20 Nights Until Winter Solstice
A FUTURE DREAMED
Feeling safe in hisarms, she let him carry her out of the tangle of thorns at midveil. Thank the Goddess no new black roses sprouted in their wake. He took her back to their tower, and when he laid her in their bed, the flowers on the bedposts merely turned toward them in welcome. Knight settled nearby on his favorite blanket, content to be back with his people.
Although there was no Slumber during polar night, she had learned that she and Lio could find a sort of rest together. They drifted in their Grace Union, a balm to each other’s troubled thoughts, until the ringing of the city bells reached them within their Sanctuary.
Moon Hours had arrived in the world beyond, which meant nightfall in Tenebra.
“We’ll see if there’s any news of Kalos’s condition,” Lio said before she even voiced her concern.
She reached cautiously into her well of power. Still calm for the time being. “I think I’m fit to be in the company of others.”
“Shame.” Lio squeezed her backside.
Laughing, she pulled his hand away. “You may kidnap me back to our tower as soon as we keep our promise to Zoe to see her carved goats.”
Lio gave a long-suffering sigh. “You have to promise me another round of magical experiments.”
Despite his light tone, she sensed the need lurking within him, deeply possessive and barely reassured.
She kept hold of his hand, drawing one of his long, elegant fingers slowly between her teeth. “I will promise you more than that.”
Both hunger and curiosity lit his jewel blue gaze. She quickly covered the plan in her thoughts with powerful imaginings of their next feast.
Lio groaned and dragged a pillow over his face, hiding his suddenly extended fangs. “Stop torturing me, my Grace, or I won’t be fit company for others.”
She asked him for a cleaning spell before they dressed, knowing that if they took a proper bath, they might not come out for hours.
When they arrived at the main house, Rudhira and Kalos’s auras drew them to the library. They entered to find the scout slumped on a couch, a bandage visible in the vee of his loose robe. Knight trotted over to him with a whine, and Kalos rubbed her hound’s ears with his good hand.
Cassia had never seen Kalos so haggard. “How are you feeling?”
“Terrible,” Rudhira answered for him, standing over Kalos with his arms crossed.
“I’m fit for duty,” Kalos protested.
“You’re fit for duty when I say you are,” Rudhira replied. “That arrow landed too close to your heart.”
“You need me in the field, My Prince.”
“I need you alive. When I told you you’re temporarily relieved of duty, it wasn’t a friendly offer of a holiday. With a magefire wound like that, you should be convalescing in the Healing Sanctuary.”
Kalos shuddered. “If I’m cooped up in there, the cure will be worse than the kill. No disrespect to your esteemed mother, of course. You know I’m…not very Hesperine, when it comes down to it.”
Rudhira’s scowl deepened. “Don’t ever say that about yourself again. That’s an order. Taking that arrow for the rest of us is one of the most Hesperine things you’ve ever done.”
A flush brought color to the scout’s ashen face, and he ducked his head. “Very well, My Prince.”
“Any progress finding the archer who did this?” Lio asked.
Rudhira scowled. “The only evidence he left behind was the arrow I took out of Kalos. All that tells me is that he favors apple wood for crafting his arrow shafts. But mark my words, I will bring him to justice. In the meantime, I’ll see to it Kalos has the unique resources you need to fully recover. I hope you two can help me with this dilemma.”
“Of course,” Cassia said, already sensing Lio’s agreement. “House Komnena must be the only place in Orthros where Kalos can properly convalesce, thanks to my letting site. He can stay here, and the healers can make house calls.”
“I wouldn’t want to impose,” Kalos said.
“It’s not an imposition,” Lio hastened to assure him.
“No,” said Rudhira, “it’s your new assignment. Our Hesperine Silvicultrix is necessary to the war effort. Your task is to help Lio get her ready for action. Teach her everything you can about Lustra magic. You have until Winter Solstice to heal and train. The night after the festival ends, I—reluctantly, mind you—need all three of you back in the field.”
Knight licked his hand and subjected him to a most pathetic gaze.
Rudhira sighed and ruffled the dog’s ears. “Yes, I mean all four of you, you drooling monster.”
Cassia hid a smile behind her hand.
But Lio was not smiling. His arm tightened protectively around her waist.
Is this plan acceptable to you?she asked.
Also reluctantly,he replied. “You can rely on us, My Prince. We’ll ensure Cassia can hold her own Abroad.”
“We’ll be ready,” she agreed. “Won’t we, Kalos?”
Kalos hesitated, his brows knit, but then nodded. “I won’t let you down.”
At that moment, four more auras and the aroma of coffee filled the library. Uncle Argyros stepped in with Aunt Lyta, Mak, Lyros, and a very large, steaming pot.
Mak grinned at Cassia. “Those roses are wicked!”
She dusted red snow off his shoulder fretfully. “How wicked?”
