The Bound (Ascension #2)(72)

“Your Highness,” the boy said with a low bow. “The lady Queen was expecting your arrival yesterday.”

Dean sighed. “Tell my mother, the lady Queen,” he said dryly, “that I’ll have an audience with her in the morning.” His eyes turned to Cyrene. “I have someone for her to meet.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” the boy said.

He offered Cyrene his arm, and they walked the grounds and into the castle.

Despite the late hour, people milled around in the hallways of the palace. With the number of people Cyrene was seeing on the grounds, the palace had to be close to capacity. Byern’s Nit Decus castle was the biggest in all of Emporia, but as far as she knew, it hadn’t been near capacity in years. This place was bustling with people.

Dean smiled and nodded at people as he passed and was recognized, but he kept them walking. They went up two flights of stairs and then around a bend before they were finally alone with just their party of six.

“Here you are,” Dean said.

“You already had rooms prepared?” Cyrene asked in confusion.

“My mother always has visitor rooms prepped, especially for the holiday season. I think they’ll be to your liking. Affiliate Maelia’s room is just across the hall.”

“Thank you.”

“No, thank you for agreeing to come with me.”

Dean swept the loose waves of Cyrene’s dark brown hair from her face, and she remained perfectly still. His eyes were locked on hers, and for a moment, they dropped to her lips in question.

He bent down and pressed the softest kiss to her cheek. Her body moved toward him of its own accord. He smiled a devious smile, like he knew he had surprised her. But there was something else in his eyes that she couldn’t quite read in the dim lighting.

“Good night, Cyrene. Until tomorrow,” he said.

His Eleysian accent rolled her name around on his tongue, and she was certain that she would never appreciate it said any other way.

When he and his men disappeared back down the hallway, Maelia dashed to her side. “Did he kiss you?”

Cyrene touched her cheek in a daze. “Yes, he did.”

“I thought you just met.”

“We did.”

“Only you could bewitch a king and two princes,” Maelia teased.

Cyrene swatted at her. “Oh, shush. I haven’t bewitched him,” she said, entering her bedchamber. Maelia followed behind her. “I’m sure it was just…a nice gesture.”

Maelia’s mouth hung open. “So, how do you explain this?”

“I don’t know,” she breathed.

Before her was a suite…befitting a queen.





“Are you ready?” Maelia asked Cyrene.

Cyrene shook her head.

Despite the fact that she had been exhausted last night, she hadn’t been able to succumb to sleep. She had been lost in a nightmare of her magic destroying buildings and mowing down half of the Aurumian army. She couldn’t stop thinking about Kael Dremylon using magic, sword fights, injuries, and boat rides in the middle of the night.

And Dean. Whispering in her ear, his fingers in her hair, his lips on her cheek. With everything going on, she should be plotting her next move, but she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

There was no jolt of electricity. No tendrils connecting her to him. No current drawing them together, as if they were tethered on a string. No magnets or uncontrollable need that would practically sweep her off her feet.

None of that overpowering obsession.

Just the fluttering of her heart and the flush on her cheeks from the enticing ease of Dean Ellison.

She drew herself out of her thoughts once more and remembered where she was—facing the door to the Eleysian throne.

A man pushed the door open and announced to everyone in attendance, “Affiliate Cyrene Strohm and Affiliate Maelia Dallmer of Byern.”

As they walked down the white marble aisle, hushed whispers sprang up all around them. Cyrene was prominently wearing her Affiliate pin, a gold circle of Byern climbing vines, on the breast of her purple dress. It felt good to have it in place again.

The room was a large rectangular space with ceilings nearly three stories high. Three tiers of balconies were carved into the sandstone walls, and below each one hung a bright royal-blue banner with a winged lion inside the royal crest pictured in white. Rows of seating were set up like a theater and filled with every manner of nobility.

Cyrene assumed they must be the Eleysian Privy Council. The members were elected annually from each of the eight districts and the mainland.

The walkway ended with a royal-blue rug in front of a two-tiered platform and three gilded thrones with cushions in the Eleysian royal blue. Seated on the thrones were Queen Cassia, King Tomas, and Crown Princess Brigette, heir to the throne of Eleysia. There was a row of girls seated to the right, who must be the remainder of Dean’s sisters, and a group of men behind them that she guessed were their husbands.

And then there was Dean. She started when she caught his gaze. He had shaven his face to just a shadow across his jaw, and his hair, which had nearly reached his shoulders, had been cut almost as short as the Byern style. Her stomach dropped at how handsome he looked, and she chided herself for thinking of that when there were more important matters at hand.

Once they reached the dais, Cyrene and Maelia each dropped into a proper curtsy. She didn’t know about Maelia, but she was definitely hoping that Queen Cassia was less conniving than Queen Kaliana and Queen Jesalyn. Though Cyrene wouldn’t mind if Queen Cassia was as benevolent as Queen Shira.