“Do you want to tell me about it?” he rumbled against her ear.
She shifted and waited for his arms to tighten around her. She smiled when they did. “No,” she sighed. “It’s nothing I don’t know or will ever allow to happen.”
“Mmm, that’s reassuring.”
Lux’s smile widened over his sarcasm. Really, she felt too safe and too warm to believe anything like that nightmare could come to pass. She would wait a few hours more. After that, she would ready herself for the Hallowed Eve celebration, and as the guests amassed, she would walk the many corridors. The flames had been hungry in the tower. She would see if the blue fire elsewhere had a similar appetite.
She would set the entire place ablaze.
Damn Riselda and any and all of her plans. Lux would burn italldown.
But first—her eyelids fluttered when Shaw’s lips pressed to her hair—first, she would do only this.
Chapter forty-four
HerHallowedBanquetgownwas blood-red with silver stitching.
Lux finished securing the hooks of the corset while staring at the silken creation lying atop her mattress. She’d been gifted a note at midday, set amongst her luncheon tray, explaining the society’s designs upon her for the evening.
Please allow me the honor of being your escort this evening.
-C
No mention of revival. Of curses. Not a single person had come to check on her, only an attendant with the delivery of her gown. No one mentioned the fire in the tower.
The silk slipped over her head and cascaded to the floor. Lux felt out of her skin. Shaw could not know her at the banquet. He was an investor and must be treated with all the dignity that allotted. And she…she must be aloof, acknowledged but otherwise ignored. Achievable, she thought. She’d plenty of practice.
If Corvin would let her go.
Rain tapped against the balcony door; a dreary sky met a fierce sea. Lux shifted away from it and caught her reflection in the mirror.
Purple crescents framed her eyes.
Her hair curled about her face.
Decaying arms wrapped around her middle.
Lux froze. She didn’t move or shriek. But in her head, she screamed. She watched them move along her bodice, feeling nothing but seeing it all, and when those fingers arched into a clawing grip, she jolted when they disappeared inside her.
The apparition rested its chin on her shoulder.
“Look at us: A proper monster. Who will we destroy next? The girl who feels too much? Do not fret, she is already dead.”
Lux stared furiously into the mirror. “You’re not real. You’re made by someone evil. And all you say is lies.”
“Do we?”
All at once, her veins felt coated in ice. Lux shivered, as the nightmare did not seem taunting, for once, but resolute. Her fingers reached into her corset—toward a key on a silver ribbon.
Corvin will be here at any moment,her head scolded.
Cecily is dead,her heart knew.
Death had come. Had looked over the slew of evil men and had taken a child, instead.
“It is our fault,”the nightmare claimed, and it vanished with a grin when the mirror swung in.
Lux anticipated the plunge and slipped down the hidden slope, faster now in silk. Her pack beat against the wall, and her hair fell from its pins. She held a lamp ahead of her.
