Cyrene gaped at the display before her.

Then, she closed her eyes for a few seconds and righted her demeanor. This was what Alise had hoped for. She wanted Cyrene to see Dean as immodest, a soldier, and a flirt. She expected Cyrene to give in to her Byern propriety, to be disgusted, tuck tail, and run the other direction.

She felt a hand at her back and realized Alise’s other motivation. Robard.

“Hey, Ellison,” Robard called. “I brought you something.” He raised his eyebrows and didn’t remove his dirty hand from her fine clothing.

Dean’s eyes snapped up and latched on to her. He opened his mouth to say something, but she had seen enough. She didn’t need to see this. It wasn’t any of her business. Dean Ellison was not the reason she was in Eleysia. Being a toy in the midst of one of his bitter sisters’ plots was not part of her plan.

She shoved Robard away from her and dashed toward the entrance of the barracks. Her magic was firing under her fingertips, like it had done that night in Aurum when Kael coaxed it out of her. Her breathing was ragged, and she couldn’t keep her emotions in check.

This was a setup. A ploy. She knew it for what it was. It was something Jardana would have pulled back home in Byern to try to keep Cyrene away from Kael and to diminish her importance at court. But she hadn’t had to deal with petty court antics in a while, and her heart hadn’t been prepared for it. It was beating fiercely in her chest, and she was terrified of what would happen if she didn’t get herself under control.

Am I going to have another accident, like in Aurum? Could I level the barracks this time?

No. Creator! She couldn’t let this keep happening.

This was why she needed to find Matilde and Vera. Her magic was out of control. If she wasn’t careful, she would do horrible things, and she would have no way to stop it.

“Cyrene!” Dean called behind her.

She turned to look at him as he rushed out after her in nothing but his loincloth. Sweat still coated his skin, and sand coated his skin where he had rolled on the floor of the pit. Up close, he was even bigger and broader than she remembered. And he was blinding to look at.

“I really don’t want to talk about it right now,” Cyrene said, continuing up the hill to the palace. If she talked to him about what she had seen, her magic might erupt, and she could hurt him or take out the palace or worse.

“Cyrene, please! Let me explain.”

“Don’t!” she cried. “Don’t explain. You have nothing to explain. Just…don’t.”

Magic burst free from her fingers, and she felt it pool in her body. Life force. Sweet, beautiful power. Raw and uninhibited. It was perfection as it flooded her, and she could do nothing to stop it.

Tears formed in the corners of her blue eyes, and she hated that it looked as if she were crying over Dean. If only a boy was her biggest problem…

“Those girls—”

“Dean, please. Don’t.”

“I would never do that—”

“Stop!” she cried. She held her hands to her chest.

At any moment, it felt like she would release her powers and destroy the world all over again. She couldn’t do that. She needed to hold on. She needed to keep it together. She could control it. It was possible.

But it felt like it was controlling her at the moment.

He held his hands up. “I just defeated my biggest rival, a man I have been fighting with my entire life. He knows nearly every move I have. It was a fifty-fifty chance, whether or not I would win today. And you bring me to surrender with a glance.”

Cyrene’s heart raced ahead of her at his words. “We don’t even know each other, Dean.”

“Then, let me get to know you. I would never be with another woman. That was not what it looked like back there.”

“I know it wasn’t. Your sister set this all up.”

“Which one?” he demanded.

“Alise.”

Dean growled low, “She will not bother you again. I will take care of it.”

Cyrene shook her head. “I knew what she was doing. She brought me there on purpose, to scare me off.”

“And it worked.”

“I’m not scared off.”

I just need to calm down. Breathe in. Two, three, four. Breathe out. Two, three, four.

“But I’m not here for you either. I don’t know what is going on between us. I don’t know what your looks mean or the kiss in the hall. I don’t know why you’re helping me or even why I’m so upset that I didn’t get to see you for a couple of days, only to find you doing this without my knowledge.”

“I was in training for my Captain’s test,” he said apologetically. “I didn’t think you would want to be there for it. It was the reason I had to return home after spending so much time abroad. And about that kiss…”

He stepped toward her, and she took a step back. Her magic was still hot in her veins, and she couldn’t risk hurting him.

“Please,” she whispered.

“Our ways are different here than in Byern, I believe.”

“Very,” she said. Her cheeks heated as she remembered just how naked he was at the moment.

“I thought I was clear when we first met in the woods, but let me be perfectly clear. I want to court you, Cyrene. Just allow me the opportunity to try with you,” he pleaded.

Cyrene sighed and looked out toward the lake beyond.

What good would come from allowing myself to be courted by the Prince of Eleysia?

He made her erratic, and her magic burst from her fingertips with the crazy emotions running through her body. She was here on a mission, and that didn’t involve another prince. She had enough worries with men back at home.

But, at the same time, the thought of him courting her seemed to settle her heart and her stomach. Her magic lessened and then disappeared…and she hadn’t taken out a building.

“Why me?” she managed to get out.

“Because there is no one else like you, Cyrene.” He bridged the distance between them, and this time, she let him take her hand. “You are brave and loyal. You fight for what you believe in. You are smart and clever and witty and more beautiful than any woman I have ever seen. And I believe I have just scratched the surface of who you are.”

It was so easy with Dean.

No matter her feelings for Edric, the throne had always been between them. The throne and the Queen and the Consort and every other obligation that existed between a king and an Affiliate. Despite his best effort, she had never truly let go with him.

And then there was whatever had happened with Kael. Magic of some sort. Though it made no sense to her. She could never be herself with him. He certainly wanted more from her than she even knew.

But, with Dean, there was none of that. No power struggle. No secrets. No strange pull that she couldn’t explain that seemed to link her to him.

Yet Dean was still the Prince of Eleysia, and she was still an Affiliate of Byern. What could come of this?

“I don’t know what I can offer you,” she whispered.

“You don’t need to offer anything. My training is on hold until after the Eos holiday. Soldiers celebrate the fights and their advancement through the holiday. I’m yours until then.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Just say, you’ll come with me to the Eos ball. Every year, we’re to come with a date to celebrate the end of another year and the birth of a new one, but I never bring anyone. Be my first,” he said.

“I don’t know, Dean.”

“It is my birthday,” he added with a cheeky grin.

How can I say no to that? “Okay, Dean, I’ll go with you,” she said.

She just prayed to the Creator that she wasn’t making a horrible mistake in accepting his invitation.