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“We lost.”
Lio held her more tightly. “We have lost nothing.”
“I can’t sacrifice lives for our happiness.”
Her pain tore through the Union. Lio took a step back.
She pulled out of his arms as if it burned her to touch him. “If Nike had stayed in Orthros, I would be dead. How can I justify staying here, when I could save so many lives?”
Lio stood where he was as the wind buffeted him. “What lives, Cassia? The envoys are looking for Nike, Nephalea, and the other hostages. When the Order’s wrath descends, we shall all be here together, safe behind the ward.”
Cassia wrapped her arms around herself. “Even if the envoys succeed, who will the Aithourian Circle endanger next to rile Orthros? The war mages are nothing without war. They will never give up trying to draw Hesperines out to battle, and the king will serve his people up to the Orders.”
“What-ifs,” Lio countered. “Nothing more. But all the more reason why you should be here with us. The ‘Hesperite sorceress’ of Solorum will be the first target of persecution.”
“What did we expect to happen, even if the lords and knights agree to an Oath with us? The nobility is not strong enough to stand against the king and the Orders, not without leadership to keep the free lords united. The Oath will die the moment they return home. The king will not suffer any hope of peace to live.”
“Cassia, don’t lose faith in our Summit. Not now.”
“We’ve been dreaming, Lio! The Dexion’s takeover of the embassy has shaken us awake. As long as Lucis is on the throne, there is no hope.”
The wind tore at her now-tousled hair, which she had worn in the same braid since the night of the fair. Lio reached out to her, but it was too late. The wind unraveled the promise she’d had him weave into her hair.
“You cannot be considering going back.”
“You must be wondering what could be gained, if I go return to the way things were, hiding in the shadows and waiting to strike at the king’s plan where I can. What more could I do, when the effect of my best efforts was already waning when you intervened with the Summit? You are right. I have no intention of continuing as I was. It is time for me to change everything.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know,” she said, so gently it hurt. “Even you, my mind mage, have yet to see. No one has ever thought it possible. But I can do it, Lio.”
“What is this plan of yours I have not seen?” he asked helplessly.
“I am going to make myself Queen of Tenebra.”
NO OTHER WAY
They landed back inthe courtyard with a stagger. Cassia watched Lio sink down onto a bench by the fountain. He put his head in his hands.
He said nothing. The silence between them stretched on, terrible in its certainty.
“Can you do it?” he asked at last.
“Yes.”
“Can you do it without Flavian?”
“No.”
His head snapped up, and he looked at her, his hands out in a gesture of protest, of plea. “You cannot really be thinking of—not that. Not Flavian.”
“The free lords will never accept a bastard daughter on her own. But she can provide the path to the throne, and a popular lord at her side can win her the nobility’s approval.”
Lio’s face flushed. “This is the future you envision for yourself? A life as Flavian’s shadow queen? As hiswife?”
“It will be a political union only! I have already made it clear what he shall not expect of me. He and Sabina know they have my blessing. Heirs can be adopted. Or produced by his sister, if I can persuade Titus and Risara to acknowledge that Eugenia is their daughter.”
Lio shook his head as if someone had struck him. “You have it all planned. You’ve had this in mind all along. The whole time you’ve been here.”
