The Consort Read online

  But her pardon was coming.

  That was what Cyrene had said. And, above everything, he wanted Cyrene. To his detriment. If he had given her a pardon, then surely, it would be coming any minute.

  “Thank you for coming,” Edric said. “Today, we are here for an execution with the crimes of conspiracy and treason. How do you plead?”

  Daufina felt sick to her stomach. She was going to throw up. She couldn’t make it through this. She just wanted him to say it. Her eyes were wide with panic. Please, just say it.

  “Not guilty, Your Majesty,” Daufina said, her voice strong and carrying.

  “Yet the evidence is overwhelming. You helped prisoners escape, drugged guards on duty, and attempted to remove the future consort from the castle. No doubt you would have had her killed to get her out of your way. You have conspired against the crown and have been found guilty.”

  The crowd was silent as her crimes were listed by the man she loved, her very best friend.

  She reached out for Edric. “Please, My King.”

  It was time. Now or never. He was supposed to give her the pardon. Cyrene had said.

  Edric turned his thumb over, giving the signal, and shock rocked through her body. The last thing she saw was Cyrene and Kael rushing through the crowd to try to reach Edric. She was screaming something that Daufina couldn’t decipher as she fell through the door and disappeared forever.

  Cyrene screamed.

  Her hands reached for the scaffold. Her body convulsed at the atrocity. Her eyes widened with disbelief. Her heart lodged in her throat. Her magic burrowed down deep.

  “No.”

  It was the only word she could utter before she saw Daufina’s legs swing.

  “No.”

  She couldn’t pull away.

  Not again.

  “No.”

  Her fault.

  All her fault.

  “No.”

  And then anger.

  Pain.

  Suffering.

  Death.

  “Cyrene, please,” Kael muttered behind her.

  His arms were around her waist. He was pulling her backward. Trying to keep her under control. He, and only he, knew what this meant to her.

  But she couldn’t comprehend whatever else he was saying. It was white noise through the haze in her mind. She had been here before. She had seen Maelia’s beautiful head of blonde hair drop into a basket. She had looked into dark eyes and felt the unexpected bite of betrayal as the sword crashed her into oblivion.

  This time…she only saw blue-gray.

  And the same treachery.

  But not the same motive.

  Dean had been in shock over the death of his parents. An idiot and a coward. He had done everything wrong in that one moment when he could have done everything right.

  But Edric. Oh, Edric.

  This was not shock. This was not panic. This was not trying to save Cyrene’s life in whatever way he could.

  No, he had lied to her. Directly to her face. He had offered her exactly what she wanted to hear. All those lies delivered on a platter for her taking, and she had bought it. The falsehoods were painted on his skin in black ink.

  Deceiver. Destroyer. Fraud. Hack. Cheat. Liar.

  A child king playing dress-up.

  And she would not stand for it any longer.

  “Let me go,” Cyrene said.

  She pushed her hands out, and Kael released her. Silence fell as the crowd parted for her and the prince. She walked like royalty up the stairs to where Edric was still standing before the crowd of Affiliates and High Order. No one had made a move to get Daufina down. No one even breathed.

  Merrick moved first to try to block Cyrene’s path. “Stand down.”

  “Out of my way,” Cyrene barked.

  “You will not make a scene,” he ground out.

  Kael stepped up next to her and quirked an eyebrow. She shook her head. She wasn’t ready for everyone to know of their magic. It still felt like a precious jewel, a hand to play when she had no other options. With Edric, she had one more.

  Cyrene instead ignored Merrick as she shouldered past him and moved to stand before the king. Not her king. No longer.

  “What have you done?” she asked, her voice clear and strong.

  “What needed to be done,” Edric answered simply.

  “You think this makes you strong?” She threw her hand out at Daufina’s lifeless body.

  “I would watch what you say, Cyrene.”

  “The time for that has come and gone. So has this,” she said, wrenching her Affiliate pin off and flinging it into his chair. “You knew the consequences. You did it anyway. I do not serve a deceitful king.”

  A gasp rippled through the crowd. She was making a show. She wanted people to know what Edric had done. For she had been like them once. So swept up in who he was—the title, the crown, the good looks—that she hadn’t seen there was a murderer down beneath. That he would look her in the eyes and tell her he loved her, he wanted her, she could trust him, he would give her what she wanted…only to turn his back and kill a woman he had known, loved, and relied on for years.

  A muscle twitched in Edric’s jaw.

  She could see he was fighting with himself not to make an example out of her. With the anger burning through her veins, she almost couldn’t even feel their connection. But it was still there. Despite it all.

  He rose with a jerk, the pin in his hand. He held it tight in his hand until blood seeped from his skin where the needle bit into him. “This pin is a symbol of something greater than you,” he spat. His eyes moved from Cyrene’s to the crowd. “Greater than all of you! It is a symbol of our people, of the sacrifice that we had to make all those years ago. And the fortune that has been heaped on us since. My decision here today was not made lightly. But I do not condone someone who has worn this pin to commit treason against the Dremylon name and against all of you. I do this for Byern!” He raised his bloody fist into the air. “For Byern.”

