Chapter 13
T he palace ballroom was an explosion of golden ribbons, ivory tapestries, and gold and diamond adornments. It was a shimmering sea of opulence, and at the center was a grand throne, where Queen Kriselle sat, resplendent in her gown and jewels. Courtiers surrounded her on either side, and the rest of her guests left a semi-circle of open floor for the entertainment to perform.
I wanted to stay at the side of the room, waiting in the shadows until my turn, but Adora kept nudging me forward.
"We should have a place with the courtiers," she whispered.
"I am going to perform any moment, so I don't think that is wise for me," I declined as politely as possible. "You should be with your peers while I stay back here."
"I suppose you have a point," Adora said, reluctant to agree with me.
I gave my performance, a simple but elegant dance with golden roses to represent the jubilee. When I finished, I curtseyed low before the Queen.
“You are truly a wonderous spectacle,” Queen Kriselle said. I was still bent forward, my forehead low to the floor, in a show of respect, but I lifted my eyes enough to see the smile on her face. “It is always a pleasure to see you, Lady Isadore.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty. Long may you reign.” I straightened up, and from the corner of my eye, I spotted Adora standing with the courtiers.
After my performance, I meant to disappear into the crowd since Adora would be busy with the nobles for the remainder of the evening, and that was not a place where I belonged. But instead of disappearing, I walked straight into Soren Tomoleo.
He was obscenely handsome in a tailored black jacket embroidered with golden thread, and it had been left open slightly to expose the ruby amulet lying on his bare chest. We stood face-to-face, neither of us saying anything, and the minstrel band started up again, and the subsequent performance began.
“Isadore,” he said at length, with a strange smile on his lips. “You were excellent, but I have come to expect nothing less from you.”
“Thank you,” I replied, swallowing down the painful confusion in my throat. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
“I am performing a few illusions later on tonight,” he explained. “Are you busy at the moment?”
“You mean, beyond attending the Queen’s Jubilee?” I asked.
“Would you go somewhere with me so we can talk?”
“Yes,” I replied before I could even think about whether or not that would be a good idea.
Soren led me out of the gilded ballroom and down the corridor. As we passed several closed doors, he counted them to himself and stopped at the sixth one. "This is it. I am nearly certain."
He opened the grand doors with a flourish, and we entered a library. It was small compared to the rest of the palace I had seen, and there was a sitting area consisting of only two chairs in front of a fireplace. The walls were lined with bookcases, each of them stacked from floor to ceiling with hundreds of books.
On another day, I would happily spend the evening perusing the shelves, but Soren had this way of distracting me from anything else. We stood before the mantle, looking at one another, and I clasped my hands nervously in front of my belly.
He broke the silence first. “I meant to talk to you before you left Sudamon, but you departed so early.”
“I had to get back home. My mother was worried about me.”
“Right,” he said, as if remembering. “Did all of that go well with her?”
I nodded. “Yes. She is here tonight.”
“I’m glad to hear that all worked out.” His smile seemed restrained and uneasy, and he even spoke slower than usual, as if carefully choosing his words.
"What did you plan to say to me before I left?" I asked because I hadn't followed him into this room to talk about my mother.
"I don't know that I really had a plan," he admitted. "I just didn't want to leave things the way we had. I behaved boorishly and ruined what should have been an otherwise wonderful night for both of us."
“Nothing was ruined, Soren. It was only a kiss.” That’s what I said, but even to me, it tasted like a lie.
"Perhaps," he conceded in a low voice but cleared his throat. "But I was your enchanter and would like to be again. You have to be able to trust me and rely on me, and when that becomes entangled with romance, things can become twisted and dangerous."
His dark eyes implored, and he finished simply, "When we work together, we create magik, Izzy. I don't want to spoil that."
He was oversimplifying the complications of our relationship. If a romance between us were discovered, we would be severed from our magik. It was a special kind of agony for a muse or enchanter to be cut off from the magik.
“Neither do I,” I said quietly.
“So you will accept my deepest apologies then, and we can put all this behind us?"
"You have nothing to apologize for." That part was true, but I immediately and unabashedly followed it up with what I hoped would be a lie, "We both were caught up in a moment, and it is completely behind us now."
“Good, because I would like to continue on as friends.” He held his hand out to me, and I tentatively took it.
“Friends it is.”
With a handshake, we solidified our new friendship, yet he seemed reluctant to let my hand go. His thumb caressed the back of mine, reminding me of how he'd caressed my cheek when we kissed, and my stomach fluttered in delight.
Maybe that occurred to him, too, because he let go and stepped back, putting distance between the two of us. He leaned his shoulder against the bookshelves and folded his arms over his chest.
“Can I be honest with you?” he asked.
“I would prefer it, yes.”
“I’ve been wanting to get together with you so we can practice,” he said.
While that was not at all the confession I was hoping for, the prospect did immediately thrill me. I loved every conduction I had done with him, and they were the best I had ever given. Not to mention that it meant that I could spend more time with Soren, which is something I'd wanted to do since the moment we parted.
“Do you already have a conduction lined up?” I asked.
"Not yet, but I am certain that something will be coming soon," he assured me confidently. "I thought that with more time and practice, we could create magik unlike anything this kingdom has ever seen."
"How so?" I asked, but I grew more excited as he talked about it.
"You have hardly even tapped into your magik. I can feel it." Then he gave me an awed smile. "And if we can draw it out, we could light up the night sky."
The library doors opened, and a tall woman in a slinky black gown strode into the room. "Soren, there you are."
“How did you find me?” he asked in confusion.
“You weren’t at the bar, and the library is always the second place I look,” she explained.
“You do know me too well,” Soren said as she joined us. “Isadore, this is my dear sister, Serena.”
When she looked at me, I noticed she had the same dark eyes as Soren and long hair the same shade of charcoal black. She was a beautiful woman in her early thirties, and her low-cut gown was incredibly flattering on her hourglass figure.
“You’re a muse,” Serena said after she eyed me up. “Is she the talented one you’ve been talking about?”
“She is,” he answered, and I flushed at the thought of him discussing me with his sister.
“I’m an enchantress,” she told me. “I can see the glow in you.”
“Thank you,” I replied.
“What did you need from me, Serena?” Soren asked his sister.
“Oh, right, of course.” She finally looked away from me. “One of the other enchanters had an accident, so you have been moved up. I don’t think there is much time until you are expected to perform.”
"Oh, thank you. I should go then." He was already moving toward the door but looked back at me over his shoulder. "I will set something up with you later on, Izzy."