As Cyrene raised her arm to knock on the door, an explosion rocked the ground all around them. Elea was helplessly tossed back. A rip could be heard as she fell, catching her dress. Cyrene clutched on to the doorframe. Her knees were wobbly, and she banged her elbow against the wall but managed to stay on her feet.

She let go of the door with shaky hands as the aftermath of the event passed. She stepped over to Elea and held her hand out.

“What in the Creator’s name was that?” Cyrene asked with a shake of her head.

Elea’s eyes were wide, and her dress was torn down the seam, revealing her creamy white leg beneath. “I have no idea! But it ruined my new dress. Mother is going to kill me.”

“Let’s deal with that after we figure out what happened.”

Cyrene turned back to face the door where the explosion had just come from…where Rhea was supposed to be. Then, with a determination she had for most things in her life, she strode through the door without knocking. What she found made her pause only a few feet into the room.

“Rhea?” she gasped.

The room was cavernous. It dwarfed the hallways that they had come from with a glass circular opening far above, shining light into the dark room. And there was Rhea, huddled in a corner, shaking. She was dressed in a man’s breeches and had some protective goggles hanging around her neck.

Her head snapped up at Cyrene’s voice. Her eyes widened. “Cyrene?”

“It’s me,” she said with a smile. “What in the Creator’s name are you doing in here?”

Cyrene tentatively moved into the room with Elea on her heels. As she approached Rhea, she noticed black soot on her clothes and hands.

Rhea shook her head and seemed disoriented. “Working.”

“There was an explosion of some sort. Are you injured?”

Rhea laughed manically and shook her head. “Hardly.”

She rose to her feet and sighed, running a hand back through her bright red hair, which was stark against her pale cheeks. She chewed on her pink lips and smudged some soot onto her forehead.

“When did you get back? How did you get back?” Rhea asked.

“No one told you?” Cyrene asked. Her appearance had been news for the whole kingdom. She was shocked to find someone in the castle who wasn’t aware.

“I don’t really venture out. I mostly stick to my work.”

“And what work would that be?”

Rhea glanced absentmindedly to a table with a bunch of powders and apparatuses on it. “Are you even going to hug me? We haven’t seen each other in months.”

Elea laughed. “And ruin her dress?”

Rhea’s eyes drifted to Elea. “It seems she wouldn’t be the only one.”

“It was your explosion that did it!”

“It’s fine,” Cyrene interjected.

She pulled Rhea into a hug. The last thing she cared about was her dress.

“You’re going to need to change before Consort—” Elea coughed slightly. “Apologies. Before Daufina finds you.”

Rhea’s eyebrows rose. “Why did you apologize?”

“I’m to be consort,” Cyrene told her, point-blank.

“What?” Rhea gasped. “How? Why?”

“All excellent questions.”

“Why are you even surprised?” Elea asked. “And shouldn’t you be happy for her?”

“I’m…just…” Rhea shook her head. “I didn’t expect this.”

“No one did,” Cyrene confirmed. “Least of all, me.”

“It’s so wonderful. Lady Cauthorn is making her a new gown. Daufina is training her to take over her position. The king is ecstatic with her return. The castle is celebrating!”

Cyrene and Rhea shot each other meaningful looks. She knew what her friend was thinking without her having to say it. They had much to discuss. That was clear.

“What is wrong with you two?” Elea asked. “Don’t act as if I don’t know the two of you. I’m missing something. What details am I missing?”

“Nothing,” Cyrene said at once. “I’m just overwhelmed, being back and immediately being thrust into court life. I’m unaccustomed to it. Out of practice. I just want a minute alone with Rhea, if that’s all right? You could try to catch Lady Cauthorn to fix your dress before she leaves. Then, Mother would never know.”

Elea straightened slightly, and Cyrene could tell that her request had hurt her sister. She hated doing it, but she wasn’t prepared to tell Elea everything that had occurred in the last year.

“Fine,” she said, turning on her heel.

“Elea,” Cyrene called.

“Just let her go,” Rhea said. “She’s been strutting around the castle with adolescent torment. I love her, but she always was the baby. I think she believes it’s only a matter of time before she falls into line here and can be treated like an adult.”

