Chapter 38
ChApter
Thirty-Eight
The next moments are a blur. Nadya helps me back to my room, with Sir Holden escorting us. I strip myself of my suffocating mourning dress and fall onto the bed in my chemise, clutching my stomach as Nadya runs small hand towels under cool water to serve as cold compresses for my head.
It takes an hour until my healing magic relaxes me enough to fall asleep. When I wake, I’m finally feeling like myself again, and Nadya stays by my side the entire time. She sits next to me on the bed, stroking my head as it rests on the pillow, humming a soft tune.
“Thanks, Nadya. I’m feeling better.”
“Are you sure?” She sweeps some hair away from my cheek. “Because Lord Pedro said something about some special celebration Mersos has planned in honor of the tour ending. I think he said they were going to set the sky ablaze, whatever that means.”
I smile up at her. “And you have plans to enjoy the celebration with him?”
“Only if you’re okay,” she says. “You’re my priority.”
I sit up. “You’ve more than fulfilled your duties as my best friend.”
She lets out a laugh, but it gets interrupted by a thud that resonates from the balcony.
Nadya’s eyes widen, as do mine, and in the next moment, we jump up from the bed and run to the balcony doors. When I tear them open, I find Dante standing there, straightening his clothes.
“How did you get there?” I ask him. I look up above the balcony’s overhang. “Where did you come from?”
Nadya eyes him. “Did you jump down here… or up?”
Dante chuckles. “My room is one floor above yours,” he tells me.
I grab his hand and pull him into my room.
“That’s so romantic.” Nadya heads toward the door. “I’m going to give you two some privacy.”
Before she reaches for the door, someone pounds on the other side.
“Your Highness?” Indira’s voice calls out, strained with urgency.
Instinctively, I stand in front of Dante, as if to hide him. Or protect him.
We scramble to figure out what to do, each of us apparently with a different idea, when the door suddenly bursts open.
I stand stiffly, while Nadya swallows hard. She mumbles something I can’t make out, and a second later, she adopts a casual stance, twirling a finger in her hair. “Oh, hello, Indira. Why do you look so flushed?”
My heart is in my throat, but when I turn around, Dante is not there. I wrinkle my brow. The balcony doors are still closed, and I don’t think Dante can fit under the bed.
“I saw Lord Stregasi jump over his balcony,” Indira exclaims. She looks flustered, spewing sounds of uncertainty. “I could have sworn he came in here.”
“Jumped over his balcony?” Nadya scoffs. “That sounds ridiculous. Indira, you must be weary from traveling and imagining things. No one is here except Celeste and me.”
I’m still awestruck, trying to figure out how Dante could just vanish.
Until I remember Nadya’s cloaking magic.
Indira brushes past us, checking the balcony to no avail. She then throws my armoire open. “I could have sworn…”
Although I’m thoroughly impressed with Nadya’s ability, I also remember she said it doesn’t last very long. Panic crawls back up my throat. “Maybe you can’t handle the Mersos wine,” I put in.
Indira runs a hand over the back of her neck, her brows scrunched together. “I didn’t drink any of the wine.”
“Oh, well, you’re missing out,” Nadya says, placing her hands on Indira’s shoulders. “You know, I was talking to one of the kitchen servants, who said she would gladly whip up a plate of delectable mulberry beignets if I wanted.”
That gets Indira’s attention. “Really? Just because you asked?”
“Well, no.” Nadya steers Indira toward the door. “As an exchange.”
Indira looks over her shoulder at Nadya. “In exchange for what? Oh! Oh, never mind. I don’t want to know.”
Nadya gives me a wink, closing the door behind them.
I let out a sigh of relief, whirling around to where Dante was standing, but I still don’t see him. I dart to the balcony doors, but before I can open them, Dante’s voice sounds out from behind me.
“What the fuck just happened?”
I turn to see him sitting on the bed, and my breath catches in my throat. “Oh. Hi.”
His black shirt is unbuttoned at the collar, sleeves pushed up to his forearms, revealing the lean muscle beneath. His hair falls in loose waves around his face, but it’s his eyes—stormy and intent—that hold me captive. “Is Indira losing her vision or something?”
“Right. That.” I clear my throat. “Nadya has been practicing some… magic.”
He looks… wrecked. Beautifully, achingly wrecked. He rakes a hand through his disheveled hair, his shoulders slumped. “Magic? What do you mean?”
I move forward and sit beside him on the bed.
