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The palace floor was freezing cold, so cold that Kaliena half-expected it to be covered in a sheen of frost. She felt the cold creep up through her slippers, and imagined for the prisoner, on his hands and knees before the Council, it must be much worse. 

"This is the boy, then?" Lady Drei asked, her voice as cold and unyielding as that icy floor. Nods from the rest of the seated nobles. 

Kaliena tucked her feet discreetly behind her voluminous skirts, rubbing them together in a pitiful effort to warm them. 

"Very good," said Lady Drei. "Lord Fleming, Lady Fleming, you have heard the queen's decree."

"It would be Lady Kaliena's honor to accept," said her mother, and Kaliena felt her stomach clench in dread. 

She looked over at the prisoner, a bruised form on the floor, curled up like a wounded animal. What if he killed her? What if he killed her parents? 

What if he killed himself?

This last thought was so horrifying, Kaliena could not hear the next words that were spoken for the blood roaring in her ears. As if in a trance, she stared at the crumpled form of the prisoner on the floor before the Council. 

"Lady Kaliena!"

She snapped back to attention. "I apologize."

Lady Drei did not look pleased. "You will train the boy for a month, as if he were a proper fighter, for the culmination celebration of the Crown Prince's birthday. Do you understand?"

If she were Jared, she would have stood and spoke out. If she were Veya, she would have made a brilliant plan to escape. 

But Jared and Veya were gone, and now it was only her staring down a table full of cruel and selfish nobles, ones who would seize upon any weakness she dared show. 

So Kaliena nodded as demurely as she could. "It would be my honor."

She felt her mother sigh in relief beside her, not enough for her father to notice. 

"Boy!" Lady Drei called, mockingly. The prisoner did not move. "Prison scum, do you hear me?"

Silence. Kaliena feared, for a brief and horrid moment, that he was dead from his wounds. 

Then he stirred. He looked up slowly, as if it hurt to move any faster. His expression was like a statue in a graveyard- unmoved and unmoving, indifferent to the whims of fate. But it was his eyes that stole Kaliena's breath away.

In a court built out of precious jewels and fine filigree, the most beautiful thing Kaliena had ever seen was the blue of the prisoner's eyes. They were like frozen, stormy seas, ringed with a blue so dark it was nearly black. The more Kaliena looked at them, the more she felt as though she was drowning in them. 

"What do they call you?" Lady Drei asked. The boy did not look away from Kaliena, nor she from him. 

"Lukas Steele," he replied. His voice was hoarse and rasping, the way Kaliena imagined a cloud of smoke would sound. 

"Lukas Steele," Lady Drei repeated like it was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard. "You will be trained by Lady Kaliena to compete in-"

"I know," Lukas interrupted. Kaliena and the rest of the council froze at his insolence. 

A muscle ticked in Lady Drei's jaw, but she said nothing else. Lukas shut his eyes, and the loss of that endless blue echoed somewhere deep within Kaliena's chest.

"Take him to his chambers," said Lord Ferrell, sounding immensely bored. "He must begin training right away, if he is to present a real challenge to the other competitors."

Derisive laughter broke out among the rest of the Council members. Half of the nobles began to leave, chatting amiably as if they hadn't just sentenced a boy to certain death. 

Kaliena seized her chance.

She slipped out from between her parents, making her way over to where Lukas was kneeling, and crouched down beside him. "Are you all right?"

He opened one eye. "Well enough."

He was a rotten liar. 

"Come with me," Kaliena said gently, casting a nervous glance back to where her parents were talking with Lord Farrell. 

She offered him her hand and tried for her most confident smile. "I have something that will help with the bruising."

"Leave it alone," he snarled, but he took her hand.

"Never," Kaliena said firmly.

A bitter smile flickered around his mouth, but it was gone in an instant as he forced himself to his feet again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 "In here, young man. Step this way."

Kaliena had been waiting by the bronze doors for the better part of an hour while Lukas was forcibly bathed and cleaned by a team of very determined stylists. There had been a lot of swearing and splashing, but now it was quiet- and Kaliena was nervous. 

The left door swung open without a sound, and warm, buttery-yellow light spilled into the darkened corridor like a river of gold. 

Lukas appeared in the doorway, silhouetted against the candlelight, and for a moment Kaliena thought he was a ghost.  But then he moved towards her, refusing to meet her eyes, his hands clasped behind his back- and he was mortal again. 

They'd dressed him in formal black and silver, with fitted trousers and frighteningly shiny boots, and combed his messy dark hair away from his face. His eyes gleamed at her like two blue stars in the gloom. 

"I..." he trailed away, obviously thinking of something else. "Am I presentable?"

