Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an Emperor (6 page)

Sophia sighed. She had
been such a fool and where had it got her? She had convinced Regis
to lose control and she still hadn’t been able to discern whether
he felt love. His feelings had been so strong and, while there had
been a connection to him, and she had felt tenderness and devotion
within his emotions, she hadn’t felt anything that she could
distinguish as love. Now, Regis would pay the price for her
mistake. He would be punished, not her. It should be
her.

“
What will
happen to him?” she whispered, staring at her mother’s hand where
it covered her own. She could feel her mother’s sympathy and
understanding.

“
They are
holding him in the cells for now,” her mother said and Sophia
forced a smile when her mother brushed her hair behind her ear. She
didn’t want to think about her appearance. It was probably obvious
what had been happening in this room before the guards had burst
in.

No, they hadn’t burst
in.

Regis had gone to fight
them.

She had felt his need to
protect her.

“
Will they kill
him?” Her voice trembled and she looked up into her mother’s dark
eyes. Sometimes, it was as though she was seeing herself in the
future. They were so alike. Perhaps that was why her father doted
on her so much and tolerated her sometimes wild ways. “I have to
speak to father and tell him not to kill him.”

Her mother’s grip on her
hand tightened, stopping her from leaving the bed. She looked back
at her.

Her mother laughed. “Do
not be so overdramatic. They are only holding him because he is
trying to kill anyone who goes near to him, even his kin. Your
father asked me to take you down there. The Varkans believe that he
will calm down if he sees that you are not harmed.”

Sophia frowned. “Will they
take him away?”

Her mother’s eyes
widened.

“
You’ve fallen
for him!” she said with a strangely serious expression, one that
unsettled Sophia.

She blushed. “It’s
pointless. He says he can’t love.”

“
I know love
when I see it and can feel it,” her mother said on a
laugh.

“
Feel it?”
Sophia said and clutched her mother’s hand. “What do you mean, feel
it? I can’t feel it. I tried... this is all because I tried to see
if I could feel that he loved me.”

“
Love is not
one feeling that you can sense, child,” her mother said with a sigh
and smoothed her hair, pushing each rogue strand back into place.
“It is the culmination of many feelings. It is something you have
to see with your eyes. That boy... no... man, very definitely a
man, loves you or he would not be shouting your name from the
cells.”

“
He is?” Sophia
said, unable to believe what her mother was saying.

Her mother nodded. With a
grin, Sophia stood and raced from the room, running for the cells.
She held her skirt high so she didn’t trip as she bounded down the
steps that led into the dungeon beneath the palace. It took a
moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimness and then she rushed
on. Her heartbeat quickened when she heard Regis. He was shouting
something but she couldn’t understand it. The old language again.
Other voices joined his as she followed it, trying to find
him.

She skidded to a halt when
she turned a corner and saw a row of men stood in front of one of
the cells. She raced over and pushed her way through the guards,
coming out beside her father and the emperor. The Count of Aeris
was pinned with his back against the bars, Regis’s arm across his
throat. Regis snarled, his eyes still bright red even in the
darkness, and went to bite the count.

“
Stop!” she
screamed.

Regis froze and looked up
at her.

“
Beauty has
timing at least,” the Count of Aeris drawled and she gasped when
she saw the blood on his cheek and throat. “Although you might have
come quicker to tame your beast.”

Regis snarled and released
the count. She went to help the count but stopped when Regis
roared. It froze her blood and she tensed.

“
It is not wise
to anger him,” the Count of Aeris said as he got to his feet and
rubbed his neck. “Soothe him. Bring him back to us.”

She stared at him and then
at Regis. “I don’t know how.”

Emperor Varka stepped
forwards and Regis growled again. “Speak with him. He has been
calling you.”

“
But he’ll
speak in that old language won’t he? I don’t
understand—”

Regis reached out to her
and she realised that she didn’t need to understand anything he
said, she could feel it all in him, every emotion behind whatever
words would leave his lips. They would tell her what he wanted to
say.

She stepped up to the
solid steel bars. Varkan steel. All the bars of the cells at this
end of the palace were Varkan steel. It was supposedly
indestructible, even to the species who mined it. They had placed
him here because they knew he wouldn’t be able to break out. He
growled and reached for her again, black claws scratching
impatiently at the air.

Taking a deep breath,
Sophia placed her hand into his and frowned when he drew her slowly
to him, his grip so light that it stunned her. He closed his eyes
and she walked forwards, following her hand. Silence filled the
dungeon and she trembled as he leaned his cheek against her hand.
It was strange to have such power over one so strong. Her presence
alone had calmed his thirst for violence. Opening her hand, she
furrowed her brow and touched his cheek. He was bleeding. Long thin
lines cut across his face and his neck. The wound on his arm where
he had blocked the guard’s blade was deep, blood coating his
forearm. His chest was marred with cuts and scratches, smeared
blood. His blood.

“
Who hit you?”
she said, looking over his face again, and he opened his eyes and
looked at her. He said nothing in response, merely leaned into her
open palm and held it against his cheek.

“
I have not
enjoyed your deception and you have a lot to answer for,” her
father said behind her. She presumed he was talking to
Regis.

Turning to look at her
father, she pleaded him with her eyes. “Release him, father. It was
all my doing. Punish me instead. I made him bite me. I’m sorry.
Please don’t hurt him anymore. I am a woman, and I can accept
responsibility for my actions.”

Tears streaked her cheeks
and as the first sob broke free of her lips, Regis growled and
pulled her against the bars. She closed her eyes as she felt his
arms around her and a strip of his chest against her cheek, edged
by cold steel where the bars pressed in.