Cyrene stared after Elea’s retreating back. There was nothing she could do about it, but having Elea upset with her wouldn’t help with getting her out of the castle.

“Cyrene, what is going on?” Rhea asked.

She whirled back around to face her friend. “Everything has gone wrong, Rhea. I wish we had more time. I was brought back from Eleysia before I could complete my training, and Edric has made me consort against my wishes.”

“So then, you found what you were looking for?” Rhea asked.

Cyrene nodded. “I did.”

“That’s incredible.”

Cyrene opened her mouth to tell her that the price for discovering her powers was not worth it. That she wished it had never happened to her at all. That she wished she still had Elea’s innocence about everything. Finding out that she had been lied to her entire life—that magic existed; Affiliates were sneered at around the rest of the world; and maybe, just maybe, men and women weren’t even as equal as she had thought. So much change, so fast.

“I need to leave,” Cyrene told Rhea instead.

“Already?”

“It’s not safe for me here. I had an assassination attempt on the boat on the way here and another one last night on my way to my room. If I remain, I will die.”

Rhea bit her lip, and her green eyes widened. “What are you going to do? How can I help?”

Cyrene shook her head. “I don’t want it connected to you. Daufina has a plan to smuggle me, Ahlvie, and Orden out of the castle.”

“Daufina? You trust her? Didn’t you take her job?”

“And wouldn’t it behoove her to see me gone?”

“True. I worry.”

“Rhea, come with me,” Cyrene said, taking her hands. “Think about it. I can get you away from here. Out from under the thumb of the Class system and to a place where you can really use your talents.”

Cyrene had never thought those words would come out of her mouth.

Byern was set up with three classes. First Class was the ruling class—Affiliates and High Order. They received a higher education and oversaw the other classes. In other places she had ventured, she had found them to be called lords and ladies. The Second Class was the military and all the new royal guard. While Third Class was all mercantile, farming, and service positions. Each person at the age of seventeen was brought before the court, and the class fate was determined. She had always dreaded the thought of joining a lower class, as Rhea had done when she was moved to Second and into Master Barca’s care. Now, she was beginning to believe that these people had more freedom than she ever would…if not, as much opportunity.

“Cyrene, you know that I cannot,” Rhea said softly.

“But why not? With what I know now, I know that we could survive on our own.”

Rhea shook her head. “I’m sorry. I have…work here to do.”

“What? Slave away for Master Barca and deliver things for the king on his whim? That is no life.”

“Cyrene, stop. Do not come into my workplace and judge me,” Rhea said defensively. “I love you. I understand why you have to leave. I understand why you left before. I always knew that you were meant for more. Do not ask me to be like you. I am not.”

Cyrene took a step back and glanced away. Of course. Of course, Rhea would stay. Cyrene had begged the last time, but Rhea had stayed behind. She couldn’t get her best friend back. Just replace the hole in her heart where Maelia had been.

“Cyrene…”

“No, you’re right,” Cyrene said. “But…I need your help.”

“Anything.”

“I need Elea to come with me.” Cyrene’s eyes landed back on Rhea’s table full of tricks. “And I need one of your explosions for a distraction.”

The next few days dragged.

Cyrene didn’t see either of the Dremylon boys in all her time training with Daufina. She tried to think of it as a positive, but she had gotten used to feeling that spark fly between them. It was unnerving, how much she missed it.

Not that she wanted to run into Edric after what had happened between them. She assumed that he was keeping his distance after her rejection, but it didn’t explain Kael. He’d claimed that he was going to come see her after the attack. However, he never showed up, and she had no idea what he was doing.

And she hated how that made her feel. That she felt anything at all in his absence.

Worse…she hated that she could walk back into the Nit Decus castle and fall seamlessly into the fold. She had been gone for months, and after only a few days, it was as if she had never left. In fact, it was even better than before she had been gone. With the queen on bedrest, she wasn’t there to harass Cyrene at every turn.

The training she was receiving from Daufina was legitimate, too. Even though they were planning to leave the castle, she couldn’t completely ignore their training, or someone would get suspicious. So, sun up to sun down, Cyrene would sit with Daufina and learn the tricks of the trade.

