The second he lost sight of her, emptiness hollowed out his chest and consumed his strength. Doubt crept into the fringes of his mind.
By the gods, have I just made a huge mistake?
…
The smell of salt tickled Azurha’s nose when the blackness receded. She licked her lips, but tasted neither brine nor sweat. She tried to lift her head, frustrated by how heavy it felt. Bit by bit, her senses grew sharper, and the sound of crashing waves rolled in time with her pulse.
Something felt very wrong about this place.
Bright light assaulted her when she finally opened her eyes. “Where am I?” she croaked.
“At the emperor’s palace in Madrena,” a male voice answered. “He sent you here to keep you safe.”
Her surroundings came into focus much slower than the rage building up inside of her. “He sent me away? The fool!”
A pair of arms caught her as she tumbled from the bed. “Please be calm, Lady Azurha. I was told it would only be for a few days until he found the person threatening you.”
She batted his hands away and tried to stand, but her knees betrayed her. “I need to go back to the palace. My life is not the one that’s in danger. His is.”
“Lady Azurha, please stop fighting me. You’re in no condition to be going anywhere right now.”
A vaguely familiar face loomed in front of her, growing less hazy by the second. It was as if someone had taken twenty years off Varro. “He sent you, Varro?”
The man’s eyes crinkled when he smiled. “You must be referring to my father.” He sat her on the edge of the bed and rested a steadying hand on her back. “He spoke very highly of you. I’m Modius, Varro’s eldest son.”
The room swam in circles around her, and her stomach recoiled. “Who drugged me?”
“No one, as far as I know.”
“Then why do I feel like I drank too much wine?”
Two deep wrinkles furrowed Modius’s brows. “Should I send for a healer?”
“No!” The last thing she needed was some half-blood Deizian trying to manipulate her body. Enough damage had been done already. Memories of Titus’s magic infiltrating her mind stung worse than a whip. “
He
did this to me.”
“He?”
“Titus.” His betrayal filled her with bitterness, but she supposed she deserved it. After all, she was the one who set out to betray him first.
She managed to rise without wobbling and took a hesitant step toward the open balcony. “Is this my new cage?”
“I’ve heard the palace referred to by many different names, but never as a cage.” He hovered behind her, looking like he was preparing to keep her from jumping over the edge. “Are you sure you don’t want me to send for a healer?”
She stared down at the ocean pounding against the jagged cliff walls. The palace sat on an insulated peninsula that jutted out into the churning water. The setting matched her mood—isolated and in constant turmoil. Despite her warnings, he’d sent her to this remote part of the empire. Had he even listened to her?
A sizzle of magic streaked up her arm when she reached past the balcony rails. She jerked her hand back with a gasp.
“That’s one of the reasons he sent you here.” Modius beckoned her away from the edge. “Madrena has its own barrier. No one can enter here without the emperor’s blessing.”
“And no one can leave.” She turned around and approached him. “In other words, a cage. A prison.”
“A sanctuary, Lady Azurha.”
She snorted and went back into the bedroom. Despite the younger Varro’s reassurances, she knew what this place was and why Titus had sent her here. He didn’t trust her. “So, he left me here to rot?”
His lips thinned. “I may not be the soldier my father and brother are, but I will not have you speaking ill of the emperor. Whatever your interpretation of this is, I know he had your safety in mind. Why else would he send you here in the middle of the night on his fastest airship? He wants to keep your location secret until he knows it’s safe for you to return.”
If he lives long enough to claim me.
Fear plagued the back of her mind, turning her blood cold. She wrapped her hand around the pendant he’d given her, offering a silent prayer the Legion wouldn’t fail to protect him while she was exiled here.
“It should only be a few days. A week at the most.” He crossed the room and threw back a sheet, revealing a small wooden cage. The lyger cub inside growled at him. “In the meantime, he sent you a companion.”
19
“This is the latest one.” Marcus nodded toward the man being dragged into the prison by three members of the Legion. “He was bragging about what he was going to do with the reward once he killed you.”
