The Bound (Ascension #2)(75)

“If she were here to stay, Mother wouldn’t have had an official audience. She’s a visitor. No need to get too comfortable,” Hether said.

A set of twins nudged Hether.

“You think she’s leaving?” one of them asked.

They were the only ones with brown hair in the bunch, but she couldn’t tell them apart.

“Of course she’s leaving. Don’t be absurd, Tifani. It’s not as if he’s marrying her.”

Cyrene’s mouth dropped open, and she tried to find the words to correct them. They had it all wrong. She wasn’t here for Dean. She hardly knew Dean. It didn’t matter in the slightest that he had kissed her last night or the way he’d looked at her or the way he could carry on such an easy conversation with her or that he just seemed to accept her for exactly who she was without pretense, despite his country’s prejudice against Affiliates.

“The twins, Therese and Tifani. Though, they’re younger than Alise over there.”

Alise didn’t say a word. She just stared at Cyrene, as if Alise could see straight through her. Through every sugarcoated word Cyrene had said before their mother. Through every reason for why she was here. Through the relationship between she and Dean. And Alise didn’t just look curious about what was going on and what was to come; she looked angry.

Cyrene diverted her gaze and turned back to Brigette and Dean.

“Only Alise, the twins—Therese and Tifani—and I still live full-time in the palace. All our other sisters are married with lots of children, so they won’t be around as much.”

“I see,” Cyrene said, trying to keep everything straight in her mind.

Dean sighed heavily. “Well, you’ve met my sisters. Ready to run yet?”

Cyrene almost laughed. She had faced a Braj twice and Indres. Not to mention Kael’s magic. A few girls couldn’t be that bad.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Cyrene said, making sure her voice was strong and level.

They seemed to have one idea about her, but she didn’t want to back down from their taunts either.

“You’ve all had your fun,” Dean said with a shake of his head. “Leave her be now.”

“No, it’s okay,” Cyrene said. “They’re just protective. I understand that. I’m protective of my brother and sisters. I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

Several of the girls gave her appreciative looks, and some looked suspicious. But Alise in the back just rolled her eyes. Well, they are going to be a hard group to crack.

“They’ll warm up to you,” Brigette said. “Just give them time.” She pulled Cyrene away from the rest of her sisters and began to walk them back through the throne room out of earshot of Dean and Maelia. “It was quite a thing to see my brother stand up for you today.”

“Oh, well, I’m sure he was just being kind.”

Brigette gave her an appraising look. “He is, by nature, unfailingly kind. But not to the extent where he would speak to the Queen for a stranger.”

“I haven’t known him long, but I hardly think we are strangers,” Cyrene said. She hoped her cheeks weren’t as red as they felt.

“You must be very special to him.”

Cyrene caught Dean’s eye behind her, and he smiled warmly. In that moment, she found that she was perfectly content with being special to Dean Ellison.





Despite all the formal pleasantries that had to be made for her visit in the Eleysian palace, Cyrene couldn’t neglect the real reason she was here. Basille Selby had told her to come to the Eleysian capital city and find Matilde and Vera. They would be able to help people like her. She hadn’t known what that meant all those months ago, but now, she understood.

Doma.

She needed to find Master Domas Matilde and Vera. Somehow, they were still alive even though two thousand years had passed. And it was the sole reason for coming to Eleysia.

With Orden, Ahlvie, Avoca, and Ceis’f searching the rest of the island, Cyrene had concentrated her efforts on the palace even though Dean had claimed that he had never heard of anyone with those names.

Cyrene was right the first time she had walked inside the building. It was crowded. Since the island wasn’t all that big, many nobles and members of the Privy Council chose to live on the palace grounds as part of the court. It would be as if every Affiliate and High Order lived in the Byern castle instead of reintegrating into the city after fulfilling their educational components.

That meant she had a lot of ground to cover, all while trying not to look like a suspicious Affiliate snooping around the palace. The only place she had found where no one cared if she looked around was the library, which was enormous and had so many different subjects than what were found in Byern. Her head spun in there.

But still, the first two weeks she had been in the palace, she had no luck. Maelia snuck off the grounds unnoticed to search the Lower Sector, the southern district that attached to the Palace grounds, for any clues. But both of them came up empty-handed, and worse, Cyrene hadn’t seen Dean at all. His sisters would come around to get to know her—otherwise known as irritate her to no end, take up too much of her time, and generally try to sabotage her very existence. They told her that Dean had gone back to work after his long absence, but she didn’t know what that meant. Princes back home didn’t work, not as far as she knew. Prince Kael mostly just fraternized, fornicated, and frustrated her.