The Bound Read online

  “I don’t know,” Cyrene finally answered.

  “She’ll be here,” Ahlvie said confidently. “She has to be.”

  “I’m sorry that we have to split up.”

  Ahlvie shook his head. “It’s a necessity, but she knows how I feel. Nothing is going to change that in the time it takes for me to get to Byern and back.”

  “You love her, don’t you?” Cyrene asked.

  “I know I’m a jokester and a drunk and a gambler and anything else people want to call me,” Ahlvie said. His eyes were still fixed on the end of the dock. “But none of that matters when I’m with her. But I haven’t told her, and I need to tell her.”

  “I’m sure she knows.”

  “Time to go,” Orden called from the deck of the ship. “We need to get out of here. Storm’s a-brewin’.”

  Ahlvie gave Cyrene a wry smile.

  “Be safe out there,” she told him.

  He pulled her to him and squeezed her hard. “You be safe, too. You won’t have me to watch your back.”

  Cyrene laughed. “I’m pretty sure I watch your back.”

  Ahlvie’s eyes wandered down to the end of the dock again, and then he shook his head in despair. “Will you tell her I love her?”

  “Tell her when you come back,” Cyrene insisted. “You’ll have all the time in the world then.”

  He nodded, and with one last forlorn look, he hurried after Orden and got onto the boat. The Eleysian vessel disappeared out onto the water. It was already choppy. Unseasonably troublesome.

  She would have smiled if she wasn’t so sad to see her friends go.

  A figure appeared next to her, and Cyrene would have startled if she hadn’t sensed her coming.

  “Why didn’t you say good-bye?” Cyrene asked.

  Avoca shook her head. “I can’t say good-bye to him.”

  “He was devastated that you weren’t here.”

  “He’ll come back. He has to come back.”

  With a flick of Cyrene’s magic, she linked herself with Avoca. The feel of their magic together was about as intimate as Avoca got. She wasn’t one to break down and cry or ask for a hug. But this, Cyrene could offer her. It wasn’t enough, but it was something.

  “Everything falls into place today,” Maelia said in Cyrene’s room the next morning. Her hands were shaking as she pulled on the pale yellow Eleysian gown for the Bride of the Sea ceremony.

  Cyrene’s own gown had been delivered this morning. When she had opened the box, she had gasped. It wasn’t the gown that she had ordered. It was something so much more beautiful. The cerulean and gold dress was so light and buttery soft that it slipped through her fingers. The dress was strapless with a sheer slip that went over the bottom layer of the dress before falling long and flowy to the ground. She wore the string of Eleysian pearls Dean had given her at Eos around her neck.

  “I know.” She looked at herself in the mirror and adjusted the pin in her hair. “Are you sure that Darmian is none the wiser with our plans? I don’t want him to run to Dean.”

  She nodded. Her eyes were distant. “I’m certain.”

  “Good. Are you going to be okay?”

  Cyrene glanced back over at her friend, who looked as if her illness was getting worse. The pale yellow did nothing to improve her coloring.

  “Stop asking me that,” Maelia snapped.

  Her irritation level was through the roof, and Cyrene couldn’t figure out why.

  “What’s going on with you?”

  “I’m just…frustrated.” Maelia dropped her eyes to the ground. “I feel like I’m betraying my country if I follow you and betraying you if I follow orders.”

  “We can’t go back there, Maelia. You know that, right?”

  “Why not?” Maelia asked. “Not that I don’t want to stay to be here with you and with…Darmian.” Her voice dipped as she used his name. “But country comes first, Cyrene. It always comes first.”

  Cyrene frowned. “I know what you’re saying, Maelia. If I thought there was another way or that Byern would be accepting of the person I am, then I would go back.” She reached out and grabbed Maelia’s hands. “I miss Byern. I miss the castle and the mountains and the river and the smell of home. I miss the Laelish Market at high season and riding my horse through the streets instead of taking stupid boats everywhere.”

  Maelia laughed, and a tear leaked out. “I miss those things, too.”

