Page 18

Chapter

Eighteen

F lora woke slowly, her senses flooded with two very inconsistent sensations.

The first was pain. Dull rather than sharp, but pervasive. Every inch of her hurt.

The second was comforting warmth and safety.

She wasn’t on a bed. She was curled up on something harder than a mattress but much warmer. It took her groggy senses a minute to recognize the sensation of arms around her. She still hadn’t opened her eyes, but she breathed deeply, taking in a familiar, masculine scent, like polished wood.

“Cassius?” She murmured the name softly, almost afraid to open her eyes and dispel the illusion.

The arms around her tightened, and she heard his breath catch.

“Flora. You’re awake.”

Flora eased one eye open, surprised to see how dark it remained. She looked carefully around, the cellar difficult to distinguish in the gloom but still hideously familiar from the hours of fear she’d endured when Cassius was unconscious.

They weren’t safe at all. They were still captives, still battered. But the feeling of security lingered. She’d gotten her bearings enough to realize that she was perched on Cassius’s lap, his arms keeping her upright against him.

“It’s nighttime,” she said absently.

“Yes.”

Cassius’s face was so close to hers, his breath tickled her cheek as he spoke.

“You’ve been out for a few hours. No more than five. I would guess it’s two hours past midnight, but I have no way to tell for certain.”

Flora let her eyes drift closed again, assessing her own strength. The constant, nagging pain aside, she was enormously improved compared to when she’d collapsed against Cassius. Sleep had worked wonders.

“Have you slept?” she asked him.

“I’m not sure.” His deep voice created vibrations in his chest, against which one of Flora’s palms seemed to be pressed flat. His jacket had ripped open at the front, and his tunic underneath it was in ruffled disorder. “I don’t know if I can discern actual dreams from this living nightmare.”

Startled, Flora raised her eyes to him at last. There was a small window high above, and a shaft of silvery moonlight slanted through it, crossing Cassius’s face. She drew in a sharp breath. She’d never seen such a haunted look on anyone. It cut her to the heart.

“Are you all right?”

“Me?” Cassius spoke in disbelief.

“Yes, you.” Flora straightened a little, her hand creeping up from his chest of its own accord, until it rested against his throat. “Are you in a great deal of pain? ”

His eyes blazed with anger, but it didn’t seem to be directed at her.

“You know how much pain I’m in,” he said, his voice choked. “It’s half of what you’re feeling, and I deserve no sympathy.”

“Cassius…”

He cut her off. “No, I’m not all right. I’m despicable. I deserve everything I’m feeling. I will never forgive myself for what I’ve put you through.”

“Cassius, don’t speak that way,” she said, distressed. She sat up, half turning in his lap to face him, both hands flat against his jaw now. “You are not to blame for any of this. Be angry, but direct your anger to the traitors who’ve put us here. Not to yourself.”

“Perhaps they would have succeeded without my contribution,” Cassius said bitterly. “But we’ll never know, because my pride made our capture the easiest task imaginable. And my inability to control my reactions where you’re concerned put you squarely in the target. Sir Keavling knew he could use you to get to me, and you’re the one who paid the price.”

“You paid the price as well,” Flora reminded him, running two fingers over a bruise that spread over his cheekbone. “Don’t add guilt to what you’re already suffering. Sir Keavling is the one who deserves your anger.”

“There’s plenty to go around,” Cassius reassured her. His arms tightened, and she didn’t resist as he pressed her—gently but firmly—against him. “I’m angry at you as well, you know.”

“Me?” She pulled back enough to raise her face and search his eyes. They looked anguished, not angry. “I know I was a fool to let myself be so easily taken back at the castle… ”

“No.” The word was forcefully said. “You can’t think I’d blame you for that. I’m angry with you for what you said before.”

She stared at him, confused but also fascinated by the passion rising in his voice.

“I’m angry with you for the sacrilege of saying that how I feel about you is some trick of the tether. How could you think that, Flora? How could you think this isn’t real?”

