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Her heart began to pound with instinctive fear. What if they were separated again? So many things could go wrong in Tenebra…
She pushed the dread back down. She must not let Craving reduce her to this incapable creature. She would learn to carry on in spite of it.
It took all of Cassia’s strength to concentrate on her conversation with the Semna. The mage spoke of Kyria’s teachings of forgiveness and paths for Hesperine redemption, while in the back of Cassia’s mind, she thought of how much she needed Lio’s kiss on her parched mouth, how she needed his magic touching her in places no mortal man could reach…
By seemingly tiny measures, the brilliant afternoon light softened to dusk. The fire burned, and the dancers spun.
Lio’s power washed over her like a dark tide, and she knew he had awoken.
She bit back a gasp, her cheeks hot. He felt like a shadow reaching out of the fortress, growling in frustration at finding her so distant from him.
But she couldn’t go to him. They must meet in the great hall for the commencement of the Full Council of Free Lords. With the eyes of the Tenebran nobility looking on, she must not betray that she was no Kyrian virgin, but a Hesperine’s Grace.
THE TRUE QUEEN
If the ancestors could speak in the shadowlands, Cassia thought the great hall of Castra Patria would be full of whispers. Although it wasn’t the grandest she had seen, it held history larger than the confines of its walls. But the smoke that drifted up from the fire pit toward the shadowed ceiling offered no visions. The bare stones held no presences.
The presence Cassia could feel was Lio’s. His magic seemed to stalk the halls, drawing nearer.
At the head of the room, the dais stood empty, the Mage King’s stone chair vacant. No contender was to ascend the dais until all the votes were cast. Not to say ambitious lords had not stormed it and tried to force the outcome of a Council.
Flavian attempted no such crime. He took a seat in one of the carved wooden chairs that faced each other in tiers across the central aisle. Solia claimed the front row directly across from him for their party, which he had intended, judging by the chair missing to Solia’s right, a clear invitation to Kella and Tilili. Her chin high, Cassia sat at her sister’s left, Knight sitting at attention by her knee.
No matter how Flavian upheld the rule of law, Cassia would never forgive him for his villainy at the Fire Dance. He had threatened her Grace. There was no greater crime under the law of her bond with Lio.
Lio might not know the cause of her anger, but there was no hiding it from him in their Grace Union. His magic was restless in the mind ward, a mirror for her fury.
The free lords of Tenebra filed into the chamber. Each bore his Council Shield emblazoned with his crest, the ceremonial armament reverently passed down through the generations of his line. The raucous men who had beaten each other bloody on the tournament field, engaged in gluttony at the Solstice feast, and done the Fire Dance with their women now took their seats with dignity. They placed their shields at their feet. Lesser lords, knights, and ladies filed into the back rows behind the voting lords’ chairs of office.
Cassia felt all their stares at the mysterious lady in purple and her entourage, who dared occupy the front row.
Flavian’s guards shut and barred the doors, closing them all in with the history-altering decisions that would be made in this room.
“Are you ready?” Cassia asked her sister.
“Yes.” Solia put her hand on Cassia’s. “But will you be all right through the rest of the Council?”
“Of course.”
“Can you manage until he gets here—and after he gets here?”
Cassia squeezed Solia’s hand, unwilling to admit the truth. She was terrified she would not be able to manage at all.
When Lio’s presence loomed just outside the great hall, her breath caught. The other mages must have sensed him too, for Eudias cast an expectant look at the doors.
“Oh, well done,” Hoyefe murmured. “Lio is about to win the prize for the most theatrical performance of the day.”
The panels the mortals had sealed now swung open before a crest of Hesperine magic and thudded back against the walls. Lio stood in the doorway flanked by Mak, Lyros, and Karege.
Hespera’s Mercy, her Grace was so beautiful. Taller than any man in the room, all elegance among the rough Tenebrans, with his innocent face and deadly magic. His gaze found hers, glowing at her with reflected torchlight.
Of its own accord, her aura reached for him and took a long draught of his magic. Her fingers dug into the arm of her chair. Goddess, she couldn’t let herself do this here, now. She had to make it stop.
Lio strode forward, his black robes sweeping around him. His sapphire earring glittered at her. She thought she would go up in flames. She dropped her gaze, scrambling for control of her magical senses. Then suddenly Lio was standing over her, a blessedly cool, impossibly tall shadow.
Flavian was announcing something about Hesperines and delegations, Cassia was not sure what. She didn’t trust herself to look at Lio when he was this close. But then his veil spell wrapped around her, and she dared lift her gaze.
Oh Goddess, she wanted to drag her fingers through his perfectly groomed hair, yank open his formal collar, and dig her teeth into the pale skin of his throat.
