“Yes,” Callia whispered as darkness pushed in and he floated. “That’s it. Just let go.”
He was powerless to do anything else. The cave grew dimmer until the picture of her faded. Until he could no longer hear her sweet voice. Until there was no sound at all. Not even his beating heart.
Chapter Nine
“Here’s your dinner, my lady.”
Isadora looked up and smiled, though the grin wobbled just a touch as Saphira set a tray of food on the ottoman.
“I had Cookie whip up your favorite. Roast lamb with potatoes.”
Isadora closed the book in her lap and set it softly on the settee next to her in the sitting area of her suite. Outside, the sun was just setting to cast an orange glow over the Aegis Mountains. By some supreme force of self control she kept her hand from shaking. “Thank you, Saphira.” Then she did her best to lie. “Mm, it smells delicious. I’m starving.”
Her handmaiden obviously wasn’t buying it. She cocked her head and pursed her lips in disapproval. “You look sickly. Perhaps you should eat and go right to bed.”
Going right to bed most definitely wasn’t on Isadora’s to-do list tonight. And she wouldn’t call her new hair and clothes “sickly.”
But instead of arguing, Isadora faked a yawn, covered her mouth with her hand and said, “You may be right. My eyes are suddenly very tired.”
Saphira’s dark gaze narrowed, but it didn’t waver from Isadora’s face. “Hm.”
Not to be deterred, Isadora lifted her spoon, leaned over the tray and took a bite. “Mm. I was right. Delicious.”
When the plate was half-empty, Saphira finally sighed. “I suppose I should let you finish your dinner in peace.”
Finally. Isadora smiled.
“Would you like me to turn the bed down?”
“No need. I’m going to let my dinner settle and read a bit more before I turn in.”
The answering harrumph told Isadora loud and clear the gynaíka didn’t approve of that either. “You’ll need all the rest you can get before the binding ceremony. The king will be most disappointed if you’re not one hundred percent.”
Binding ceremony. Yeah. Right. Like she’d almost forgotten all about that.
“Good night, Saphira.”
“Good night, my lady.”
Isadora waited until the outer door to her suite clicked closed, then flipped the book open to the page she’d kept hidden from Saphira’s probing eyes.
. The Horae. Three goddesses of balance controlling life and order. They bring and bestow ripeness. They come and go in accordance with the firm law of the periodicities of nature and of life. They are, by essence, the correct moment.
She ran the palm of her hand over the fabric of her new black slacks covering the marking on her inner thigh. She didn’t need to see it to know it was there. The image was emblazoned in her mind. The omega symbol with wings. By definition, omega marked “the end.” All other Argoleans carried the alpha marking, yet she and Casey were different. As the Chosen, theirs signified the prophecy regarding the end of Atalanta’s immortal reign. But the wings had always confused Isadora. Why wings? They weren’t random markings. They had to have a meaning.
Damn, but she wished she’d regained her power of foresight already. Her half-sister, Casey, could see into the past of others, and she herself had always been able to glimpse shots of the future. But during her illness mere weeks ago, just before she and Casey had been united as the Chosen, she’d lost her powers, and they had yet to return, for reasons she didn’t understand. If she had them now, maybe she could get some idea what this all meant. And how and why she felt so unsettled now.
She’d been poring through her books for hours. And though she couldn’t explain it, she needed to know the answer to her questions before she was forced to bind herself to Zander. Something in her gut told her this was important not only to her future, but to his as well.
She looked back at the text with a mixture of dread and foreboding. There was one person who knew what this all meant. One person who could fill in the blanks. Only he was the last ándras she ever wanted to be indebted to.
Before she could change her mind, she jumped to her feet and rushed to the massive walk-in closet on the far side of the room. The invisibility cloak was hidden all the way in the back, hanging underneath the full-length silk cloak she wore to formal palace affairs. She pulled it from the hanger and stared at the lightweight black fabric between her hands.
Please let this still work.
She turned out of the closet, slipped her feet into the black flats Casey had been more than eager to provide her and buttoned the cloak around her shoulders. On a deep breath, she pulled up the hood and headed for the door.
Standing in the Grand Hallway of the castle for a moment, she listened to the early evening sounds. Somewhere close a bell chimed. A door opened and closed. Footsteps padded softly away.
She headed for the back stairs. At the base of the stairwell laughter and the sounds of dishes clinking in the kitchen drifted her way. She paused in the shadows just outside the doorway and held her breath. This was it. Time to see if the Fates had decided she was worthy of a crown or not.
She stepped into the kitchen. Three cooks filled plates with steaming meat and potatoes. A handful of servants were refilling glasses and gathering silverware. Dishwashers stood at the massive sinks, cleaning pots and pans and cooking utensils. At the long wooden table on the far side of the room, six members of the Executive Guard were taking their dinner break, telling stories and laughing as they spooned food into their faces.
No one looked her way.
Holding her breath, she took a step toward the back door, past Cookie, the oldest member of the kitchen staff. Still no one paid her even one iota of attention. She wrapped her hand around the back door handle, pulled slightly. Behind her she heard someone yell, “Who didn’t latch the door? The wind’s pushed it open!”
Before someone could close her in, she slipped out through the narrow opening. The door slapped closed behind her. Fresh evening air filled her lungs and a smile she just couldn’t contain swept across her face.
She’d done it. She was outside and no one even knew.
Confidence growing, she breezed past the four guards at the main gate without so much as a backward glance. She didn’t stop until she reached the road at the bottom of the hill and stood staring at the city of Tiyrns.
Massive buildings made of marble filled the skyline. The city fanned outward from the castle, most of the businesses and shops close in, the residential areas and seedier neighborhoods farther out. And though she could have flashed to the section of the city she intended to visit tonight, she didn’t, instead reveling in the fact she could walk wherever she wanted and no one could see her.
Her. The future queen of Argolea. Outside the castle walls. Beyond her father’s heavy hand. Away from everything that was slowly killing her.
Don’t dawdle, Isadora.
Right. She wouldn’t. If she was gone too long, eventually someone would miss her and then all hell would break loose.
Remembering the map she’d studied earlier today, she imagined Corinth Avenue. Her eyes slid closed, her limbs grew light. And then she was flying.
Flashing was a strange sensation, and one she didn’t get to experience all that often, because she was usually confined to the castle. One of the benefits of living in Argolea was the fact its residents could flash from place to place simply by envisioning a location in their mind. Way faster than walking through a city of two million. Much safer than the unpredictable cars and trucks Isadora had seen in the human world. Of course, you had to be outside to flash, and you couldn’t go through walls and buildings, but tonight that wasn’t a problem.