“Cassius, I…” She trailed off, her mouth suddenly dry.

“It’s the most real thing I’ve ever experienced.” One of his hands had moved up her back all the way to her head, his palm warm against her scalp as his fingers splayed through her hair. “ You are the most real thing in the world. Do you think I don’t know my own mind?” His voice was thick with passion. “It’s madness to suggest that the tether made me fall in love with you. You did that, Flora. You. There’s nothing and no one in my heart but you.”

In…love?

For a heartbeat, the words hung in the air between them, their eyes locked in the darkness. Then Flora raised an unsteady hand, tracing the lines of his face with her fingertips.

“You’ve invaded every corner of my heart.”

Her whisper fell into the charged silence. Abruptly, Cassius seized her fingers with his free hand, interrupting their exploration of his face to press his lips to them with a tenderness bordering on reverence. She raised her face in an invitation, and he drew her head gently closer. When his lips touched hers, every ache, every fear, every memory of the terrible ordeal they’d just suffered fled before the glorious feel of him.

Flora twisted her free hand through the fabric of his tunic, clinging on desperately as she returned his kiss. Cassius was right—the tether couldn’t manufacture what had happened to her heart. She’d never dreamed she could let anyone in as far as she’d let Cassius in, and yet she didn’t feel vulnerable. In fact, his touch, his kiss, his arms enfolding her, made her feel complete.

The embrace was no quick peck—neither was in a hurry to draw back. But even so, Cassius kissed her gently, carefully, his hand cradling her head with such sensitivity that she knew he couldn’t forget what she’d suffered, even in the midst of this moment. A moment they’d both craved, but Flora had never let herself believe would come.

…made me fall in love with you…

The words danced blissfully across Flora’s memory as her lips moved against Cassius’s. His hold might be gentle, but he wasn’t tentative. He held her with the same confidence with which he did everything. She was his, and if he hadn’t known it before she kissed him back, he could have no doubt of it now.

And somehow, against every expectation, he was hers as well.

Flora pulled back at last, trying to catch her breath as she clung to Cassius’s shirt. He rested his forehead against hers, his own breathing far from steady.

“I’ve made a mess of your plans,” she murmured.

“I don’t care about my plans,” he told her, his voice ragged. “Flora, all I care about now is keeping you safe. We have to find a way out of here before Sir Keavling comes back. And not just for our own sakes.” The hand on her neck quivered with his tension. “They’ll hurt you to get to me. They’ll kill you. And I’m very much afraid I’d start a war just to prevent it.”

Flora pulled her face away, frowning at him. “Start a war? ”

He shook his head. “I can explain later. We have to find a way out of here. I didn’t expect to be left to ourselves even this long. I don’t think we can count on being safe until morning.”

“No, nighttime would provide better cover for an escape anyway,” Flora agreed. She flexed her shoulders, wincing as her muscles screamed in protest. “What did they hit you with?”

“Their fists,” Cassius said, the anguish back in his voice. “But for you, it was doubled, remember?”

“I’m not likely to forget.” Flora disentangled herself from his lap, a pleasant thrill shooting through her at his reluctance to let her go. “But never mind that. I’ll recover. And I’m free from the bindings now, which is a huge improvement. Surely I can stir up some Dust.”

She pushed herself cautiously to her feet. Pain met her every movement. If she was somewhere safe, she would have been taking to her bed to rest for a week before attempting anything at all. But she wouldn’t reach somewhere safe unless she pushed herself hard.

“That window is our best option,” she said, studying it in the dim light. It was open to the outside world but for the metal bars. “Do you think you can squeeze through it if we can get up there? Your shoulders are much broader than mine.”

Cassius followed her gaze as he also rose to his feet. “I can make it work,” he said. “The bars will be our problem.”

