“Little Kali Cat,” Killian said affectionately, “not so little any longer, are you?”
“Neither are you, brother.”
He turned to Cyrene and took a step into her immediate vicinity. A little too close for propriety’s sake, all things considered. Then, he scooped up her hand and placed a daring kiss there. “It is a pleasure to have you in Trinnenberg. I do hope that you will do me the honor of staying through the season.”
“Through…the season,” Cyrene said carefully.
“Yes, of course. Surely, my sister has told you that we celebrate Beltane tomorrow.”
Cyrene looked at Kaliana, who remained blank-faced. “Of course. The May Day holiday. I have read much about this festival. It is about springtime dance with gifts and a maypole and dancing to celebrate new growth and the coming of summer.”
“New growth and fertility,” Killian said with a dangerously charming smile. “We have a dance in the gardens tomorrow night after the city festivities have been completed. You will attend.”
Cyrene nodded because there was no other choice. “I would be delighted.”
Killian glanced behind her and seemed to take Dean in for the first time. “And your…guard?”
“Yes,” Kaliana said quickly. “The captain of her guard.”
“Your guard will come, too?”
“He does not like to dance,” Cyrene said.
“Then, he can watch us dance,” Killian said with a knowing grin.
“If you wish.”
“I do,” he said smoothly. “Now, I must return to matters of the state. If you need anything, anything at all, while here in Trinnenberg, do not hesitate to ask. The servants will provide you everything. And I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night.”
Then Killian grinned devilishly at them all before turning and striding from the room.
A servant materialized, as promised, and offered to show them to their suites. They had apparently already been made up in preparation for their visit.
Once cloistered inside what had to be some of the gaudiest rooms she had ever seen, Cyrene flopped back onto a chaise. “God, he is a deceitful snake, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” Kaliana said, sitting primly. “He always has been.”
“What will I do?” Cyrene asked.
“You will go to the Beltane dance. You will dance all night long. You will have the best night of your life. There is no other possibility,” Kaliana said, ignoring Dean’s glare. “Not if you want his help.”
Kaliana was right.
There was no other choice.
Cyrene sighed. She knew this part. She had known how to play this role her entire life. In fact, she had always been the lady in the dress. She was much better at negotiations like this than she had ever been at them with a sword. She was just becoming the lady with the sword. It was like taking off one skin and putting on another that was long ago discarded. She had hoped, when she became the Domina, that she would be able to merge the two. There was still time to make it work.
“Well, that means I need a new dress.” Cyrene plucked at the old garb they had repurposed to get them in the castle. “Something new, eye-catching, and very, very expensive.”
Kaliana laughed. “Ah, the old Cyrene is back.”
“If that’s what we need to win at his game, then so be it.”
28
The Festival
“How do I look?” Cyrene twirled in place so that Dean and Kaliana could see the sleek, new dress the palace dressmaker had just finished literally stitching her into. It wasn’t anything like the revealing gowns she had worn in the past, but it showed off all her curves in the most alluring way possible, considering the shape of Tiekan gowns.
Kaliana clapped her hands. “Perfect. Killian will die.”
Dean just crossed his arms.
“Is that a good thing?” she asked Dean.
“You know that you look beautiful.”
“Well, a girl does like to hear it every now and again.”
She turned back to the mirror and fussed with her hair. She knew that Dean was less than pleased with this plan. But really…there was no other plan.
She’d love to just intimidate Killian and force him to give them his army. That would be the ideal. But the Tiekan people were proud. They weren’t fickle like Aurum, who was used to having a different king every couple of years. Where the lords really ruled the land. Here, they loved Killian, and they would rebel against anyone who forced him to do anything. She wouldn’t depose him, and she couldn’t see a way to bend him to her will that didn’t involve amoral actions, like slicing into his brain with her magic and making him.
So, they had her womanly wiles and her many, many years of training at court ballroom diplomacy.
Kaliana finished getting ready and then offered her arm to Cyrene. “Together?”
Cyrene nodded. The moment was surreal. Working with Kaliana at all was beyond surreal. But this felt so…different. Like they were actually on the same footing, back in the world where they had always competed against each other. It seemed so silly when she looked back on it.
Dean stood at their backs. A stoic mask on his face as he walked with them to the festivities outside.
Cyrene’s face lit up at the glowing gardens filled with yellow flowers. Candlelight flickered all over the stunning garden display and out to the enormous hedge maze beyond. Three giant bonfires made a triangle around the central May Day pole. Couples were dancing around it, coyly stepping around each other in a dance Cyrene knew all too well. Everywhere she looked was decadence and revelry and quickly devolving debauchery. It was magical.
She took a proffered drink from a servant and stepped into the festivities. She felt more than saw Dean blend into the background of the party. His eyes trailing her through the grounds. Kaliana smiled at people she might have once known. Played the part of a giddy party girl well and guided Cyrene toward the tent that had been erected for the king’s chair and his favored aristocracy.
Cyrene lowered her head at Killian once more. Murmurs went up and down his court at her manners, her dress, her face. The purposely sensuous way that she approached the king.
“Majesty,” she said. “Your Beltane festival is stunning to behold. I am glad to be here for your season.”
“I am pleased that you like it,” Killian said. He turned to Kaliana. “Hello, sister.”
Kaliana stepped forward and curtsied. “It’s an honor to be back in Tiek on my favorite day of the year.”
“Ah, yes, do you remember the year we spent it in Father’s hunting cabin?”
A muscle twitched in Kaliana’s cheek. Whatever the memory was, it was not pleasant. But Killian had brought it up on purpose.
“How could I forget?” Kaliana asked impassively. “It was the May Day when we were first allowed to dance the maypole.”
Clearly something more had happened, but Cyrene would have to wait on the answer. It was best not to let anyone know she suspected a thing.
Cyrene was prepared to step aside to allow the next guest to address the king, and then a man striding into the tent caught her eye. He casually dropped into a seat, and her jaw fell open.