“There are witches from Bastos in her bloodline. When we were there, we visited her great-aunt, and she gave Nadya a book of spells to practice. In Messanya, Nadya made an apple disappear. It only lasted a minute, but it was completely cloaked. Invisible to the eye.” I watch his reaction. “I guess she’s getting better.”
He searches my face, as if waiting for the punchline of a joke. Then his brows come together. “I was invisible?”
“I turned around, and you were gone.” I let out a soft chuckle and shake my head. “And it’s a good thing because Indira would have either kicked you out herself or reported you to your father.”
He nods, but then his gaze drops to his hands.
“What?” I tilt my head to see his face better. “What is it?”
His eyes find mine. “I don’t know what it’s going to take to get you to stop risking your life for me.”
Oh. This is about me using my magic at the trial.
“First of all, when I was active as commander of my regiment, I was risking my life almost every day. Second, we don’t know that using my magic is necessarily risking my life.
It causes pain, yes. But as you can see, I’m perfectly fine now.
It’s just a temporary cost to an extremely important cause. ”
He looks like he’s about to argue, but I touch my finger to his lips.
“And thirdly,” I continue, “that was the last trial. You’re finished. I won’t have to risk it anymore.”
A beat passes between us, and then the tension fractures.
His hand lifts, fingers brushing my jaw, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
“You don’t know what it does to me, knowing you’re willing to tear yourself apart for me.
Willing to speak up for me. Celeste, you’re my everything. Don’t you see that?”
It feels like my heart is swelling inside my chest, filling me with a comforting warmth that makes my body hum.
He leans closer, his forehead touching mine, and I let my eyes fall shut. I tilt my face up just as his mouth meets mine.
The kiss is slow at first—sweet, unhurried, as if he’s savoring every brush of my lips. But when I thread my fingers through his hair, tugging him closer, something in him snaps. His hands slide down to my waist, pulling me flush against his body as the kiss deepens, hunger coiling between us.
I curl my hands into the front of his shirt and pull him to me as I lean back on the bed, answering him with another kiss, fierce and full of the longing I’ve kept locked away when watchful eyes are around.
A sharp crack splits the air. I jolt, breaking our kiss, my heart hammering against my ribs as I reach instinctively for the dagger tucked beneath my pillow.
Dante’s head snaps toward the balcony doors. “What in the—”
Another explosion thunders through the night, followed by a cascade of light flaring against the walls.
My pulse spikes, and without another word, we move.
I slip off the bed with dagger in hand as Dante jumps to his feet.
We reach the balcony together, shoulders brushing as I push open the doors and step into the cool, night air.
The sky is ablaze, just like Nadya said.
Brilliant bursts of color bloom across the heavens—scarlet, gold, violet—each one brighter than the last. Trails of shimmering sparks rain down like falling stars before vanishing into the dark. Another blast follows, louder, shaking the stones beneath my bare feet.
I loosen my grip on the dagger, exhaling softly. “Gods,” I whisper. “I thought we were under attack.”
Dante chuckles low beside me, but there’s a note of wonder in his voice. “So did I.” His forearms rest against the balcony’s stone ledge as his gaze follows the next eruption, a silver fountain spilling across the sky. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Neither have I.” I lean forward, captivated as the sky lights up again in a dazzling spray of emerald and gold. “I suppose Mersos keeps a few secrets of its own.”
The scent riding on the breeze is sharp and metallic, tinged with sulfur and smoke.
It carries the acrid tang of burned chemicals—like spent matches or a lightning strike.
After each burst of color in the sky, a faint sweetness lingers, like scorched sugar or singed paper, as the powdery haze settles in the air.
For a while, we both watch in silence. Just the two of us beneath the brilliant display of flashing stars. The distant booms echo through the night, but the warmth of Dante’s presence beside me softens the sharp edges of my tension.
I feel his gaze shift.
I don’t turn right away, still spellbound by the display. “You’re missing the show,” I tease softly.
“I’m looking exactly where I’m meant to be looking,” he murmurs.
The heat of his words sweeps over me before his touch does. His hands find my waist, palms warm as they trace along the silk of my chemise. He moves closer behind me, his breath teasing the curve of my neck. My pulse quickens when his lips brush against the sensitive spot just beneath my ear.
“You have no control, do you?” My voice is breathier than I intend.
“Mm.” His mouth curves into a smile against my skin. “Can you blame me? You’re breathtaking. Besides, you started it.”
“Oh, did I?” I hold back a shiver as he nuzzles the nape of my neck. “You’re the one who jumped onto my balcony.”