Regret consumes his expression. ‘Rose. I didn’t mean …’ He shakes his head. ‘Forget I said anything. We’re dancing, right?’ He pulls me in closer still so that every inch of my chest braces against the hard contours of his body. It would be so easy to fold myself into him. To place my lips against his and taste him like we’re the only people in the room. But my last thread of common sense is still there, holding the fractals of me together, and so I hold myself rigid, as unmoving as a plank of wood. His hand moves to the base of my spine, but I remain tense and unhappy in his arms.
The moment is agonisingly atrocious. It’s as if time has no place here. The music continues on and on in the longest dance of my life. I am begging Etta to make the misery end when a figure strides towards us – a man of similar age to Kyor with striking dark skin and vivid eyes.
‘Your Royal Highness.’ He dips his head politely at Kyor before turning his attention to me. ‘Gifted, I was wondering if you would do me the honour of the next dance?’
‘Oh …’ My mouth opens in surprise as I struggle to respond while he stretches his hand out to me. Scars stretch up his forearm, and I have no doubt that this isn’t just a pretty courtier I’m faced with, but someone who has actually fought. Someone withballs.I’m about to accept his offer, if only to spite Kyor, when the prince answers for me, domineering arsehole that he is.
‘No.’ Kyor’s voice is as icy as his eyes. ‘The gifted will not be dancing with anyone else tonight.’
With my jaw now hanging loose, I turn and look at the prince, only to feel the static raging from him. And I’m not the only one. The lord, whoever he might be, begins to shuffle away awkwardly.
‘I understand. Sorry for the interruption,’ he says before scurrying backward. Okay. Maybe he didn’t have balls after all.
My attention snaps back to Kyor.
‘You don’t have the right to do that,’ I snarl. ‘You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do, and you can’t just send courtiers away because you don’t want them to speak to me.’
A dry scoff cracks in his throat. ‘I believe you’ll find that in my palace, Lady Kultavaris, I can do exactly as I please with my courtiers.’
‘Indeed,’ I snap. ‘Even cast them aside.’
Regret instantly clouds his eyes, and I have no time or patience for it.
‘It’s good to know where we all stand. It’s important to know one’s place,’ I say. I step back from him and offer a deep curtsey – the type I know he despises.
His eyes flash, and a grim smile curls my lips at the sight of his fists being clenched.
He’s upset. Good. He deserves to be.
‘I believe I have given you the one dance I promised, Your Royal Highness.’ I sniff. ‘Now, if I have yourroyalpermission, I would like to celebrate my sister’s marriage.’
His eyes widen and his lips part as he readies to respond, but whatever he’s going to say, I don’t want to hear it. And so I turn around and head back to Benny without another word.
‘All right?’ Benny asks as I rejoin him.
‘Fuck him,’ I snarl.
‘I believe that’s what got you into this mess in the first place.’
I level a glare at my friend, and he winces. ‘Sorry. Too soon.’
Despite the urge to drink my way through the night, we plan to escape from Wrohelm while it’s still dark, and so I stick to water and try to focus on Kay and William and the fact that these are the last few hours I’m going to get with them.
It’s tough. An intricate balance. The last thing I want to do is draw attention to William by spending too much time with him – especially given how much I basically ignored him at other balls before now – and Kay is clearly revelling in having her moment. I don’t want to ruin that, but I still manage to snatch precious moments with them both.Moments I emblazon into my memory for the coming moons we’ll spend apart.
A little after midnight, Benny disappears and I pull my siblings and Jonas into one of the anterooms. I change out of my ballgown, handing it to Kay, and stand ready in my leathers. It’s only when I look around that I realise which room I’m in: the library – the one where I finally gave in to the need to feel Kyor’s lips on mine.
It was the same room in which I first told him I trusted him, and I truly had at the time.
Fool.
It was also the same room where I heard Caz scream out before Llinos took her final breath.
Maybe it’s an ill omen, being in here to say goodbye.
Maybe this trip is already cursed.
Stifling the tears that threaten to fall, I look back at Jonas.
