8. For Your Trouble
eight
For Your Trouble
A hand on her shoulder woke Sofia. She groaned, took his hand, and kissed the inside of his palm.
“Calm down, Soful.”
She jerked up, pleasantly asleep to fully awake and terrified in a single breath. Bright in the room, it was morning already, and Lev grinned, drunk, high, or both, and swaying as he stood. He fell on the bed, then fell to the floor trying to pull his boots off.
“You snore like a swine,” he said.
Sofia checked herself. She’d been under the cover with her dress down and not the way she had been… last night. It hadn’t been a dream because she still felt it, her whole body sore as though she’d ridden a horse for the first time.
“You didn’t forget the Illeivich girls?” Sofia gathered herself, straightening her hair which was still a mess. She needed a bath. What time was it?
“No, we had a good time. They’re not so bad.” He climbed up on the bed struggling like an inept cat, then flopped on his belly. “They went to their room.”
“You didn’t sleep with them.” She narrowed her eyes.
“No, my heart has been claimed.” He tried rolling himself in the blanket and failed. “And he’s blond like sunshine.”
“ She’s blonde like sunshine,” Sofia said. She didn’t like that girl at all—Zoya Chartorisky.
He passed out face down and horizontally. To be fair, it was his bed, but he’d been sleeping on the spare one for a servant so it wouldn’t be too inappropriate seeing as how they were no longer children.
“Lev.” She nudged him with her foot. “Did you get to see Aleksei’s horse?”
“Yeah, he’s friendly. Let me pet him.”
“Aleksei?”
“Snowstorm, Soful. He’s a beautiful horse. Rhytsar is just better.”
“Did you feed him the sugar?” she couldn’t help asking.
“Who the fuck poisons a horse? Uncle is out of his mind. Besides, no point in winning if you’re going to cheat. It’s not like I need the fucken cup money.” He turned his face to the side, his eyes closed, he was just grumbling. Somewhere in there was the little boy who used to be so impressed with miniature ponies.
Sofia reached out and ruffled his soft, blond crown. She hoped he stood up for himself and refused the archmage, and if Zoya gave him the courage to do so, Sofia loved her already. Her sister-in-law could address her as a servant if she wanted to if she kept Lev away from the corruption of the heart.
“How was the tea thing? I heard Aleksei dropped by.” He opened a single blue eye, laughter on his lips. “Heard he fell off his horse trying to impress Baroness Nadezda. Women may have been talking about it during a naked card game I definitely did not take the Illeivich girls to.”
“Well, he didn’t fall.” Sofia stroked his back. He used to be afraid of lightning and would fall asleep like this in her bed during a thunderstorm. “Archmage scared the horse, I think.”
“He was doing his monster thing?” He closed his eyes and chuckled. He couldn’t see the archmage’s light so in describing it to him, Sofia may have used the word ‘monster’.
“He was doing his monster thing,” she said. “Lev, why doesn’t Uncle like Aleksei? Other than he’s a Shield, I mean?”
“Oh, I didn’t tell you.” He tried to be awake but failed and went back to dragging and slurring his words. “Do you remember Darina?”
“Of course.”
Darina had been the archmage’s daughter. Her mother was a steward at the White Palace, and their affair had been before Uncle was the archmage, before the use of magic ate away at him. He’d never claimed the girl, but cared for her and her mother, giving them land from the church’s property. Without a long line of pedigree, the highest title Darina could be bestowed with was a baroness, but not bad for a steward’s daughter.
The girl wanted for nothing, but she aspired to be like her father, played with some spell she couldn’t handle, and the incomplete alchemy poisoned her. She was very ill for a while, Sofia had heard, and the girl passed some years ago.
“Lev?” Sofia tapped his back because he was snoring. “Lev, what does Darina have to do with Aleksei?”
“Oh.” He wiped his drool. “He fucked her and dumped her, wouldn’t give her the time of the day. She was looney for him. And at some point, the archmage tried to pay Aleksei to come see Darina because she’d been so down. For someone like Uncle, that’s an enormous bite out of his ego. When Darina was dying, she kept writing Aleksei, that was how smitten she was. He didn’t visit her once though.
“It’s a little more than ‘not like’, Soful. Uncle hates Aleksei, not because he’s Shield but because he’s a fucken asshole. Now, he’s courting Zoya to spite me. If he hurts her, I’m going to kill him. We’d have fewer problems if he would take off that sentinel shit and just brawl with me, but that’s not the way he is.
“Aleksei hates Guards, Soful, and hurts our women to fuck with us. Uncle is protecting you because you wouldn’t know how to deal with someone like him. That’s not a knock on you, though. You’re good and innocent. Stay that way, Soful. I love you.”
