I looked over at Shep. I’d never been asked to dance in my life, and despite the fact that the only dance I knew was the one Vanya had taught me in our room earlier this semester, I desperately wanted to be asked.
Shep caught my eye and pinched his lips. “I’ve never been a great dancer,” he admitted.
“I’m not either!” I said, hoping to encourage him.
Instead, he chuckled and said, “Then maybe it’s best if we don’t.”
My shoulders deflated. “Oh.”
He reached out and touched my chin with his thumb. “But if you want to, we can.”
I read the truth in his pinched eyes and reluctantly said, “No. It’s okay.” I turned back to the table, posture slipping as I leaned forward. Then my eyes caught sight of Scarlett’s red dressbustling by. She was in a hurry, and her face was puckered with her normal predatory scowl. My eyes traveled in the direction of her gaze. Standing there in the corner, drink in hand, was Rush. He wore a dark suit, like most of the boys—save Prescott, whose suit was a bold ivory—but my breath hitched when I saw him.
His hair was slicked back, his chin lifted and his neck ringed with a black bowtie that drew my eye toward the defined point in his throat. He wore black better than the rest of them.
For a moment, I could barely breathe.
He chatted with his father and Thurgood Bryce, his eyes drifting out across the room every few seconds. The third time, they found me.
His gaze locked on me, and the world faded into gray for the briefest moment, his face the only thing in color. Then Scarlett approached and he sipped his glass, a smile spreading on his face.
I blinked and looked away, trying to remember the way he’dalmostkissed me. The way he’d said he cared about me and that everything I saw tonight was an act. But right now, I was having trouble believing it.
Scarlett truly was stunning…and wealthy and from a family every bit as prestigious as his. And when I stole another glance at them, Rush was watching her as she did a little spin for him. I huffed and sipped the glass of champagne Shep passed to me. I’d never had this drink before, and it made my nose burn.
When two of the third years returned to the table, I told Shep, “I’m going to talk to Vanya. Want to come?”
He shook his head. “You go ahead.”
I smiled and slipped from the table, forcing my eyes not to look for Rush again. I’d find a time to talk to him. When Scarlett wasn’t clinging to him and the duke wasn’t watching.
Vanya welcomed me into their conversation with a kiss on my cheek. She giggled freely, something I’d never seen her do.Princesses didn’t swoon. But a part of my heart broke for her. If she hadn’t told Prescott the truths she’d told me yet, then the moment those came to the surface, she could drown under his rejection. And while I didn’t blame her for wanting this badly enough to hide the truth, I didn’t like it, either. Hiding the truth wouldn’t save her, in the end.
I stifled a laugh and smiled at the boys fawning over her. As Prescott told a story about a hunting trip he’d taken with a count, my attention drifted. I thought of Myth, of what awaited us tomorrow night, and my shoulders stiffened. Vanya didn’t notice, her face still fixed on Prescott.
At one point, when Prescott went for drinks, she leaned toward me and whispered, “Just look at all this. They say it’s a fundraising ball, and it’s like each person here is trying to reveal just how deep their pockets really are.” She waved a hand at a pack of second-year girls from House Diamond. “Look at all the diamonds they’re wearing.”
Her words brought back something I’d written about in an essay months ago. My research on that obscure queen, Queen Isobel, I’d been assigned had turned out to be quite fascinating. Three hundred years ago, Isobel had reigned briefly, only to be mysteriously killed one night as she slept. She’d been the mother of the queen who’d founded Cardan Lott, a queen with a long and illustrious resume of notable deeds. The woman I’d studied, on the other hand, had done little, other than get murdered, according to the textbooks. She had apparently been found, throat slit, with a note under her pillow that simply saidpay attention.
Her killer had never been found, but she clearly had known she was in danger and had assumed the killer would be easy to spot if one merely looked.
My mind pictured the emerald we’d found at Rush’s townhouse. I spun until I looked at a pair of girls from House Emerald walking by.
Vanya chatted on about the finery on display, but my mind was racing. House Diamond. House Ruby. House Emerald. House Sapphire. My eyes darted to each of the stones fixed to earrings, tiaras, or necklaces around the room.
The stones. The doors in the courtyard. The houses. It was all staring me in the face.
In some rural regions of Cavaria, humans buried their dead with precious stones on the caskets to keep the evil spirits away. I’d always thought it a wasteful superstition. But many superstitions had roots in reality. The founders of Cardan Lott knew the truth about magic, and they built this place as a mausoleum to that truth. A stone grave, bedecked with jewels.
Vanya drifted away with Prescott, but I stood in the center of the room, transfixed with this new idea. A girl wearing a green dress and two emeralds at her ears strolled by. The emerald in the book at Rush’s townhouse had altered the text of the book. House Emerald was for the servant-hearted, the creative minds, the fiercely passionate. Those stones had been used torecreatehistory, according to the intentions of the Archivists. The day Myth had swallowed an emerald, we’d won the contest against Scarlett in training, but I couldn’t be sure our victory was from the stone. Either way, we’d flown well that day, almost like Myth understood my need not just to win, but to show Scarlett what I was capable of. Maybe emeralds had magic related to desires or intentions. I whirled on the spot, looking over at a group of girls from House Diamond. Kindness, generosity, loyalty. Diamonds almost all had magnetic personalities, and they were known for being socialites, the life of every room they entered. What if the magic of a diamond was in its ability to move things or maybe itwas related to light? There was so much more to test now that I had theories.
Just then, Scarlett sashayed past, and the rubies in her headpiece caught my eye.
House Ruby was for ambition. Forwinners, Luther had said at the start of the year.
If I were the betting type, I would bet that Duke Covington used rubies to win his races.
Before I could figure out what sapphires might be used for, a man peeling swiftly through the crowd drew my eye. He was dressed like a footman, and he whispered something in Rush’s ear that made Rush set his drink down and walk out of the party.
