No. Of course not.
There, at the very center, revealed by shifts and turns, stood an impeccably dressed young man in a green silk coat with brass buttons, supple fawn-colored boots, and a white cravat. Black stones winked in his ears, and a small red salamander curled on his shoulder.
My stomach sank.
“Ah, darling,” Daziel called across the garden, beaming like he’d just delivered the choicest of pastries. He raised a flute of champagne in my direction as I swallowed against the knot in my throat. “There you are.”
Ten
OfcourseDaziel hadn’t listened.Of course he’d decided to show up at the event where I already felt out of my element, where I was worried about being an embarrassment to my aunt and humiliating myself by acting like a country bumpkin. Of course he was distractingly handsome in his elegant outfit, each detail lovingly tended. And of course he looked entirely too pleased with himself, as though appearing at my aunt’s house was a delightful joke.
Not so my aunt. I couldn’t read her expression—politicians practiced their poker faces—but she hardly looked happy. The guests were easier, their gazes sticky with curiosity.
I marched toward Daziel, watching his smile widen. He looked like he belonged on Society Hill more than I did. As he crossed the garden to meet me, he shed onlookers as though his very presence pushed them back.
“Hello,” he said brightly when we met. “Surprise!”
“I told you not to come.” Anger warmed me, and I felt embarrassment over being so rattled. How was I supposed to explain a demon to my aunt? I was nervous enough about fitting in. “This is myaunt’s.”
“I like a party. And I wanted to meet her.” He smiled over my shoulder. “Hello, aunt.”
I turned, finding Aunt Tirtzah behind me. She was in her forties, tall, and she wore a simple navy shift and silver bangles. She gave Daziel a tense smile before pinning me with her steely gaze. “Both of you, come.”
She headed for the exit. Daziel made a politeafter yougesture, which made me scowl even harder. It should be illegal for him to look so handsome and be so relaxed when I was so angry. We followed my aunt out of the courtyard, down the high-ceilinged halls of her home, and into her private study.
It was an airy room with whitewashed walls and bookshelves of political treatises with excruciatingly long titles. She sat behind a desk that looked impossible to move, so large and sturdy I wondered if it’d been constructed within the room. “Sit.”
We sat. I perched on the edge of a velvet chair before her desk, unwilling to let my spine slouch at all.
“Are you mad?” Daziel asked me, sotto voce, as Aunt Tirtzah studied us.
“Obviously.”
He looked confused. “Why?”
This was why Daziel made me want to pull my hair out. He could beso smartand also such an idiot. “I told you not to come. This is myfamily. It’s private.”
Aunt Tirtzah spoke, voice crisp. “Tell me why this—young man—showed up in my house, claiming to be betrothed to my niece.”
“We’re not really betrothed,” I said. “He’s staying with me for a bit.”
Daziel set his chin mulishly, and I sensed the words coming before he said them. “We’re betrothed.”
I glared at him. “Daziel!”
He glared back. “You don’t need to deny itso aggressivelyall the time.”
“Start from the beginning,” my aunt said.
Chastened—was this how my younger sisters always felt?—I laced my fingers together. “I accidentally summoned him.”
Even my stone-faced aunt couldn’t keep a flicker of horror from her face. “Yousummonedhim?”
“I didn’t bind him!” I said quickly. “I just said his name. It was an honest mistake.”
Aunt Tirtzah looked increasingly pained as I explained the situation, though she tried to school her expression to a bland politeness. “Have you slept together?” she asked at the end, through a smile of ground teeth.
I flushed and refused to look at Daziel. No reason to get overheated and awkward. No need for my heart to gallop in my chest when I recalled his intensity when he got protective or the glint in his eyes when he teased me. “No.”
