“Hello, Cyrene,” Kael said, caressing her name. “Oh, how I have missed you.”
Kaliana stumbled backward a step, falling into place behind Cyrene and Dean. His hand had gone immediately to Shadowbreaker, half-withdrawing it to ready himself for an attack.
Cyrene readied her own magic. And though she felt none of the bond that tied them together, she knew it was there. He’d just masked it somehow. She didn’t know how. But what she could feel was the overwhelming immensity of blood magic flowing through his veins. The diamond had given her the ability to sense magical strength and elements. But what Kael accessed was raw energy, not elemental. It was a stolen magic that corrupted a person and drew power from the soul. The more it was used, the less human a person became.
From the amount of power Kael was harnessing, she wondered if he had a soul at all. If Malysa had tightened her hold on him so completely that he was a hollowed-out shell underneath the sharp black clothing and billowing black cloak. If that beautiful face and dark brown hair and mesmerizing blue-gray eyes were but a mask for the true evil underneath.
And this was the monster that her sister was trying to save. Preparing to marry.
“What, you haven’t missed me?” Kael asked. He hungrily took a step forward. Madness gleamed in those eyes.
“What are you doing here, Kael?” she asked darkly.
Kael gestured to Killian, where the pretty blond king sat like a statue between them. “Did not the king tell you that he invited me?”
Cyrene’s face fell. “Killian, you didn’t.”
Killian opened his mouth as if he was going to respond and then shook his head. He glanced between them—at the crackle of magic from Dean’s fingertips, the black energy that ran up Kael’s arms, and the glow that Cyrene didn’t even realize she had unleashed around her body. He looked at them all as if he had not quite believed all the tales he had heard and was just now realizing how very, very wrong he was.
“Well, what do we have here?” Kael assessed their party with detached amusement. “Even more than I bargained for—a prince of nowhere and a queen of even less.”
“Leave them out of this,” Cyrene snarled at him, taking a step forward.
“Don’t tell me that you aren’t glad to see me,” Kael said with a smirk.
Cyrene narrowed her eyes, but when she spoke, it was for Killian. “He is everything you have heard about him and worse. You have made a grave mistake in calling him here today. You will be lucky to leave with your head.”
“Is that a threat?” Killian managed to get out.
“Not from me,” she said. Her eyes slid back to Kael, who hadn’t moved an inch and was just looking at her with barely contained desire. “But absolutely from him. He killed the true king of Byern—his brother, Edric. He killed the king of Aurum. He massacred the entire island of Eleysia. He is a murderer and will not think twice before taking off your head.”
“That is one bold accusation,” Killian gasped.
Kael just smiled. “It is, isn’t it? Would I have come as a royal envoy if I wanted you dead? Would you be alive right now if I wanted anything but an alliance?”
“He’s toying with you,” Cyrene spat.
“Oh, come now. We’re all friends here,” Kael said with a twitch of his lips that said he thought the entire thing was funny.
“No, we’re not,” she told him.
“Is that why you didn’t say hi when you visited Byern?” Kael asked. “Tried to convince your sister to leave and failed. I would like to know how you hid in the walls though.”
Cyrene froze at his words. That was the message that she and Fenix had worked out ahead of time for when he would see Kael. He had to know why Cyrene had been in Byern, and it was better to feed him a half-truth. But it meant that Fenix was back in. Message delivered. Good.
“How do you know why I was there?” she asked.
And, while he went on a rambling, arrogant tirade about how he knew everything that went on in his castle, Cyrene burrowed deep into her well of magic. She found the bond with Sarielle and tugged. The awaiting response was nearly instantaneous. Then she fed instructions down the bond. She could practically feel the smile from her dragon through that link.
“You’ve spelled her,” Cyrene said when Kael had finished.
“Is that jealousy I detect?”
“Hardly. I know that Elea would never marry you otherwise.”
Something like anger flickered in his features. “I have never had to be anyone else when I’m with Elea. Perhaps you’ll join us for the wedding.”
“Might be busy. I guess my invitation got lost in the mail. You know it’s really not reliable,” she said, keeping him talking.
“Consider this your formal invitation then,” Kael said with narrowed eyes.
“Hmm…I think I’ll pass. You once said we’d be married. Who knew you were so inconstant?” Cyrene tapped her lip. “Oh, wait, I did.”
Kael narrowed his eyes. The darkness growing with each passing moment. “If it wasn’t for your little prince…” He threw his hand out to Dean.
“Oh, right. You thought forcing my magic and making me blood-cursed like you would spell happily ever after,” she snapped at him. “All according to plan, right?”
“I’m not so little anymore,” Dean snarled.
Kael laughed at Dean. The rest of them forgotten as he took in the magic thrumming through his veins. “How exactly did you come by the fire show?”
Dean arched an eyebrow. “I was worthy. Where you never could be.”
Cyrene cut between them before either started throwing that deadly magic around Killian’s throne room. “You’re outnumbered, Kael. Now would be the time to go…before we make you.”
“But we’re having so much fun, Cyrene,” he said her name like a prayer. “Plus, it appears you have something that I want.” His eyes moved to where Kaliana stood behind them.
“You stay away from her,” she told him.
“How is our daughter, Kaliana?” Kael asked.
Killian gasped from the throne. His eyes were glued to his sister in disbelief. Word must have reached him that she’d had a royal baby, but no one, save the people in this room, had ever known it was Kael’s and not Edric’s. Daufina had even taken that news to the grave.
But Kaliana didn’t back down. In fact, the mention of Alessia straightened her spine. Her words were a snarl. “You’ll never find her.”
“Such hostility,” Kael said. “I preserved your life and hers. I could have turned you both out in the cold. And this is the thanks I get?”
“You killed Edric!” Kaliana screamed. “Your own brother!”
Kael shrugged. The darkness taking over those blue-gray irises. “He had grown beyond his usefulness.”
Killian gasped from his throne. As if he couldn’t believe it was actually true.
“We’re not fools, Kael,” Cyrene said, her power humming. “But you are if you stay here.”
The last thing she wanted was a showdown with Kael in the middle of the Tiekan throne room. But she wouldn’t hesitate if it came to that. If their great battle was supposed to happen today, then so be it.