by Vela Roth
“I greased myself.” She made a noise of disgust. “I’m surprised you even want to touch me.”
He wrapped his hand around her buttock and pulled her closer. “I always want to touch you.” Talking was so much effort when he could be kissing her throat, but this was important. “If you think…” He kissed her. “…we need mm…more lubricant…we can find sommthing you like better than those oils.”
Her laughter didn’t sound right. Like she was sad about something. Well, before she knew it, she would be feeling nothing but pleasure.
He decided on her neck and took a bite out of her. An appreciative groan poured out of him. She was so good. She wriggled closer to him, and as he sipped her, they worked her under him and got her tunica up to her waist. The bed was too narrow. Didn’t matter. She was wrapping her legs around him.
“We don’t need more lubricant.” She sounded breathless already.
How right she was. She was wet, and he slid right into her, and her krana held him fast. Oh, she was so good. He began to thrust instinctively, just enjoying her. She gripped her legs tighter around him, just the way he liked. Like she couldn’t stand to let him go. He thrust harder, deeper. Her blood grew warmer and surged into his mouth. Goddess bless, he needed this. She was so good.
It was that good for her too. No sad words now, just her sighs of passion. He thrust harder. Her fingers dug into his shoulders. He dug his teeth into her and thrust harder still.
Her climax came fast, too fast. But that was all right. They could do it again.
He sucked every last drop of her pleasure from her throat, then drove himself as deep into her as he could and stopped thinking altogether. Just felt his body releasing in long, hard pulses, felt everything inside him surging into her until he was spent and replete.
Nothing felt like this. He wanted to wake to this, to her, and no one else.
No, he wasn’t awake. He was dreaming. Cassia couldn’t possibly be in his bed in Solorum Fortress.
Her blood in his veins sent energy coursing through his body. He felt her flesh wet and soft around his, too vivid to be an erotic dream.
“I’m so glad you didn’t stop,” she was saying. “There’s no time, but I had to have you again. Just one more time—” She broke off. Her voice was neither sleepy nor satisfied. She was in pain.
Her heartache shredded through the last heavy remnants of his Dawn Slumber.
This wasn’t a dream.
“Cassia. What are you doing here?”
“Rescuing you.”
He pulled out of her with her blood running down his chin and the wetness from inside her on his body. It was one of the most erotic moments of his life and they could not be doing this. “You shouldn’t be here.”
She sat up in what little room the bunk afforded. “I had to be here the moment you woke, to warn you. There was no time for me to wait for a safe meeting.”
“How did you get in?” Too many questions assailing him, and he was asking the least important ones.
“I climbed through a murder hole.”
The sight of the bruises that mottled her hips finally got him fully awake and painfully alert. In his thoughtless lust, how badly had he caused her injuries to pain her?
In moments he had the wound on her neck properly healed, her tunica all the way off of her, and clean cloths doused in water from his washbasin. He worked in silence, reciting to himself every curse he knew. He draped the icy cloths over the worst bruises he found, like the mess on her right pelvic bone, to give her some relief while their tryst finished healing her. He wasn’t about to put a cold rag on her most sensitive places. He finished with a cleaning spell upon both of them. As the smell of the oils dissipated, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“I had no idea,” he finally said. “I would have been gentle.”
“I wanted it just like that, Lio. Like nothing was wrong. Bruises heal.”
He couldn’t bear the sadness in her smile. “I’d go over every inch of you and speed them along still more, but I suspect there’s no time.”
“How long before your uncle expects you to appear?”
Lio spat on an extra towel and set to work on the bruises on her other hip bone. “Judging by how long I’ve actually been coherent, about half an hour from now.”
She covered her face in both her hands and rubbed it. Apparently she hadn’t counted on how long it took before the Dawn Slumber wore off.
