Unlike me, her steps are oozing with confidence, her hips sweep, and her superior grin lights up her heart-shaped face and narrow, calculating eyes. She also has a friend on her arm.
Not like me at all.
“Seleste, are you here for another mass execution?” Zulu mocks. OUT LOUD.
In the past, she wouldn’t have dared to say anything like that in front of a crowd.
Humiliation. That’s the only word for the heat spreading across my cheeks. She can tell. Her lips arch into a smirk
The storm inside me stirs with a violent need to deliver exactly what she is asking for.
I need to do better. I need to remain calm.
The fight to contain the cursed power slows my response, and Zulu reads my silence as discomfort, or defence, or her winning the argument, and I hate that she is correct in that assumption.
She raises a brow and lifts her chin higher. Maybe her neck will snap?
“The truth hurts, huh?”
Her friend Nina, the Santorili priest’s daughter, pinches her. My humiliation only deepens when I don’t find any smart retorts for Zulu, so I smile as she is beneath me and let Nina play it out for me.
“Be nice,” Nina hisses and shoots me a dimpled smile. “Nice to see you, Seleste. Are you here for the Solstice celebration? My father would love to have you attend.”
Why is it always something?
“You know me, I wouldn’t miss the party.” I sway my hips, accentuating the hidden meaning.
“We know you, that’s the problem,” Zulu sneers, her manicured fingers wagging, then points to her temple, making a circle.
“You are a charmer, like always. Are you sure you are related to Jestin?” I make a production of looking for him and I find him near the stage, talking to Samira’s mate.
“Don’t mind her.” Nina slips an arm around me, and my whole body stiffens. She sighs, the sound full of weary irritation, as if giving me an inch of space is too much to ask, but she eases her hold.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t actually step away.
Worse, she leans to fake whisper in my ear. “Zulunda’s crush didn’t ask her out, so she is sulking.” She lowers her tone theatrically, looking at her friend, who glares at her with the expression usually reserved for me. “She’s a little extra today, because of it.”
“Gods spared him.” I smile, pleased to finally land a proper hit. “Good for him.”
“Are you trying to insult me?” Zulu asks.
No shit.
“That depends—do you find the truth insulting?” My tone drips with sugar, the kind I save just for her. From the corner of my eye, I spot Jestin strolling towards me.
I finally dismiss Zulu and Nina, and immediately regret it when I see their shocked expressions.
Old habits die hard; I can count it as the first misstep of the day.
I turn to Jestin, already wearing a holiday robe and looking extra good this morning. When his face brightens the moment he catches my stare, I am smitten once again.
“Nothing could make my Solstice brighter than your presence, Seleste.” His deep voice effortlessly carries across the room, and he bows at the waist, maintaining eye contact with me. Then he straightens, glancing at his sister with a mocking expression.
I more than admire the jab.
“Thank you for the feast…” I find myself smiling, “..and for the mead. It was a treat.”
Nina bows, then drags Zulu to the first row, the latter wearing a particularly ugly scoff.
