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43
Nights Until
NOTIAN WINTER SOLSTICE
13th Night of the Month of Ourania
1,597th Year In Sanctuary (IS)
AMBASSADOR CASSIA KOMNENA
It was time for Cassia to appear before the most powerful woman in the world and tell her no.
She drew a shaking breath of humid night air and stared down the path through the Empress’s cassia trees. Any moment now, she and Lio would receive their summons to appear before Her Imperial Majesty. This grove had witnessed so much history. It seemed a fated place for Cassia to change the future.
She ran her hand over her new medallion of office, comforted by the weight of the cool silver disk around her neck. Its blood magic emanated into her, faint but certain to her budding arcane senses.
She might still be human for the time being, but she was officially an ambassador for the Hesperines now, an advocate for her immortal family and friends, in service to the Queens of Orthros. I earned this, she reminded herself. I deserve it.
“And you wear it beautifully,” Lio said in answer to her thoughts, which he had surely heard with his mind magic. “No need to be nervous, my rose.”
As always, he understood. Her beloved Lio, all fangs and unconditional support. She ran her fingers down his fair face and dark, close-cut beard, her hand coming to rest on his medallion. It was a dream come true to be his partner not only in love, but also in their careers as diplomats.
But her heart pounded for all the wrong reasons. “I never imagined my first official appearance as an ambassador would be a private audience with the Empress herself.”
He rested his hands over hers, holding them to his chest. “You have already foiled the plots of the mightiest mages and all but dethroned the King of Tenebra. With such accomplishments to your name, where else would your career begin but in high places?”
“The Empress’s greatness far outshines those men.”
“You have also negotiated before the very brightest lights—our immortal Queens.”
“If I were to make a mistake before our Queens, their only reply would be forgiving smiles, the only consequence my own mortification. In an encounter with the Empress, not only is her dynasty’s sixteen-hundred-year-old alliance with Orthros at stake, but...” Cassia’s feet seemed fixed to the ground, unable to take another step. “The next few moments could alter the fate of the entire world. Because of my decision.”
Lio touched her shoulders and drew her closer. “Your choices always transform Tenebra and Orthros for the better. This will be no different.”
“Now my actions will also have consequences for the Empire, our ally. The homeland of so many of our family and friends. My sister’s adopted land, which kept Solia safe when she had to flee Tenebra. I could never forgive myself if I brought harm upon the Empire.”
“We do have a deep bond of gratitude with the Empress.” Lio ran his hands up and down Cassia’s arms. “All the more reason not to fear. We are about to appear before a just monarch who will hear our words with sympathetic ears.”
“You’re right.” The anxiety fizzing through Cassia at this moment was so different from the panic she had once battled when facing the tyrant king who had sired her. “I am equal to this.”
“You were made for it.” Lio’s dark blue gaze swept from her head to her toes.
Under such admiration, it was impossible not to feel emboldened. “And you, my love? Are you proud to have your first private appearance before Her Imperial Majesty?”
“It feels right because we’re together.”
Cassia traced the high collar of his black formal robe, feeling the braid of her hair hidden underneath. Her tie around him. The reminder that he was her Grace, bound to her for eternity by Hespera, the Goddess of Night. “No matter what the Empress may try to persuade me to do, you have nothing to fear from this audience. Nothing can separate us.”
He slid two fingers under her chin. When he opened his mouth to speak the simple words, his fangs were unsheathed. “I know.”
He was armored only in silk, wielding nothing sharper than an ambassador’s medallion. But Cassia knew he was the most dangerous person who would ever love her.
From her guest room in the Imperial Palace, they had been waging their campaign of research, strategy, and persuasion. It was meticulous. It was slow. And he was enjoying every minute of once again rearranging the world so that no one would ever take her from him.
“I’ve made my decision,” she said, “and I know it’s the right one. Not even the Empress has the power to change my future.”
But Cassia’s decision would change the Empire, Orthros, and Tenebra. She had command of her own destiny, as well as responsibility for the consequences.
