CASSIA WOKE TO THE thought of what his arms had felt like around her. The feeling had been powerful in its
newness, astonishing in its potential to comfort rather than unnerve her.
She felt as if he had only just let her go. Perhaps she had dreamed of him. Or perhaps the memory
of his embrace was just that strong, that it outlasted their angry, wounding words and held through the
night, into the dawn.
Dawn. The realization fell upon her. Her moment of reprieve in the memory of Lio holding her was
over.
The day had come. The day of her year that was, just as it had been twice-seven years ago, a trial
by fire until tomorrow came and it was finally over. And here she was at Solorum for the first time
since she had last been here with Solia.
Cassia did not want to open her eyes.
But she couldn’t close her ears, and they told her Perita moved about in the room beyond. There
came the inescapable sound of the girl stoking the fire with an iron poker to keep breakfast warm.
Cassia wanted no food. She wanted no dawn. She would accept the gloomy dimness of her room,
such as it was, over what awaited beyond.
Moments from now, the Sun Temple would be brimming with mourners. The black door to the
tombs would be the focus of dawn rites. The highborn would descend into the crypt to offer gifts to
the sarcophagus engraved with Solia’s face. They would pray over the vacant stone and believe they
prayed over their lost queen’s bones.
As every year, Cassia would not be there. The king thought her presence would be an act of
remembrance. Of defiance. A reminder of what she knew.
But he was wrong. That dark hole meant nothing to her. That he forbade her to mourn there only
freed her from pretense. Freed her to memorialize the truth of that night when the catapults had
delivered their verdict and all she could do was try not to scream...
She was free to remember that her sister now dwelt in light, not the grave.
Cassia’s mind fled back to the memory of how Lio had reached for her after she had told him the
truth. The brush of his sleeves. Then the sureness of his arms around her. Finally, the sensation of his
hands. His fingertips on the nape of her neck. His palm sliding down her back.
How could her heart ease so, while her cheeks began to flush at the thought? It seemed she had
some proper degree of maidenly modesty after all. That must be the reason his touch made her skin
heat.
She had overcome all her modesty and caution to offer him her blood. And he had said no.
If she dwelt on that, it would have the power to hurt her again. She couldn’t afford any more pain.
Not today. She had no comfort to waste. She could not bear for her anger to push him away.
His embrace was a solace he had given her only once, but once was all it took to make a good
memory. She imagined herself back in that moment and hung on tight. For once, she gave her thoughts
free rein. For once, she relived a moment she did not want to escape.
Perhaps if she allowed herself to think of him, she would get through the day.
So far she did not feel the tears threatening. She pushed away the hot tide of her emotions and put
herself back in the cold night air and into his warm arms. His hands stroked her hair. Drifted down
her back...down...
Lio’s gesture of comfort proved a potent antidote. It got her out of bed and into her clothes. Kept
her under control through breakfast. Helped her stay silent and composed in front of Perita.
Was the memory of Lio holding her enough to last her through the entire day?
Oh yes.
She returned to the sheltering darkness of her room and thought of Lio.
Until Perita pushed open the door and let in the firelight. “Lady. There’s a messenger here.”
“What?” Cassia’s mind was so far away, she had not heard him arrive.
“You’ll have to come out to the hearth room. He’s here with a message from the king.”
The words invaded and dragged Cassia back to where and when she was. Her fragile hold
shattered, and emotion filled her, too fierce to withstand, until she had to stand up and move. She
wanted to turn right around and pace back into the depths of her bedchamber, but Knight let out a
growl and marched into the next room.
She followed him. Ochre light fading at the window told her it was dusk. Knight stood on guard
across the hearth rug from the messenger. Cassia could see the white of the man’s eyes. A young man
who was not the enemy, but another of his pawns.
“Het,” Cassia said. “Dockk.”
Knight let out one last snarl, then came to her, circling her with the same unbearable agitation she
felt. She looked at the messenger to indicate he should speak. She had no words for him.
The young man delivered the same message as always. Cassia tried not to hear it but could not
escape the words. “...king...summons...”
He expected her to appear before him on this day. At sunset.
She should never have come to Solorum. This audience with the king would teach her what a
mistake she had made. This would be her point of failure, when she must admit being near him on this
day at this hour was too much for her. Not worth any gain.
Not even finally knowing the truth?
Not even meeting Lio?