  “I miss Rhea and my family and court…”

  “And Edric?”

  Cyrene nodded. “And Edric. But you know what I don’t miss?”

  “What?”

  “The naiveté I had about the rest of the world and the pedestal I put Byern on before leaving. Our home is not perfect. It’s broken, and it’s done horrible things to the rest of the world…to people like me. If I go back to Byern, I want it to be for the right reasons and not because some boy demands I return, like a child who got his toy stolen.”

  Cyrene and Maelia arrived outside of the throne room, their arms locked for support. Cyrene wasn’t even sure Maelia should be out of the rooms. She was burning up. But, every time Cyrene had told her to just lie down, Maelia would snap and tell her she was fine. She knew that Maelia was really there to be supportive of Cyrene, and on a big day like today, she wouldn’t miss it.

  Then, Cyrene saw Darmian’s eyes light up at Maelia’s appearance. She almost laughed. He was the real reason that Maelia had refused to stay in bed.

  Darmian immediately approached them. He looked fine in his royal-blue military uniform. “Affiliate Cyrene,” he said in deference. “Maelia.”

  “Darmian,” they said in unison.

  “Maelia, you look…” He trailed off as he just stared at her, starry-eyed.

  “Thank you,” she said with a bright red blush on her cheeks.

  “May I?”

  Cyrene let Maelia go when Darmian offered her his arm. They walked away, revealing Dean standing by the door.

  Even from here, she could tell he looked nervous. He was pacing back and forth before the door. His head was tilted slightly downward, and he seemed to be muttering to himself. He shook his head once and then started over. She almost laughed, but then nerves set in with her. If things didn’t go as planned, tonight would be their last together.

  Trying to remain positive, she pushed her shoulders back and walked over to Dean. He was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he hadn’t even seen her coming. She tapped him on the shoulder, and he jumped.

  “Cyrene,” he said when he turned to face her.

  “Hi, Dean.”

  “You look stunning,” he said, drawing her against him.

  She closed her eyes and breathed him in. She wanted to remember every detail. The way his hard chest felt beneath her cheek. His musky sea-salt scent. The way his fingers dug into her back, as if he refused to ever let her go. The quick beat of his heart at her nearness.

  “Thank you,” she said softly. “I don’t want this to ever end.”

  Dean sighed into her hair. “It won’t.” And he sounded determined.

  When he looked back down at her, she could still see anxiety coursing through him. But something else was there, too—defiance or hope or love. That four-letter word, she hadn’t dared let herself think about. The last time she had been set to give her heart away, she had been prepared for it to be broken. But with Dean…there were no boundaries. He knew her, all of her, and she couldn’t lose him. She wasn’t ready for that kind of heartbreak.

  She stretched up onto the tips of her toes, snaked her hand around his neck, and fiercely kissed him without thought for who was around to see them together. Passion hit them with a ferocity that both of them would tiptoe around when they were alone. Not that she wasn’t willing to move forward, but she had always been too afraid to give her heart away completely. Those thoughts were rapidly dissipating in her mind.

  “Ahem!”

  Cyrene slowly released Dean but couldn’t drag her love-struck gaze from his face
. She even reached back up and planted one more kiss on his lips before moving away again.

  The Queen stared between them with a thoughtful look on her face. “It is time to begin the ceremony.”

  Dean took Cyrene’s hand in his.

  Queen Cassia frowned. “This is a religious moment of prayer to the Creator for her blessing on the seas. It is the royal family’s duty to uphold the honor. Cyrene is not a part of the royal family. As I told Alise, Robard could not come with us, and thus Cyrene is not to accompany you either.”

  “Cyrene is coming with me,” Dean said defiantly. “You are forcing her to leave in the morning. All I have is today.”

  “That is precisely why she should not be on the royal boats.” Queen Cassia wasn’t a hardened ruler. She seemed sympathetic to her son’s problem. But the threat of war still loomed, and she wouldn’t allow anything to hurt her people.

