“...In a field?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “And it’s getting weirder by the second. Kind of wish I hadn’t. Offer’s fading.”
“There’s no music,” I said.
“There doesn’t have to be music to dance, Princess. Though, if you disagree, I can sing badly for you. Just say the word.”
I checked around us for some phantom audience. Sluggishly, I placed my hand into his.There was an instant regret.
Evergreen’s hand feltgoodunder mine. There was a tingling, one that had not been there in my moment with the Prince, even when we first spoke.
Cyrus pulled me into his chest and raveled me into a perfectOreianWaltzspin. His palm met my side, just below my ribcage, but with such respect that I could scarcely think. Then he looked intently into my eyes.
“Are you familiar with this step?” he asked.
“With ourempire’sdance?” I asked.“Yes.”
He didn’t hesitate to continue it, righting me in his grip. My fingers coiled around his calloused hand, the glove barely snagging on its texture.
Cyrus led me back as the choreography decided. I kept pace with him, and for the entirety of the act, neither of us said anything else.
It was justhisbreathing overmine; it was just his eyes, just mine; it was justhislead. When it concluded and he let go, his warmth went, too, and left a gap that I longed to fill.
Suddenly, I wasn’t sure if the sensation in my chest—the tightening—was from the bodice or something else.
“…Oof,” I whined, trying to maintain my balance.
“Are you alright?” he asked. He reached for me.
I stumbled so obviously at his touch that my skeleton leaping from my skin would have been less revealing.
“I’m—Oh! I’m quite, ah. It’s this blastedcorset,I think.” My voice grew sharper.“It’s so...”
“Here,” he moved. “Allow me to untie it for you?”
“No!” I cried, leaving us both wide-eyed. “No, no. Thank you. Thank you,” I said. “You’ve done enough, sir, please don’t touch me—it. Don’t touch it.Don’t touch my corset, please.”
His hands fell to his pockets. “I only meant-”
“Of course. Me, too.” I said. “But I’m fine. All in a lady’s day, aye?”
Cyrus left and came back from the horses with a canteen.
“Drink this,” he said.
I did, like a man who escaped a desert.
He quirked a brow, saying, “It’s daunting; I know. You’ve found yourself in a strange land; things aren’t the way you wanted them to be. But at least you have friends here. It’s worse without.”
Something sad painted across his features, the ones newly enchanted by the rising sun. He had become very,veryhandsome to me and quite suddenly.
“...Why did you leave?” I asked. “Oreia, I mean.”
“We should get you back to the Palace, Princess,” he said.
Mr. Evergreen went to Edith to ready her, and the intimacy we had shared was lost.
“I’m sure Miss Josie will be looking for you soon. When she can’t locate you, she’ll enlist Ser Elías. I don’t think he should find you with me like this.”
