He tilts his head. “Come.”
Intrigued, I follow him as he leads me through two rooms—a sitting room of some kind and then a bedroom. I look around, briefly noting the coat flung over a chair, the fireplace, the large bed. Both rooms are built with black iron and gray bricks, lush whites and purples to decorate every inch.
“It’s so nice in here,” I muse, looking around. I start walking toward the balcony so that I can check the view while he grabs a candlestick from his bedside table.
Before I can reach the doors, he lights the candle and gestures to me. “This way.”
I give a longing look at the balcony before I turn around and trail after him into the next room. I come to a stop just inside the doorway, immediately understanding the need for the candle. There aren’t any windows in here—it’s nearly pitch black except for a lantern flickering at the back of the room, but it’s obscured slightly by something.
Midas strides confidently forward while I hover at the door, trying to get my eyes to adjust. “What’s this?”
He stops by a spot at the wall to the left and fiddles with something with his lit candle, and I realize he’s lighting a wall sconce. A soft orangish glow flares to life.
“This is technically my dressing room, but I’ve made some adjustments.”
A fingertip of unease prickles on the back of my neck as Midas goes to the opposite end of the dark room and lights another sconce.
As soon as he does, my blood runs cold.
Because there, built into the middle of the room, is a beautiful wrought iron cage.
Chapter 37
AUREN
It’s strange how your bodyreacts to certain things. For me, when I see the cage, there’s a roaring in my ears. It howls, gusting over my skin and whipping against my bones.
I wasn’t expecting to come face-to-face with a new cage so soon.
Midas turns to face me with a smile. “I had this made for you,” he says, motioning over to it with clear approval. “I know it’s small. This one is temporary for now, and not gold yet, of course,” he adds with a wink in my direction.
That roaring wind starts blowing hard enough to batter my lungs, making it hard to breathe.
When I see something inside of the cage move, I startle. “What—” My words cut off when a person rises from the small bed. From the faint light, I see her—my decoy.
She has bed-mussed hair and paint-smeared skin. A quick glance to the blankets shows stains from where it’s rubbed off. Metallic gleam left behind on the sheets like the damning evidence of a secret lover.
The woman rises and looks between us. “My king?”
Her hair hangs around her shoulders, a little shorter than mine by a couple inches. She has round, light brown eyes, and a similar face shape to me. Her lips are plush, and her body is an hourglass wrapped up in a gold dress.
Mygold dress.
And even though the paint covering her body and hair isn’t my exact shade, and even though I can see it creasing around her eyes and wiped off her palms, the sight of her sets me on edge.
Midas strolls over and places the candle on a table just outside of the cage door.
“Good news for you, my favored has arrived,” he tells the woman.
She smiles, creasing dimples into her cheeks. I can tell from the relief in her eyes that she can’t wait to get out. I wonder if she feels like a wing-clipped bird. I wonder if she can’t wait to wash the gold from her skin.
This was temporary for her, when it never is for me.
When she notices that I’m still staring at her, the smile on her face falters. I know it’s not her fault that she’s in there, that she’s painted and dressed to look like me, but emotions roil through me as erratic as a cyclone. I’m shocked, embarrassed, hurt.
To see that I can so easily be replicated, to seeme, from the outside looking in...
Osrik was right—the woman I’m looking at right now? She’s nothing but a symbol for Midas. Not a person, not someone in charge of her own life, but a living and breathing image to showcase the Golden King’s might.