The walk to the king’s solar was harder than anything she had ever done. Even speaking at the
negotiation table had not been this difficult. Only one thing kept her feet moving: the memory of
comfort that took her away from where she was going.
Some part of her remembered it was utterly foolish to rely on anyone for help, even just the
memory of someone. But she could spare no thought for such concerns. Lio’s hold on her got her to the
king’s door.
She commanded Knight to be silent. She would not have him growl at the king with her fury and
earn a punishment for protecting her. He could not protect her in this room. But her own thoughts...
yes, they could.
She just had to think about Lio’s face above her. Not the king’s. The carpet pressed into her knees
as she knelt. No, she wouldn’t think about that feeling, only Lio holding her. Not the king’s voice.
Lio’s voice and her own, speaking openly in the night.
I have told you. I shall defend you.
With such a capable protector as you, Cassia, I feel very safe indeed.
Flashes of awareness about her surroundings came to her. The king wasn’t wearing black. The
chamberlain was leaving the room. Business as usual. Of course.
I promise I’ll keep you safe, Cassia. Tonight it is my turn to protect you.
She focused on those words until she was almost chanting them in her mind.
She realized she was not going to retch at the king’s feet. She was able to listen to his words
enough to know if they required a response.
“Your humble work in the temple gardens reveals itself to be untoward, when it transforms into
such a brazen display. I thought you knew better than to draw such attention to yourself. Do not
mistake your attendance, which is merely symbolic, for a place at the table.”
He was talking about the Summit? Now? He had chosen this moment to chastise her for speaking
out. He had waited till she was on the ground to land his next blow.
...you’re intelligent and determined and braver than any man who charges out onto a bloody
battlefield with a sword. You shouldn’t be locked away in some neglected wing of the palace or
even the walls of a temple garden.
Cassia opened her clenched teeth enough to say, “Yes, Your Majesty.”
“What were you thinking?”
Cassia swallowed. Why must he expect more from her than silence today, of all days?
Because he knew that made it harder for her.
“I was thinking...” That you’ve committed enough murders. “...only of the lives the mages might
save.”
He did not raise his voice, just let his words do the beating for him. “You should have come
directly to me with their request.”
You would have refused even more quickly. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Such a public defiance of my decision is not acceptable.”
But now they know you would let their children die, just like your own. “I understand, Your
Majesty.”
He sat up in his chair and leaned forward, and Cassia nearly jumped out of her skin.
“You do not understand,” he corrected her. “If you understood, you would never have placed the
Kyrian mages’ pleas, however pitiful, above my command. This is precisely the sort of behavior I
warned you I would not tolerate from you, when I generously agreed to permit your presence at
court.”
She felt him looming over her.
“Look at me.”
When her head remained bowed a moment longer, he repeated the command.
“Look at me.”
Cassia struggled to breathe and fought to compose her face. No, coming into this room today was
not the hardest thing she’d done. Keeping the fury from showing in her eyes must surely be the greatest
challenge she had ever faced.
She would never forgive him for what he had done. Every breath she took would keep her anger
burning. Her anger was even more powerful than her fear.
Cassia lifted her head.
His blue eyes bored into her. “You will no longer visit the Temple of Kyria. The palace, the
Temple of Anthros, and the greensward are the boundaries of the kingdom in which you now reside.
The next time you make it necessary for me to call you before me, I shall redraw the borders at the
walls of your own chambers and fortify them with guards at your door.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“You will continue to attend the Summit. But you will never again rise from your chair. If you stray
in the slightest, if you dare for even one moment to be anywhere other than where I have ordered you,
I will put you in your place, just as I have done to every other woman who thought she could defy
me.”
Cassia must make sure he saw no response in her eyes. No grief. No fear. No defiance. Nothing.
“You are nothing,” the king said.
She told me I am beautiful and good and that she loves me.
Then that is what you must say to yourself. That is what she wants for you.
“You are what I command you to be and nothing more. Do not forget again.”
Do not ever be ashamed. You have done a courageous deed tonight, and your sister is proud of
you.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I am your king.”
He dared to say such a thing on her day of mourning for a world in which he would not have been
her king, and she would have knelt instead before her queen.
But the day would yet come when he no longer was her king. All she had to do was survive him.
I do not want to imagine a history in which you did not survive that night to stand here with me.
“Yes, My King.”
“Get out of my sight.”
When she got to her feet and backed away, she did not flee. With Knight as her honor guard and
memory as her talisman, she walked out of the room.