The more she explained the job, the more exhausted Cyrene got at the prospect. The consort did everything. Daily tasks with her select Affiliates and High Order, managing court, strategy meetings, any and everything the king wished, Presentings, all holiday events, and the list went on. Cyrene couldn’t imagine how Daufina did it all. Where she found the time.

Cyrene was lounging backward on a chaise as Daufina described a typical day.

Cyrene groaned. “When do you sleep?”

Daufina smirked at her. “When the king permits it.”

“You have all this power, and you’re still subject to a man,” Cyrene muttered.

“Bite your tongue, girl,” Daufina growled.

“Just think about it,” Cyrene continued.

Daufina hadn’t had experience outside of these walls, as Cyrene had. She couldn’t possibly see how absurd the entire notion was.

“You have the highest position in court that isn’t royal. Yet you, above everyone, are subject to the whim of one man. You work harder and do more to keep this country afloat, and what do you get as thanks? Sleepless nights?”

“Some consorts enjoy their sleepless nights,” Daufina said with a grin.

Cyrene wasn’t surprised that she wouldn’t comment on the rest of her statement. “And have you ever enjoyed your sleepless nights?”

“A lady never kisses and tells,” Daufina said with a coy smile that said yes.

She and Edric had most certainly been intimate. Though Cyrene suspected they weren’t currently, or perhaps Edric never would have replaced her.

“Have there been others?”

Daufina glanced down and shook her head. “Edric is a loyal and faithful man. Even to his detriment.”

“And I am his detriment,” Cyrene guessed.

“You are his weakness, and if I had known then what I know now, I would have listened to Kaliana.”

Cyrene took it for the slap that it was and sat back hard. It was Daufina who had spoken up in her favor to be made Affiliate. Kaliana had opposed the choice from the beginning. She wondered if his fate would still have been the same if they had moved her to Third Class and gotten rid of her.

She returned to her rooms with the thought heavy on her mind. She had only just reached her door when the ground rumbled under her feet. With wide eyes, she latched on to the doorframe for support until it passed. Then, she darted out of her corridor and to the rapidly filling hallways beyond.

Everyone was speaking at once, no one knowing what the noise was. Many people had been pulled out of their beds from an early night, concerned that the castle was under attack. Cyrene blended into the crowd, keeping her head down and hoping that no one looked at her too closely.

Her heart was hammering in her chest, and her veins were filled with adrenaline as the lust for escape took over. It was finally time. After all of those days, she didn’t have to wait any longer. She usually jumped at every opportunity to put her plans into place as soon as possible, but she had believed Daufina when she said she needed time to do it right. Plus, she hadn’t heard anything more from Lady Cauthorn. And the distance was too great to reach Avoca. Cyrene knew where she was, generally speaking, but she couldn’t call to her. Cyrene was truly on her own.

She darted down another hall and into the alcove where she had agreed to meet Daufina. But she wasn’t there. Cyrene tensed, wondering if Daufina would betray her. Try to use her to prove her point that Cyrene shouldn’t be consort. It seemed like such a risk for her though. She paced back and forth in the small alcove in frustration until a face appeared.

She jumped backward with her hand on her heart. “You frightened me,” Cyrene told Daufina, who looked as serene and unconcerned as ever.

“We must move. Your friend’s distraction will only last a short time.”

Cyrene nodded and hastened after Daufina down the deserted hallway. Cyrene prayed to the Creator that their luck would hold out.

They spiraled ever downward as they approached the dungeons. The guard on duty was fast asleep at his post. Cyrene nudged him, but he didn’t waken.

“What did you do to him?” Cyrene asked with a newfound appreciation for Daufina’s brilliance.

“Sleeping draught. He’ll be out for a while.”

Cyrene shuddered. The thought of being knocked out made her physically ill. She would suffer anything to avoid that again.

Daufina removed the keys from a bag at her waist and hurried down to the last cell on the right. “Oh, dear.”

“What?” Cyrene asked. She jogged to meet Daufina and stared into the cell where her friends were supposed to be. “It’s empty!”