardon?”
“The Grand Duke Vasily of the House of Arcadia.”
“Sorry, of course. The grand duke. As I say, it’s your affair, and I wouldn’t ask you to change who you are for me.” He gave me another sad smile and smoothed one of my curls. “I love who you are,” he whispered. “But I will attend you, Your Supernal Majesty.” There was a slight glimmer in his eye as he bowed. “I am yours to command. And now if you would direct me…?”
“Lively will show you to your quarters. She’s right outside the door. Aren’t you, Lively?”
There was a pause before Lively replied with a tone of chagrin. “Yes, Your Supernal Majesty.”
I opened the door and caught her by the collar before she could step away, murmuring at her ear, “Tell Vasily I wish to speak with him. And if he gives you any resistance, remind him that I am the queen.”
He took his time, and when he reported to me at last, it was with stony silence, refusing to look at me. I sighed and sat on the bed. “Please sit down.”
Crossing to a chair at the opposite end of the room, he obeyed.
“I meant over here.” When he gave no acknowledgment, I rose and went to stand in front of him. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the trip. Belphagor advised against it. I didn’t know for certain if I’d be bringing him back and Bel didn’t want you needlessly upset.”
The silence burst like a ruptured dam. “You think I’m upset about the trip?” Vasily stood and glared down at me with angry fire. “Do you think I give a damn whether you ransomed that whoreson angel?”
“I know perfectly well why you’re upset, and I don’t blame you. But I didn’t plan this.”
“Well, I should certainly hope you didn’t! Because that would make you an even bigger bitch than you are.” He paced away from me without waiting for my reaction. “I knew this was coming, but I didn’t want to believe it. I knew the moment you gave him our fire.”
“I didn’t give it to him, Vasily. You did.”
He swung around to face me. “Yes, when I healed him for you. When I healed the man who beat and tortured Belphagor until I nearly lost him for good, the man who beheaded the Virtues at Gehenna for the fun of it—the man who murdered your own family. Because you’d have been heartbroken if I’d let him die!”
“That wasn’t him, and you know it. That was Aeval’s creation, her cruelty.” I cut off the retort he was about to throw back at me. “And yet I had him beaten anyway, with the knut that ne
arly killed Belphagor.”
His anger wavered. “You what?”
I swatted at the tears I couldn’t afford to indulge in now. “One hundred lashes. I had him torn to pieces and then I put him back together like some fiend from the Realm of the Dead. Are you satisfied?” Triumph and horror warred on his features, but I didn’t want to see what won out. “And healing him wasn’t how you gave him our fire anyway.”
Vasily scowled. “What are you talking about? How else could I have done it?”
“You made me take the drop of Ola’s blood.”
The Seraph’s fire in the pit of his pupils went out. “Ola’s…?”
“A drop of my pure angel blood stored up somewhere. Only it wasn’t pure. It couldn’t have been. I warned you, Vasily, but you pricked her finger and took her blood. You gave the Seraph strain to me. You didn’t change Kae’s blood; his is still pure. Your element mixed with mine creates aether. And now my element does the same. It sparks in Heaven—without your touch.”
“Ola’s blood.” Vasily’s eyes contained sorrow I had only seen in them once before—when Belphagor had left him in the world of Man. “You can call fire?”
“Only a very small amount. But enough to spark aether with another waterspirit.” I stroked his arm and watched the pale lavender light rise at my touch before Vasily pulled away. “Sharing our fire with Kae wasn’t a sign of anything.” My voice dropped to a rasp as I tried to keep the tears from it. “I told you long ago I loved him.”
The stony look returned. “Love, is it? Well, I suppose that explains why you could never love me.” He held up his hand before I could speak. “Don’t worry, Nazkia. I’m not going to cry. I’m just going to wish you well. I guess Belphagor was right, after all, about us leaving the palace. But I hope you’ll let us see our daughter from time to—”
“Oh, for the love of Heaven, Vasily! Don’t be an infant. No one’s going anywhere.” My ire at his stubbornness vanquished the tears.
He narrowed his eyes, the flame once more beginning to smolder. “You expect us to stay here in the palace with you and your principality? You’re out of your mind if you think he’d stand for it.”
“What principality? Bozhe moi! Do you think I mean to marry him?” I laughed aloud at the unexpected object of his fear, and Vasily’s mouth set in a tight line, his ruddy complexion deepening. He hated to be laughed at.
“Vasya.” I grabbed his wrist before he could turn away, fighting his considerable resistance. Despite him, the aether fluttered beneath my thumb. “He knows what you mean to me. And I thought you did, too.”
Seraphic flame glowed in his eyes—part anger, part desire. “What do I mean to you?” he demanded.
It had been so easy to say the word to Kae. I’d been saying it to him all my life. Something fluttered in terror in my breast at the thought of admitting to Vasily that I loved him, as if saying it might evaporate him before my eyes like the words of a powerful spell from the once-vibrant Demon Market of Raqia.
His hazel eyes, flickering with the embers of his radiance like a bit of Lively’s summoning powder, grew sad. “It’s all right, Nazkia.” He tucked a curl behind my ear. “I’ll be whatever you need me to be.” Vasily lowered his voice to a harsh whisper, drawing his finger along my jaw to my throat to watch the aether follow. “I’ll suffer that unworthy angel’s touch on this skin that dances with our fire.”
I threw my arms around his neck and clung to him, and he enveloped me in his strong embrace, the one that made me feel safe, protected even from myself. He smelled like wood smoke and his heat gently caressed me as his chest rose and fell against mine.
“You have Belphagor,” I whispered.