“Leave the bars to me,” said Flora, growing more confident the more she moved around the room. She squinted up at the window. “A large stone would help. I could try to break off a chunk of the wall, but actual destruction takes so much energy. It would exhaust me even if I could do it. It wouldn’t leave much energy for the bars themselves. ”

“You can’t destroy the bars altogether?” Cassius asked hopefully.

She shook her head regretfully. “I doubt it. They look like iron. Too strong. It would be a struggle for me even with my usual energy and with unlimited sources of movement. Neither of which are remotely true right now.”

“I understand,” he said quickly. “I don’t mean to push you. I wouldn’t have even thought it was an option except that I saw you reduce to splinters the arrows that were fired at Princess Miriam.”

“Wood is much easier,” Flora explained. “Stone is a stretch, but it’s doable. You probably didn’t notice, but when I destroyed the arrows, I only destroyed the shafts. The arrowheads remained intact. I was conserving energy. Besides which, I was using a weapon to stir up the Dust for that exercise. Weapons generate the perfect type of magic for destruction. Here, I’ll have to get more creative.”

“I’ll work on getting us up there,” Cassius said. He gathered up the ropes he’d pulled from Flora hours before and began knotting one end.

“That’s perfect,” said Flora, snatching it from him as soon as he’d completed the knot. She spun the rope around her like a lasso. Her movements were jerky as her muscles protested, and she saw Cassius leap quickly out of the way.

“Sorry,” she told him, with the closest thing to a smile that had crossed her face in many hours.

Once confident he was far enough back, she closed her eyes, letting her magical sense focus on the Dust that poured from the rope as it swung. Her mind was so weary and her body so overwhelmed that even the simple task of harnessing the power was a strain. But she forced herself to take hold of it, stubbornly resisting the impulse to use half of the magic to create energy to fuel whatever activity she set it to.

Instead she coated almost all of the magic onto the knotted end of the rope as she let it fly up toward the barred window. When the rope reached the top of its trajectory, she forced the magic to take hold of the object, guiding the knot through a gap in the bars and back through the next gap over.

Even that was a serious cost to her energy. She let the enchantment drop immediately, carefully feeding the rope through so that gravity did the job of making the knotted end drop back down into the cellar. Cassius grabbed hold of it as soon as it was within his reach, firmly pulling it down.

“That was amazing,” he said, turning to her. The admiration on his face turned quickly to alarm as he took in her demeanor.

She’d stumbled back, leaning on the post to which she’d been tied as she tried to catch her breath.

“Flora!” Cassius placed the rope carefully on the ground where it couldn’t possibly slide back through the bars, and hurried to her side. “Are you all right?”

“I’ll be fine,” she told him, puffing a little. “I just need to catch my breath.” If only every movement didn’t bring with it so much pain.

“You’re overextending yourself,” he scolded. “Flora, even I know that you can’t use all the magic for the task. You have to use some to sustain yourself. Your body can’t handle continuing to manipulate magic with no source to replenish the energy, especially not in the state you’re in.”

“It’s a good principle, Cassius, but we can’t afford it,” Flora told him, her eyes closed as she willed her energy to recover itself. “If I follow good practice with the allocation of power, we simply won’t be able to escape. There’s no source of movement great enough for me to do both simultaneously, and there’s no way for me to store up the power.”

“I don’t like it,” Cassius said, clenching and unclenching one fist in his agitation.

Flora opened her eyes, her voice stern. “Then you should have applied yourself in your studies and tried to acquire the craft.”

“I wish I had,” Cassius replied bitterly. “But it’s considered beneath those of high rank in Carrack. Just as with any craft, my parents would have been ashamed for me to apply myself to the level required to master it. I was expected to focus my energy on matters of state and leave practical trades to the tradesmen.”

Flora smiled faintly at the regret in his voice. “I know, Cassius. Every kingdom on the Peninsula has the same attitude toward the craft. Probably the continent, too. I was teasing you.”