“So in other words, he was a stupid assassin.” Titus ran his fingers through his sweat-damp hair and retreated further into the shadows with his friend and the Legion’s captain. Over the last four days, the Legion had arrested seven men who had taken up the challenge of killing the emperor. All of them had criminal records based on the scars branded onto their bodies. But upon questioning, none of them knew anything about the threat on Azurha.
“We’ll see if he knows anything about the person who wants to see you dead.” Captain Galerius tightened his jaw and curled his hand into a fist.
“I appreciate your dedication.” Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Marcus rock back and forth on his feet, a sign he wanted to tell him something in private. “Keep me informed on your progress, Captain.”
The soldier nodded. The cracking of his knuckles echoed off the walls as he crossed the grounds to the prison. Whatever means he used for questioning, they wouldn’t be gentle.
Marcus followed him back to his private chambers, bypassing the throne room completely. The air seemed cooler there. Maybe it was the lack of people. Ever since he sent Azurha away, he’d been surrounded by soldiers, nobles, and advisors—all clamoring for his attention. It made him miss her calming influence even more.
“How did you know I wanted to speak to you in private?” Marcus poured two glasses of chilled wine and offered one to him.
“You had that look.” Titus accepted the glass and took a long sip. The sweet, icy wine trickled down his throat and cooled his flushed body. “What have you learned?”
“Nothing specific about Azurha, but an interesting thing about the Alpirions themselves. They have these legends about cursed ones, Alpirions with light colored eyes.”
“And how did you learn about this?”
“There are a few slaves that clung to their old ways, despite your grandfather’s ban. In this case, I found an old woman who calls herself a lore keeper. Blind as a bat, so it was easy enough to convince her I was an Alpirion curious to learn more about ‘my culture.’”
“So let me guess—these cursed ones are supposed to bring about the end of the world?” If there was a legend associated with a name like that, he knew there had to be some doom and gloom tale.
“Nope. What I gathered from her ramblings was that the ‘golden ones’ appeared and bred with some Alpirions. The resulting children had light colored eyes and the ability to control the elements.”
Titus rubbed his chin and tried to remember what little he’d learned about the Alpirions. “Didn’t they refer to the Deizians as the golden ones?”
Marcus nodded and grinned. “So, if you believe the lore keeper, Azurha probably has some Deizian blood, whether she knows it or not.”
“Why did you share this with me?” Just talking about her made him crave Azurha even more. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her face. Sometimes, she was looking up at him in the throes of passion, her brilliant teal eyes sparkling with lust and satisfaction. Other times, he saw the hurt in the downward curve of her mouth and the tight clenching of her jaw.
“Perhaps knowing she has Deizian blood may ease things for you if you ever decide to make her more than your consort.” He winked and started to leave.
“A few drops of Deizian blood won’t stop the nobles from protesting the match.”
Marcus stopped at the door and heaved a heavy sigh. “I’m at a loss why you sent her away when she made you so happy.”
“It’s for her safety.”
“And by sending her away, you’ve basically told Galerius and the rest of the Legion that they’re not capable of protecting her. What’s the real reason? Was it because you don’t trust her? Or was it because you were falling in love with her, and that terrified you more than you admit?”
He’d hit the nail right on the head, and that irritated Titus more than salt in a fresh wound. Ire licked at his already raw heart. “It’s none of you business what I feel for her.”
“Fine. All I was trying to do is give you something to ease your nagging conscience. You can be happy and still provide a suitable heir. Deizian blood is Deizian blood, and there’s nothing the nobility can say about it.”
“So now you’ve gone from saying she’s a part of the conspiracy to kill me to saying she’ll make a suitable empress. Which is it?”
“I admit that I may have been wrong about her. You were right in that she had plenty of opportunities to hurt you and she didn’t. But more importantly, I’ve seen what a pissy mood you’ve been in since she left. You’re no good without her, and that’s saying a lot.” He slipped out the door before Titus could argue further.
