The Bound Read online

  Dean’s eyes snapped up and latched on to her. He opened his mouth to say something, but she had seen enough. She didn’t need to see this. It wasn’t any of her business. Dean Ellison was not the reason she was in Eleysia. Being a toy in the midst of one of his bitter sisters’ plots was not part of her plan.

  She shoved Robard away from her and dashed toward the entrance of the barracks. Her magic was firing under her fingertips, like it had done that night in Aurum when Kael coaxed it out of her. Her breathing was ragged, and she couldn’t keep her emotions in check.

  This was a setup. A ploy. She knew it for what it was. It was something Jardana would have pulled back home in Byern to try to keep Cyrene away from Kael and to diminish her importance at court. But she hadn’t had to deal with petty court antics in a while, and her heart hadn’t been prepared for it. It was beating fiercely in her chest, and she was terrified of what would happen if she didn’t get herself under control.

  Am I going to have another accident, like in Aurum? Could I level the barracks this time?

  No. Creator! She couldn’t let this keep happening.

  This was why she needed to find Matilde and Vera. Her magic was out of control. If she wasn’t careful, she would do horrible things, and she would have no way to stop it.

  “Cyrene!” Dean called behind her.

  She turned to look at him as he rushed out after her in nothing but his loincloth. Sweat still coated his skin, and sand coated his skin where he had rolled on the floor of the pit. Up close, he was even bigger and broader than she remembered. And he was blinding to look at.

  “I really don’t want to talk about it right now,” Cyrene said, continuing up the hill to the palace. If she talked to him about what she had seen, her magic might erupt, and she could hurt him or take out the palace or worse.

  “Cyrene, please! Let me explain.”

  “Don’t!” she cried. “Don’t explain. You have nothing to explain. Just…don’t.”

  Magic burst free from her fingers, and she felt it pool in her body. Life force. Sweet, beautiful power. Raw and uninhibited. It was perfection as it flooded her, and she could do nothing to stop it.

  Tears formed in the corners of her blue eyes, and she hated that it looked as if she were crying over Dean. If only a boy was her biggest problem…

  “Those girls—”

  “Dean, please. Don’t.”

  “I would never do that—”

  “Stop!” she cried. She held her hands to her chest.

  At any moment, it felt like she would release her powers and destroy the world all over again. She couldn’t do that. She needed to hold on. She needed to keep it together. She could control it. It was possible.

  But it felt like it was controlling her at the moment.

  He held his hands up. “I just defeated my biggest rival, a man I have been fighting with my entire life. He knows nearly every move I have. It was a fifty-fifty chance, whether or not I would win today. And you bring me to surrender with a glance.”

  Cyrene’s heart raced ahead of her at his words. “We don’t even know each other, Dean.”

  “Then, let me get to know you. I would never be with another woman. That was not what it looked like back there.”

  “I know it wasn’t. Your sister set this all up.”

  “Which one?” he demanded.

  “Alise.”

  Dean growled low, “She will not bother you again. I will take care of it.”

  Cyrene shook her head. “I knew what she was doing. She brought me there on purpose, to scare me off.”

  “And it worked.”

  “I’m not scared off.”

  I just need to calm down. Breathe in. Two, three, four. Breathe out. Two, three, four.

  “But I’m not here for you either. I don’t know what is going on between us. I don’t know what your looks mean or the kiss in the hall. I don’t know why you’re helping me or even why I’m so upset that I didn’t get to see you for a couple of days, only to find you doing this without my knowledge.”

  “I was in training for my Captain’s test,” he said apologetically. “I didn’t think you would want to be there for it. It was the reason I had to return home after spending so much time abroad. And about that kiss…”

  He stepped toward her, and she took a step back. Her magic was still hot in her veins, and she couldn’t risk hurting him.

  “Please,” she whispered.

  “Our ways are different here than in Byern, I believe.”

  “Very,” she said. Her cheeks heated as she remembered just how naked he was at the moment.

  “I thought I was clear when we first met in the woods, but let me be perfectly clear. I want to court you, Cyrene. Just allow me the opportunity to try with you,” he pleaded.

  Cyrene sighed and looked out toward the lake beyond.

  What good would come from allowing myself to be courted by the Prince of Eleysia?

  He made her erratic, and her magic burst from her fingertips with the crazy emotions running through her body. She was here on a mission, and that didn’t involve another prince. She had enough worries with men back at home.

  But, at the same time, the thought of him courting her seemed to settle her heart and her stomach. Her magic lessened and then disappeared…and she hadn’t taken out a building.

  “Why me?” she managed to get out.

  “Because there is no one else like you, Cyrene.” He bridged the distance between them, and this time, she let him take her hand. “You are brave and loyal. You fight for what you believe in. You are smart and clever and witty and more beautiful than any woman I have ever seen. And I believe I have just scratched the surface of who you are.”

  It was so easy with Dean.

  No matter her feelings for Edric, the throne had always been between them. The throne and the Queen and the Consort and every other obligation that existed between a king and an Affiliate. Despite his best effort, she had never truly let go with him.

