Chapter 21
Everyone here was a snake. She’d made that assumption the moment she started talking to the nobles who were going about their lives as though they hadn’t watched their queen and princess murdered in front of them.
Six months was all it had taken. They hadn’t even mourned her mother for an entire year.
But she plastered a fake smile on her face and pretended it didn’t bother her in the slightest. After all, she wasn’t the Lady Jessamine who had died in front of them.
She was Lady Farah, a foreign dignitary who lived very close to this kingdom and who had just married a rake.
One of the many women here who they likely hoped would slip off with them for a quick fuck in a closet.
She was just about to ask the man in front of her if he’d heard the rumors about the princess not being dead, when there was a loud bang at the front of the house.
A few people jumped. One woman even spilled half of her cocktail before she caught the glass.
All the nobles turned to see a man standing atop the white marble steps leading toward gilded double doors, wearing a fine suit of ivory white.
“Esteemed ladies and gentlemen! It is my pleasure to welcome you to the home of Fortuna Beaumont! A truly unique experience awaits you beyond. You shall be plied with the finest of foods, the rarest of wines, and the most unusual beauties this kingdom can offer you! Please, enter and enjoy.”
And, damn it, the nobles all filtered out of the garden. She wasn’t going to get a word in edgewise while they were all walking, which meant she was forced to stride behind them and enter the home.
Sighing, she looked over her shoulder at Elric, who was so close she could feel the heat of his body. “Shall we?”
“I’ve always been intrigued to see how the legendary Fortuna Beaumont lives.” A few people beside him made noises of agreement, although they all gave him a side-eye when he added, “Some say it rivals the beauty of the royal castle itself… but surely that would be impossible.”
This man. He was so beyond what she had ever dreamt of having in her life, and yet here he was. Right in front of her. Or behind her, as it were.
Biting her lip, she walked with the others up the stairs. She stayed in the back of the line, though. No need to rush into a house they had already seen, after all.
From the outside, she could see that Fortuna’s servants had decorated with even more gold, if such a thing was possible.
It looked like it was pouring down from the ceilings in great swaths of drapery, and every single item of food on a plate that moved past the window had gold on top of it as well.
Desserts that looked like little pillows.
Delicate crackers with what looked like duck liver paté.
Even the small ribs on bones had gold dust on top.
“Everyone’s going to be shitting gold when they leave this place,” Elric murmured in her ear.
She tried her best not to giggle, but that one got her. With a startled laugh, she leaned back into him when everyone turned to stare. Thankfully, he just wrapped an arm around her waist and flashed them all a grin.
“She’s always been a lightweight,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ll keep a watch on her, don’t you worry.”
And just like that, they were dismissed.
Finally, they were entering Fortuna’s home.
The massive entrance hall glowed with so much light it looked like the sun itself had been captured.
The black-and-white-checkered floors gleamed like mirrors, and every room had been opened.
The guests wandered to and fro, exploring whatever room where they wished to see the various entertainments.
“It’s just you and I,” she murmured, glancing around to see that almost everyone had left the hall. Remaining was just them, the servants, and a podium with a guest book that everyone else seemed to have signed.
“So it is.” He narrowed his gaze on her. “Are you about to make a foolish decision?”
“No.” But the grin on her face said otherwise.
She felt him lean over her shoulder to watch as she signed the guest book.
Dead Girl and the Reckoning.
“Jessamine,” he snarled.
“Farah,” she replied, closing the guest book with a sharp thud. “No one will look until we’re all gone, anyway.”
“Unless a servant gets curious.” He took her hand and put it on his elbow, drawing her away from the podium.
“If a servant looks, they will say nothing. I highly doubt any of them have the slightest loyalty to Fortuna.” She tossed her head before remembering most of her hair was coiled in a precarious updo. “She wasn’t kind to servants as a child, and I highly doubt that has changed since.”
Shaking his head, Elric drew her into the nearest room. Inside, it appeared to be a hookah den. Smoke coiled to the ceiling and billowed like clouds against the ceiling. She had yet to see such pristine white smoke in her life, but then again, she hadn’t been in a hookah den before either.
Smokers, mostly men, filled the room, all of them puffing on hoses leading to metal contraptions that bubbled with liquids. A few daring women enjoyed pipes of their own, but they were few and far between.
“See anyone you recognize?” Elric murmured in her ear. Together, they watched the crowd to see if anyone reacted to their presence. “Because the man in the garden made a very precise suggestion that he knew who you were.”
If Elric believed him, then it was true. And that meant there was more than one person who knew, for no one in the Pleasure District kept secrets. But she had no clue who that stranger could be.
“No one,” she replied, before sneezing. Loudly.
A few people looked over at them with annoyed expressions, and she took that as their cue to leave. Elric cleared his throat, nodded to the other men, and then nearly dragged her out of the room.
“What?” she asked.
“You can’t sneeze in a room full of smokers.”
“Why not?”
“It’s rude.”
She supposed it might be. After all, everyone was in that room because they enjoyed smoking. She did not.
They moved into the next room, one she hoped wouldn’t aggravate her lungs. Thankfully, this one was for food. The table in the center was piled so high with delicacies that they were quite literally toppling onto the floor.
Jessamine watched a young woman burst into delighted laughter as her partner lifted an oyster from the table and “dropped” it onto her bosom.
He licked the oyster off her skin without hesitation.
Juices dripped between her ample breasts, and Jessamine had to look away before the man chased those droplets into hidden shadows.
“Is that a whole roasted pig?” she asked to distract herself. “On top of a bed of… salmon?”
“That is what it looks like.”
