The Bound (Ascension #2)(65)

She searched the room high and low. She had left the dress on the floor next to the bed last night before she had fallen asleep in nothing but an oversize shirt someone had offered her. Now, it was missing.

With a frantic pitter-patter of her heart, she stepped into the fresh change of clothes from the chair and darted out of the cabin. She raced toward the stairs that would take her up to the deck, but right before she got there, a body stepped out of the bedroom.

“You’re in a hurry.”

“Dean!” Cyrene cried. She threw her arms around him without a second thought. She was just so happy to see him alive.

“Ugh!” he groaned as she collided with him.

“Oh Creator, I’m sorry.” She hastily stepped back, embarrassed.

She was elated to see him whole and healthy. He had a sling holding one arm up, but as far as she could tell, his shoulder looked repaired.

“How are you?”

“Your friend patched me up as best as he could. It seems Prince Kael tore through some pretty important parts of my shoulder, and even magic couldn’t fully heal the wound. Going to have to just let it rest like normal, I suppose.”

Cyrene recoiled at the use of the word magic. He used it so flippantly, as if he had always known of its existence. As if it didn’t matter that it existed at all.

“You speak very freely of magic.”

Dean grinned. “Eleysians don’t fear it like Aurumians or pretend like it doesn’t exist, like the citizens of Byern. We remember the old ways even if the only magic we see comes from the fights against the demon spawn, such as that Braj we saw in the palace. They don’t cross to the capital city, but we see them enough in the rest of the country.”

“So…Eleysia believes that magic exists.”

“Of course it exists. It is everywhere in everything. We just have lost the ability to tap into it.”

“I see,” she breathed.

No wonder he had been so accepting of her magic from the start. Coming from a world that always believed in it would have been such an advantage. Instead…she’d been born in Byern.

“Speaking of,” he said, “the laundress came by your room and returned with this.”

He held out the cracked leather book that she had grown so accustomed to, and all the breath left her lungs. She reverently took it between her hands.

“Thank you.”

“That book is very old for it to be blank.”

Cyrene’s head snapped up. “You opened it?” she demanded.

His cheeks colored a rosy red. “I didn’t mean any offense. I wasn’t trying to pry.”

She tucked it away, realizing that she had already made too big of a deal out of it. “Thank you again for everything.”

“I think it was all worth it to see you in an Eleysian gown.” His eyes ran down the length of her dress.

Cyrene flushed at the words. She hadn’t even paid attention to what she put on before rushing out of the room. But now she took note of how well made the dress was. It was of the thinnest, finest Eleysian silk. Featherlight so that it was almost sheer and slimming in all the right places in the softest Eleysian purple.

“Why did you have this on board?” she asked, deflecting the compliment.

“Eleven sisters, remember?”

“Right. I forgot. What exactly was it like, growing up with eleven sisters?” she asked.

He offered her his good arm, and she looped her hand around his elbow.

“Terrifying,” he admitted with a laugh. “Eleven older sisters, mind you.”

Cyrene shook her head in disbelief. She had thought that she had a large family with two sisters and a brother. She couldn’t even fathom a family of twelve. Let alone a royal family with that many.

“Why did your parents continue to have so many children?” she asked as they walked up the stairs to the main deck.

“How much do you know about Eleysia?”

“Considering my questions about magic just now?”

“Good point.”

She sighed. “And, if my journey thus far is any indication, the things I know about Eleysia are probably not accurate.”

Dean laughed and angled them toward the railing. “Well, if what I’ve heard of Byern is true, you wouldn’t even be able to carry on a successful conversation without trying to convert me to your Class system.”

“That’s ridiculous!”

“Yet to be determined,” he said with a smirk. “Anyway, you’re probably aware that Eleysia is, in fact, a queendom.”

Cyrene nodded. She had heard that in her lessons. She had always thought it sounded like a fairy tale for the Queen to rule. A nightmare in Byern, where Queen Kaliana was a devil. But she had envisioned a benevolent queen as a ruler. Someone like the Leif Queen Shira.

“My mother, Queen Cassia, always wanted a girl, of course. Someone to rule the queendom after she and King Tomas were no longer around. They were lucky to have my sister, Princess Brigette, first. And then, after a while, the running joke became that they couldn’t have a son. My mother really wanted a son.” Dean shrugged. “So, they kept trying until they had one.”

Cyrene felt a laugh bubble out of her, and it felt so good to just relax after the stress of the last couple of weeks. They were on the royal ship bound for Eleysia with the Prince as an escort. She had survived Kael…if barely. She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to what he had said. But at least she was free of him. For now.