His friend’s comments swirled around his mind like a cyclone. Was he really so disagreeable without her?
He crawled into bed and wrapped his arms around her pillow. He’d forbidden the slaves from changing the sheets since the day she left. Her scent still clung to the bedding, an intoxicating perfume of jasmine and sex and something that was uniquely her.
Could Marcus be on to something? Could some remote Deizian ancestor turn Azurha into a legitimate empress? Did that explain the wild magic she seemed to pass on to him? The same wild magic that churned inside of him and exploded from his mind like a charging bull whenever he used it? He didn’t know if it was a blessing or a curse, but despite its violent force, the barriers appeared stronger than ever.
Magic be damned!
He just wanted to hold her in his arms again. He missed her laughter, her smile. Marcus was right in that he wasn’t good without her. Nothing was.
Titus rose from the bed and crossed his chambers, his mind becoming more resolute with each step. It was time to face his fears. He needed to embrace his feelings for Azurha as much as he needed to embrace her body. She would be safe here with him, even if it meant he protected her with his dying breath. Death would be better than the empty ache that consumed him now.
He ran into Varro halfway down the hall leading to the throne room. “Have someone prepare my ship immediately.”
“And where should I have them set a course for?”
“Madrena”
The steward nodded, trying to keep his grin hidden. “Very good, Emperor Sergius.”
In a few hours, he would have her in his arms, and everything would be right in his world again.
…
The now familiar hum of the barrier wavered, and Azurha tightened her grip on the marble figurine of a goddess. She lay on the floor, completely still, waiting to ambush Modius when he came to check on her. He’d probably kneel beside her prone body and check to see if she was still alive. Then she’d knock him out and escape.
The door closed, and footsteps hammered in time with the beating of her heart. She almost didn’t want to hurt Modius. He seemed to be an honorable man like his father, but she needed his handprint to get past the locks and barrier. It was either knock him out and drag him through the palace until she got her freedom or kill him and cut off his hand. The latter would have been more convenient, but she’d already spilled too much blood in her life.
She flashed back to the time Cassius had sent her to kill her first victim. A man who’d been cheating on his wife, and they’d been hired to punish him for his faithlessness. Cassius must have sensed her unease over killing a person for money and had stood beside her in the shadows as they waited to ambush him. “Harden your heart, Little Rabbit,” he whispered. “Do not think too much about him. Just kill him, add your token, and then push him out of your mind. That’s the only way to survive in this business.”
I’m getting soft,
she realized as she replayed Cassius’s warning
. Once I get out of here and kill Pontus, I need to seriously think about retiring.
But no matter where she ended up, she’d still be haunted with what might have been with Titus.
Fool!
The footsteps stopped right behind her, and the shadow on the floor showed a man reaching for her. It was now or never. She tensed her muscles and prepared to spring on Modius.
But instead of the steward’s voice, it was Titus who asked, “Azurha, are you hurt?”
The panic in his words made her wonder if this was a dream. The figurine fell from her fingers as he rolled her over. His sun-kissed face hovered over hers, and the tension eased out of her muscles. Her body grew warm from the touch of his hands, even though he appeared to be checking her for injuries instead of caressing her like a lover.
“Azurha, answer me!”
Laughter bubbled forth from her mouth. He was here. He hadn’t been killed. She bolted up and threw her arms around him.
He barely managed to absorb the impact of her embrace and not end up sprawling on the floor next to her. A look of shock crossed his features, and few seconds passed before his arms tightened around her. “Thank the gods you’re safe. I walked in and saw you down and not moving—”
She silenced him with a kiss. All the wine in the empire couldn’t cause the head-rush his lips did. Fire spread through her limbs. She didn’t want to talk. She just wanted to feel his body next to hers, to watch the delight in his face as he made love to her.
Titus broke off the kiss and stroked her cheek. “Eager to see me?”
The arrogant tone of his voice irked her, and she released him. “I should be furious. Why did you knock me out and send me here?”
