Chapter 10 #2
“The point isn’t to be glamorous.” Blai leaned back with a huff. “After last night’s performance, all eyes will be on you. The Counseil want you around as entertainment, so we’ll give them that. If you show up dressed to kill with the kind of magie you can perform, that makes you a … a…”
“A threat,” Chantal said.
“Exactly! Thank you!”
Elara glowered at the mockery of a design.
She’d thought becoming Elouise Auclair would free her from her past, but she would always be a Reste.
“What’s your plan?” she mumbled.
“Present you as a humble, demure Reste orphan,” Blai answered, “skilled with a whisk and highly impressionable.”
“A pawn,” Chantal added, though her tone hinted at more than disgust.
“I’m not exactly a delicate flower.” Elara motioned to her flour-coated apron.
“Which is why I called upon Chantal and Blai to help you.”
Finally, Nikolas had joined them.
Whether it was the domestic setting or the morning light, it felt as if she were seeing him for the first time.
His suit, while less fashionable than the previous one, was pressed with the top button fastened and the collar pinched around his slender neck.
The linen material fit him … perfectly. He’d slicked his hair back again, and there were dark circles beneath his eyes as if he too hadn’t slept.
Elara found herself tracing the line of his body down to his polished shoes and back up until she realized what she was really looking at, the color she was looking at: dark red, the sickly kind of old blood dried upon paper.
Elara shook off her anxiety. “I understand acting a part, but this is ridiculous.”
“You said you’d try.” He cast her a long look she couldn’t read as he passed the mounds of breakfast trays she’d made to fill the kettle with water.
“Try to win, not be some walking farce of a doll they can pity.”
“Who cares if they do?”
“Maybe that’s how you got here with this house and those clothes, but I refuse to be something I’m not.”
Blai snorted café.
Chantal’s brows shot up. “I like her already.”
Nikolas gave her a flat look. “Because she’s as tenacious and reckless as you?”
“I have to prove what I’m worth.” Elara offered him one of the trays. “What better way than through my magie?”
He didn’t take a single pastry.
The room fell into awkward silence.
“What?” she asked.
“The Counseil care about a Favored’s magie and skill with a whisk far less than what they can offer them,” Nik replied.
“Connections to Directeurs in other disciplines,” Chantal explained.
“A neighborhood they can further expand into,” Nikolas added.
“Another country they can trade with,” Blai finished.
Elara suddenly felt foolish holding a dozen useless turnovers. “I don’t have any of that.”
Nikolas took a step forward. “You have something else.”
“Nik…,” Chantal warned.
“It’s the only angle we have.”
“But it will ruin her start as Souverain.”
“What will?” Elara asked.
Nikolas ignored her. “She can make changes after she proves herself to the Counseil.”
It was standing in the dance hall with Fernand all over again. It was Gaetan telling her to tone down her magie, to conceal her ambitions, to play a game in the most cowardly way possible.
“You want me to be a na?ve Reste girl they can manipulate,” she said darkly. “To be whatever they want, to vote however they want…”
“Only for the contest and a few years after you’ve won,” Nikolas explained. “Once you gain true power and followers, you can do whatever you like. Even save the Restes.”
Chantal stomped her cane. “She can make changes the moment she’s crowned Souverain.”
“They would fight her at every turn or assassinate her at best.”
Elara withdrew. “At best?”
It was Blai who looked out the window and said, “There are worse punishments than death.”
They all looked in different directions as if they knew this to be true.
A small, muffled sound, like the ting of metal on metal, rang from somewhere. It took a moment before Nikolas seemed to realize the noise was from his pocket. Elara stood on tiptoe to read over his shoulder, watching as golden letters appeared upon the black parchment:
Chef Elouise Auclair,
Congratulations on earning a spot as one of the seven Favored in this year’s Objet d’Art.
We the Counseil are most excited to see your tantalizing creations.
As a reminder, there are three rounds in which the Counseil will consider your magie and your skill in a kitchen.
Should you make it past rounds one and two to become a finalist, then we will take the time to hear your story during the traditional interview.
Below, you’ll find the instructions for the first round as well as a countdown to the event.
Sure enough, a timer ticked away at the bottom. Six days, three hours, and thirty-seven minutes.
“An interview?” she asked first.
“Standard procedure,” Chantal replied. “No one is eliminated, but it gives them a chance to get to know the finalists.”
Elara’s stomach tightened. She was nobody. Literally. Elouise Auclair had no past to speak about, and all her hopes and dreams were pinned on memories that belonged to Rousseau. If they dug deep enough, they’d figure that out, then they’d realize she was a fake and …
Instead of spiraling, she focused on the first round.
ROUND ONE: APPRAISAL