His rough and smoky voice had been smoothed with hot tea into a velvety baritone, one that made Kaliena warm all over. She pinched herself hard. She was behaving like some foolish young girl over her first love, and it would never do.

She knew what she ought to say to him. That he looked handsome and sophisticated, and ready for the Court. But she knew as well as he did that being forced to serve the very Empire that imprisoned you was cruelty of the highest order. 

"I'm sorry," Kaliena said instead, and on an impulse, took his hands. They were freezing cold. "I'm sorry they've done this to you."

Finally he met her eyes, and his expression was so wounded Kaliena had to draw upon all her self control to stop from pulling him into the warmest embrace she could manage. 

"I'm sorry," she said again, feeling very stupid.

"I know," he replied softly, and on his perfect, perfect lips there was a ghost of a smile. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You dance very well for a novice," Kaliena told Lukas, "but court etiquette is another beast entirely. You bow to anyone who is a noble. Come, come. Show me the bow."

Lukas paused, then bowed much too deeply at his waist. Kaliena stifled a giggle. 

"A little too low," she said, struggling to keep herself from smiling. "You bow only a bit for another noble. It's more of a tilt than anything else."

"A tilt," he repeated sarcastically. "Why didn't you say so?"

"I'm an awful teacher," Kaliena sighed. "But it is a tilt. Let's see it again."

Lukas bowed once more, but it was still much too deep. Kaliena bit her lip against the laughter that bubbled up in her chest. If he persisted in bowing like that, everyone would think he was crazy.

Nine years in the Revium,  Kaliena remembered in a sudden flash of grief and horror. Perhaps he  was crazy. The thought sobered her. "A little less. Do it again." 

Lukas gave her a long-suffering look, and bowed again. Still too low.

"What on earth...?"

Both of them turned to find Annika, Lukas's friend- or...something- from the Revium, dressed in her maid's uniform and twirling a fat duster between her fingers.

"No one invited y ou ," Lukas drawled, putting his hands on his hips. 

Annika rolled her eyes and mimicked his pose with even more attitude.

"Please, Steele," she snorted. "I'm a maid. I can go anywhere I want in this stinking metal heap. Do that funny bow again. I haven't laughed so hard in minutes."

Kaliena smiled fiercely at Lukas to keep from giggling at their banter. "Do it again so Annika can see it. Now you have a bigger audience to practice for." 

"Fine," Lukas grumbled, "but I'm doing this for you , Lady Kaliena. Not for the maid over there."

Kaliena felt herself blush- oh, what a fool she was!- but neither of the two noticed. 

Lukas took a deep breath and bowed, and Kaliena barely resisted the urge to face-palm.

Annika burst out laughing. 

"What?" he demanded, once he'd come back up. "You look like I murdered your grandmother."

"You're bowing too deeply," Kaliena told him. "Here, I'll show you."

She walked over to him, and when she gently placed a hand on his back, he flinched. 

"I'm not going to hurt you," Kaliena said softly. Her earlier humor vanished. What had he suffered, that a friendly hand frightened him? "Lean forward."

Lukas obliged her. 

"Stop right there."

Lukas stopped, then turned and frowned at her. "That's barely a bow!"

"That's the way we bow to other nobles," Kaliena explained. "Now do it on your own."

"Do it again!" Annika hooted from the other side of the room. "The infamous Lukas Steele, bowing and scraping like a little peacock.

Lukas turned to her, his face perfectly calm, and bowed so sarcastically Kaliena couldn't keep from laughing. 

"That was perfect!" she giggled, and clapped her hands. "Again!"

Something like a smile hovered about his mouth, and he did as she asked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What is this, some kind of torture?"

"They're new," Kaliena sighed, slicking her hair back. The valet uniform she'd been assigned to wear was starchy and much too big, and she felt as though she was wearing a ship's sail. "They're going to pinch a bit. You didn't break them in last week, did you?"

Lukas at least had the grace to look embarrassed.

"I didn't think so," Kaliena murmured, and pretended not to see his half-amused smirk in the mirror. "Hold still."

She got down to her knees- the valet trousers were wondrously flexible, unlike her usual skirts- and began buckling the twenty-five tiny buckles that ran up the sides of each boot. The toes were capped with gold, and those Kaliena had painstakingly polished this morning. "Does that pinch?"

"Yes," Lukas muttered. "But it doesn't matter."

"Try not to dance too much," Kaliena jokingly advised him. Despite being a natural at it, Lukas despised dancing with the other courtiers at balls. It was perfectly understandable, at least in Kaliena's opinion, to not want to be merry with the people who would just as soon flirt with you as see you die in a mechanical prison. 

"This jacket feels strange," Lukas told her when she was finished with his boots. She straightened, and began fidgeting with the elegantly tailored dress jacket, cut to accentuate Lukas' slim figure. 

