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Casimir’s mouth tightened with irritation. “I heard thatyouwere unwell,” he said pointedly, his citrine eyes flicking down to meet mine. “So unwell that Lord Starclaw asked the High Nexon to excuse your absence at the Dark Mass last night, despite knowing it would count against you for the Descendency. Yet here you stand, looking fresh as a daisy.”
“Getting a full night of sleep will do that to a person,” I said sweetly, even as I silently kicked myself for my behavior. Why in all the hells could I not seem to keep my snarky mouth shut around the crown prince? “Interesting how we both happened to fall ill on the same night.”
I hadn’t meant to speak those words out loud, but when Casimir’s eyes darkened, I knew he’d been thinking the same thing. “It certainly is,” he said softly, his gaze roving over my face. He looked as if he wanted to crack open my skull and examine the insides piece by piece, and a shiver of apprehension raced through me. I wanted to step away from him, but the strange thing tugging me toward him rooted me to the ground.
Casimir leaned in, close enough to brush his mouth against my skin if he wanted, but he refrained from touching me. “I wantyou to tell me what it is you saw during the opening ceremony,” he said, pitching his voice low so as not to be overheard.
I jerked back in surprise, and this time, I did step away. “During the opening ceremony? What are you talking about?”
The crown prince scowled. “Come with me,” he said, then turned on his heel and strode away.
Alarm bells went off inside my head, but I knew that without Maximillian around to gainsay him, I couldn’t refuse a command from the crown prince. Reluctantly, I hurried after Casimir, following him behind a shed that had been erected to hold extra tent poles and supplies. I braced myself for an attack, but while the crown prince did use his big body to cage me against the wall of the shed, he didn’t touch me.
“When my father ratified Lord Starclaw’s request to enter you as a candidate for the Descendency, something happened,” Casimir said, his rough voice agitating my nerves. “Something that shocked you enough to make you look like you’d seen a ghost even though nothing out of the ordinary happened.” He slapped his palm against the wall by my head, and I flinched. “I want you to tell me what you saw.”
Oh.The memory came back to me—of Vladimir slamming his staff against the ground, of that current of crimson energy that rippled through the assembly. I must not have controlled my expression well enough if Casimir had noticed my reaction. But whyhadhe been looking at me in that moment, when everyone else’s attention had been glued to the emperor?
“Why don’t you tell me what you saw first,” I said in an even tone that bellied my flip-flopping stomach, “and I’ll tell you if I saw it, too.”
Casimir snarled, his eyes flashing red. “You push me too far,” he hissed, shoving his face into mine. The sight of his long fangs glinting inches from my neck should have filled me with a healthy dose of fear, but then, this vampire had never inspired a rational response in me. “We are not equals—I am the crown prince, and you are a lowly human slave who thinks she can get away with flapping her lips simply because her master gave her a few fancy dresses and whisked her off to a grand castle. But I am not him, and I have no qualms about putting you in your place. Youwillanswer me.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw, and the air around us thickened with power, threatening to suffocate me. But the huntress inside me picked up on a scent, one that told me to stand my ground and push back.
“Why do you care so much?” I demanded, my hand drifting to the dagger at my thigh in case I needed to use it. “Why are you always watching me and finding excuses to be near me, when I’m alowly human slave, as you put it, who’s clearly beneath your attention?”
I spoke the words in a tone that was low but vicious, unsure where the anger inside me was coming from. After all, it wasn’t as if I knew the crown prince. We’d only met a few days ago. Why did his presence inspire such reckless violence inside me? It wasn’t the same murderous rage I felt when I looked at the emperor, the kind that pushed me to visualize his death at my hands over and over. No, my anger toward Casimir was different. It wanted to throw him to the ground and pummel him, the way angry children scrapped with each other when they were hurt or frustrated.
A taut silence stretched between us as Casimir held my gaze, and I let it go on, refusing to be the one to break. Finally, the crownprince stepped away with a curse, giving me space to breathe. “I don’t understand what it is about you,” he said, shaking his head in disgust. “Why I can’t seem to stay away from you, why this thing in my chest—”
He cut himself off, but I pounced on that tidbit of information. “What thing in your chest?” I asked sharply. “There’s a thing in your chest?” Could it be he felt the same tugging sensation I did?
Casimir’s jaw worked for several seconds, as though he were chewing his way through several possible responses. Finally, he scraped a hand through his dark hair and said, “I saw a wave of dark energy spread from my father’s body and throughout the chamber after he declared your candidacy,” he said in a voice almost too quiet to hear. “I thought I was imagining things, except that the exact phenomenon repeated itself last night.”
A triumphant surge filled me as Casimir vindicated my hunch. “What was he doing?” I asked, unable to keep the eagerness from my voice. Was there some kind of pattern to this?
“He ordered me to—” Casimir started, then pressed his lips together. He glowered at me, and I glared right back, refusing to be intimidated even though the prince was fully capable of crushing my skull with a mere flick of his wrist. “Why are you so interested?” he asked, his tone heavy with suspicion.
I laughed. “Are you serious? Anyone would be interested if the emperor suddenly started using dark magic."
“My father is not using dark magic,” Casimir growled, closing the distance between us. I reached for the dagger again, but the prince stopped short once more, and I realized he was deliberately refusing to touch me. Something pulsed in the airbetween us, our chests heaving simultaneously, and I fisted my hands at my sides as I grappled with my seething emotions.
“I don’t know what this is between us,” Casimir growled, “or what you think you saw that day. But stay the fuck away from me, Catherine. Be a good little thrall, sit at your master’s feet, and stop sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
He spun on his heel and stalked away, and I slid my back down the wall of the shed until my butt hit the dirt. The tug in my chest wrenched at me, commanding me to follow, and I fisted my hands at my sides, refusing to heed the impulse.
I didn’t care if the gods themselves were behind this insane urge. I wouldn’t go near Casimir again. Not until I’d reduced his father to ash.
33
Kitana
Three hours later, I sat in the fairground arena stands, transfixed by the performance below. I knew I should be nervous about Maximillian’s upcoming fight, and I had been when I’d first walked in here. But I was so mesmerized by the Stellaris delegation’s meticulously planned performance, I couldn’t focus on anything other than the burning strokes of ghostly blue-black flame they painted the night sky with.
I was well-acquainted with the brutal nature of shadowfire—unlike normal fire, it couldn’t be extinguished unless the welder either perished, or commanded it to stop. It could eat through flesh, bone, steel, stone, and anything else in between. Yet the Stellaris delegation did not use their terrifying power to melt or char targets, but instead wove the shimmering flames into vivid, fiery images depicting mythical creatures, celestial bodies, and various scenes of historical significance to their house.
“Spectacular, isn’t it?” A dulcet voice purred from my right, and I startled as Viviana Stellaris took the open seat next to me. “They practiced for months, you know. I watched every second of it.”
Lucius, who was seated on my other side, stiffened. “Lady Stellaris,” he greeted her, his tone stiff. “Shouldn’t you be seated with your family?”