Cassius didn’t reply at once, frowning over something. “I’m not sure the continent does have the same view,” he said slowly, his eyes unfocused. Then he gave his head a shake and his gaze cleared. “What’s next?”

Flora pushed herself upright, determined. “Next I need to get up there and see what I have to work with.” She moved forward and took hold of one end of the rope, tossing the other to Cassius. “Help me?”

He grabbed it obediently, waiting while she knotted her end loosely around her middle. Then Cassius reeled in the rope, his strong arms encountering no difficulty in pulling her weight as she walked up the wall. When she reached the top, she managed to prop her elbows on the edge of the tiny window, her feet trying to find purchase on he wall below.

Her arms were far too weak and sore to hold her up. Then she felt something steady under her boots and looked down to see that Cassius had placed his shoulders underneath her feet, allowing her to stand without effort. The rope was tightly wound from shoulder to elbow on one side of him. She could see the muscles in his arm tightening against his jacket as he continued to hold the rope taut while also supporting her weight with his shoulders.

“This is beneath the dignity of a prince,” she informed him.

“I’ve never been able to maintain my dignity when you’re around,” Cassius replied. “I’m not sure why you think I’d start now.”

She chuckled softly as she looked back to the window. Squinting through it, she could see a moonlit scene.

“I think we’re in a forest,” she said.

“Do you see anything that can help us?” Cassius asked.

She scanned the darkness carefully. “There’s a log over there, but I don’t think that’s strong enough to—aha!” Hope bubbled in her chest. “I see a boulder. It’s probably about the right size.”

She glanced back over her shoulder into the dim cellar. “Can you toss me another section of the ropes?”

She gripped the bars with her hands and braced her feet against the stone while Cassius ducked out from under her feet, returning quickly with the rope. As soon as she took it, he grabbed her feet one at a time with his free hand, placing them carefully back on his shoulders.

Flora balanced precariously while she spun the rope around, forcing her mind to harness the magic. She sent it toward the boulder, but the effect was disappointing .

“It’s a little too large,” she murmured. “I don’t have the willpower in this state for carefully channeling the Dust. I need it to come in a raw form that matches better.”

She looked down at Cassius, who clearly had no idea what she was talking about but was doing his best to follow along.

“Take off your jacket,” she instructed him.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “I don’t think you can afford distractions right now, Flora.”

She rolled her eyes, although secretly she was delighted that he’d recovered his equilibrium enough to be mischievous.

“Just do it. I’ll use what little willpower I have left to resist being overwhelmed by your chiseled chest.”

His chuckle was low and throaty, and in spite of what she’d said, Flora did find her focus wavering as he stripped off his jacket, accidentally pulling his tunic momentarily from his chest in the process. Chiseled was no exaggeration.

She snatched quickly at the garment when it was offered to her, pulling her eyes from the prince as she swirled the jacket in a rotating pattern. It wasn’t the most practical of items for the purpose—far less effective than the scarf used by the physician, for example. But it generated some magic, and the shape of the magic was broad enough to encompass the boulder she was trying to shift. She imagined the jacket encasing the boulder and pulling it along, and tried to move the garment consistently with that task.

Of course the jacket wasn’t touching the rock, and even if it had been, it wouldn’t have been strong enough to make it move. But that was where the magic came in. She could feel the shape and strength of it in her mind, and she grimaced. It wasn’t very impressive.

“I’m going to have to use all of it, Cassius,” she told him. “It can’t be helped—even so, it may not be enough. But if it works, you’ll need to take over. I’m probably going to be completely incapacitated for a little while.”

“Wait.”

Flora ignored Cassius’s warning. If there was a safer way to do it, she would have taken it. But their lives hung in the balance, and by the sound of it, so did the risk of war. There was no time for lengthy protests.

Flora seized hold of the magic, harnessing every last bit of it and throwing it all toward the boulder. She could feel her energy draining rapidly as her overworked mind focused on molding the magic to her purpose. It wrapped around the rock like a garment and tugged. Slowly, painstaking, the boulder began to move.