  “I refuse to go without her, Your Majesty,” he said, his voice formal.

  The Queen held her head higher, as if the title alone threatened to weigh her shoulders down.

  “But I implore you, as your son, to allow me this one morsel of happiness before you rip it from me.”

  Queen Cassia closed her eyes, and for a second, she looked like she was going to fight Dean. But then she nodded. “Okay, but make sure she knows how the ceremony works.” The Queen turned on her heel and disappeared into the throne room.

  “Well, that went better than anticipated,” Dean said.

  Cyrene let loose a breath. “I didn’t mean to put you in this position, Dean.”

  “It’s not your fault, but I’m not going to let anyone dictate my time with you from here on out,” he told her. He ran a hand back through his hair and then diverted his eyes.

  “You seem a little nervous,” she said softly.

  He laughed, his voice rising an octave. “Do I?”

  She nodded. “A little. But it’s okay. I get it. I’m a little nervous too and sad about everything that’s happening.”

  He took her hand and placed a kiss on her knuckles. “I am nervous, but I don’t want you to be sad. I would do anything I could to change that.”

  Just then, the Queen and King and all of Dean’s sisters and their husbands walked into the throne room. Dean offered Cyrene his arm, and they ducked into the back of the line behind Brigette.

  “Okay, so fill me in on this ceremony,” Cyrene whispered.

  “The Bride of the Sea is the biggest holiday in Eleysia. Eos is big, of course, but since Eleysia has always relied so heavily on sea travel, we celebrate the coming of spring in a very traditional way.”

  They walked out of the palace and down onto the grounds. A group of boats just a little bigger than the normal gondolas were set up on the docks.

  “Traditionally, the royal family takes the official family boats out and rides through the city. The Queen speaks to the crowd, and a priestess says a prayer over the Bride’s Ring.”

  “The bride has a ring?” Cyrene asked in confusion.

  Dean nodded. He offered her his hand as they got into the boats. They were seated with Brigette behind them and Alise and the twins in front of them.

  Alise turned around and sniffed at Cyrene. “Who let her on board?” she asked.

  “Mother,” Dean said. He gave her a look that begged her to argue with him.

  “She wouldn’t let Robard ride with me.”

  “That’s because Robard is a soldier. He always has been and always will be.”

  “Who knew you were obsessed with nobility?” Alise sneered. “That’s not how I remember it.”

  Dean glared at his sister, and Cyrene’s cheeks heated. She didn’t want to know what that meant.

  “Mind your own business, Alise,” he said.

  The boats started moving, and once they were out of the gates and on the main canal, Dean took a deep breath and continued his story, “Where did I leave off? Oh, right, the Bride’s Ring. It’s a special gold band inscribed with the date of the ceremony. It symbolizes our marriage to the sea. So, after the prayer, in front of everyone in the queendom, we pass the Bride’s Ring down the royal family line. It begins when the priestess gives the ring to the Queen, who passes it to the King. It goes down the line of their children before finally reaching Brigette, the Crown Princess, Maiden Bride of the Sea.”

  “So…you pass a ring to your sister, and that’s it?” Cyrene asked.

  They were already moving past crowds of people on their way to this ceremony, and she wanted to make sure she understood what would be happening.

  “No. Brigette says a prayer and then tosses the Ring into the holy pool. This is an offering to the Creator for safe sea travel for the next year and serves as a remembrance of her blessing upon us. This completes the official ceremony. The Eleysian people also toss Bride’s Rings into the water all over the city in remembrance today. After they have celebrated separately, a festival is held on the water, and the palace throws a huge ball.”

  “That seems simple enough. I’ll just follow along as we go,” she told him.

  He kissed the top of her head and held her hand as they made their procession through the city. The closer they got to their final point, the more nervous Dean got. The crowds were thicker, and people were craning their necks and pushing people out of the way to see into the royal boats pass.

  She even thought she’d heard her name being called a few times, but that couldn’t be. How would anyone know my name?

