by K. A. Linde
Then, Vera nodded. “Avoca, you will appear for training with Cyrene at dawn every day henceforth.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Avoca said confidently.
“Now, off with you, Cyrene. Eat a hearty dinner. We have much work to accomplish tomorrow,” Vera said.
“And get a lot of sleep,” Matilde warned.
Cyrene nodded. She already realized how exhausting it was, working with her powers. She would need a lot of food and rest to get through all of this.
Cyrene and Avoca walked away from the docks. Cyrene was excited for food, sleep, and a change out of her wet clothes. Her hair had mostly dried, but she was sure she looked less than presentable for society.
“I didn’t want to say anything in front of them,” Avoca said when they had reached the kitchen.
“Say what?” She loaded her plate up, not caring who saw how much she was about to consume.
“I know you didn’t mention Ceis’f to them last night, but he’s missing,” Avoca told her.
“What?” Cyrene gasped, nearly dropping the plate she was juggling. “What do you mean, missing?”
“Last night, we got into a fight about Ahlvie. I finally made my choice, and now, Ceis’f is gone.”
“Ceis’f wouldn’t just abandon you,” Cyrene said logically. “He loves you. Whether or not you chose him, it’s his duty to stay with you. Do you think he’s just hiding out?”
“No, I don’t. I told him to leave, to go home.”
“You’ve been saying that since we left Eldora.”
“This time was different. I was…cruel. Beyond cruel. I used my magic to push him away from me in a vortex of water.”
Avoca looked so afraid that Cyrene was afraid for her. Avoca was normally so stoic. The thought of what could frighten her didn’t sit well with Cyrene.
“I don’t think he’s gone. He couldn’t just be gone. He’s probably just fuming, and he needs to walk it off. Do you truly think he would leave?”
“I don’t know,” Avoca said. “I’m going to go out and search for him. Rest up for tomorrow, and I’ll meet you at the docks.”
Cyrene nodded and watched her friend leave. She dug into her food, all the while thinking about everything that had changed in the last day. It felt surreal that she was finally being trained. She had so many questions left unanswered, but the fact that she had made even a tiny bit of progress made her so happy that it almost didn’t matter. She would learn everything she needed to know in time. She finally felt justified in leaving her country behind for this. She had been right all along.
By the time she finished eating, she had no energy left. She knew that all she needed now was to find the nearest bed and never leave again.
Staggering down the hallway, she didn’t even look up when she heard her name.
“Hmm?” she asked.
“Cyrene, there you are!”
Someone grabbed her shoulders, and she tipped her head to look up into the most beautiful brown eyes. At the look on Dean’s face, she smiled and felt a renewed burst of energy flow through her.
“Hey,” she whispered.
“Where have you been?” he asked desperately. “I have been waiting for you all day. Ahlvie told me that you had left with Matilde and Vera, but he didn’t exactly give specifics. I was worried about you.”
“I’m so sorry. I thought that Ahlvie would alleviate your worries. They agreed to train me,” she said, dipping her voice lower.
“Cyrene, that’s amazing!”
“This is what I’ve wanted to do since I left Byern, and now, everything is falling into place.”
“I’m so happy for you.”
Dean threaded his fingers through hers, and a shiver ran up her back. He glanced around the empty hallway and then tugged her away from the main corridors. She turned a corner, and Dean pressed her back into a darkened alcove. His mouth was only inches from hers.
Her exhaustion was wearing off from the excitement of being with him.
“I was really worried about you,” he breathed.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” she said, trapped in his gaze. She teetered on her tiptoes and nearly brushed their lips together. Her heart was racing ahead of her. This felt almost better than reaching for her magic. Definitely better than moving one drop of water at a time all day.
“You’re wrong.” Then, he softly dropped his mouth down on hers. His lips were tender and slow as they caressed hers. “I will always worry for your safety.”
Cyrene’s cheeks heated, and she sighed, leaning back against the hard stone of the alcove. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”
His hands pushed up through her hair and tilted her head back up to look at him. She closed her eyes and sighed. She was so tired, and just the feel of his fingers was lulling her to sleep.
“That feels good.”
His mouth found hers, and despite her exhaustion, she pushed back against his lips with more force. She refused to let the fact that she was tired get in the way of her time with Dean.
“Whoa,” Dean said, pulling back from her. He rested his forehead against hers, and she could tell he was breathing heavily. “As much as I want this, and I do, I want to make sure you’re okay. This didn’t scare you away?”
She shook her head. “This, most certainly, does not scare me.” Then, she kissed him again for good measure.
He laughed. “Good. Because I know Eleysia is different than Byern, and I’ve been wanting to kiss you since I met you in the woods in Aurum.”
“You have not!” she insisted.
“Are you kidding? A gorgeous, feisty woman who wasn’t afraid to put me in my place the first time she met me? Someone who pushed back and didn’t care about my title?”
“I didn’t know about your title.”
“And it didn’t change a thing.”
Cyrene shrugged. “A title is just a title. The person underneath the title is the only thing that matters.”
His smile was electric. It was as if no one had ever bothered to see past the prince to the man underneath.