“Wicked enough to make our duties easier, and Orthros safer,” Lyros answered.
Aunt Lyta let down her long auburn hair down, her aura tired but relieved. “Your roses are so effective at protecting our border that I can spare these two to accompany you to Tenebra when you leave.”
“Time for an adventure,” Mak said with enthusiasm.
Lyros tucked his Grace braid behind Mak’s ear. “A defensive adventure.”
Mak’s grin only widened. “I’m sure defensive maneuvers will require us to rough up the enemy a little.”
Lio turned to his uncle, his brow furrowed. “It seems Cassia and I need to request a leave of absence from the diplomatic service.”
Uncle Argyros shook his head. “No, my Ambassadors for Tenebran Affairs. I am sending you Abroad as diplomats errant with the Charge, empowered to represent Orthros on the front lines. Negotiate when you can. Fight when you must.”
“Thank you for your trust.” Cassia dropped her gaze. “I’m sorry I didn’t obey when you told me to leave the battle.”
“Never apologize for that,” Aunt Lyta broke in.
A charge seemed to hum between her and Uncle Argyros, surely a silent exchange in their Grace Union.
“The protection of our border is my Grace’s purview,” Argyros said at last. “I must defer to her judgment on everyone’s actions during the battle. Even when she corrupts my diplomats.”
Lyta pointed at Cassia. “This diplomat just fortified our defenses along the entire length of the ward. We’ve found black roses growing all throughout the mountains. They’re aggressive, too. One thicket already stopped another warband of heart hunters.”
Cassia’s heart seemed to miss a beat again. “Did they survive?”
“Those thorns made them wish they hadn’t,” Aunt Lyta answered, “but we turned them all over to the Charge with their hearts still beating.”
“Fortress Master Baruti is working on them at a…secure location, shall we say,” Rudhira explained. “This is a valuable opportunity for him to use his mind healing to study the Collector’s influence.”
“Do you need my assistance?” Lio asked.
“If he hasn’t made progress by the time you join us in the field,” Rudhira agreed. “Meanwhile, the Lustra passages you opened for us are making evacuations and sabotage much easier and safer. They also provide a refuge where Hesperines can pass the Slumber without being ambushed by mages. You two have given us a powerful reprieve, both at the border and the front lines. Use this time…and try to enjoy it, if you can.”
Rudhira was taking hisleave when Lio caught sight of Mak passing a note to Cassia. Where had that come from? Clearly, his Lady of Schemes was up to something. He knew it must be important when she abandoned an unfinished cup of her beloved coffee and drew him aside.
Instinctively, he cast a veil spell around their conversation. “Is your Craving all right?”
“It’s not that.” Powerful emotions infused her aura, projecting her thoughts into their Union. But all he heard in her mind was her reciting botany terms.
His brows rose. “Cassia, are you trying to conceal your thoughts? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She blew out an exasperated breath. “I’m making an attempt to surprise you, if you must know. Please humor me.”
He tucked his mind magic away, a smile coming to his face. If his Grace wanted to give him a gift, he certainly wouldn’t dishonor it by ruining the surprise.
She bit her lip. “I hoped to do this differently…under better circumstances…but I suppose we’ve never aimed for perfection, have we?”
He brushed his thumb across her freckled cheek. “You know how I feel about perfection. It’s that thing you rescued me from.”
She broke one black bloom off the roses growing in the doorway. “Would you step us to the top of the Observatory tower?”
“Hypatia’s Observatory? What can you have in mind?”
“No peeking into my thoughts,” she reminded him, hugging her dog against her. “Please bring Knight, too.”
He cast a glance back at the gathering, but Mak and Lyros had disappeared. His mother had entered and was talking with Kalos about the room she had prepared for him. She and Aunt Lyta made shooing motions, while Uncle Argyros sipped his coffee with an implacable veil over his thoughts.
Rudhira, on his way out the door, gave Lio a sly look and tossed him a plain wooden box. “Don’t open it yet.”
Lio caught the container and held it across his palms. He couldn’t begin to guess at its veiled contents. “Is our entire family in on this?”
“Anyone who isn’t soon will be,” she said cryptically.
“You’re wearing your kingdom-destroying look.” He pulled her closer. “I know better than to resist.”
Lio stepped them to Observatory and was astonished to find they had it to themselves, even though it was usually crowded with Hypatia’s colleagues and students. They surely had Kia to thank for this privacy.
No polar wind cut across the flat, open top of the tower. Mak and Lyros’s wards enclosed the entire deck, protecting the soft flames of countless candles that Xandra must have arranged on the stone floor. Music began to drift up from somewhere below.
“It’s our dance,” he said. “The very first song we ever danced to back in Tenebra.”
A smile finally relieved Cassia’s expression, and she nodded. She murmured a command to Knight.