  Their boats finally stopped in front of a temple on the water. It was made of the same sandstone as everything else in Eleysia, but it was simple and elegant. The crowds were swarming, and gondolas clogged the passageway as nobility sought to witness the ceremony.

  The priestess walked out of the temple. Her pale hair fell to her waist, and she was dressed in an all-white robe. She had a serenity about her that Cyrene had never seen on another. Byern wasn’t exactly pious even though everyone celebrated the Creator and honored her on holidays. Temple wasn’t required, so few would go, and there weren’t religious ceremonies like this. It was beautiful and humbling for Cyrene to be a part of this.

  A guard escorted the Queen out of the boat, and she stood next to the priestess.

  Queen Cassia tilted her chin up. “Ladies and gentleman of Eleysia, thank you so much for gathering today for the honoring of our Creator and her blessing we receive each year.” Her voice boomed over the crowd.

  Cyrene glanced over at Dean and squeezed his hand. He met her eyes and shot her a half-smile. She listened as the Queen went on to talk more about the Creator and another year of safe sea travel. It was much the same as what Dean had just told her.

  The priestess stepped forward. She looked so fragile, but when she began to pray, Cyrene knew she had an incredible inner strength. Cyrene bowed her head with the crowd and sent up her own prayer to the Creator, asking for help to make the right choices and for guidance in the coming trials.

  Then, the priestess produced the tiny gold Ring. Cyrene could barely see it from her prime seat. She couldn’t imagine anyone else could. The Queen passed it to the King, and then it went down the line.

  Tifani finally handed it to Dean, and for the first time, Cyrene could see that it was actually a very pretty ring. The gold shimmered and glittered in the morning light. The engraving was in a beautiful script that shifted in coloring, and Cyrene nearly jumped out of her skin. She hadn’t seen that flowing writing since she had given the Book of the Doma to Matilde and Vera a couple of months ago.

  But there was Doma magic in that ring. Cyrene would bet her life on it. She looked around the venue and wondered how much of this had been constructed by Doma and how much of the ceremony had come from Doma.

  She was lost in thought about what all this could mean when Dean cleared his throat.

  She snapped her head back to him, expecting to see him pass the ring on to Brigette, but instead, he was holding a different ring. An exquisite ring with a large oval diamond held into place by gol
d filigree that almost looked as if it were waves. The band was intricately designed with smaller diamonds and tiny onyx pearls that Eleysia was famous for.

  Her hand flew to her mouth, and she looked up into Dean’s dark eyes.

  He smiled crookedly and then sank to one knee in front of her. “Cyrene, you are my light and my life. I don’t know how I lived before you or how I could ever hope to live after you. I never want to find out. Would you do me the honor of being my wife?”

  Cyrene’s mouth fell open, and tears pooled in her eyes. “Yes! Yes! Oh Creator! Of course, I’ll marry you.”

  Dean slipped the ring onto her finger, and tears fell onto her cheeks. She reached forward and kissed him on the mouth. Everything made sense now. Why he had been so nervous. Why he had insisted on her coming on the boat. Why he had promised that they would be together.

  He had been planning his own way for them to be together while she had been planning her own means for it. Her emotions were running so hot that the boats rocked in the water.

  Dean laughed and held on to the side of the boat. “The waves even seem to agree with us.”

  She laughed, too, and looked down at the ring in shock. She had never thought about this moment or whom it would be with. She had always just assumed it wasn’t going to happen for a long time.

  Dean handed the Bride’s Ring to his sister, who stoically stared at him. “Sorry to surprise her in the middle of the ceremony.”

  Brigette took it from his hand. “I hope you’re happy.” Then, without a word of prayer or blessing, she tossed the ring over her shoulder into the water.

  She crossed her arms and looked away from the crowd. “Can we leave now?”

  When they were back on solid ground outside of the palace, Cyrene and Dean were bombarded with congratulations. Most of his siblings weren’t around much and didn’t know that tensions had been running high among the court or the fact that Cyrene was supposed to be getting on a boat to head back to Byern tomorrow.