Her legs quivered as exhaustion hit her anew.
His smile turned to concern. “Are you all right?”
“Just tired. I’ve been training all day and can barely stand.”
Dean smirked down at her, and then, before she knew it, he scooped her up in his arms. He held her as if she weighed nothing, carrying her down the empty corridor without a backward glance.
“Dean, what are you doing?” she whisper-shouted at him.
“You’ve had a very draining day. You should be resting, but I’m not willing to give you up just yet.”
“Well, wherever we’re going, I can walk there!”
He laughed. “I think I like this.”
Dean toed open a door at the end of the hall. Cyrene was about to demand he release her, but the comment was lost on her lips. The room she entered was inherently masculine. All dark colors and hardwood furniture. It was impressively clean with books neatly arranged on a bookshelf that took up an entire wall and a desk full of more books.
But Dean kept moving and opened up another door. This brought her into a darkly furnished sitting area, which connected to a bathing chamber as well as a bedchamber.
Dean gently laid her down on the sofa, and even though she wanted to protest, the comfort of the sofa and the softness of the pillow under her head immediately soothed her.
“These are your rooms?” Cyrene asked shyly.
He nodded and took a seat next to her, resting his arms against the back of the sofa. “Yes.”
“They’re nice.”
Dean shrugged dismissively, as if he wished he could minimize the opulence of his rooms. But he seemed comfortable here, more laid-back. It was like seeing him back in the woods, away from his courtly duties.
Just a man. With a woman. In his rooms.
Cyrene bit her lip and averted her gaze. She needed to slow her thoughts down. Dean had brought her here because she was exhausted, and he wa
nted more time with her. Nothing else.
“So, tell me everything. What happened? How did they find you?” Dean asked.
Cyrene looked back over at him and smiled. “They were at the party. With a little thanks to your sister, they found me. Just like Basille Selby had said.”
“My sister?” Dean asked, confused.
“Alise.”
“Creator,” he said, running a hand back through his short hair. “What did she do now?”
“She and Robard…locked me in a room, and I…kind of blasted the room apart, trying to get out,” she confessed. “I was the explosion.”
Dean cursed violently and stood. He started pacing angrily. “What was she thinking? And then that explosion. How did you survive something like that? It rattled the palace.”
“I don’t know what Alise was thinking. I would really like to know what her real problem is with me because it’s going past bitterness over you.”
“I have no idea what’s bothering her. This is beyond ridiculous. She is endangering your life.” He ground his teeth. “I thought I made myself clear with Alise before, but I will talk to her again. She needs to stop this business right now.”
“I agree, but will you come sit down? You’re making me nervous,” she said. She could feel her eyelids growing heavy. All she wanted to do was sleep, but Dean was making her want to stay awake.
“Yes. My apologies.”
Dean moved forward, and she thought he was going to take his previous seat, but instead, he gently lifted her head from the cushion and sat where her head had last been. He placed the pillow back in his lap. She rested back against him, and he ran his fingers through her long hair. She sighed and snuggled against him. This is bliss.
“You’re so exhausted.”
“I know,” she murmured. “Matilde and Vera have been training me to control my powers. It’s exhausting.”
“Well, get some rest,” he encouraged. “I’ll be right here.”
“What happened to Basille and Brigette?” she murmured in the silence.
Dean sighed. “Basille left Eleysia again. My mother has forbidden them to wed, and Brigette hasn’t left her rooms.”
“That’s so sad for them.”
“My mother can be unbearably stubborn when she wants to be. Thankfully, she likes you.”
“She does?” Cyrene asked, surprised.
“You’re still here, aren’t you?”
“Mmm,” Cyrene said. She wasn’t sure that was the same thing.
Cyrene felt herself drifting off. Him playing with her hair was like a lullaby. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. Nothing else existed in the world, except being with Dean right here, right now. He bent down and kissed her forehead, and then she succumbed to her exhaustion.
Cyrene stretched her arms out and yawned exaggeratedly. Light filtered in through the window, and she peeked one eye open in protest. She was so tired. Every part of her body hurt. Sleep was her new best friend.
She yawned again, kicking her foot diagonally across her bed when she encountered a body. She squeaked and sharply sat up. She wasn’t in her bed, and she had woken up next to someone else.
Creator! How tired was I?
She glanced down at her figure and saw that she was still in the Eos dress she had worn to the party, but it was rumpled and a disaster after the hours of it being soaking wet and then her sleeping on it. She glanced over at the body with rumpled light brown hair—almost blond in the early morning light—a five o’clock shadow against a strong jawline, and the bare back of a very handsome and sleeping Dean Ellison.
Her heart skipped a beat at the sight, and she scooted a little further away from him. How did I end up in his bed? The last thing she remembered was Dean running his fingers through her hair on the couch. Not good. She had been so out of it that he had transferred her into his bedroom without her even waking up.
Then, her head snapped to the side as realization hit her. “What time is it?”
Dean’s head popped up, and he looked over at her with a crooked grin on his face. “Good morning,” he breathed.
Her heart melted a little bit more at those words. Creator, he is attractive and distracting, and I’m late!
