“You’ll be okay,” she murmurs. “I’ll see you when the moon is full again.”
I squeeze her tighter. “Will you be okay?”
“What do you take me for, a doe?” A hearty laugh. Briar pulls something from her apron. A letter. “For the king, from Kassandra.”
“Will she see me?”
Briar shakes her head.
Despite myself, I feel a twinge of disappointment. Not that Kassandra and I would say goodbye, not that she would even care if I am gone, but she has become a constant in my life. She is a scar that I’m used to seeing every morning in the looking glass.
Briar drops her voice. “If only you could tell me what happened between the mistress and the king. Kassandra has been in a terrible mood ever since.”
I try, but with Lila so close, my mouth fills with pebbles. I think of the “Houses and Mouses” nursery rhyme and joke, “The silver cat met the mountain two nights ago.”
Nothing. No choking, no unseen marbles clogging my throat.
Briar’s eyes widen. “What were you picturing just then?”
“A cat climbing a mountain.”
“Nonsensical,” Briar whispers. “As long as our minds imagine our analogies, it will not detect the truth.” She shakes her head. “I always knew you were a clever one. It’s no wonder Kass keeps you around.”
We grin at each other, at the new possibilities unfurling beforeus. Yet my superior looks behind me, expression taut. The smile drops from my lips, and I glance to see Lila waiting patiently in my bedroom.
Perhaps we have not discovered something new. Perhaps we have discovered something dangerous.
The older faerie squeezes my shoulder. “If you need anything, you know where to find me.”
“Same to you.”
She gives a small smile before departing. I return to Lila, who is examining a thread on my uniform. She hands over my clothes, patting my arm.
“It’s nice to see,” she says. “Friendship, in a place like this.”
Once Lila slips out of my bedroom, I quickly change. The gold silk coats my skin like chocolate melting on the tongue. For a moment, I wonder if this is how the High Fae feel. Yet once the clothes settle around each one of my curves, I remember for whom I am on display.
I open the door. Lila’s face brightens.
“You look lovely!” she exclaims. She breezes in, surveying the space. “Could you lock the door? The oath can’t be witnessed by another.”
Goosebumps pinch my skin. Another secret behind a closed door.
I lock the door before I can second-guess myself and hold out my arm. From a pocket in her pants, Lila pulls out a glinting gold signet ring, its surface blank.
“Remain where you are,” Lila says. “It’ll only be a moment.” She crouches before me. “Do you swear the blood oath to the Vandorne family to serve them during the night?”
“I swear the blood oath to the Vandorne family to serve them during the night,” I say.
“And indulge their desires?”
“And indulge their desires.”
Lila reaches for the hem of my pant leg, tugging it up. I stiffen.
“What are you—”
“It’s a quick recovery,” she says.
