She didn’t believe it for a second, yet there she was, getting behind me, pretending to check that everything was right with my suit just to avoid having to look at me.
“Have we spoken before, Lida?”
“I…” She stared at me through the mirror and she looked spooked. “I assume we have, Miss Reese.”
“Have I ever told you to just call me Ora?” I did not feel amissyet, and it bothered me now like it always had back home.
“Maybe you have and maybe you haven’t, Miss Reese.”
“Have I ever…” I looked back at the bedside table, at the picture of my sister.
Had I ever spoken to her about Jinx, I wondered?
“Tick-tock. Time to go,” Lida said, and she dragged me right out the door.
The hallway was packed. All the other Hands were just coming out of their own rooms, too, and they all wore suits. White, but some had red threads and pockets on them, some green, some silver, and one other black and purple, like mine. Easy to see which court they all belonged to. It didn’t come as a surprise to me to find that the boy with the curly hair who smelled of roses but not quite was a Heart. His suit was mixed with red.
“It’s rude to stare. Come, come. We’ll be late if we’re not on time.”
Lida pulled at my hand and dragged me again to the other side of the hallway just as the boy turned.
A feeling of possessiveness rang alarms in my head. It was so foreign to me, yet my body behaved like it knew it, like it had felt it before, many times.
Mine,rang the noise in my head.Mine-mine-mine.
And then we were back in that same eating hall, the tableset with all kinds of food this time, and Lida ordered me to sit just like the other maids and butlers ordered the other Hands to do.
Disoriented. Afraid. Ready to start running.That’s how all of them looked.
That’s exactly how I felt, too.
I sat in the same place, with the same cup of tea in front of me. My plate was empty, but bigger ones around it were full of food, steaming. The scent made my mouth water.
My insides sang.
The help were already out the door. The high-backed chair at the head of the table was empty. No White Queen, which for some reason was a relief.
It was just us.
Silence in the hall. The walls hadn’t changed, but the chandeliers and the lanterns burned brighter, because the sky was dark outside. It was nighttime still, yet I felt like I’d slept hours. The clocks claimed it was almost seven. They were all moving backward, too—even the smaller ones between the dishes.
My eyes went to the Heart boy. He’d switched places with the girl who had sat next to him last time—also a Heart, judging by her suit colors—and now he was right across from me. He was watching me, always watching me. Always searching my face.
I searched his.
“Um…hi.”
All eyes went to the girl sitting on the second chair on my side of the table.
“I’m Mimi.” She raised a hand and waved awkwardly, and her rich green eyes glistened as she looked at us. Paired with the brown of her skin and the black of her hair, she was breathtaking. I had no idea how I hadn’t noticed before. A Club, judging by the green on her suit.
“I’m Erith,” said the first girl sitting on the left side of the table. She wore silver, so I assumed she was a Diamond.
“I’m Anika,” said the girl across from her—a Diamond, too. She looked especially terrified, her big brown eyes full of tears that would slip out the moment she blinked.
“I’m Reggie,” said the boy next to her, and he was a big guy, wide shoulders, dark hair and a strong jaw. He was a Club, too.
So was the one sitting across the table from him. “I’m Seth,” he said with a nod, and the golden-brown hair that covered his eye moved a little to reveal a scar cutting his left brow in half. I only saw it for a split second before his hair fell over it like a curtain again.
