An eruption of laughter.
“What do you think Prince Maxian’s testament will be?”
“I heard his father split the earth itself—”
“From the first kissing king? Perhaps it’ll simply be a love bite!”
“Maybe he hasn’t married yet because he wants to marry us all.”
More laughter.
The harp melody changes and a blare of trumpets echoes from a balcony above the space. Illusion halflings play the start of the procession, and the crowd parts for the arrivals of the head, heir, advisor, and heart of each House. I join the rest of the faeries behind the fae, craning my neck for a glimpse. I spot Kassandra in her dove-gray silk gown, silver hair braided with pearls and tiny pink flowers. Her cream gloves reach up to her elbows. She lifts her chin and places a petite hand in the large palm of the lord next to her.
Lord Dominik.
The heir is dressed in a black tunic trimmed with silver thread, and his sharp features could almost be considered handsome. Still, his vicious dark eyes cut across the room. Kassandra beams up at her brother, cheeks bright with rouge I applied. My stomach lurches. The sky-blue advisor—Lord Tomas—enters behind them, a sage-skinned spouse on his arm.
“Let’s go,” Briar says.
We follow a parallel path on the outskirts of the crowd, and I snag a tray of sparkling wine. Dominik and Kassandra reach the dais, and he turns, kissing her knuckles. When the heir straightens, his eyes find me. Swallowing, I keep my face plain and neutral like Briar’s. I must fail because he smirks, then mouths two words:Little faerie.
I recoil.
Dominik strides up onto the dais to the far left of the throne. Part of the new king’s Upper Court, the heir represents the Head of Illusion for tonight.
Kassandra glides toward us next to the dais, lips pressed together. “We’re going to need more wine than just a tray.”
I nod. “I will make sure you’re well supplied tonight. Anything you need.”
She frowns. “I miss when you were a combative day servant. Not this dribbling Night Crest.”
I clench my jaw.I was never a combative day servant. I just didn’t go out of my way to—
“There you are.” Kassandra smirks. “I can taste your vexation, remember?”
Maybe it’s the loud throng of bodies or the high expectations for tonight, but it’s as if my mistress goads me into playing with her once more.
“Something to wash it down, then?” I hand her a glass. Her eyes spark with mirth as she wraps gloved fingers around the stem.
“I quite like the bitterness.” She pauses, tilts her head.
“What is it, my lady?” Briar asks.
“Brace yourself,” she says. “Death is here.”
Just then, the plane of magicstops.
It is like running downhill, legs pumping faster and faster and faster—until I run straight into a stone wall. Briar staggers and I reach forward, legs wobbling. We’re not the only ones.
A clang of metal and shattering glass as several faeries fall to the ground. We would be reprimanded any other time, but even the High Fae wave fans, sway, cough. On the dais, Dominik and Eli remain standing, arms clasped behind their backs, undisturbed. Kassandra rolls her eyes, exhaling.
“Go,” she waves. “Lean against that pillar over there before you embarrass me.”
“Mistress,” Briar breathes. “I’m so sorry—”
“It is Death,” she says. “Few can stomach the halfling.”
The tray tips to one side in my grasp, the glasses sliding. An invisible hand levels it.
