I set my jaw and inhaled a great breath of air. I would return to the ballroom. I would warn the emperor. As it turned out, I was not prepared for the cost of greatness.
I rounded the corner past the pillar and prepared to run. But as I launched myself, I collided with someone rushing toward me. My headdress was knocked from my hands and slid down the main corridor, the pearl ropes skittering along the marble. I moved to retrieve it, but a girl caught my arm.
“Sovereign Auraseer?” she said. Her r’s rolled in a heavy accent.
I snapped my gaze to her—the Esten Auraseer. “What are you doing?” I blinked as panic flashed through my veins. It might have been hers. In the darkness, I saw the whites of her eyes. She hadn’t removed her trembling grip from my arm.
Through our heightened connection, I confirmed my earlier instinct—she had been abused by Floquart de Bonpré, and in more ways than I cared to imagine. I felt a hint of his foul aura inside her, as if it was imprisoned there and she’d forgotten how to let it go.
“Ne pas lui faire confiance!” she pleaded.
“Pardon?”
She leaned nearer. “Do not trust him!”
My heart pounded with misgiving. “Who?”
“Sonya?” a man called, a stone’s throw away down the main corridor.
The Esten Auraseer flinched and darted into the darkness behind me. “Wait!” I hissed, but it was no use. She had disappeared, as well as her frightened aura.
Footsteps approached. “Is that you?” the man called again. This time I recognized his voice, felt his signature energy.
“Valko?” It was the first time I’d addressed him by name. I didn’t apologize. I was too relieved to see him.
He came forward into the light of a glowing candle sconce. In his hands was my headdress. “Did you drop this?”
I nodded. “I—I tripped and it fell off.” I didn’t wish to implicate the Esten Auraseer since she clearly hadn’t wanted the emperor to see her.
Valko accepted my poor explanation without question. He seemed to have something of more importance on his mind. He guided me around the corner from where I’d emerged and placed my headdress on a table set between two doors. As he turned back to me, his aura shifted in intensity and made my nerve ends tingle. “I was worried about you,” he said, his gaze searching my face. “Are you feeling better?”
I shook my head. I didn’t know where to begin. I was still rattled from my mysterious encounter with the Esten Auraseer. Had she meant to warn me of Floquart? Or was she more practiced than I was and sensed the danger emitted from Anton? Did it matter? Both men were likely co-conspirators.
I tried again to speak again, to form the words to condemn the prince, but they caught in my throat. I had no real proof of his betrayal, and my suspicions alone might be enough to have him harmed. Perhaps worse. I couldn’t send Anton to his death just as surely as I couldn’t send Valko to his.
The emperor came so close our noses brushed. I released a quivering breath. He studied me. “You feel it too, don’t you, Sonya?”
“What?”
“This,” he replied. “The deep bond between us.” His fingers trailed up my wrists to my shoulders and slipped along the silk of my sleeve. My head spun as my chest expanded with a surge of overruling rapture.
“I feel it,” I whispered. How could I not? His aura was so powerful, and, starved as I was, I felt so weak. Weak against my own attraction to him. I tipped my head back and leaned closer. I shivered with anticipation of the press of his lips. I bared my teeth and prepared to bite.
I gasped and pulled back, shocked with myself, at the darkness still reigning inside me. I fought to quell it and collect my thoughts. Valko was in danger. I had to warn him. But I didn’t need to mention Anton. I could simply caution him about Floquart.
“What is it?” Valko stroked my face like a child’s. He was so patient with me, so tender. But why? Why on the night he’d committed to marrying another?
“We can’t do this.” I batted his hand away. “Floquart—”
“Is that what this is all about?” He laughed. “Are you worried about the emissary?”
“You’re in peril, My Lord.”
“Floquart knows I do not love Delphine. I’ve never even met her. Love is not a factor in a royal marriage. Monarchs must look elsewhere for that.” He came at me again, so quickly I couldn’t deny him. Our lips met. His kiss stoked a fire in my belly. The scalding was so sweet, it took me several long moments to break away.