  And then there was whatever had happened with Kael. Magic of some sort. Though it made no sense to her. She could never be herself with him. He certainly wanted more from her than she even knew.

  But, with Dean, there was none of that. No power struggle. No secrets. No strange pull that she couldn’t explain that seemed to link her to him.

  Yet Dean was still the Prince of Eleysia, and she was still an Affiliate of Byern. What could come of this?

  “I don’t know what I can offer you,” she whispered.

  “You don’t need to offer anything. My training is on hold until after the Eos holiday. Soldiers celebrate the fights and their advancement through the holiday. I’m yours until then.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Just say, you’ll come with me to the Eos ball. Every year, we’re to come with a date to celebrate the end of another year and the birth of a new one, but I never bring anyone. Be my first,” he said.

  “I don’t know, Dean.”

  “It is my birthday,” he added with a cheeky grin.

  How can I say no to that? “Okay, Dean, I’ll go with you,” she said.

  She just prayed to the Creator that she wasn’t making a horrible mistake in accepting his invitation.

  “Ahh!” Rhea screamed futilely. “Work! Blasted work!”

  She stood so quickly that she threw the chair she had been seated in back against the wall. It clattered and dropped to the floor. She didn’t even care. Once, she might have. But considering the work her Master Caro Barca should have been doing—that she was now tasked with doing—wasn’t functional, she just couldn’t find it in her to care.

  She hadn’t seen Eren in over a week. The Eos holiday was today, and she couldn’t even leave her stuffy quarters in the Nit Decus castle.

  Her master had been relocated to Byern when court returned from procession, and she had been forced to come with him. They had been set up in a nice, rather secluded part of the castle. In fact, she didn’t think anyone had
been in this part of the castle in hundreds of years.

  It was a large, open circular room with a glass ceiling that made no sense with the rest of the dark stone construction. The walkways to and from the corridors were so large that she could have fit boats through them, if need be. It was absurd. The rest of the castle had these neat, slim corridors with artwork and gorgeous vines in the molding. But these quarters looked as if someone had wanted them to be fireproof.

  It was punishment. She was sure of it. She just didn’t know what for.

  Captain Merrick had claimed the King had specially given them these quarters, but she doubted it. It was Captain Merrick who was a plague on the King and the country, as far as she was concerned. He had done this out of spite. No more, no less.

  And she couldn’t do anything to change her lot.

  Tonight, Master Barca would be setting off a spectacular display of Bursts fireworks that were unlike anything anyone had seen before. They had spent the last week making sure they would have enough space set up outside of the castle grounds so that they were ready to fire. The only thing left to do was light them tonight after dusk. She should have been thrilled that she could even help him create these contraptions that she had once thought were magic.

  But no…Cyrene had magic.

  And this was…pure science.

  Similar in so many ways. Yet, completely different in others. At this point, she wasn’t particularly fond of either—magic or science.

  All she had to do was make the mechanism for the fireworks into some kind of contained explosion. She had seen Master Barca do it time and again with Bursts. He just hadn’t figured out how to perfectly replicate it. And he had stopped caring about what court demanded of him. He cared much more about his own pursuits.

  For what felt like the thousandth time, she wondered what her genius Receiver had been thinking when he created the formula for Bursts.

  “I have it!” Master Barca said, stepping eagerly into the vast cavern.

  “Have what?” Rhea asked irritably.

  “The exact formula!” he said triumphantly.

  Rhea warily looked at him. He had said that several hundred times since being in Byern, and every time, it was about something ludicrous that had nothing to do with her work on making explosives.

  “What formula?”

  “The only one that matters!”

  “Master Barca, you’re not making sense again.”

  “What we all search for. What we all want to discover. The ultimate power.”

  “Whatever are you talking about? Have you figured out how to make your Bursts contain that explosive power? Have you figured out how I can report this to Captain Merrick?”

  Master Barca looked at her as if she had sprouted horns. “Why ever would I want to militarize my Bursts?”

  “What?” she stammered.

  He seemed completely lucid in that moment, and she had been unprepared for it.

  “My Bursts are for a merry festival occasion. You’ll see them tonight. Putting that power in the hands of the guards would be catastrophic. Did you believe I had not thought of it? Imagine what they could do if they had that knowledge.”

  Rhea could imagine it. They could conquer the world if they wanted. But she wasn’t here for judgments. She was here to advance their society. What would be the point of all my work if I couldn’t even move forward?

  “No, child. This is much more important.”

  “What is it?”

  “The means to attain immortality.”

  Rhea’s eyes widened. “Immortality. Are you sure? I mean…how could you know that?”

  “It is not in the knowing. It is in the believing,” he said. Then, he muttered to himself, practically speaking in tongues for all Rhea could decipher.

  Master Barca disappeared from the door from which he had entered, but Rhea had lost the fire for her quest. She had been trained better than what her current pursuits required. She had been trained to ask why. But the pressure coming from Captain Merrick and the King himself was enough to make her quake in her slippers.