  And, like little parrots, the crowd roared its approval. “For Byern!”

  Cyrene was disgusted. He had turned her display around so easily. Yet this was not the end of it. She knew it in her heart. She couldn’t stay here one more minute. She’d walk out the front doors, tear them down brick by brick if she had to.

  “I’m leaving,” she spat in Edric’s face.

  He reached out and gripped her wrist. “Cyrene…”

  “You lied to me, Edric. Give me one good reason not to walk out right now.”

  “Because I have your family.”

  Her blood ran cold. “Is that a threat?”

  He straightened to his considerable height and then offered Cyrene his arm. He didn’t say another word. Just gave her a look that said, Come with me and find out.

  It was the last thing she wanted to do. But she had never considered her family to be in any danger. Not once in her entire life. They were a formidable bunch. Strong, smart, and resilient. Nothing could harm them. Except the king…

  Cyrene gritted her teeth and placed her hand on Edric’s sleeve. To everyone else watching, save Kael and Merrick, she and Edric were united once more. All was right with the world. Yet it was so far from the truth.

  The truth. She nearly laughed manically at the very thought. What is the truth anyway? The more she learned of it, the more she didn’t believe that she had ever heard it correctly. She had been lied to her entire life. A beautiful lie passed down from generation to generation. It wasn’t until she’d left Byern and found out the ugly truth about her Doma heritage that she realized how much her entire existence had been false. She might be some heir to some destiny, but right now, she was just a girl who would do anything to save her family.

  Cyrene could feel her magic pulsing in her core as she followed Edric down the steps and back to the entrance to the courtyard. An answering rumble to her anger thundered in the distance. She hadn’t even intentionally called a storm, but her powers seemed to intensify wi
th the feelings beating through her body.

  She could taste rain approaching and prayed to the Creator that it was something that would wash away this stain on her soul. This ache that told her to forget everything in her existence and give in to this grief. For a split second, she wanted nothing more than to take off Edric’s head. Like the day on the boat during the hurricane when Dean had slain Robard, and blood magic had called to her like a beacon.

  She wanted to go back to a time when her biggest threat had been Kaliana, and her biggest fear had been whether or not she would get the right educational path at court. Carrying this weight was heavy and draining, and she wanted to collapse under it all. But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. Not when more innocent lives were at stake.

  When Edric dragged her into the first empty room he could find, he slammed the door behind himself before Kael and Merrick could even follow. Then, he whirled around and shoved her into the wall with manic eyes and unsteady breathing.

  “I could have had you on that scaffold next to Daufina for what you just did!” he yelled into her face.

  “Then, why didn’t you?”

  “Because I’m in love with you! Don’t you see that?”

  “This is love to you?” Cyrene asked in a rage. “Bullying and threats and hangings?”

  “I found Daufina guilty in front of a room of my top advisors. How would I have looked if I had set her free?”

  “Merciful!”

  “Mercy is weakness!”

  “And so you would rather lie to my face? That instills trust and strength in others, does it?”

  “I never lied to you. I said that I would make peace, not that I would issue a pardon. You heard what you wanted from me,” he said, slamming his fist into his open palm. “You ask too much and give too little.”

  “Fine. You didn’t lie. You openly deceived me. You had me believe you would pardon Daufina and then murdered her anyway. There was a line, Edric, and you crossed it.”

  “Enough!” Edric roared. “That is enough. I am not a murderer. I did not have her murdered. I found her guilty of treason, and the price of that is execution by hanging. Why will you not see that I am doing this all for your sake, Cyrene? Have you changed so much in your time away that you no longer see me as the man I am? A man who loves and adores you?”

  The answer was yes. She had changed beyond measure. Heart, body, mind, and soul. Edric no longer held sway on a single part of her…except that thread that seemed to connect them.

  That…thread.

  There was something familiar about it.

  Something she hadn’t considered before.

  That thread…

  Cyrene’s eyes glazed over, and suddenly, she wasn’t in the room. She wasn’t with Edric. She wasn’t even in the castle.

  She was back in her vision of Viktor and Serafina, reliving the memory she had seen of them after she passed out in Eleysia from trying to stop the hurricane.

  Viktor stood with the blade between him and Serafina, his firstborn babe in his arms. Serafina was reading from a book, an old blackened book with a spell. She had said that she would find a way for them to be together…always. That they could make it happen. That magic would no longer be a barrier.

  Then, Viktor slit his infant child’s throat and used the intense bond between father and child to generate his own deep, dark blood magic. His magic fused with Serafina’s, and together, they were bound.

  Much the same way that she and Avoca had.

  Cyrene hadn’t thought too hard about it before. But something in that moment clicked with her.

  Together. For all time.

  A Doma and a Dremylon.

  It couldn’t be. Creator! It couldn’t possibly be true.

  She had known that, after the Rose Garden Ceremony following her Presenting, she was bound in some way to Byern—the throne and the land itself. But she hadn’t considered that her vision was showing her the present.

  That perhaps…that thread she felt, the electric energy she couldn’t escape from either Dremylon boy…meant she was bound to them. That a Doma and a Dremylon had been bound…so they could be together forever. And it extended beyond the grave.

