“Are you accusing one of us?” Dedalus growled.
Ephaltes clenched a fist. “Are you confessing?”
And so it began again.
But—
A crisp voice cleared her throat, and everyone turned to Marcella. “I was hoping,” she said, “that perhaps we could come to a swift decision tonight to honor Eris. But since that is not an option, may I suggest instead that we take a break? Everyone should return to our rooms tonight and prepare for a ball in three nights. We can return to politics after that.”
What? A dozen voices echoed my confusion at the idea out loud.
Marcella’s smile grew. “Most of you are too young to deal with meetings for weeks on end.” She waved at me. “Even our esteemed leader had to take a break and get married. I still haven’t met the new Lady Auria.” She glanced at Orla. “She appears to be keeping company with some of our younger nobility, but the rest of us would like to meet her too. Surely we can postpone these meetings for a few days.”
She dipped her head toward Ephaltes. “It would also give House Fundan a chance to mourn Lady Eris.”
Ephaltes folded his arms. “A ball is hardly in harmony with mourning.”
Lady Holly broke her usual silence to comment. “Nonsense. Fae have celebrated life on the toes of death for millenia. They are two sides of the same coin—life and death, sadness and celebration. I think it is a commendable idea.” She winked at Marcella. “Some of the youth simply take themselves too seriously.”
A dozen conversations erupted suddenly, everyone discussing the idea with their neighbors. Most of their conversations turned excitedly toward plans very quickly, but I could not approve such an event. Not with my curse. If Auria saw my face—
Dearan knocked against the table, and everyone turned toward him. “I’m convinced, Lady Marcella,” he said with that ridiculous smile of his that made women adore him. “However, I’d like to suggest amaskedball. We haven’t had one of those in years, and I’ve always enjoyed the mystery.”
And there was the solution. I nodded at Dearan. Maybe I should trust him more too.
Chapter 21: Auria
Hot pain poured into my chest. I clutched at my heart and screamed, but no sound came out. Darkness masked the cruel laughter. So much darkness.
One of my tormentors touched my shoulder. I jumped away and screamed again, but this time my yells came out as a muffled moan.
My eyes flew open. I still couldn’t see anything, but a familiar voice whispered my name. “Auria. Auria, it was a dream. You’re safe here.”
That voice. The one I’d heard but never actually seen. “Bylur?” My voice was ragged, and I was panting, so the word came out as a strangled whisper.
“Yes.” He squeezed my shoulder. “You’re in our room with me, and I would destroy anyone who tried to hurt you.”
I set my hand on his and traced his knuckles with my thumb. Real. So very real. And safe. I took a slow, shuddery breath and tried to imagine what our room looked like. “I can’t see anything.”
“No,” he said slowly. “The moon is large tonight, and I did not want to risk you seeing my face. When I decided to wake you from your dream, I covered us in shadows.”
“I hate the dark.” And I hated how my whisper trembled.
“Oh, my precious snowdrop,” he whispered back, letting go of my shoulder. He shifted and then reached under my arms, gently tugging me up to sit next to him. I leaned back and realized he’d pulled me up against his chest. He wore a light tunic that did nothing to stop the thrill I felt at being so close to him. He wrapped an arm around my waist, and then hesitated. “Is this acceptable?”
I curled into his perfectly sculpted chest. If he was going to invite me to get this close, I was going to take advantage of every drop of security he offered.
His arm tightened around me. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He stroked my back with his free hand. “Will you tell me of your nightmares?”
I tipped my head up toward him. “There was more than one?”
His hand kept stroking a steady rhythm across my back, over and over. “This was the third time I’ve noticed. The first two times, you rolled around a bit, and the dream seemed to leave on its own. This one lasted longer, and you seemed… more tortured.”
I blew out a shuddery breath and buried my face in the fabric of his tunic. “I’d have to tell you about the elves.” They were memories I tried to avoid, but I couldn’t push them away in my sleep.
“I would like to know.” His voice was full of warmth, full of that safety that he always brought. I once thought I’d never trust another soul—that the world was full of back-stabbing friends, cruel soldiers, and terrible kings—but here, snuggled against a rulerwho chose not to be king, who’d kept his promises to me even when it was terribly inconvenient, I wanted to finally open all the locks on my heart and trust someone besides a bird to have my back.
I took one bracing breath and unclamped my mouth. “When I was ten, an explosion at the brickyard my parents ran killed them both. Soldiers found me by their bodies and took me to an elven castle. The elf queen was collecting human slaves and had her soldiers looking for orphans. The elf in charge of us was horrible, and I told her—”