He pulled my arms away from his neck so he could look me in the eye and shook his head. “That’s not—”
“How can you possibly not understand,” I interrupted, before I lost my nerve, “that I can love more than one person?”
The color in his face deepened even more, and the flame in his eyes took on a warmer hue. He shook his head again, as if he wasn’t certain he’d heard me right. “You said ‘love.’”
“I might have.” I ducked my head against his chest, trembling slightly. “And I might be completely out of my mind.”
He breathed in deeply and I heard the rumble of embers in his lungs as he held me for a long moment. “Suits me,” he growled at last against my ear, pushing me resolutely toward the bed. “Everyone I love is a little bit crazy.”
My journey to Tsarskoe Selo had given me time to think about the dilemma of who fit where in the supernal palace. It was unthinkable that Ola be separated from Vasily and Belphagor—nor could I imagine being without them; no matter what else we were to each other, we were family.
But Vasily, after all, was a grand duke of the House of Arcadia, and there was the reigning principality of Vilon in Arcadia with whom I had now to deal for his role in supporting Helga’s revolution. My advisors encouraged me to have him executed publicly, but I couldn’t bear to have my reign begin with such ugliness. Helga had used the influence of the flower to get people to do her bidding as surely as Aeval had enchanted Kae, and the Arcadians had been in rebellion against Aeval’s crown and not my own. Therefore, I’d chosen only to censure them.
Vasily would be my Arcadian ambassador, making the day-and-a-half trip to the court of Vilon twice a month to ensure their loyalty, and as such, he and his companion would occupy the new southeast wing of the Winter Palace for the offices of the embassy and their personal quarters.
For his service and faithfulness to the House of Arkhangel’sk, the companion must of course be appointed Chief Advisor to the Supernal Crown, and at the ceremony this evening, I would award him with the title of the first Count of Raqia. They resisted my desire to restore the princedom to it, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make it a countship. Kae would remain my field marshal, but I would also entrust to him the office of the Lord Chancellor of Heaven. In the hands of Love and Kirill, I would place the responsibility for Ola’s care and education, while Margarita—presuming she chose to remain in Heaven, which seemed likely given her relationship with the first official Supernal Apothecary to the House of Arkhangel’sk—I intended to promote to General of the Elysian Army under Field Marshal Kae.
I announced the officers of my court that evening before the nobility of Elysium.
Ola was delighted by the ceremony, thoroughly enjoying her role in taking the medals of office from my hands and placing them over the heads of the kneeling honorees. Belphagor, in particular, she giggled over as he tried to look serious—no act on his part, as he was somewhat stunned by the unexpected honor, but to Ola, it was a silly look she took for a game, having never seen it on his face before.
“Give this one to Count Belphagor,” I said to her.
Ola placed the ribbon over his head and then wrapped her arms around his neck, loudly chirping, “Count Beli!” to his utter chagrin.
Vasily accepted his honor with sullen grace, still irritated that we hadn’t confided in him about my trip, and only grudgingly accepting the presence of the Lord Chancellor at my side. He took his ill humor out on Belphagor following the ceremony, treating him rudely, and Belphagor responded by refusing to sit near him during the celebratory banquet. I smiled as I recognized the elaborate ritual of courtship they were engaged in within plain view of the entire assembly.
Ola grew sleepy during the first course, and Love and Kirill happily took her back to the nursery, glowing in their new, official roles—Kirill had openly wept and kissed my ring when he’d been called before my throne, so moved that I would trust him with my most precious jewel after the way he’d come into our lives.
The banquet went on into the wee hours, with the pale pink glow of a celestial sun just peeking over the silver-blue strip of the Lower Neba when the guests at last dispersed. I retired to my boudoir, reminding my lord chancellor with a whisper as I departed that he was not yet off duty.
I waited for him in my corset
and petticoat, having sent my lady-in-waiting away after she helped me off with my dress and unpinned my hair. The Ophanim ushered Kae in without question. In the absence of the Seraphim, they’d taken on the role of the personal Supernal Guard, and they now guarded my door for my safety instead of my captivity. I ordered Kae to unlace me, and I felt his fingers trembling behind me as he obeyed. Where his fingers touched, I could also feel the soft caress of aether.
When the corset dropped to the floor, he reached his arms around me from behind and held me to his chest. “Is this really what you want?” he murmured against my hair. “I have been the consort of another queen of Heaven, as her conquest, and out of spite.”
“Spite?” I turned in his arms, looking up at him. “You don’t really think that of me?”
“I don’t know what to think,” he admitted. “You frighten me a bit.”
“I love you,” I whispered. “You are not a conquest. You take me if you want me.”
Holding me against him like a porcelain doll, he drew me with him as he stepped back and tumbled onto the bed, demonstrating that he did. “My Nenny.” He whispered the name against my skin again and again.
The aether played between us like sparks of static as we came together, lilac fireflies landing here and there upon our flesh. It wasn’t the same play of elements I had with Vasily, but a paler, gentler whisper of it. With Vasily, I felt possessed—gratefully—free, for those moments in which we lost ourselves in each other, from the burdens of myself. With Kae, it was a sweet and solemn solace. We could not forget the ghosts that hovered near us while we touched, and yet I sensed our union released them in some way, as Kae at last had been released from the final vestiges of Aeval’s hold on him through the purging of celestial fire.
The hour was late when we rested in each other’s arms, with the autumn sun glowing brightly through the gaps in the curtains. He fretted that he’d betrayed his Omeliea, trying not to let me see his devastating sorrow at this thought. Holding him and stroking his hair across his damp forehead, I told him of my dream when I’d seen her in the Nightworld.