“
No one will be
punished,” her father said and she smiled. “But there will be some
explaining to do once the Count of Sagres is calm.”

She blinked away her tears
as her father turned to the Count of Aeris and Emperor
Varka.

“
Take the Count
of Sagres to his room.”

A guard near the cell door
opened the lock and the door slid open, forcing Regis to release
her. The moment the door was out of the way, he grabbed her and
wrapped his arms around her, holding her so close that she couldn’t
help smiling. He still wanted to protect her.

The Count of Aeris tried
to get her free but Regis clawed at him, making it quite clear that
he wasn’t going to leave her. She looked at her father to see him
standing with his arms folded across his chest and a grim look on
his face.

“
Can I go with
them?” she asked.

An amused smile touched
her father’s lips and she frowned.

“
You are much
like your mother in matters of love. When I saw you enter this
universe thirty Lyran years past, I had a thought that you would be
like me, but I see now that you have grown into a woman as
headstrong and wilful as your mother, willing to sacrifice yourself
for one you love,” he said and she blushed and dropped her gaze to
the floor. She had never thought of herself like her mother in
personality as well as looks.

“
Perhaps there
is a little of you in me too, father, for I was willing to run away
to avoid an arranged marriage.”

He frowned. “My sweetest
daughter, you did not believe that I would give you to a man whom
you did not wish to marry?”

“
I thought
perhaps you might, if they offered the right things in
exchange.”

“
Never!” He
stepped forwards to touch her face but Regis growled and held her
tighter. Her father smiled and shook his head. “I would have kept
you for my own forever but I knew that you were lonely and desired
to meet someone to call your equal, your love. Having found such a
good match in my Terea, I thought you might wish to look beyond the
sphere of Lyran society for your love. I only invited these suitors
so you might be able to find someone you loved without having to
leave... foolish as it sounds... here.”

Sophia smiled. She didn’t
think her father was foolish for trying to bring the universe to
her. She only wished that perhaps he had done it in a more tactful
manner such as a ball or something where she wasn’t meeting one
species at a time. It had been the thought of a queue of them
waiting for their time with her that had made her uncomfortable. It
had made her believe that he wanted to give her to the highest
bidder. She hadn’t thought about the fact that he had kept her here
and had continued to refuse her desire to travel while still
granting her the freedom to do as she pleased.

“
Forgive me?”
he said and looked as though he wanted to put his arms around
her.

Her smile widened. “Of
course. Although, I never wanted to leave here. I still
don’t.”

“
You mean
you’ll refuse to leave?” The Count of Aeris stepped forwards, a
frown marring his beautiful features. “Even if the emperor... no...
even if Regis will marry you, you will not leave Lyra
Prime?”

“
Regis knows
that I will not leave this planet. Lyra Prime is my home. What does
it matter if I remain here even if Regis marries me?”

“
It will matter
a lot when Varka—”

“
Van, that’s
enough,” Emperor Varka said and she blushed with shame when she
looked at him. “We will take the Count of Sagres to his
room.”

“
I’m sorry
about all this,” Sophia said and tried to move but Regis was
holding her too tight. “I think I might have to go too.”

Her father
nodded.

Taking Regis’s hand to
show him that she wasn’t going to leave him, she started walking.
He released her and followed, holding her hand so tight that she
could feel her bones creaking. He was strong. He was incredibly
strong. Yet she had brought him to his knees. She followed the
emperor and count up through the palace, back to Regis’s
room.

“
Emperor
Varka,” she said and the man didn’t respond. She walked a little
quicker to be closer to him. “Emperor Varka?”

The man turned to look at
her with wide eyes and then smiled. “What is it, little
one?”

They stopped outside
Regis’s door and she glanced at it and then looked back at the
emperor.

“
I’m sorry. I
don’t love you. It wouldn’t have worked.”

He continued to smile. It
held a hint of darkness that unnerved her. Something about it,
about him, spoke of intimate knowledge of violence and death. He
looked like the royal assassins did sometimes when she chanced upon
them in the city.

“
Give the Count
of Sagres more blood and he will calm down. We must call home to
apprise them of the situation but will not be far away. If he loses
control, we will sense it and come to you. Come, Van.”

With that, he was walking
along the corridor. She had expected more of a protest or perhaps
disappointment. He didn’t seem at all bothered that Varka’s ties
with Lyra weren’t going to be strengthened through marriage.
Perhaps he was only thinking of the money he could save and the
fact that Lyra wouldn’t be getting Varka Two.

She opened the dark wooden
door and walked in, leading Regis to his bed. He sat down on it and
she was relieved when she released his hand and he didn’t make a
fuss. She could sense him watching her, studying her every move.
His feelings were still as strong as they had been when they were
last in this room together, ebbing and flowing through him, through
her. Looking him over, she sighed at the cuts that marked his pale
skin, cutting over the contours of his muscles. No one had admitted
hurting him. Had they all been guilty to some extent? Even his
friend and the emperor? Even her father? She supposed they weren’t
to blame if they had hurt him in order to protect themselves. After
all, he had been attempting to kill the Count of Aeris when she had
arrived at the cell.

“
Are you
alright?” she said and touched his cheek. His blood red eyes never
left her face. “I’ll clean you up.”

She went to the bathroom,
unsure of what to do. She had never had to clean wounds before. She
ran water into the stone basin until it felt cold and then wet a
cloth with it. She returned to Regis and sat beside him on the bed.
He turned to face her when she did and for a moment, his eyes
flickered to her throat. Ignoring the spark of desire it lit in
her, she cleaned his cuts, carefully washing away the blood, and
bound the wound on his arm. She couldn’t help noticing how
fantastic his body was, or the white scars that marked his skin. He
wasn’t a stranger to wounds and pain.