  She supposed anything was possible after bending the laws of magic. No one could be bound who didn’t have magic. Going against nature and stealing magic had to have consequences. Could this be a consequence of something Viktor and Serafina had done for their love all those years ago?

  Her body shivered as she came out of her trance. Someone was shaking her. She was on the ground.

  “Cyrene? Cyrene, are you all right?” Edric asked. He was on one knee, trying to rouse her.

  “What happened?”

  “You fainted.”

  “I…fainted?” she whispered.

  “Yes. Out of nowhere. Must have been the strain of the day.”

  Cyrene tried to clear her head. She had gone so deep into her own mind, trying to put the pieces together, that she had completely passed out from the effort. And she didn’t even know if she was right. But it felt right. It felt as if it all made perfect sense. In a way that she couldn’t explain.

  “Let me help you up. I can take you to your room,” he said, gently lifting her.

  She shuddered, taking a step away from him.

  Did I only ever feel something for him because of some two-thousand-year-old curse? And what about Kael? Did this apply to him as well?

  It was too much all at once.

  “Are you still upset with me?” Edric asked, taking her distance personally.

  She blankly stared at him. She was beyond upset with him. She wanted out. She wanted to get away from all this. She didn’t want to be a pawn piece in anyone’s game.

  “I’m leaving,” she told him, point-blank.

  His eyes narrowed. “We already discussed this.”

  “Yes. I said that I could no longer stay here.”

  “You will learn to love me again.”

  “Edric,” she said, shaking her head at his delusions.

  “Or your family will pay the price.”

  She stilled again. She couldn’t believe he would issue the threat not once, but twice.

  “Your sister has a Presenting soon. I’d hate to see her moved down a class and have to leave her family.”

  “That is not how Presentings are supposed to work,” she spat.

  “Your family only serves a purpose in my court so long as you fall into line, Cyrene,” he said, bridging that distance one more time. “So let me speak plainly. You are my consort. You will stay here and play the part. If you do as you’re told, your family will be rewarded. If you attempt to defy me again, as you did in the courtyard, or even think about leaving my side, I will end them. Their lives are now in your hands, Cyrene.”

  Cyrene opened her mouth to tear him apart limb from limb, but a figure burst into the room.

  “Your Majesty!” a woman said, dipping into a low curtsy.

  “Yes? What is it?” Edric asked impatiently.

  “The queen! She’s in labor!”

  Edric rushed out of the room without a backward glance at Cyrene.

  She should probably hurry out after him. Falling into line and protecting her family and all that, but she wasn’t ready to do as she had been told. She couldn’t leave. That much, Edric had just solidified. She would never do something to knowingly harm her family. If that meant staying here and playing house with Edric, she could do that. For a while.

  But it didn’t mean that was her only option.

  And it didn’t mean she had to enjoy it.

  A calm settled over her. Her anger had taken up residence in the place she always associated with her magic and was sizzling around in there, getting acquainted with its new home. But it wasn’t the cold fury she had felt before that drove her to desperately ask for Daufina’s help.

  This was something else.

  As if a plan had magically materialized in her mind. It felt as if it had always been there. Like she had somehow
known it would come to this. Now that it was here, she wasn’t even frightened. She was prepared.

  Cyrene straightened her dress and then left the room Edric had abandoned her in. She was glad that he had Kaliana to distract him. She needed him out of the way.

  She closed her eyes for a minute before deciding on her way. She felt that tug, that thread that she always associated with Avoca. She had thought it was unique. But she had never before considered that she could be bound to more than one person. In fact, up until this moment, she had believed it to be impossible. The idea that she had been somehow bound to the country itself had terrified Matilde and Vera. No wonder she was so unstable if she were also connected to the Dremylon boys.

  If she searched calmly, knowing exactly what she was looking for, she could feel all three threads deep within her. Avoca’s was strongest. That was the one she had willingly walked into. She tried not to think about Avoca and why she wasn’t here. If Avoca had answered her call all those weeks ago, why hadn’t she come for her? That was like falling down a rabbit hole.

  Cyrene quickly schooled her features and followed the paths of the other two threads. Faint but there. Edric and Kael. Both of them there. One leading off toward the queen’s confinement chambers. The other in the stables.

  Her feet automatically carried her toward the stables. She knew what she would find. But she was nervous to discover that her magic was true and that she would finally, finally, have an explanation for something in her life.

  Kael had his hand on a midnight-black stallion. The beast wasn’t cooperating, but it was clear that Kael knew how to handle him. He didn’t ask for assistance. He just firmly showed the horse who was in charge. He placed the bit in the horse’s mouth and then secured the bridle. After that, he went about fastening the saddle into place. Then, he led him out of his stall and stopped when he saw Cyrene standing at the door.

  “Going somewhere?” Cyrene asked.

  “A ride helps to clear my head,” Kael informed her. “Care to join me?”

  “Sure.”

  He tied up his steed and prepared another horse for her.

  “How did you find me?” he asked, passing her the reins to a chestnut horse.