“First off, I didn’t mean to knock you out. It was an accident. My magic… slipped.”
“Slipped?” She jumped to her feet and towered over him. “Is that what you call it? You were trying to manipulate my mind.”
He wasted no time using his few extra inches of height to his advantage. “I was trying to calm you down.”
“No, you were looking for an easy way to silence me.”
Titus opened his mouth to say something, but Modius spoke before he did. “Perhaps I should return later to see if you need anything else.”
“Thank you,” they both replied.
For a moment, neither one of them spoke. Their chests rose and fell in unison, and Azurha was pretty certain her face appeared as flushed as Titus’s. By the gods, he was stubborn, perhaps more than her. But did that excuse his actions?
He was the first one to back away. The anger visibly evaporated from his face, and his hands unclenched. “I understand that you’re upset because I used my magic on you and sent you away without telling you what I was doing, but please believe me when I say it was for your own good.”
“Perhaps it’s your overly noble Deizian brain thinking for you, but I don’t need your protection, Titus. I managed just fine on my own before I met you.” She picked up the goddess figurine and placed it back in its shrine.
“So let’s talk about what you did from the time you were freed until you met me.”
She froze. She wasn’t ready to have this conversation with him. She doubted she ever could. Was there a way to casually inform him that she spent seven years killing people for money?
“More silence.” He sighed and crossed the room. “What are you hiding from me?”
“Does it matter?”
“Obviously it does, or you wouldn’t be keeping it from me.” He sank onto the sofa and rubbed his face. “I understand you’ve had a painful past—”
“Don’t begin to think you have any idea what I’ve suffered, Emperor Sergius. You’ve never so much suffered a scratch. You barely know how to handle a blade. Instead of learning to be a warrior, you buried your nose in a book.”
“Damn it, Azurha, I will not be insulted like this.”
“I know, I know, you’re the
emperor
.” She rolled her eyes and strolled to the balcony. “Why don’t you just punish me and order my head on a platter?”
He cursed under his breath and followed her outside. The sky still glowed turquoise from the last of the day’s light, and the distant supernova that danced across the sky each night peeked over the horizon. A stiff sea breeze ruffled his hair. He leaned on the railing and stared toward the horizon. His voice barely rose above the crashing of the waves when he said at last, “Let’s start over and see if we can have a conversation without yelling at each other.”
“Fine.” She tucked her hair behind her ear to keep it from whipping her face further. “Where do you want to begin?”
“Where we left off?”
She nodded and watched him out of the corner of her eye, waiting for him to speak first. He looked like he’d aged a decade in the last few days. Dark circles lined his eyes. New creases marred his forehead. Her heart ached for him, and she wondered how much his transformation was due to her. “I’m sorry if I made you worry about me. You shouldn’t have.”
He jerked in surprise and turned to her. “Why do you say that?”
“Because someone like you shouldn’t worry so much about someone like me, Titus. I’m just an—”
“Quit with the pitiful ‘I’m just an Alpirion’ routine. The well-being of every citizen of the empire is my concern. But you’re more than just an Alpirion to me, Azurha. I…”
The words seemed to strangle him, much to her relief. She didn’t need to hear that he loved her. Somewhere deep inside, she already knew it, and the idea was more painful than a thousand burning splinters studding her flesh.
She stared at her bracelets, seeing the scars left by her past even though the metal cuffs concealed them. “Why did you come tonight?”
“The truth?”
“I can handle it. You do not have to spare my feelings.”
He gently brushed her hair back from her face and let his fingers trail down her jaw and neck until they rested on her collarbone. “I missed you.”
She studied his face, looking for any signs of a lie, but saw only loneliness and an emotion she feared more than death. How did things end up this way? This was supposed to be her last job, the ultimate kill. The one assignment that would load her coffers so she could retire and try to live a normal life while ensuring her legendary status as an assassin. Instead, she hesitated in a moment of weakness.
She shrugged his hand away. “You’d be better off without me.”