That one moment of apparent strain, and then she was off, speaking swiftly and factually, as if delivering a diplomatic address instead of sitting on his bed injured and naked with him rubbing spittle over her bruises. “Amachos is a fully trained war mage from Cordium. His real name is Dalos.”
The rag slipped from Lio’s hand.
“Whatever time he spent at Namenti was a ruse to ensure no one would object to his appointment. He promised the temple there a favor in exchange for their cooperation. In secret, the king granted the Cordian Order of Anthros the right to appoint the royal mage of Tenebra, and they sent Dalos as their official representative.”
There was no time for him to interrupt her with shocked questions. He was too stunned to articulate useful ones if there had been.
“While the king has been stalling negotiations with you, he has been negotiating the terms of his new alliance with the Cordian Order of Anthros. In exchange for the Order’s endorsement of his rule, he’s granting them unprecedented authority in Tenebra. He’s bought the war mages for his cause, and his payment to them is a war with your people. Dalos is mad, Lio. Slaughter is pleasure to him. You should have heard him talking about reviving the glory days of his order.”
“You didn’t go near him,” Lio said in denial.
“I heard every word he said to the king.” She finally rubbed the soot off her nose. “Don’t ask me how.”
“Hespera’s Mercy, Cassia. You could have been—”
“I wasn’t. And I made it here in time for one last feast…” Her voice quavered. “…before I tell you that you must leave now and never set foot here again.”
“Slow down. We may yet have our fortnight. I’ll tell the others, and my uncle will decide—”
“They’re going to seal their new pact this very night,” she interrupted. “I warned you the king is beyond reason. Dalos plans to assassinate the entire Summit.”
Lio stared at her, then shook his head, trying to clear it. “Impossible. He doesn’t have the power! We would have sensed it.”
“He’s been building a spell into the throne all this time. They’ve been stringing you along with the promise of an Oath while Dalos prepared his working. Now he’s ready to unleash it. He’ll say your embassy murdered the Council of Free Lords for their unwillingness to renew the Oath, that when diplomacy failed, you resorted to violence. Dalos will claim credit for eliminating you as a threat and saving the royal family. Tenebra will clamor for war with the Hesperines, and Dalos believes your Queens will be angry enough to give it to them. They are trying to draw you out, goad you into meeting them in battle.”
“He has no idea how he oversteps himself.”
“They will begin with the persecution of Hesperines who act in secret here in Tenebra.” Cassia’s aura and her pulse throbbed with emotion. “The very Hesperines who saved my life and gave the Mercy to Solia might well be among them. I will not allow this to happen.”
“Don’t fear, Cassia. Dalos is no match for us.”
“When Callen was in prison, he witnessed Dalos burning prisoners to death with his bare hands. If Perita hadn’t realized what Callen saw was important and persuaded him to tell me, I never would have known the truth about Dalos. Thanks to them, we’ve discovered what he really is and have some idea of his abilities. But I cannot judge how his power will measure against yours. I heard him boast to the king he’s from an important circle within the Order of Anthros.”
A chill spread through Lio’s veins. “He couldn’t be that Dalos. His aura isn’t strong enough. He’s just a
mediocre warder. He didn’t mention the Synthikos of the Aithourian Circle, did he?”
“That’s exactly what he said. He started out as the Synthikos’s apprentice.”
To think, Lio had once faced him alone in a deserted forest. “I can scarcely believe it. He’s one of the highest-ranking, most powerful war mages in the entire Order of Anthros. All of us know him by reputation. His kind go out of their way to make sure of that.”
“Then he is a real threat to you, as he claims.”
“As a fire mage, his strength lies in our greatest weakness. He’ll also have an arsenal of the Aithourian Circle’s specialized revelatory spells for unveiling Hesperines and battle wards to counter us.”
“Dalos said he learned how to fight Hesperines from the secret teachings passed down by a war mage named Aithouros.”