Papa wore his white breeches and stockings with the black dance shoes with gold buckles Auntie used to like. The white ruffled shirt matched his silver hair, and the gold sash of Guard over his black tailcoat was handsome.
Sofia kissed him on the forehead. “You look dashing, Papa.”
His mustache was soft and smelled of soap and she wanted to pinch his cheek because he was an adorable old man who reminded her of a biscuit dough—who occasionally told nasty jokes.
The count dressed similarly to Papa because that was the latest trend in court, but Lev had become an extravaganza of silk and brocade, the tail of his coat longer than a lady’s train. He also put on a white fur hat though it wasn’t cold.
Ania, Kira, and Diana all looked charming in the dresses their new friend Baroness Katarina gifted them. Though the count had already secured her dowry from the archmage, Ania whispered she was having second thoughts about accepting a proposal from a ‘country’ lord. She wanted to live in Krakova as everyone did. A royal ball, both the prince and the queen would be in attendance tonight, and the Illeivich girls were delighted as the Guard entourage headed out in a caravan of coaches.
Sofia wore her aunt’s grand black dress with gold embroidery of a firebird, tamed her long curls with opal encrusted hairpins, and dropped her gold trinket into her black velvet reticule before she headed out. She didn’t want to owe Aleksei anything and thought of settling the debt tonight. It had been foolish to let a Shield sentinel toy with her. But she would handle it. Darina had been twenty-three when she passed but Sofia was older, perhaps not wiser, but she’d learned to manage disappointments.
Raven wasn’t as daunting the second time around, and leaving the Illeivich girls to marvel at the immensity of the structure, dark like the charred bones of a giant creature, Sofia took Lev’s arm and headed up the wide, stone stairs, and into the castle of Red Shield. She wondered if the queen was as disturbed as she’d sounded and was curious to see her. The prince too, she’d never seen a prince before.
A different, grander ballroom than the masquerade, but the ivory walls with gilded intricate moldings were similarly remnants of the Guard reign. The floor was hardwood parquet of mahogany and oak inlaid with marble in places. The darksteel crested red throne, an odd piece of furniture in the hall of glitter, was empty but the ballroom was full. The orchestra played though no one danced, and everyone stood around in groups, chatting.
The count tagged along with Papa to be introduced to the Boyar Duma , Lev was whisked away by his friends, the Illeivich girls stood together and Ania turned her back to Sofia, letting her know she wasn’t in their group.
Sofia took a glass of sparkling wine from a server passing with a tray, or so she thought, but it ended up being a mysterious potion of froth and she was spitting it back out into the crystal glass when she spotted Aleksei across the floor from her. A couple of crows amongst swans, he was speaking with another sentinel, a blond one who also had his face armor up, then he saw her and cocked his head. He was too far away to see the expression on his face, but she imagined he smiled.
He dismissed his fellow crow and strode across the floor for her. Forgetting she’d spat in it, she downed the potion, hoping it wasn’t something that would make her delirious like Lev often was.
She flicked her gaze to the count and found him engrossed and in the middle of a long, probably, political discussion.
Aleksei circled her, making her turn. “You look stunning, Lady Sofia. May I ask what you are drinking?”
“Sparkling wine.”
He called a server over and swapped her empty glass for a fresh one. This time it was sparkling wine.
“Trying to get me drunk?” she asked.
“Maybe. Where is your husband? I’ve yet to see him.”
Yeah, here was where they should part. She couldn’t let him make a scandal out of her. It wouldn’t affect him at all, whereas the airing of the foolish affair could make her life much, much, much worse.
She dipped her hand into the small reticule hanging from her arm, took out her bit of gold, and handed it to him.
He smiled. “What is it?”
“It’s for you.”
“A gift, my lady? What does it do?” He studied it, trying to make sense of the alchemy.
“The weight of it, I reckon, is about five ounces. It’s for your trouble, Aleksei. And please don’t approach me again. My family is here.”
There, she’d said it, and felt proud because that had taken an inordinate amount of courage. It took a moment for him to register, but when it did, she saw the light go out of his scarlet eyes, darkening and turning the color of old blood. He looked down, not knowing what to do with himself, and let out a couple of sharp exhales while his jugular pulsed. The way he furrowed his brows and clenched his jaw, he was incredibly upset, not that hard to read.
He looked to the side, tapped his face armor and it came down. “Thank you, Lady Sofia.” He walked past her and out of the ballroom.
She was grateful he hadn’t made a scene, but after he left, she realized she’d upset herself as well.