Sweat beaded on Flora’s forehead and tears pricked the corners of her eyes at the pain that engulfed her arm as she kept swirling the jacket with all the vigor she could muster. The boulder was almost at the bars.

When it finally rolled into the bars with a dull thunk, she dropped the jacket, her shoulders sagging in sheer exhaustion.

“Flora?” Cassius sounded anxious, and she flapped a hand in reassurance.

“I just need a minute, then I’ll continue. Can you give me that rope again?”

He passed it up, squeezing her ankle bracingly in the process. Taking heart from his support, Flora swapped hands, letting her favored arm have a rest from the agony of movement while she swung the rope with the other hand .

The rope naturally had greater force than the jacket, so was better suited to the next part of her task. It took more effort than ever to harness the magic, and a whimper escaped her at the thought of what it would cost her physically and mentally to shape the magic into a strong enough enchantment. Cassius’s hand flew up to grip her boot at the sound, and she pulled herself together. She would just have to do all she could, and trust him to see them the rest of the way.

She applied the magic to the boulder, forcing it forward against the bars. It strained into the iron with unnatural force. Her breaths came in pants as she poured all her effort into it, modifying the enchantment to strengthen the rock so that it didn’t give way before the bars did.

Her persistence was rewarded. With a groan, the iron gave way, bending before the inexorable passage of the boulder. She kept pushing the rock, forcing it all the way through until it started to teeter on the edge of the window opening.

It had left a boulder-sized hole in its wake—hopefully it would be enough. She was wobbling dangerously, unable to hold herself up any longer. With an intake of breath, Cassius jumped backward just as the boulder fell.

Flora fell, too, but strong arms caught her and held her as she passed in and out of awareness.

“You did it, Flora. Flora?”

Cassius’s voice sounded like he was on the other end of a long tunnel. She heard him just fine, but she didn’t try to respond. That would be beyond her.

The next half an hour was very hazy for Flora. She didn’t fully lose consciousness, but her mind was foggy and her body as useless as a rag doll’s. She followed only vaguely as Cassius made use of the rope still threaded through the bent bars. There was an extremely uncomfortable patch where she seemed to be upright and felt herself scraping along stone, and at one point an invisible pressure threatened painfully to crush her shoulders even though she was nowhere near the bars. But soon after, she was breathing in the fresh scent of a wooded night, cold air touching her face.

She felt herself gathered into Cassius’s arms again, and they were moving. His chest rose and fell laboriously under her cheek, and she allowed her eyes to drift closed, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart right beneath her ear. The warmth of him cut through the chill night air.

She wasn’t sure how long had passed before they came to a stop, and she heard a knocking sound from the other end of the tunnel. She barely followed the exclamation and shocked conversation that came next, but she did notice when warmth enveloped her, and the breeze disappeared altogether. Cassius stumbled forward and laid her on a chair, his breaths coming rapidly.

Blearily, she watched him conversing with a stunned farmer in his nightclothes, and saw the prince hand over a golden chain for some reason. She longed to sleep, but didn’t dare to when Cassius disappeared from her view. She felt that she should go after him, but she couldn’t. The smallest exertion made her mind scream as much as her body still did, and she knew instinctively that she would put herself at serious risk of harm if she tried to use any energy. She simply had none.

Within minutes, Cassius returned. He collected her into his arms again, and they made their way back into the night air. She found herself being placed carefully on a horse, the prince springing up behind her. They lurched forward, his arms reaching around her to grasp the reins. Relieved, she leaned her head back against his chest and let herself succumb fully to sleep.

When Flora came to, the sun had risen. They were stopped in some kind of clearing. She was still atop the horse, but Cassius was on the ground alongside the creature, attempting to ease her off.

She stretched her limbs, trying to shake the fog from her mind.

“Good morning.” There was a smile in the prince’s voice that instantly lifted her spirits.

