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“She has informed me in no uncertain terms she will ensure it comes to pass.”
“I knew she opposed the Summit, but this…”
“She has decided our Summit is of use after all—as bait to get her brother home long enough for her to keep him here, so the Queens can lock him in. I will have no part in it.”
“Cassia, did she try to—recruit you?”
“She wants to collect the two of us like pretty buds and put us in a vase to be watered. Just like her brother. He will wither in the soil of Tenebra, she says. She must rescue him before he becomes a martyr. She wants us all to sit safe here and do nothing for our people who are suffering and dying.”
Konstantina had been the first to ask Cassia to stay in Orthros?
That moment was supposed to have been his and Cassia’s. That declaration had been his to make. After everything they had been through, after how hard they had fought, after how carefully he had planned that event in their lives so it would be everything Cassia deserved.
He put his hand over hers where she held the white rose, gently, so as not to drive the thorns to prick her skin any deeper. He prized her fingers apart and eased the rose out of her grasp to wrap his handkerchief around the stem.
He could not let the princess take this moment from him and Cassia. Konstantina might have made the proposal, but the debate must be all his and Cassia’s own.
It was time for them to start talking about the choice that awaited her. He could no longer be silent about how much he wanted her to stay in Orthros.
He would make this moment theirs. No anger. No fears. Only the love that awaited them.
Lio presented the flower to Cassia. “Do you know what this rose means?”
“Yes! I have to choose.” Cassia turned away and hurled the flower from her. It landed with his handkerchief in a splash of blood at the fork of two garden paths. “My sister’s death wasnotin vain! I will never abandon Tenebra.”
Lio’s words died in his throat. He stared at his Grace’s back and the scattered petals of her verdict.
She turned to face him. “We must warn the prince of his sister’s intentions. How can we get word to him?”
Lio was silent for an instant, gathering his thoughts. “This is not a matter for a Charge scout to relate to him. I will ask my father how we might discreetly arrange a visit from Rudhira so we can discuss this with him ourselves.”
Cassia lifted her chin and straightened her back, and all expression disappeared from her face. Lady Circumspect, the king’s daughter, stood composed in the Hesperine garden Lio had shared with his wild rose only a moment before.
“Good,” she said. “I wish to tell the First Prince personally that I am the first rampart of thorns between the Second Princess and his cause. Now I had best rejoin the embassy before Konstantina’s diversion of my attention creates even more problems.”
She marched back the way they had come.
Lio picked up the lovely flower with which Konstantina had undone all his labors to offer Sanctuary to his Grace.
UNION STONE
The red stone castpulsing, blood-colored light across Apollon’s sketches. Cassia could sense as well as see the beat, as she could with her glyph shard. The stone was only the size of an egg, but the power in it felt larger than that. Beneath its polished surface, shades of red shifted like the liquid texture of the Blood Moon.
On the other side of the worktable, Lio’s father leaned on his fists over the stone. “We have not used these in some years. It will give Ioustin a start, but he will answer, I am certain.”
“Thank you for doing this, Father.” Lio stood beside Cassia with his hands braced on the table, just a finger’s breadth from hers. But not touching.
Cassia buried a hand in Knight’s ruff. Lio had not been himself since the garden. Her head had not cooled, either. But they were united in their purpose, as always. Why wasn’t it bringing them together tonight?
Zoe, snuggling in her mantle, leaned closer to her father from her vantage point on his stool. “This is just like one of your stories, Papa.”
Apollon picked up Moonbeam from Zoe’s lap before the goat could nibble his sketches. He set the kid gently on the floor next to Aurora, then put an arm around Zoe and smiled. “On this night, we will use one of the Blood Errant’s union stones to send a message to the Blood-Red Prince.”
“What’s the important message?” Zoe asked.
Apollon exchanged a look with Komnena over Zoe’s head.
Komnena sidestepped the goats to put her arm around Zoe as well. “We must talk with him about something Aunt Kona said. She is very concerned about him.”
