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She staggered into the moonflower chamber. Her vision was going dark by the time she slid down to the ground and threw herself across Lio’s Slumbering body.
At the contact, bright magic surged through her and cleared her head. She heaved a sigh of relief.
No harm done. Except perhaps the strange looks she’d gotten, leaving the shrine chamber in such a hurry in the middle of noon rites. Fortunately there were enough rumors about her poor constitution that she was more likely to be deemed sickly than irreverent.
She drew Lio’s magic into her with every gasp. Her heart began to calm. She rested her face on his chest, skin to skin in the vee of his open robe.
But she could hear his heart racing. Another day terror.
She wished they were safe at home in Orthros, spending one last Slumber in their beautiful residence in Orthros Notou. At nightfall, all their family and friends would board the ships for Migration Night and leave the southern hemisphere to return to the north. At least everyone they loved would be closer now.
Why didn’t that make her feel safer, as she had expected?
Hoping to soothe Lio’s tortured dreams, she ran a hand down his chest and opened the channeling wider, like the night she had first summoned him into the passageways. She had learned that deepening their magical connection could reach him in his dreams. As their auras mingled, she heard his heart slow down.
She must return to the day’s court events—and make it to her next secret meeting with Eudias and Ariadne. But what if Lio’s nightmares returned? She gave into her need to be near him for just a moment longer.
She raised up on one arm and watched him sleep. She had never been a romantic, but he certainly brought out the small amount of fancifulness she possessed. This vision of him sleeping on a bed of magic flowers brought legends to mind. Silly old stories which held that the Mage King had never truly died, but lay somewhere in slumber, ready to return to defend his people.
But a mortal king could not live forever, and if Lucis’s atrocities had not been enough to summon him, what good was the legend, in any case? No, in the tale Cassia was living, a young Hesperine ambassador had taken the place of the warrior king as her personal champion.
With an effort, she made herself get up, dust off her robes, and turn back the way she had come. But her fears crept over her, and she hesitated.
She knew she was growing more ill by the day. If Paradum was not the great hope they suspected…if they had to keep searching… She should keep making the most of every foray here in the passageways.
“Dockk dockk, dear Knight. The court will have to miss us for a bit longer. Let us try the ivy chamber one more time.”
Knight trotted ahead of her through the side passage to the seeming dead end she had showed Lio weeks ago. It was the chamber that still puzzled her. The magic seemed so strong here, so full of potential. She always felt on the verge of a discovery. But none of the magical exercises she and Lio had tried had yielded results.
Even so, she tried again, standing for long moments with the ivy pendant in her hand. She concentrated on that feeling of latent magic. But the sense of possibility did not ignite into a spell.
No more time to experiment today. Cassia hastened back toward the shrine chamber, pausing at the portal to make sure noon rites were in fact over, and it would be safe to meet Eudias and Ariadne. Carefully, she put her ear through the wall.
But it was Ben and Genie’s voices that she heard. Cassia wrapped an arm around Knight to hold him back and leaned forward just enough to peer through the stone.
Ben and Genie faced each other at the shrine of Andragathos. She leaned into the distance between them, just a little closer than was appropriate. “You wanted to talk to me alone?”
“Yes,” Ben said. “I had to see you before the vote.”
“I’m so glad. I miss you.” Genie rested her hand on his arm, turning the touch into the slightest caress.
And there it was, the confirmation of what Cassia had suspected. Ben’s love was not unrequited at all. She took heart that Ben’s cause was not hopeless, if only because Genie tended to get what she wanted.
The knight put a hand over hers, stilling it. But he also did not let go. “You have to leave. Today.”
She pulled away. “That’s why you arranged a secret meeting? To lecture me again?”
“Trust me. You must get away from Patria.”
“Ben, we have had this conversation every day since I arrived. I will not go home, and you cannot make me.” Genie’s words might be those of a petulant child, but her tone held great dignity.
“It’s different this time,” Ben pleaded.
That plea must have worried Genie as much as it did Cassia, for the girl asked, “What do you mean?”
Ben made a frustrated sound. “I can’t say, because I don’t know what you’ll repeat to Her Highness.”
Genie took a step back. “Do you really think that of me? I’m capable of navigating my position better than that.”