“Aithouros killed more of us in the Last War than any other mage in history or legend. He led the assaults on our villages and temples. He started the fires with his own spells. He had so much blood on his hands by the end that death was too good for him. Hesperines curse the day he went to Anthros’s Hall, where the god of war must have seated the mage at his right hand as a reward for destroying so many Hesperines who forsook the sun.”
Cassia’s eyes were empty of all feeling, but her aura blazed with anger. “If all of you leave now, Dalos will never have the chance to live out his fantasies of being the next Aithouros.”
“Of course I’m not leaving.”
“Your family are Dalos’s targets! He knows who your aunt and uncle really are.”
“An Aithourian would. He would also be arrogant enough to challenge them and foolish enough to end up like Aithouros.”
“What happened to him?”
“He tried to stop our people from escaping over the mountains into Orthros. Aunt Lyta killed him with her bare hands.”
“A grudge like that will drive a man to do unimaginable things. Dalos will go to any lengths to destroy her and Kadi.”
“He did not seem particularly worried about Basir and Kumeta?”
“He disregards them and Javed. He does not fear any of you.”
“A dangerous error. It will be his last.”
She took hold of his arms. “Lio, he—he’s going to release the spell during your speech. He wants to strike at your people through their future—you. You have to escape. Now. The Summit is starting in…”
“Little more than an hour.”
“There’s no more time.”
He gathered her into his arms and helped her tunica back over her head. “You said yourself he plans to assassinate everyone who attends the Summit, not only the embassy.”
“Without anyone to blame, he won’t dare go through with it. The only safe course of action is for you to return to Orthros. The embassy’s desertion will be an insult, but it won’t have the entire nobility rallying for war.”
He eased her arms into her sleeves. He hadn’t had time to kiss the bumps on her elbows. “I am not. Leaving you.”
She was silent for a moment, letting him gently straighten her tunica around her hips. “The royal family is Dalos’s badge of heroism, remember? Even if he tries something, the king’s family will survive.”
“Cassia.” Lio gentled his tone. “Did you hear him say for certain that includes you?”
“They didn’t specify what they were planning to do with me,” she admitted. “But I haven’t been that much trouble over the herbs and Perita’s man. Besides, Lord and Lady Hadrian vouched for me about Callen. I’m in no danger.”
For all her strategizing, it seemed she still would not lie to him, even to convince him she would be safe if he went through with her plan. Thank the Goddess their Oath still held. But the Blood Union didn’t lie either, and it told him there was an ocean of omitted words beneath the true ones Cassia spoke on the surface.
Lio donned his formal robes by rote, trying to get at what Cassia wasn’t telling him. “Don’t go to the Summit.”
“I must be there. If I don’t appear, it might give the king reason to believe I’m involved, that I know something.” She was on her feet now and stepping into her slippers, which must have come off while they made love.
He was so glad he hadn’t stopped.
A strange and bitter emotion filled him, one he’d never felt before. Worse than disappointment. It was betrayal. He didn’t know who had betrayed him, but he felt he’d been cheated. He was angry, and he didn’t know who to blame.
He and Cassia had just made love for the last time, and he hadn’t even known they wouldn’t have another chance.
“Cassia, promise me you’ll be safe.”
She drew near and straightened his collar, her gaze fixed on his robe in utter concentration. Her hands didn’t even shake. She was only shaking inside. “Of course I’ll be safe. The king and his mage have much greater concerns than a bastard girl. You have to leave, because you have to take the children from the temple away with you. Tonight. Otherwise they will be Dalos’s next victims.”
“The children? What could that monster want with the Prisma’s little ones?”
“It’s his favor to Namenti. They’re the last surviving Eriphites. The Tenebran mages of Anthros have been—”
“—trying to stamp out their cult for hundreds of years, but they’ve been too resilient. Goddess bless. I’m not the only heretic the Prisma let in her temple.”
“Dalos knows she’s protecting them, and as soon as he’s done with you, he’s going after her temple. The children can’t be there when he arrives, for their sake and the Prisma’s.”
