“It’s a yes. I’ll wear the dress.”
Thorne squeezes my shoulder. It’s like a promise. Like a gift.
Then carefully, and as slowly as before, he removes his hand and steps away from me.
I spin around immediately and find his face full of concentration and tension. It took a lot for him to hold back his shadows and touch me like that. Nonetheless, I’m encouraged by it. A first step. I think this will be the start of something more between us.
“Come on then,” Fly says, hurrying me towards the bathroom, “we don’t have much time left and I need to make you beautiful.”
“I thought you said I was beautiful.”
“Meh,” he says, “that was them.Ithink there’s room for improvement.”
The other three all start arguing with him at once, but Fly pays no attention, dragging me, the dress, and his make-up bag of tricks into the bathroom.
I thought the bathrooms back in the Princes’ tower were luxurious. They are nothing compared to the bathroom in this apartment – it’s full of marble, gilded mirrors, and crystal chandeliers. It looks more like a fairytale ballroom than a bathroom.
“If I owned this bathroom,” I say, spinning around and around, “I’d never leave it.”
“Me neither,” Fly agrees. “I’d live in that humongous tub and have them bring me food. In fact, that is exactly what I may do while you go off to this fancy dinner.”
“You’re not going to come with us?”
“Briony, you’re their thrall. You just about have a reason to be there. Especially when I glam you up and have you looking spectacular. But I’m this random kid from Iron Quarter. I don’t belong.”
“If there is one place you do belong, Fly,” I tease him, “it’s in a palace.”
“Maybe when Beaufort is the emperor and you’re his queen, you can smuggle me in as your official court dresser.”
I snort. “Beaufort an emperor!” I shake my head. He’s arrogant, confident, and extremely bossy. But emperor? Ruler of all the realm? I can’t quite picture that.
“It’s hardly ridiculous, Cupcake. He’s the Empress’s son.” He unties my hair and shakes it out, combing a brush through the locks.
“I guess I never really thought of it like that.”
I disappear into my thoughts as Fly curls and styles my hair, describing everything he saw out in Onyx Quarter today. I’ve been so preoccupied with the here and now, with all the crazy things that have been happening to me, with discovering the truth about my sister’s death, I haven’t looked further into the future. All I’ve wanted to do is make it through this year at the academy and ensure I don’t get sent back to Slate Quarter.
I didn’t really think about what it meant to be the fated mate of three powerful shadow weavers. I definitely hadn’t considered what it meant that one of those shadow weavers was the Empress’s son.
“Cupcake,” Fly says as he paints a ruby-red color onto my lips. “Hello?!”
“Huh,” I say.
“Have you heard a word I just said?”
I give him an apologetic little look. “Not since you said I might be queen one day. That sort of short-circuited my brain.”
Fly holds my chin in his hand, tipping my face from side to side and admiring the make-up job he’s done at different angles. With a satisfied nod, he turns around and rifles through some shopping bags, pulling out a pretty little box. He pulls off the lid and inside lie several sparkling baubles.
“I thought I could see the wheels in that little brain of yours whirring.” He shakes his head, holding up a heavy necklace for me to admire. “I can’t believe that wasn’t the first thing you considered when you learned who his mom was. It would have been my first thought.”
“Fly,” I say seriously, “I can’t be queen of this realm. That’s crazy.” Truth is, I’m kind of petrified about this dinner tonight. If It wasn’t necessary for the sake of Fox, I would be making up some excuse not to attend. A ball at the academy was one thing. A state dinner with all the most powerful, influential, and important people in the realm, quite another.
“Any more crazy than owning a pet dragon?” Fly points out.
I laugh. “Maybe just as crazy.”
“You’d make a great queen,” Fly says, “definitely better than some psycho like Odessa or Henrietta.”