“I’m late! I was supposed to be at the docks at dawn!”
Cyrene jumped out of bed and rushed for the door. Dean followed after her. He grabbed her hand before she reached the door.
“Let me go! I have somewhere to be. I’m late!”
“Do you really want to be seen running out of my bedchambers in the morning in the clothes you wore to the party?” he asked.
His hands slid down her arms, and she shivered.
No. No, I do not want that. She shook her head.
“Come on. Go this way.”
Dean shrugged on a shirt, and she couldn’t help but stare at the rippled muscles before they disappeared from view. She was not sad to see him put a shirt on. Definitely not. She was late…not thinking about how defined his chest was. Okay, she definitely was thinking about that.
Dean took her through a back passageway that led her through a much quieter section of the palace and dropped her off right at the corridor where her rooms were.
“Thank you,” she said.
She threw her arms around his neck without thinking about it, and he dipped his head down to kiss her. Her breath caught in the early morning. She was seriously reconsidering this leaving thing. She had woken up in his bed after all…and he was making it very hard to walk away.
“I have to go,” she said regretfully. “I’m late.”
“I start security procedures soon. I won’t be around as much,” he told her.
“I know you’ll find me,” she said with a smile before dashing to her room.
She changed as quickly as she could before practically flying down to the docks. Matilde, Vera, and Avoca were standing around a gondola, looking less than pleased, to say the least.
Cyrene was out of breath when she reached them. “My deepest apologies. I don’t know how I didn’t wake up. I’m never late,” she insisted.
“You weren’t in your room,” Avoca accused.
“Um…”
“And your face is bright red.”
“I just ran here!” Cyrene cried.
“What were you doing out all night? You were supposed to be sleeping!”
“I was. I just woke up.”
“No one knew where you were,” Avoca chided. “So, where were you?”
Cyrene looked to Matilde and Vera for backup, but they seemed perfectly fine with Avoca’s methods. “Dean’s, but—”
“Cyrene!”
“It wasn’t anything bad. I just slept!”
“If anyone had seen you though—”
“Well, no one saw me. Can we go now?” Cyrene asked.
“Yes,” Vera said. “I think that is a good idea.”
“Agreed,” Matilde said. “As long as you are here at the right time tomorrow morning, I don’t care who you’re sleeping with.”
Cyrene put her hands over her eyes and grumbled under her breath. Today was off to a bad start after waking up in Dean’s bedchamber.
The worst part was that, in her haste, she hadn’t had time to eat, and by the time they made it to the island to train, she was starving and knew today’s work would only increase her hunger. She placed her hand on her stomach as she took a seat next to Avoca in the sand. Today was going to be a long day. But when Matilde and Vera began to speak, she put all thoughts of her grumbling stomach out of her mind. This was why she was here in Eleysia after all.
“We’ll begin where we left off,” Matilde said. “But, this time, instead of Cyrene picking up the water and moving it by herself, we want you two to link and move it together.”
“Ideally,” Vera said, “all of your magic should be able to flow seamlessly, individually and together, so that when you’re linked, using your powers in tandem will be like breathing. I want you to each grasp your powers and then reach out for the
other. Since one of you is Leif and the other is Doma, the magic will feel a little different, but that is perfectly normal. When you touch, you should actually be able to see what the other person is doing. Give it a try.”
Cyrene took a breath and pulled her magic to herself. It came to her so easily this time. She and Avoca reached for each other at the same time. It felt comforting like touching her hand.
She prodded Avoca’s magic, as if it were a separate entity from herself, but then, with a sigh, it seemed to wrap around her. They had done this before in their Bound ceremony, but Cyrene hadn’t known what it was at the time. And it felt amazing. So much more strength and power, and from Avoca’s end…control. Years of practiced control. It gave Cyrene a sense of calm and understanding. They were better as a team than she could ever be alone.
“I didn’t know this was possible,” Avoca breathed in surprise.
“Good,” Vera said. “Now, begin.”
With Avoca’s guidance, they moved on from droplets to moving buckets of water to feeling the wave of the ocean on the beach. It was so much easier with her, but when they weren’t linked, Cyrene still had trouble with the control. She knew that she shouldn’t use Avoca’s control as a crutch, but it was undeniably easier with her assistance.
Matilde stood up and paced at the tenth time when Cyrene couldn’t move water from one bucket to the next without being linked to Avoca. “There’s something else!” she cried.
“Kathrine, sit,” Vera said.
“Something is wrong. You can feel it, too. I know you can.”
“I’m doing the best I can,” Cyrene said.
“But something is holding you back. I can’t place my finger on it.”
Vera sighed. “Cyrene, when you were Bound to Avoca, how was the ceremony performed?”
Cyrene explained what had happened with everything, except the specifics between their visions.
“And Shira used powers to bind you at the end?” Vera confirmed.
“Yes,” Avoca and Cyrene said in unison.
“This might seem strange, but…you haven’t been Bound to anyone before this, have you?”
Cyrene opened her mouth to immediately contradict that statement, but then images of her Rose Garden test back in Byern came to her mind. “I…I’m not sure.”