Burning Glass (Burning Glass, #1)(34)
I’d captured the keen interest of the emperor, for better or for worse. And only time would tell if I’d made a mistake by coming out of hiding.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“THEY THINK I’M AN IMBECILE.” PIA SHOVED THE LAST FORKFUL of apple sharlotka in her mouth. We both sat on the floor of my antechamber so we wouldn’t spill any dusting sugar on my velvet couches. Instead, it sprinkled from our plates into the weave of my nightgown and Pia’s apron. She’d surprised me with the late-night treat just as I was on the brink of my nightly penance with the statue of Feya.
“I’m sure that isn’t true.” I licked a morsel of cooked apple off my finger.
“It is! You don’t understand. Even Yuri’s mother can read. Her husband taught her.”
Pia had spent the last half hour rehashing her ill-fated visit to meet Yuri’s parents earlier this afternoon when she had a rare day off of work. Apparently Yuri’s father was a tutor in Torchev for a nobleman’s three daughters. The eldest was Pia’s age and also smitten with Yuri. Her father promised to pay for Yuri’s commission to become a second-ranking colonel in the infantry, a rise in station that would make him eligible for the nobleman’s daughter’s hand. This offer was exceptional to Yuri’s humble parents, but Yuri remained adamant in his plans to court Pia, who was convinced his parents saw her as only a lowly kitchen maid.
She sighed and scraped her fork against her empty dish. “I should have brought the whole cake.”
Taking her plate away, I squeezed her hands. “If they could feel a tenth of who you really are, they would have no reservations about you marrying their son.”
“Yes, well, do me a favor and sneeze on them. Maybe some of your ability will transfer and they’ll see me as more than an illiterate tart.”
“Tart?” I laughed and tilted my head. Then I quickly sobered. “Do you mean . . . ? Have you and Yuri—?”
“No!” she said, quickly glancing away. Her aura warmed, and the heat rose to my cheeks the same time hers stained red.
I studied her, while I failed to suppress a grin. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not!” She pulled back so our hands were no longer touching. Her energy waned at the broken connection, but from the strong urge I had to tuck my knees to my chest and burrow into myself, I sensed she was concealing something.
“I can feel what you’re feeling, you know.” I wiggled my fingers in the air like I was working dark magic.
She managed to simultaneously giggle and groan with exasperation. “It’s impossible to be your friend!” Her dimples deepened, and she gave me a playful shove in the shoulder. “I can’t hide anything from you.”
“Friends don’t hide things,” I replied, as if this was the root of all wisdom. “Or at least they go about hiding them together. Friends share secrets.”
She groaned again and buried her face in her hands. Some of her hair tumbled loose from her kerchief.
I nudged her leg as I felt some of her humor give way to trepidation. “It’s all right, I won’t tell anyone.”
She looked up, rubbing her still-flushed cheeks. “Very well. But you must never let Yuri know.”
I frowned. “You mean it wasn’t him?”
She shook her head in bewilderment. “I have no idea how I even caught Valko’s eye.”
My jaw unhinged. “Valko?” Had I heard her right? “His Imperial Majesty Valko? The lord emperor of all Riaznin Valko?”
Pia’s eyebrows peaked in a way that said guilty. “It was months ago. I doubt he even remembers my name.” She wrinkled her nose. “I hope he doesn’t.” Retrieving her plate, she collected the leftover dusting sugar onto her finger and sighed. “I really should have brought more cake.”
I considered her. The tingling in my palms revealed her anxiety, but my heart didn’t pang with unrequited love. “So . . . you don’t care for him?”
With all the solemnness Yuliya used to give in prayer, Pia said, “I love Yuri.”
“And you never cared for Valko?” I couldn’t place why I needed to know this. Perhaps the role of being the emperor’s guardian made me feel this rush of protectiveness for him. Is that what I was feeling? Protective?
She shrugged. “I’m required to esteem him as any servant must dutifully regard her monarch—surely the same way you regard him.”
I picked at a minuscule tear in my nightgown. How did I regard the emperor? He was arrogant, that was a certainty. Indifferent to others. He also had a reserve of dark passion; I saw it in the council meeting earlier today. Of course he sought out someone bright like Pia, the same way I did. “Then why did you give yourself to Valko?” It was all I could do to not reach out and feel the pulse of my friend’s wrist to determine if her quickening heartbeat was overpowering mine, or if my own primal curiosity was to blame for the heat prickling through my body making my toes curl and flex.
“Give myself?” Pia burst out laughing. “Oh, Sonya! It was a kiss.”
A strange sense of relief washed over me and eased the tension from my muscles. “You mean . . . that’s all that happened between you?”
She nodded. “And only once, I promise!” Biting her lip, she leaned forward as if this were her darkest confession. “You know Yuri holds my heart, but I’ll admit even he has never kissed me with such rapture. You don’t understand how breathless the emperor can make you feel, how flattering it is to have his sole and private attention, how his gentle esteem causes you to imagine yourself the equal of his high rank and importance. I don’t know what I would have done if Lenka hadn’t walked in on us!”