The Bound (Ascension #2)(15)

“Please return to the Festival celebrations and begin to distribute gifts among yourselves.”

Complaints rose from the crowd, but the Queen stopped them with a sharp look in their direction.

“No harm will come to Princess Avoca. In fact, you are disrespecting her gift to our visitor and the Creator herself by speaking out against it.”

That shut everyone up.

Though it didn’t lessen Ceis’f’s grip on Cyrene. He held her in place the entire time as the rest of the Leif population filed out of the room to go outside.

“Ceis’f, release our visitor,” Queen Shira ordered.

“She’s going to kill Avoca,” Ceis’f protested.

“You are insulting our guest.”

Ceis’f grumbled under his breath and then roughly released Cyrene. She staggered a few feet forward and then righted herself.

“What is going on?” Cyrene asked. “Why is Avoca offering herself to me?”

“You saved my life; thus, my life is forfeit,” she whispered. She turned to face Ceis’f. “Surely, you can understand. My greatest shame—”

“Ava, I didn’t mean…this,” he said.

Cyrene put herself between Avoca and Ceis’f and shook her head. “I don’t want your life, Avoca. There has been too much death already.”

“You are rejecting my gift?” Avoca gasped.

“What good will your death bring?” Cyrene asked before anyone else could respond. “You are a crown princess. It would be a waste. I did not risk myself to save you so you could throw your life away so casually.”

Queen Shira stepped forward then. “I must agree with the Doma on this.”

Ceis’f breathed a sigh of relief at the words.

“Avoca, are you quite set on your gift to the Doma?” Queen Shira asked.

“Yes,” she responded fiercely.

“No!” Ceis’f cried.

The Queen fixed him with her icy stare. “Do not believe that I cannot dismiss you, Ceis’f.”

He ground his teeth but remained silent.

“Since you are set on your gift, might I make another suggestion?”

Avoca nodded her agreement.

“I have been around for a very long time. My mother and two older sisters were killed in the War of the Light nearly two thousand years ago. I was but a baby at the time. So much of their knowledge was lost when we did not win the war, but much has been handed down that I still have access to. At that time, we had more freedom between Leif and Doma. Many of us even chose to live among them, and they, among us.

“Magic has a certain consistency in the universe that draws in more of the same. Like calls to like. Magic calls to magic. And, at the time, Doma and Leif could be bound to one another for alliance, love, and even sometimes blood debt. Your magic would tie you to one another—weld it, increase it, intensify it. And, depending on the circumstances, the two people bound could not break the bond unless the bond had been satisfied. In your case, Avoca, until your debt has been repaid.”

Cyrene shook her head. “No.”

“Absolutely not.” Ceis’f finally seemed to agree with her on something.

“It’s perfect,” Avoca said.

“It’s hardly perfect! It means you’re bound to me. I don’t want to be tied to anyone. I’m my own person. I have my own life. And I have things I have to do. This is all well and good that you want to offer yourself up to me, but did you ever think I might not want that at all? You all are practically holding me hostage while my friends are in danger. Clearly, no one else sees the need for haste besides me!”

“I understand your need for haste,” the Queen stated. “I understand a great deal more than that.”

“Don’t you see? I can help,” Avoca said to Cyrene and then addressed her mother. “If my life belongs with her, then I would like to request to leave Eldora to go with her to help her friends.”

“What?” Cyrene and Ceis’f said at the same time.

Avoca turned back to Cyrene with determination in her gaze.

“You do not know our customs, Doma. All I have is honor, and that was taken from me when I did not die a warrior’s death. At first, I was angry with you for stealing away my right to die then and there. I thought it would be better if I forfeited my life to you, but now, I see what I did not consider before. My mother spoke of our part in the Circadian Prophecy. Why would the Doma appear to me in our very woods and save my life? There must be a reason. This is that reason.”

Queen Shira smiled. “You believe this is how we fit into the Prophecy?”

“How could it be otherwise? It is right before our eyes.”

“No one really knows how prophecies work,” Ceis’f said. “You’re grasping at thin air.”

Avoca ignored him. “This is my choice. Whether we complete the official ceremony or not, I am bound to you. Without fulfilling my duty to you, I cannot properly accept my role in our society.”

Avoca spoke with such conviction that Cyrene was no longer surprised that she had been groomed as a princess. No matter how backward their society was, it was clear that this really mattered to her.

Cyrene swallowed. “What does the ceremony entail exactly?”

“Come with me,” the Queen said.