“As broad-minded as the Prisma is, what makes you think she’ll let us Solace them?”
“I already offered her your help and secured her agreement. I wasn’t certain it was a risk your uncle would be as willing as you to take, but for the children’s sakes—”
“He won’t hesitate.” Lio pulled Cassia closer, unwilling to let her hands out of his. How could he leave a woman like this behind?
“The Prisma has agreed to meet with you and the rest of the embassy,” Cassia said. “You know where Kyria’s Grove is?”
“Not far from the southeastern boundary of the king’s grounds, in the direction of the temple.”
“The Prisma will bring the children there at midnight.”
“You never cease to amaze me,” he said softly, reminding her. He studied her every feature as time pressed in on them, as if he could take some final drink of her with his eyes. “We need to decide how much we’ll tell my uncle and the others. About us.”
She looked into his eyes as if there were something inside of him she needed to drink as well. “Tell them what you will, for I have nothing to hide from your people. I am not ashamed of anything you and I have done.”
He pulled her to him and held her. That was not enough to convey how much her words meant to him. How much she meant to him.
He had never known emotion could ache in his veins like physical pain. He couldn’t tell anymore how much was his pain and how much hers.
“You’re rescuing us,” he said. “Who will rescue you?”
“I don’t need rescuing. The king hasn’t decided I’m a traitor yet.”
“Goddess knows I’m sorry for the danger I’ve put you in.”
“Don’t you dare apologize for anything.” She let him go. Why was she letting him go? “It’s almost time. Go and save your people, Initiate Ambassador Deukalion. And if you ever meet your fellow Hesperines who gave the Mercy to my sister, say to them that I too carry their grief in my veins.”
The ache had moved into his throat. “I will. One night, they shall know all you have done for our people.”
“You know I would have done this just for you, Lio. I will never let him hurt you.”
He wrapped his arms around her one more time and gave her one more kiss. The kiss he would have given her in bed, if he’d known.
You’re saving my life, but leaving you will kill me.
Come with me
.
He could not ask her. He would not ask her. But the words would burn inside him over and over again after he left, if he didn’t say them. Come with me.
He parted his mouth from hers and gasped a breath. “Come with me, Cassia.”
He had said it. Her answer would hurt, but it hurt worse not to ask.
She didn’t weep. There wasn’t even an expression of anguish on her face. She stepped back from him, her body utterly rigid, her face made of stone. “If I disappear on the same night as the embassy, we give the king a blank writ to fill in with any story he wishes. How you seduced me and put me under your thrall, or how you kidnapped me against my will. He would have justification for a mage war against all Hesperines without lifting a finger.”
Facts. Awful facts. Lio had known the answer would hurt, but not like this.
“It will come to war anyway. Perhaps not tonight, but it’s only a matter of time.” Lio had never heard this in his own voice. Everything he’d ever asked for, he had been given. The most important things, he’d never had to ask for at all. Now he was begging. “Don’t give this up when war will come anyway.”
“War won’t come.”
“Lucis wants a war to give to his allies. You said yourself he gets what he wants.” Don’t ask me to leave you to that, he wanted to plead. Don’t expect me to leave you at his mercy.
Her eyes blazed. “No. He does not get what he wants. But if I go with you, no one will be here to make sure of that.”
“You—” Lio started to say. You can’t fight him on your own.
The words stuck in his throat. He had been about to say that to her? He wanted her so much he would say something that wrong?
She had spent her whole life cowed. She had lived in fear of the king, caring for nothing but her next breath, since she had lost her sister. Even before then, since she had been born. Lio had encouraged her to see all she was capable of, celebrated her every rebellion.
And now, when she declared what she wanted, he dared question her? He dared tell her she could not fight?
“I don’t want to do what’s best for Tenebra or Orthros,” he protested to himself, to Cassia, to his Goddess. “I want what’s best for us.”