Freya’s explanation of my body as currency was spine-chilling, but Brietta and I needed to temporarily play by the rules if we were going to break them.
I just needed to get Annalisa in the game again.
Brietta had already moved to the ballroom to make her grand entrance, so I followed the echoes of sobbing to find Annalisa curled up against the wall with her head on top of her knees.
I swallowed most of my frustration and put my hand on her back. “Come on, Anna. We have to go in. Remember what we—”
She snapped her head up. “I know, damn it! We have to gild Derrick’s laurels even more.”
She shoved herself off the floor and wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. I ran behind her as she marched to the ballroom. My stomach flipped—was Annalisa about to break something? Was she going to cause a scene in the ballroom?
Wide-eyed servants quickly opened the ballroom doors as Annalisa barrelled for them. I caught up to her just in time to grab her hand.
“Just stay next to me,” I panted. “At least until Derrick makes his entrance—”
“I know.” Her chest rose and fell with her furious breath. “Ialwaysknow he comes first.”
We moved through the edge of the crowd as Derrick and Brietta slowly danced together, keeping each other at arm’s length.
My heart sank a little as I watched them. Their tight smiles and refusal to meet each other’s eyes was a far cry from the way they laughed and twirled at the Suitors’ Ball.
“Happy birthday, Derrick,” Annalisa whispered to herself.
I looked around—not a single clock in sight, but somehow Annalisa still knew the time. Even though her full lips were pursed in disdain, her eyes that matched her twin’s were glassy as she watched him dance.
I had once missed my brothers so deeply that hating them was easier than grieving. Maybe Annalisa was grieving a brother that was still living.
My chest warmed with white light. I was a healer—I could help.
The hands of a clock somewhere in the palace were inching ever closer to Annalisa’s birthday. I did not have a box with a pink ribbon to give her, but I had something more valuable.
Maybe Annalisa would not feel so ashamed of her grandmother if she finally knew something about her.
I raised on my toes to get closer to her ear, keeping my words soft as feathers so they were only for her. “Your grandmother had hair white as snow cascading down her back.”
Her brows softened, even as Duke Hyton entered the dance floor.
He flashed a smile to the crowd. “Could he get any more stiff? Let us get him some better company!” He yanked Derrick away from Brietta and threw him into a chair that had been pushed onto the dance floor.
Laughter cracked around the ballroom. Derrick looked up at his father with wide eyes, but Duke Hyton turned to the crowd with his arms out like the beginning of a show. “How about we celebrate the heir turning twenty-two years the Hyton way?”
The Hyton way? My heart raced, but I kept focus on Annalisa. “She also had lavender eyes.”
Annalisa’s lip trembled, but she stared at the dance floor.
Someone whistled over the din of the crowd. A few men howled. Sharp footsteps tapped against the dance floor.
I turned to see what the commotion was about and my heart stopped—it was Mother.
Mother stalked onto the dance floor with a tiny fluted glass between her fingers. She was not dressed in a fine gown or simple jewelry like she had as the Baroness of Ravenwood, but instead wore a black dress that was barely more than undergarments. The scant fabric of the dress was thin and clung to every part of her body, revealing…everything.
My hand flew to my mouth. What was she doing?
Mother’s sultry lips were blood red and her eyes were rimmed with black. She lifted her skirt, completely exposing her right leg, and straddled Derrick’s lap.
The crowd hollered. I could not see his face, but Derrick’s hands gripped the bottom of his chair so hard that his knuckles turned white. Mother swirled her head around, her dark hair streaked with silver feathering out behind her. She arched her back and grabbed his chin with her free hand.
I gasped, frozen in place as my mother kissed Derrick on the lips.
