“I’ve begun to relish seeing Mothlock through your eyes. It reminds me to be grateful for everything the Saints have bestowed upon me.”
Lux sucked at her teeth. “I’d noticed the Saints seem to be a main feature of the manor.” Even now she found them. Taller than the garden statues, they rose pale and stark on either side of the doors. “I didn’t realize Mothlock was so devout.”
His attention carried to where she looked. “We are. In a sense.”
“In a sense,” she repeated and noted him fidget. “Something youroverlordcommissioned then?”
Corvin glanced down at her. “Yes, actually. A long time ago.”
“Because he died a long time ago.”
He huffed a laugh, his stare turning bemused. “Precisely.”
Hmm.She allowed him to lead her to the table, where he didn’t have an attendant pull out her chair but did so himself.She sat. “Did you say who took over his position? At his death, I mean.”
“No, I didn’t.” He pulled out his own chair and sat, beckoning at the doors with two fingers. An attendant swooped in. “Mothlock has had no leader since. We are all known as ‘lords’ and our voices carry equal weight. Everyone matters here.”
Lux’s goblet was filled with a deep red liquid, and once Corvin’s was, too, she lifted hers. She ran her nail up and down its side and noticed when his eyes latched onto the movement and held there.So. Either he does not know of this nightmarish overlord…or he’s lying.She chewed her lip as she assessed him.
“Is this wine?” she asked. And waited. “Corvin?”
“Mm, what? Wine? Yes. Verdinia.”
She nodded like she knew of it and pretended to take a sip. Her eyes hooded now, she watched him as he watched her. His gaze dipped.
She couldn’t blame him. The gown she’d dressed in was the color of emeralds and cut to her form exact. Kent, for all that she didn’t like about him, was indeed brilliant in fabrics and threads. She’d stared at herself in the mirror for far longer than she ever had before.
Lux set down the goblet in time for their meals to arrive. Same as breakfast, the dishes were covered, and she waited until the attendant removed it with a silent flourish before she said, “You didn’t tell me the garden is really a graveyard.”
He stiffened with surprise in his seat. “Can it not be both?”
Maybe. If there were anything other than blood-sucking brambles occupying it.“Are the prior collectors also buried on the grounds?”
“Collectors, investors, and attendants. All our given rest here on Mothlock grounds when their time comes.” He drank from his goblet. “Are you looking forward to the banquet tomorrow? I’m eager for you to experience it.”
Attendants. Even the attendants are entombed below?But he’d changed the subject purposefully, and she didn’t know how to steer it back.“I’m not sure I can stomach a crowd. I was never inclined to begin with, but after the healer’s diagnosis…I would rather be left alone.”
“Yet you sought out my company tonight.”
“Well.” Lux worried her lower lip. “You are different. I…feel different. Around you.”
Like I might get you to tell me exactly what I need to know.His eyes were truly an unbelievable color. She watched them dilate beneath her scrutiny. His nostrils flared.
“I’ve come to realize the same thing,” he said.
He hadn’t touched his food. Nor had Lux, for that matter. She raised her fork now and made a slow show of selecting a bite and bringing it to her lips. She let it slide gently behind her teeth and did not speak.
He cleared his throat. “Kent will be disappointed.”
“Kent? Whatever for?”
“He told me of the gown he had in mind for you. And now I feel robbed of seeing you in it.”
Lux pressed her tongue sharply to her canine. “Maybe I will wear it. After the banquet is over.”
But he didn’t leap at the suggestive invitation.
“That would be very late, indeed,” he said. “I didn’t tell you before, but Hallowed Eve is a twofold celebration, really. One part is for our guests. The banquet, and the honoring. The second is a ceremony—for the collectors.”