"It's the seam at the back," she said, reaching around him to trace it. "Feel that? I'll have it covered with silk before your next function."

"Tight shoes and a sharp seam," he muttered, his breath puffing across her cheek. Kaliena was suddenly very aware of how close they were- her hand on his back, his head so close to hers they could almost be dancing. 

Her heart felt suffused with light and heat, and her stomach twisted in a pleasant knot.

"Kaliena?"

She loved the way he said her name, like it was sacred. "Yes, Lukas."

"Am I ready?"

Kaliena snapped back into reality, and realized she'd been standing there with her hand on his back for who knows how long. She felt her cheeks flame with embarrassment, and stepped back much too quickly. "Yes. You look wonderful."

"Hey," he said, and caught her chin with his left hand. His frozen blue eyes met hers, and it took all of Kaliena's willpower not to sigh. "Are you all right?"

"I am well," she replied breathlessly. "Go. Enjoy yourself."

"For you, I will," he muttered, and his lips quirked in weary humor. 

It was barely a smile, but Kaliena drank it in anyways, and locked it up safe in her heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The halls of the palace were freezing this early in the morning. The only fires burning were the ones in the kitchen, a wing away. Kaliena felt the familiar chill of the beautiful floors soak into her ragged slippers, but she didn't mind it. 

She hadn't slept a wink. Her thoughts had been of nothing but eyes as blue as a winter sea, and the way he said her name, and the lightheaded warmth she felt whenever he danced with her. 

Her excuse was that she was bringing his laundry to his rooms, but really, Kaliena needed to see Lukas again to make sure he wasn't just a dream. 

The massive doors that led to the guest chamber were cracked open slightly. Kali frowned to herself and slipped in. 

Inside, the room was softly quiet, and draped in the dreamy grey that floats over the world just before sunrise. The sheets on the bed were all in a tangle, the pillows were strewn across the bed and the floor. A lone figure stood at the bay window, wrapped in a duvet. 

"Lukas?" Kaliena whispered, afraid to shatter what felt like holy silence. 

He half turned, and saw her standing there with a pile of laundry and her silver-white hair in a loose braid for the night. "Kaliena."

Not knowing what to do, Kaliena went to the chest that sat at the foot of his bed, and gently set his laundry down. 

"Good morning," Lukas said, softly. His dark hair was a disheveled mess, and it made him look so much younger and gentler. His eyes were as clear and perfect as dewdrops. "Have any dreams?"

"None," Kaliena said truthfully. She felt herself walking towards him like she was bespelled. "You?"

"Nightmares," he replied, sliding his arm through hers as easily as if they had known one another for years and years. "Nothing unusual."

"I'm sorry," Kaliena said, and they were both quiet for a while after that. 

The view out the window was spectacular. Lukas' room was situated just above the royal gardens, which were filled with beautiful sculptures crafted from the finest metal and delicately blown glass. The rising sun always seemed to set those elegantly wrought sculptures afire. 

It was rising now. 

Kaliena sighed and rested her head on Lukas' stiff shoulder. She had many duties to complete today, and she was already weary of them. If she could only stay here, in this exact moment, with Lukas' heart beating against her own for the rest of her life...surely she would be blissfully happy. 

"I must go," she said after a while. "It is almost time for breakfast."

"Will I see you later?" Lukas asked, turning to face her. He had eyes like the endless heavens, imperishable and immortally beautiful. A girl could lose herself in eyes like those. 

"Yes," Kaliena replied faintly, trying to remember what she was saying yes to. "Yes, you have combat lessons with me this afternoon."

"Good," he replied. "I'll see you then."

He dipped his head to kiss her, and it felt so natural, so right, that Kaliena didn't even think about how they had never once expressed sentiments to each other warmer than friendship.  His body and hands were as cold and hard as the knife he clutched in his sleep, but his mouth was wondrously soft and warm, and Kaliena melted against him. She felt as though the sun were rising inside her chest. 

As soon as it had begun, it ended, and Lukas was pulling himself away with a horrified look on his face. "Kaliena, I- I didn't- I mean, I-"

She placed her hand over his mouth, and closed her eyes briefly when he gently kissed her fingers. "It's all right, Lukas. I love you."

"You couldn't," he hissed, but his eyes were focused on her. "Not me."

"I can," Kaliena replied firmly, feeling as though her heart was full to bursting with light and heavenly music. "And I do. I love you, Lukas Steele."

"Oh," Lukas whispered. His eyes filled with wonder, and he caught his breath when Kaliena took his cold hands in her own and clasped them to her chest. "Oh."

And then very slowly, he smiled. 

Beyond the palace walls, the sun was rising.