“We’re alive,” she said.

“We are.” His voice was solemn, but his eyes danced.

“We’re free of Sir Keavling and the others.”

“Yes.”

She eyed him, holding on to the last delicious trickle of the dopiness that had carried her through the last several hours.

“You carried me a long way. You’re very strong.”

His face broke into a grin. “I did. And I like to think I am.”

“But seriously.” Flora straightened in the saddle before allowing him to slide her off. “You must be exhausted and in a great deal of pain.”

She landed neatly on the ground, trapped between the horse’s flank and the prince’s powerful frame. Fortunately the mare was a placid creature, not bothered by their proximity.

Cassius ran a hand through her tangled hair, his palm coming to rest on her cheek and his eyes impossibly captivating as they held hers .

“I’m well,” he said. “You’re safe, and that’s all that matters.”

Heat crept over her, pleasant and tingling. She slid a hand around his neck, pulling him in.

Cassius was happy to oblige, lowering his head and claiming her lips greedily. Flora didn’t know where they were or where they were going, but she couldn’t imagine why it would matter. Not much of anything seemed to matter except the fact that she was being thoroughly kissed by her very own prince.

But the moment of abandon couldn’t last forever, and she pulled back with a sigh.

“I’m glad we’re safe, but it’s not all that matters, is it?” she said. “Sir Keavling won’t stop just because he failed to kill you.”

“No, he won’t.” Cassius’s face had become serious. “He didn’t tell me everything, but he told me enough to understand that at least one of the kingdoms of the continent—possibly a coordinated group of them—intends to annex Carrack under the guise of forming an alliance. And they no doubt have plans for the rest of the Peninsula as well. I don’t think he can be the mastermind. He’s just an emissary. But I got the sense he has the resources to make his plans happen. We’re in Torrens now—we must have been drugged for longer than I realized when they brought us here, because we’re a long way south of the crossing near Crandell. It will take us some time to get home, but we can’t delay—we must convince my father not to commit himself to any co-operation with the continent. If he believes that I’ve been abducted by Torrenese forces, he will be furious enough to do something rash. But that could be disastrous. The need has never been greater for the kingdoms of the Peninsula to stand together. ”

Flora hesitated, her eyes searching his face. “You’re talking about the alliance with Siqual.”

“No.” Cassius shook his head forcefully. “I mean yes, but not the way we first intended to do it.” His voice softened as he pushed a strand of hair behind her ears. “I couldn’t marry Princess Miriam, Flora, not now. It would destroy me. We will have to find another way to seal the alliance, because I won’t have anyone but you.”

Her heart swelled at the declaration, and she permitted herself to lay her head against his chest.

“I will be yours or I will die alone,” she said simply.

Cassius’s arm snaked around her and pulled her close, and she could hear his heart pick up speed. He lowered his head to murmur in her ear.

“It would be a crime for you to be alone. I cannot allow it.”

A pleasant shiver went over her at the warmth of his breath.

“What about the tether?” she asked. “It will only lift when the marriage alliance with Siqual is sealed.”

“I will do all I can to find a way to free you,” he told her. “But I would rather live with its restrictions all my life than marry someone who isn’t you.”

Peace filled Flora with his words, determination following close behind. He truly was willing to tie himself to her, for no reason but love for her. He’d accepted her without even knowing who she was. The reasons for hiding herself—if they’d ever been valid at all—were long gone.

“Did you say we’re a long way south?” she asked.

“Yes.” He released her. “We’ve been traveling east, but as soon as we cross the border into Carrack, we’ll turn northward.”

“We shouldn’t.” Flora stepped back, giving a decisive nod. “We shouldn’t return to Crandell. Not empty-handed.”

“What do you mean?” Cassius studied her face. “Do you have a plan?”

“Yes.” Flora smiled at him, already resigned to the necessity of what she had to do. “Or at least, I have an idea. And it doesn’t involve going north. It involves going south. To Dernan.”