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His lips ghosted the shell of my ear as he leant in and a shiver consumed me. “You like my touch right now, don’t you, Princess?”

I stilled.

The familiarity of his voice felt like ice water being poured over me. Whatever poison was hindering my senses was not enough to suppress the visceral reaction my body had to such a vile creature.

I pulled back.

The priest’s eyes gleamed behind a shimmering silver mask with sickening intent.

The architect to my scars.

I tried to kill him once, yet he evaded death’s clutch like a cockroach.

But I was stronger now. I could⁠—

“Don’t even think about it,” he murmured, patronising and certain, dragging me back against him.

I bared my teeth. My body betrayed me, heat pooling low despite the disgust curdling in my veins.

It’s the poison, I reminded myself.

“Get your hands off me,” I hissed through clenched teeth as he commanded my body through a slow, gilded spiral. The dance never faltered despite the fury simmering beneath my skin.

“You need to focus,” he said in a hushed voice. “Lose this game and your time with me in comparison will have been pleasant.”

Before I could spit venom at his face, he trailed his vile fingers down my spine.

“Listen to the part of yourself I tried to bleed from you,” he whispered before he spun me towards the next male.

The ballroom tilted.

I stumbled through the turn, vision smearing at the edges as silk and masks and gloved fingers blurred into a single spinning nightmare.

I twisted in the stranger’s grasp, breath coming too fast.

Over his shoulder, I searched the sea of masked faces—endless and faceless, gleaming with misdirection.

“Release me,” I gasped, shoving against the masked male before me.

My palms slipped against embroidered silk.

My limbs felt heavy.

Wrong, like they no longer belonged to me.

The music seemed to swell.

Too loud. Too consuming.

I tore free, stumbling backwards.

The world pitched sideways as I broke from the formation, skirts tangling around my legs.

I spun, breath shallow, scanning the endless procession of masks.

They were everywhere.

My pulse thundered in my ears, drowning out the strings as the poison dragged at my thoughts like undertow.