Kyda gave a sharp bark of a laugh. “These areornyxgems from Kyne. You don’t recognize them? Surely you’ve seen them before. I heard you used to be a keeper here. Perhaps I’ve seen you helping at a few of these gatherings in the past.”
My smile felt frozen on my face when her tone registered. One slightly barbed and mocking. Prodding at me. I felt something lock into place inside me.
I was an orphan, one with no true family, and never once had I experienced wealth. I would never fit in with these nobles. And they would always ensure that I felt that way.
I didn’t know why Kaldur insisted on me coming tonight. To make a spectacle of me? Maudoric had said it was out of respect for my new position in his House, but then he’d abandoned me to fend for myself among his friends.
“I tried to avoid gatherings like this, truthfully,” I answered, my smile widening. “I always found them so suffocating in their self-importance.”
Kyda’s eyes widened. I’d stunned her speechless, and a thrill of guilt-laden victory went through me.
“I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening, Lady Kyda,” I said, inclining my head. “And you should try thelaakpuffs. They’re always my favorite when our cook, Saira, makes them.”
I walked away, my spine stiff, my limbs tight. Kaldur had strayed closer than I’d realized, and I froze when I saw him. Had he heard? His gaze was on me, studying me with narrowed eyes, but I turned my head forward and went deeper, unseeing, into the ballroom.
So much for not giving them something to talk about,I lamented now that my adrenaline had faded, biting my lip in a darkened corner, picking up a small piece of a spiced meat pastry, though my stomach was in knots.
What had possessed me to say such a thing?
Even now, I could see Kyda tittering with her socialite friends, casting me long looks. Her eyes were like arrows, her sneer the bow with which to shoot them.
As for Kaldur…he was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t know how long I drifted around the room, making niceties with people I didn’t know or simply being ignored. If I’d been meant to make a good first impression on Vyaan society, I’d failed miserably.
“Heard you insulted a noble,” came a familiar voice.
A jolt went through my belly. When I turned, I saw Velle standing there. She was dressed in one of our nicer uniforms—pressed dark gray trews and a silver embroidered tunic that ended at her thighs. Velle had made customizations to hers, taking in the pants so they hugged her shapely figure and belting the waist of the tunic with a matching belt so it was more flattering. Her hair was in a stylish updo, her neck on blatant display. A shimmering powder had even been dusted along her collarbones to catch the golden light.
She looked pretty and calm. Surely she was much more suited to navigate these kinds of parties, even though I was the one in silk. Salairian silk, evidently.
“I never liked her,” Velle said, nodding discreetly at the Lady of House Azola. “When I worked for them, she always thought I was trying to get into bed with her husband.”
“And were you?” I asked hesitantly.
She snorted. “No. It was her son.”
Velle felt familiar in such an unfamiliar setting. And the fact that she was finally willing to talk to me brought out hope. I knew that we had our issues and differences, but she had watched over me when I’d first come to work at Kaldur’s keep. It was really only in the last several months that tension between us had begun to spread, ever since that party we’d been serving at, where that noble male had taken an interest in me.
Luckily I didn’t see him here tonight.
“I didn’t realize you worked for their House,” I said. “You never mentioned it.”
“I’ve worked for many Houses,” Velle answered, shrugging. “It didn’t seem important enough to mention because my time there was brief.”
I nodded. An uncomfortable silence lapsed between us, each of us aware that we hadn’t spoken since that morning she’d discovered Kaldur feeding from me. It seemed so long ago now.
And I’d been…lonely. For a friend. For a companion. My old life had been separated from me the moment I’d signed the contract. Keepers I’d thought were my friends didn’t speak to me anymore. They politely inclined their heads at me in the hallway as I passed before hurrying away.
“I miss you,” I said quietly, casting a glance up at her. “I don’t like how it went between us.”
Velle regarded me. “Me neither,” she finally said.
It was as much of an apology I would get from her, but we both smiled at one another, however small.
“But I must tell you, in that dress, you did your hair all wrong,” Velle tsked, frowning at the wild waves that I could never force into submission. “IfIwere theKyzaire’s blood giver, I would want everyone to know it. So why hide your neck?”
“I thought it too obvious,” I said quietly.
She scoffed. “Nothing is too obvious for people like these. Rub their noses in it. That’s what I’d do.”
