The Bound (Ascension #2)(112)

As soon as the door closed behind her, Cyrene thought the room might return to an uproar. But Brigette didn’t say a word. She just left. Alise shared a look with Robard that turned Cyrene’s body to ice.

In fact, after her afternoon on the beach, she could feel her body temperature dropping as her magic filled her. It had been weeks since her magic had gotten out of control. She realized she was shaking.

“Did you do this?” Cyrene asked Alise.

Alise just smiled. “Do what?”

“Did you?” she demanded. “You’ve hated me since the moment I walked in here. You’ve tried to get rid of me, and now, you’ve succeeded.”

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Alise said as she breezed past Cyrene to Robard.

Cyrene clenched her hands into fists. “You’re messing with people’s lives, and I’ve never even done anything to you!” She reached out and roughly grabbed Alise. Robard unsheathed his sword, but she didn’t even look at him. As if a sword would scare her after what she had seen. She knew Alise had something to do with this, and she wanted her to confess. “Just tell the truth.”

“You’re hurting a princess of the realm,” Alise said with her nose in the air. “If you want to leave here on good terms, I’d suggest you unhand me.”

“Cyrene,” Dean whispered, “just let her go.”

Cyrene threw Alise backward and had to catch herself from using her magic to do it. “I know you did this.”

“So what if I did?” Alise asked. “However it happened, you’ll be out of here in a few days.”

Every fiber in Cyrene’s body made her want to lunge forward and throttle Alise, but she resisted the urge. It wouldn’t help anything at this point. She hated letting Alise get away with this, but she needed to figure out how to stop it…not kill the person who had started it.

“Fine,” Cyrene said with a shake of her head.

Robard sheathed his sword and then followed Alise out of the room.

That left Cyrene completely alone with Dean. She nearly crumpled as the realization of her circumstances fully hit her. If she didn’t find a way out of this, then she would be leaving Dean and be on her way to Byern.

“Is it true?” Dean asked when she finally faced him again.

“Is what true?”

“Were you involved with the King?”

“Where did you hear that? Was that in the letter?” Cyrene asked anxiously.

She shouldn’t have felt nervous about this line of conversation, but the unease on Dean’s face didn’t calm her nerves.

“What does it matter? Is it true?” Dean sighed and ran a hand back through his hair. “Of course it’s true. Why else would he send an army to collect you…twice?”

“It doesn’t change anything. I’m not with him now, and not that I should have to explain my previous…relationships to you, but we were never really together either.”

“Cyrene, this changes everything.”

“Why? Why does it have to change anything?”

“Because you’re leaving!” he cried, finally loosening the anger he had been holding tight like a whip. “Because he’s coming to claim you.”

“Well, I’m not going back! I left the country for a reason, and anyway…I’m with you,” she said softly. Her blue eyes were pleading with him. She reached out and placed her hand on his arm. “I’m with you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“About Edric?” she asked.

He cringed at Edric’s name. “Yes.”

“I didn’t think it’d matter to tell you the truth.”

“It matters.”

“Why?” she demanded. “Why does my past change anything about you and me?”

“Do you love him?” Dean asked. He looked like her answer could plunge a knife through his chest.

“It’s complicated, Dean,” she said.

“So, you do.”

Cyrene sighed. How can I explain Edric to Dean? She had never wanted to have this conversation. What she’d had with Edric was completely separate from what she currently had with Dean. Thinking about them as a comparison felt wrong. And, at this point, she wasn’t even sure how much of her time with Edric had even been real.

“No,” she said finally. “No, I don’t.”

He pulled her against him and buried his face in her hair, breathing her in. “I can’t lose you,” he said softly.

“You won’t. I promise.”

She hoped that was a promise she could keep.





Daufina walked briskly from her chambers and down the back hallways that led between her and Edric’s rooms. Ever since he had gotten that blasted letter from the Eleysian Princess, claiming that Cyrene was in their country, he had lost himself in the hunt again. Daufina couldn’t believe it when she’d read a copy of the letter Edric had sent her.

An army!

He was amassing an army to send to Eleysia to retrieve one girl. Daufina wanted to bury her face in shame for what was happening to her country. How could he be so stupid?

In the time that Cyrene had disappeared off the face of the map, she had seen Edric become renewed. He had been somber about her disappearance, but the news that Kaliana was pregnant had brightened his mood. It was treason to even think about what Kaliana had done to get the baby, but Daufina couldn’t deny that she had been happy with the results thus far.