The sound of a slow inhale through the man’s nose drew her attention back to him. “Magical,” he repeated. He angled his head, and his deep brown eyes bored into her. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
Jade didn’t have to act too hard to appear flustered. She dropped her face and shook her head, allowing herself a second to think as she pretended to gather herself after her perceived faux pas. But she used it as a gauge to help determine someone’s understanding of magic. This man’s fixation on her use of the word could indicate a particularly negative attitude toward magic-wielders. Or...could he be a sympathizer, drawing out her beliefs on the matter?
She huffed out a little laugh with a sheepish smile and tried again. “I’d heard of the magnificence of parties held at Evenshold Palace, but I honestly never thought I’d see one with my own eyes. It’s absolutely overwhelming, but in the best way.”
She returned her gaze to the man, keeping up her façade with an air of wonderment, and found that his eyes were still fixed on her. He straightened and closed his lips into a soft smile, something almost regal in the set of his shoulders and the lift of his jaw. “Yes, it can be quite overwhelming here. The superfluousness of Lord Grannam seems to know no bounds.” His eyes drifted away from her for a moment, and a muscle in his jaw twitched. It took only an instant for his easy expression to reappear on his face, and his eyes flicked to the ceiling as he made a small gesture toward it with a pointed finger. “You see all those enormous chandeliers? He spent an exorbitant amount of money to have them fitted with wiring for electric lights, as well as for the gold trim along the molding.”
Jade followed his line of sight before giving him another polite smile. “How exquisite.” She was wasting time. She needed to get out of this conversation. This man was no one important. He didn’t even seem to particularly like Grannam, which led her to believe he wasn’t on his side. But when her eyes landed on him again, she found it physically difficult to turn away.
The song ended, and applause filled the room in its absence. Jade glanced toward the orchestra and smiled, tapping her fingers softly together around where she held the stem of her glass. Guests departed the dance floor while others took their places, and Jade scanned over the crowd again.
There!
With the break in the dancers, her eyes locked on a beautiful brunette young woman across the hall from her in a full maroon gown and delicate black mask. As quickly as Jade had spotted Arabella, she was lost again, concealed by other young ladies who blocked her from view. Jade recognized one of them as her sister Alanna in a cobalt blue dress glittering with diamonds.
She raised herself onto her tiptoes to try to catch another glimpse, her small stature not always playing to her advantage. Jade threw back the rest of the contents of the glass, set it on a tray held by a nearby footman, and turned back to the man, prepared to excuse herself.
He beat her to it.
“Shall we dance?”
He asked as though it was half her idea, and perhaps he thought it was. She’d been peering through the dance floor to Arabella and then downed her drink, and the stranger must have taken it as an indication that she was eager to be part of the next dance.
“Actually, I—” Jade started to protest, but she found his gaze again and changed her mind. Something about the way he looked at her intrigued her. “I’m not entirely sure I can dance with someone who hasn’t even told me his name.”
“Ah!” he exclaimed, turning his head briefly toward the ceiling. “Where are my manners?” He placed a hand over his heart and dipped his head, as if in a slight bow. “Lord Nicolas Camarata, at your service, my lady. But please, I’d prefer if you call me Nicolas. ‘Lord Camarata’ is a bit too formal for my taste.”
Camarata.Jade knew little of the noble families of Ellyris, but Camarata wasn’t one she recognized, whether good or not so good.
“In that case, Nicolas, I insist that you call me Elena.” She flashed him another smile, trying to keep her demeanor flirtatious while still a touch naïve and reserved.
Nicolas extended his hand again, and Jade took it, his light grasp comfortable and pleasant. He led her to the dance floor, and they found a place just as the orchestra started again.
The dance was a brisk waltz. Nicolas held her right hand softly in his left while his other hand grazed her waist, each pressure point sending fire through her dress. Something in this man’s touch reached down to her very soul, somehow intimate without feeling violating, and for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why.
Jade locked eyes with him, drawn to this mysterious stranger. He stood more than a full head taller than her, and Jade’s hand met solid muscle where she laid it on his shoulder.
He led her expertly around the room as though he’d been waltzing almost as long as he could walk, which was probably true. The nobility had their children spend inordinate amounts of time on such foolish things as learning how to dance. If Jade didn’t know any better, dancing likely came to Nicolas as easily as breathing. She had spent countless hours practicing as part of her military training to make sure her movements could be seen equally as effortless. Not to mention that her mother had taught her a few dances when she was younger.
Jade recognized the intense need to pull her eyes away from him, to survey the crowd as they covered the majority of the dance floor, butsomething in Nicolas’s dark eyes was mesmerizing. A peal of laughter to her right helped break the spell and pulled her gaze to the chuckling elites. Her head swiveled as she and Nicolas moved, searching for the deep maroon of Arabella’s gown.
“What part of Ellyris are you from?” he asked as they swirled in time with the other dancers.
Jade dragged her attention away from the crowd and focused on him. She’d come up with a highly detailed backstory for her character in case anyone asked such questions, but she’d never expected to have to get away with it with another Ellyrisan. The names and places she’d give the aristocrats of Tourrine wouldn’t mean much to them.
“Overlan.” Giving him short, undetailed answers might be the only way to keep up her ruse with him. She’d have to pray he wouldn’t ask too many questions or be too familiar with the people and places in her answers.
“Ah, the north,” he replied. “That makes the journey up here a bit more manageable.”
Jade had to ask, her curiosity piqued. “And where are you from?”
“A town in Ivearennie called Rushing Cape. Very few people I’ve come across have heard of it.”
Jade tried her best to maintain a serene expression while she studied him, her senses back on alert. His response wasn’t accurate; that much was clear. His eyes lifted over her head to the room beyond. His left hand shifted in her grasp. His throat bobbed. Signs that others either would not notice or would not identify as indicators he was lying.
What did he have to gain by lying about where he was from? Could he be from a different part of Ellyris, or was he not from Ellyris at all?
His disingenuousness captured Jade’s attention. She didn’t recognize him as a member of the royal family, but he could be working for one of them. Perhaps he was a spy for Lord Grannam, sent here to sniff out people exactly like Jade.
