Page 45 of To Ashes and Dust
“He has a right to speak at the table as Kyrios,” Damien said. “Regardless of how little we like it.”
Xander sighed. “Sometimes, our laws are easily abused by those who aren’t as kind as you or me, Damien. He’s worked the system to his own benefit for too long.”
“And here I thought I was early,” a man’s voice called from behind Xander, cutting the conversation short.
He was tall with smooth tawny skin, his silky black hair swept back out of his face. “Damien! Xander!” His eyes settled on me as he stepped beside Xander, and for a moment there was a speculative look on his face, his brows furrowing as he gave me a once over but softened almost immediately. Damien’s hand squeezed mine, but he showed no other outward reaction aside from that.
He bowed his head low, laying a kiss on my hand. “Cas, I presume.”
I forced a smile, uneasy, and I shifted my weight from one side to the other. “And you are?”
“Forgive me, Your Majesty, I’ve forgotten my manners. I am Hector, Kyrios of House Psukh?.”
I didn’t know how many times I could handle being called majesty or queen, or whatever else. My skin heated, but I met his gaze with a smile. House Psukh?, the house that controlled objects with their minds. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Hector.”
He turned his eyes to Damien, and the change in subject was unsettling, as if he’d just passed over our meeting to get to other more important things. “You didn’t, by chance, bring any of that ambrosia liquor today, did you? I feel we’re going to need it.”
“Did Semele get another shipment?” Xander asked, suddenly onboard at the mention of alcohol.
“These meetings aren’t for us to get drunk,” Damien said, a crooked grin breaking across his face.
I slid a sideways glance to Damien before looking at Xander, a smile lacing my voice with humor. “Why do I get the feeling those stories you spoke involved a lot of ambrosia liquor?”
The words almost didn’t feel like my own, and a strange confidence settled in my chest. I had noticed that with each new memory, the way I spoke had almost shifted, not quite formal, but just... different. Perhaps it was my past lives speaking through me, a ‘merging’, as Damien had described it. I hoped it would help me navigate whatever games the Kyrios might play, help me appear more like the goddesses who had ruled before me.
Xander laughed. “I’ll make a deal with you: a story for a story. You tell me how a human rises to fight alongside the Lord of Shadows as his equal, and I’ll tell you a story of how much trouble we got into when we broke into a God’s personal stash of Godswine and brierleaf.”
I slid a glance to Damien from the corner of my eye, biting my lip as I fought the smile spreading across my face. He met my gaze with a proud smirk.
Murmured voices echoed in from the entrance at the other end of the great room, and I lifted my eyes to find a pair of men entering together, so absorbed in their conversation that I wondered if they even noticed us. Briefly, I met one’s eyes as he acknowledged our presence, and Damien politely excused us from Xander and Hector to lead me toward the newcomers.
“Good evening, Your Majesty,” one said, lowering his head of brown hair to Damien before he lifted his pale eyes to me. “Lady Cas, I presume?”
My eyes passed briefly over his face. His hardened features hinted he was a seasoned warrior—three faint scars lined his left cheek, stretching over his jaw, leaving a path down his beard like claw marks. I wondered how he’d gotten them. Had he been scarred by the darklings?
Damien spoke for me when I struggled to think straight. “Your presumptions would be correct, Alec.”
Alec. I thought through everything Damien had taught me the night before. He was the Kyrios of House Thiríon, the shifters, the house Zephyr and Thalia belonged to. “It’s nice to meet you, Alec. I’m happy to finally meet the Kyrios of my brother’s house.”
Alec’s brows rose, as if he was surprised I knew who he was. “Zephyr is an exceptional warrior, my queen. I’m proud to call him a member of my house.”
So, he knew Zephyr was Elena’s brother. I wondered how old Alec was—how old any of the Kyrios were. Had he been around to know me as Elena? As Lucia? The thought made me even more nervous in the ways I might be compared to them. They’d had a lifetime to prepare to rule and govern.
I’d had barely a couple months, and they hadn’t been spent preparing to lead.
I glanced from the corner of my eye at the male standing idly by, listening and waiting. His black hair was cut short along his skull, and he was dressed in a coat of rich emerald that draped over his beautifully rich umber skin. His shoulders were squared, and he stood tall and proud, his face sharp yet so gentle, it seemed it had never been marred with hatred. He looked warm, kind, as if he’d nurture a person’s very soul.
He lifted his hand. “Your Majesty,” he said with an accent similar to Damien’s as he dipped his head to me.
My gaze fell from his pale eyes down to the hand he extended, where a single seed lay. Green light shimmered to life in his palm, and a stem sprouted, twisting and growing until a bud formed. I drew a sharp breath as the bud burst into a full bloom of almost translucent petals, splashed with various shades of blues and grays.
I couldn’t breathe as I watched the magic come to life before my eyes. He took hold of the bloom, handing it to me. “It is an honor to meet you, mate of my lord.”
My eyes remained fixated on the delicate bloom as he placed it in my hand, captivated by the petals. It was like they had been painted with watercolors. I’d never seen a flower like it.
“It’s a lunassia,” he said with a gentle smile as if he knew the question lingering on my tongue. “They only grow in the Astral Mountains of the Godsrealm. I hope it pleases you, Goddess.”
“Thank you. It’s beautiful. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Aster,” I said with a smile, lifting my eyes to him. Damien told me of House Dendron and the power they wielded to manipulate plants. Recently, I’d found out Anna was of House Dendron, that she used it in her garden, but I’d never been able to see it. I’d struggled to grasp how exactly the magic worked. It made sense watching the power unveil itself before my eyes now. It was beautiful.