He trotted over to a purple basket filled with rimelace. That had to be Zoe’s contribution. The hound picked up one of the delicate white flowers in his mighty jaws, reminding Lio of the night he and Cassia had smuggled the medicinal plants to Zoe and the other sick children. That had been when the canine member of Cassia’s family had first granted Lio his approval.
Cassia set Rudhira’s box down among the candles and took Lio’s hand. “Come here.”
She drew him to the very edge of the Observatory deck, and they stood without fear on the brink, where no railing separated them from the stunning view below. The city of Selas was spread out at their feet. Every stone their people had laid down over the last sixteen hundred years. Every fragile pane of glass they had spun into this unbreakable Sanctuary. Everything they were fighting for.
Cassia drew a deep breath, nervousness skittering through her aura. “This is where we were standing when you asked me to stay with you in Orthros forever. Where you offered me eternal night and spun dreams of the future we could have.”
“How well I remember. This is where you admitted you wanted to stay.”
She swallowed. “And then refused you. That’s why I want to do this here.”
He brushed her hair back from her face. “Do what, my rose?”
Her heart beat faster, making his own flutter in his chest. She turned the black rose in her hand. “That night, you offered me the white rose of Sanctuary. But you’ve always accepted my black roses, Lio. My thorns and my chaos and the long, difficult path it took for us to stand here, living the future we dreamed of all those moons ago.”
He traced a finger along her lip and touched the tip of her fang. “It was worth it.”
She blinked hard. “I promise you all of that is over. I want to prove to you here, now, that we won.” She reached up and touched his neck. “You will not lose me. You cannot lose me. That’s not possible anymore.”
“Forgive me my fears, Cassia.”
“No more fear, Lio. We are one. And it is time to say it.” She held out the black rose, her aura aching, as if she held her heart in the palm of her hand. “Lio, will you avow me and profess before our people that our Grace bond is true?”
All his words and thoughts and expectations deserted him. He stood, stunned, his hand wrapping around hers and that flower.
“I know we don’t have much time before we leave Orthros,” she said in the voice that had rearranged the world for him so many times before. “I know we’re at war. But that’s why I am asking you now, my love. I want to call you Grace before every Hesperine. I want to wear your braid for all to see. And when we go errant, I want you to have our avowal oath to reassure you that no matter what the world throws at us, I am wholly yours.”
He pulled her against him and kissed her lips, the sweet, dangerous lips that had brought down kingdoms—and just proposed to him. The refrain of their first dance drifted around them as he drank her in, his Grace, his newgift. His.
When he let her take a breath, she drew in a shaking one. “Oh, Lio. I feel your answer. But will you say it, too? No matter how deep our Grace Union grows, your words will always be important to me. That was our first promise to each other, after all.”
“Cassia,” he said, so aware of how easily he could crush her gift and her hopes. “You can feel how much I want to say yes. But you know what’s required for an avowal. We would have to undergo our Ritual separation. Eight entire nights apart. That would be excruciating for you.”
“I’m willing to face it.”
“I cannot imagine putting you through that right now, a mere month after your Gifting, with your magic so hungry. I had thought to wait…”
“For how long, Lio? After all the waiting we’ve already had to endure?”
He caressed her face. “Until your Craving is more bearable for you.”
“We don’t know how long that could take. Or what could happen on the warfront in the meantime. But right now, everyone we love can be here. No matter what happens, we can make a memory that will last forever.”
He brushed a single tear from her cheek. “I know. But my first concern is you.”
“If you genuinely don’t wish to do this right now, or it makes you unhappy to rush into it, I completely understand. I want it to be everything you’ve dreamed of. But know that I am ready whenever you are, whether that is now or in one hundred years.”
He could not bear the thought of waiting another night, much less a century. But he had felt the agony of her Craving mere hours ago. He knew what eight nights would do to her. He had already seen the suffering he had caused her when she had been mortal.
Yes, and so had others.
A plan began to form in his mind. One worthy, he hoped, of the plan she had so lovingly enacted for him tonight.
She searched his gaze, her arcane senses probing their Union. “This is one of those moments when I need you to be honest with me about what you want and need, Lio. Don’t answer the question of whether you want me to go through our Ritual separation right now. Answer my proposal.”
He could answer, knowing there was hope of making this easier for her.
He lifted the black rose to his lips. “Yes, Cassia. I will avow you, and we will turn all our promises into an eternal oath under Hespera’s Eyes.”
She threw her arms around his neck, and he swung her around. The weight of the world seemed to disappear for that moment, and they both laughed.
He swept her into the familiar steps of their dance. Watching her move with Hesperine grace, he felt as they had never truly danced these steps until now.
“Why were you nervous when you brought me here?” he asked.
She brushed against him they turned together, and warmth echoed in their Grace Union at the intimate touch. “I was worried you would be disappointed.”
He gripped her waist in one arm and lifted her. “Never. In fact, this is dangerously close to perfect.”