His hands found the harp strings again and he started strumming a slow and sweeping tune.
I shook my head. “How many songs do you have memorized? I do not know what this one is called.”
“You have no way of knowing,” he replied as the melody picked up. “No one has ever heard it before. I wrote it just for you.”
The ache in my soul deepend. “You did?”
His right hand plucked the higher stings near his face while his left hand crawled along the lower strings. “I call itMusica Trans Sepulcrum Amatores.”
He must have noticed the lift of my eyebrow. “I named it from the language of my ancestors,” he explained. “The translation into Lycastrian is not exact, but it means ‘Music will carry my love beyond the grave.’”
Then Derrick played his heart for me, his eyes closed, fully leaning into the music as he embraced both the song and my body.
That little ember flickered in my chest, flaring four times.
If my affinity was healing, maybe healing all the wounds on Derrick’s heart would finally make me happy, truly happy.
I just had to get him through the Darkest Night.
The moon had vanished, yet none of the stars across the night sky were as luminous as the stars on my dress.
I stood in the center of Annalisa’s bedroom, adjusting my breasts in the bodice of the Midnight Dream. My stomach turned over at the thought of all the nobility seeing that much of me, even though I had my crystal on my leg to keep me calm.
I parted the slit over my right leg and tightened the satin ribbon so the Nordingaard crystal was flush with the back of my thigh. I had paced around Annalisa’s room a dozen times to ensure any onlookers would only see a peek of the satin ribbon if the slit parted, but I was still worried.
After I had lost control at the last ball, I could not risk leaving the crystal behind. I had to stay completely grounded so I could keep Derrick safe from anyone sneaking him potions.
Brietta would be safe from Derrick, Derrick would be safe from his father, and everyone would be happy…at least for one night.
Once the Darkest Night was over, we would try to look for Ilsa’s vault at least.
Annalisa opened the box my costume had arrived in to fetch my gloves. She had her curls pinned on top of her head and her arms and dress were covered in paint.
She had her brush dipped in paint pots all day, finalizing touches on her sisters’ masks and brushing swirling designs on their skin.
Since Annalisa was no longer a Hyton, she did not have to attend the Darkest Night. Still, I hoped she would at least stay with me for a little while so I did not have to navigate the debauchery with Derrick alone.
“You sure you do not want to go?” I said to Annalisa as she slipped the first long, dark blue glove onto my arm. “A night of costumes and bad behavior seems perfect for you.”
She let out a snorting laugh. She adjusted the top of the glove on my arm and a thunderclap roared through my mind the instant her skin touched mine. The door between her eyes suddenly widened. My crystal glowed on the back of my leg.
Annalisa removed her hand and gave me a wry smile. “I will not go without Grigory.”
I furrowed my brows. “The whole point of the ball is tonotbe with the person you married.”
Annalisa reached for the other glove. “I am not a person who hides behind a mask.”
She slid the glove onto my other arm and the sound of rain crashing into a windowpane rang in my mind.
Over the rainfall, a voice hissed, “Don’t even think about going to that damn ball while I’m gone.”
The voice was too rough to sound like Grigory, but I did not know who else it could have been. Annalisa looked up at me and I glanced away. Her door was still wide open, but what she had unknowingly sent me felt too intimate, like I had walked in on someone naked.
Something two people should never directly address.
Annalisa turned to grab my silvery mask, commissioned to have glittering stars around the eyes. She placed the mask on my face and I caught my reflection in her dressing table mirror. Annalisa had painted my lips a berry shade and smudged my eyes in black so they looked heavy. My eyes might have been covered, but the rest of me was so…exposed.
But if Brietta had said my costume was modest, I hated to imagine what everyone else would wear.
