Page 66 of A Dance of Shadows

Farther across the courtyard, Marclinus has stepped away from the musicians. He peers up at the sky where tufts of clouds have started to spread from the horizon, though the early autumn sun still beams down on us.

Aurelia is watching him with a serene expression but a hint of uncertainty I’m not sure anyone other than me would notice in her stance. Jealousy twangs through my nerves.

She has to dote on him if she’s going to win him over enough to turn the twins against each other. Any trick that can solidify her position against the two great enemies she now has instead of just one is a boon.

I’m not so caught up in my emotions that I can’t help her with every part of her purpose, am I?

The idea comes to me with a rush of resolve. It’s a little risky, but if I focus my gift just right…

I gather myself while Marclinus lifts his gaze higher. The moment he’s glanced almost directly upward, I picture a sharper flare of light streaking away from the sun, searing straight into his eyes.

It’s only an illusionary image—one I’ve conjured in the sky but narrowed to only his senses. One of his guards twitches at the same moment as Marclinus jerks backward with a flinch. As he brings his hand to his face, several of the nobles turn to stare.

“Everything all right, Your Imperial Majesty?” the guard asks with a brief glance around. She might have picked up on a whiff of my magic, but so much of it was directed at the space high above us rather than Marclinus himself that it mustn’t have felt anything like an attack.

Aurelia has hustled over to his side. As he lifts his head, she rests a gentle hand on his arm. “What’s the matter?”

I swallow down another prickle of jealousy.

This is what I wanted. This is what she needs.

Marclinus covers his lapse with a dry chuckle. “It must have been a trick of the light—or one of those blasted daimon playing a stupid trick. A sudden glare in my eyes. It’ll fade.”

Yes, let him blame the spirit creatures Dariu wants nothing to do with. His wife will know better.

Aurelia studies Marclinus more closely. She drops her voice, tipping her head toward the carriage, maybe offering him some cure to soothe any lingering pain. To further prove her devotion.

But as I expected, the woman I love is canny enough to realize what must have happened. She doesn’t risk looking my way, but as she loops her arm with Marclinus’s to glide back to their vehicle, her other fingers curl at her side in a signal no one else in view could read.

Well done.

So there. I’m more than just a bunch of emotional impulses and a bleeding heart. I can do the hard thing when it helps the people I hold dear.

And that’s a good thing, because I suspect I’m going to have to do a lot more hard things before we’ve seen our journey through.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Aurelia

Afew miles from the sprawling city of Rodrige and the slim, gleaming lake Lavira’s capital sits beside, our convoy grates to a halt. A tremor races through my nerves at the sound of hoofbeats on the road outside.

Has there been a renewed stirring of rebellion in Raul’s home country? If we’re beset by insurgents, I don’t think they’d believe any claims from me that I’m more on their side than my husband’s.

But the face that appears by our carriage window above a high officer’s formal uniform is familiar. Tribune Valerisse peers in at us down her long nose, her dark eyes flicking from me to my husband in an instant as if dismissing me as irrelevant. Three tight braids pull her chestnut hair away from her coppery face as before, but the absence of a helm suggests she’s not expecting to ride into combat just yet.

“Your Imperial Majesty,” she says in her forceful voice, the singular title dismissing me as much as her gaze did. “I’vebrought an additional squadron to escort you into the city, as requested.”

Oh, he requested that, did he? Beyond Valerisse’s lean frame, I make out several other new soldiers on horseback farther along the road in the fading late-afternoon light. No doubt there are more flanking our procession on the other side as well.

We’re going to look like an invading army rather than honored visitors.

Linus swipes his hands together, his expression all avid approval. “Perfect. Let’s not have the beasts in that city getting any ideas into their heads about trying me. I’ll want you to ensure that several of the soldiers draw close alongside my personal guard when I make my announcement after the pledging of loyalties tomorrow. I expect the situation may become somewhat… chaotic.”

His feral grin sets my nerves jittering again. What fresh horror has he planned for the Lavirians?

It won’t be just delusions of grandeur fueling his demands but a sense of retribution for the attacks the rebels carried out a few months ago. Gods smite him, how far will he think it’s fair to go?

As if fairness ever enters into my husband’s decision-making.

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