  What exactly would be the consequences of creating firepower? And how different would that discovery be from magic itself?

  Sure, she wasn’t creating it outright from physical prowess of her own body…from something that had been born into her bloodline. But she could mix powders and chemicals together and create an explosion. If she harnessed that, it could be deadly…beyond deadly.

  Discovering it for the sake of discovering it was one thing. That was what her master had always done. Pursuit of knowledge was her forte. But should all knowledge be pursued? When that knowledge could have catastrophic consequences, should it be given to people who would manipulate it for their own purposes?

  No.

  Maybe Master Barca was right.

  His Bursts were enough.

  No need to finalize the formula for the blast powder.

  She would just try it one more time with a clear head and then get ready for the Eos holiday celebrations.

  With a resigned sigh, she returned to her work room. Leaning over the various powders she had been working with, she started mixing them together.

  Earlier that week, she had pilfered a few Bursts from the festival celebration and deconstructed them to get a better look at what her master had done. But it was difficult to determine when all the powders were already mixed in certain amounts for the Bursts. Not to mention, the blast powder she wanted to create needed to be much more highly concentrated.

  She mixed together the ingredients that were used in the Bursts and decided to light it in a closed compartment. The Bursts seemed to pop open in the tightly concealed space. She fitted the powder into a small metal contraption that Master Barca had left on the table. He had a million different such objects floating around that she was sure he wouldn’t miss this one.

  Carefully placing the object on a table away from her papers, she threaded a wick into the container and rolled it out. The powder itself burned pretty well on its own, so she wanted to make sure she was far enough away in case the fire increased. Luckily, the room was basically fireproof.

  Rhea cut the wick and then lit it, standing about ten feet away from the table. The wick burned slowly as it traveled across the distance and then into the metal contraption.

  BOOM!

  Ring. Ring. Ring.

  Rhea’s vision was blurry. Her ears were ringing. She placed her hands on them, but that did nothing to stop the ringing. She tried to stand and look around the room, only to realize that she had been thrown all the way across the chamber. Her back had collided with the wall on the opposite side, some thirty feet away from where she had been standing when lighting the fuse.

  “What have I done?” she whispered.

  But she was shocked to discover she couldn’t hear herself speak.

  Everything hurt. She had to find a way to assess her injuries, but standing seemed impossible.

  Then, there was Master Barca, leaning down toward her and softly cradling her. He was saying something, but she just shook her head. She couldn’t hear him. He tried to help her to her feet, but that didn’t go so well.

  He motioned to her that he was going to go get help, and then he left at a hurried jog, which was really moving for him.

  She leaned her head back against the wall and was resigned to her fate when someone else walked into the room.

  Kael Dremylon.

  An apparition. What would the Prince be doing here? He didn’t come to this side of the castle. He had been back only for a couple of weeks and had been all but locked in his own quarters.

  No. There was no prince here.

  Just a dream.

  Dream Prince Kael said something to her, but she motioned to her ear. The ringing continued. She hoped this wasn’t permanent. What would I do if I lost my hearing completely?

  Dream Prince Kael nodded and then unexpectedly bent down and hoisted her into his arms. Am I floating? This couldn’t be reality. Sh
e was too weak to protest.

  Shouldn’t my Dream Prince know that I can’t move right now?

  Apparently not.

  Dream Prince Kael carried her from the room, as if she weighed nothing. Perhaps she did weigh nothing; it was a dream after all.

  They walked through the corridors and then reached her small quarters a few minutes later. Dream Prince Kael gently placed her down in the bed, and as exhaustion took her over, she passed out on the covers.

  Rhea came to again sometime later. She had the distinct feeling of being watched. Her ears were still ringing a little. And her entire body felt like…well, like she had just been blasted thirty feet across a room and into a stone wall.

  “Hello?” she croaked into the stillness.

  She could hear! Only slightly. Her voice warbled, as if heard through water, but her hearing wasn’t completely gone.

  “Hello,” someone called back.

  Rhea turned her head and saw Kael Dremylon sitting in the corner of her room. She had been sure that envisioning him was a dream. His presence made no sense to her.

  She opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing in her room, but all that came out was, “Water.”

  He smiled that charming smile. She was sure that she would have blushed under different circumstances. He was the prince.

  He handed her a glass of water. “Here you are. I had a physician attend to you and assured Master Barca that I would fetch him when you were awake.”

  “How long was I out?”

  “Only an hour or two.”

  “And you waited?” she asked in disbelief.

  He flashed her another winning smile.

  There was something different about him. Rhea couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She didn’t know him that well, but the prince she had seen before he had left for Aurum was…different. Teasing, flirtatious, jovial, conniving for sure, and manipulative. But this was other. He was somehow other. It was like a black shadow had fallen over his body, transforming the man before her. It made her shiver.

  “Yes,” he said, folding himself back into the chair.

  “Thank you, Your Highness,” she said, not forgetting her manners.