What a waste. The salmon was crushed under the weight of the massive beast on top of it, and no one was eating the fish that had soaked up all the fat from the pork above it. Lady Fortuna might have money, but it was clear once more that she lacked taste.
“Oh, there’s someone I recognize.” She grabbed Elric’s arm and practically dragged him over to an elderly, rotund gentleman. His whiskers were curled into sharp points on either side of his mouth, and his eyes were rather sunken into his skull for such a large man.
This man had once been important in the castle, Jessamine recalled.
As her mother’s grand advisor for all things financial in the kingdom, he was one of the few with access to the treasury.
She hadn’t liked him then, and she certainly didn’t like him now.
But he had loose lips when he was drunk, and she was hoping that he was drunk at this point.
“Follow my lead,” she said, walking up to the other side of the advisor before loudly proclaiming, “I want a piece! I’m just so nervous to grab it.”
Elric reached for one of the ribs before he paused, apparently realizing this was her plan. Dramatically yanking his arm back as though he was disgusted, he sank into the role of rake. “Well, don’t look at me, darling. I’m not grabbing one for you. There are servants for that.”
The portly old man beside her was quick to jump in and be the hero. “Allow me.”
His thick fingers sank into the skin of the roasted pig, which crackled under his touch.
Those fingers sank into the flesh, rooted around with squelching noises, and then he pulled out a hunk of meat attached to a rib.
He looked like he was just going to hand it to Jessamine before he thought better of it and set it on a plate that he handed to her.
His greasy fingermarks remained, but it was significantly better than the alternative.
It took everything in her not to let her face twist in disgust. She could see the imprint of each finger on the fine porcelain, shiny in the candlelight.
“Thank you,” she tried to simper, but she could hear the shudder in her voice.
Jessamine took the plate and tried her best to look like she could eat it.
She really tried. But all she could think about was that he’d taken the meat with his bare hands, and she’d just been watching him lick the same fingers clean.
If she put any of that meat in her mouth, she’d spew all over this fancy floor and then people would know she didn’t belong here.
“Allow me,” Elric said, leaning over her to take the plate with a warm chuckle. “She’s so picky about her food. Poor dear couldn’t have any of this pig without a little sauce on it. Such a delicate flower.”
And then he walked away, leaving her standing with a grinning man who should have recognized her, considering he had been in her life since she was a child. “I appreciate a woman with an appetite.”
A shiver trailed down her spine at the slimy words. “Ah,” she said, a little breathless with distaste. “Lovely. You’re an advisor at the castle, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
“How fortuitous it is that you’re still with us. I heard the past queen’s end was rather grisly and that most people in attendance at that wedding were slaughtered.”
He frowned, those whiskers twitching. “I didn’t say I attended the wedding.”
Shit.
“I simply assumed a man such as yourself must have gone,” she replied, pressing a hand against her chest. “Or did they slight you? My dear lord, there is simply no part of me that could believe they would treat you so unjustly!”
Elric returned with the plate, handing it over to her with a rib that looked suspiciously different from the one the man had given her. She took the plate as he interjected. “Someone treated you unjustly? Shall I duel them for you?”
They were leaning too far into this ridiculous ploy they had going on, Jessamine thought. Still, she simpered, tittered, and then flattened her hand on Elric’s chest. “He is a good duelist, you know. But were you at the royal wedding?”
“I wasn’t,” the portly man replied, but she could already see him stiffening. “And I have no need for another man to duel for me. Ridiculous suggestion, that.”
She’d lost him. The advisor was already turning a little red, and she had a feeling that if they stayed here for much longer, one of them was going to get yelled at.
“Why don’t we take this food into the next room,” she said to Elric, still trying very hard to laugh and sound positive when all she wanted was to shriek.
She’d been so close! He knew something. They all did. She could feel it.
They trailed into the next room, which appeared to be where everyone would go if they wanted to drink.
Feminine servers flitted through the room in tiny gold outfits that were little more than chandelier chains dangling from their shoulders and hips.
Each one had tiny diamonds encrusted all along it, and they swayed with their movements.
They all held massive serving trays with drinks in every color, shape, and size.
“I could use one of these,” Elric said, snagging a glass before handing one to her as well.
“No,” she muttered, narrowing her gaze on the crowd. “I don’t want it.”
She handed off the plate to a servant because she didn’t want to keep thinking about that old man’s grubby hands. There wasn’t anyone familiar in this room either, so they moved to the next.
This one was a pleasure room. There were courtesans, both women and men, in various states of undress, even some completely nude reclining on the sofas.
It was the most crowded room, full with people of all ages wandering around the models.
Apparently, this room wasn’t for sex, but it was for looking and touching.
She watched as an older woman walked right up to a nude man and ran her hands down his rather chiseled stomach.
She looked away before she could see where those hands were heading.
“See anyone here?”
“No,” she murmured, but then a flash of blond hair caught her attention.
A grating laugh filled the room. Or maybe it was just that she would recognize that laugh anywhere.
It was the same laugh she’d heard when she got her first bruise from his grip on her arm, and the same laugh after he’d given her a matching one on her ribs.
It was the laugh that haunted her dreams, and the same one she’d heard in her ear before she was tossed off a cliff.
And then he turned. That handsome face didn’t look in her direction, but she’d know it anywhere.
The perfectly coiffed blond hair. The blue eyes that were just a shade too light for warmth.
The easy grin on his face that he used to get his way.
All he ever had to do was smile and people fell at his feet to do his bidding.
“Farah?” Elric asked, his voice pitched low. Then he stepped closer to her and lowered his voice even further. “Jessamine, what’s wrong?”
She swallowed hard, trying to get her mouth to open so she could voice her fears. All she could croak was, “Leon.”
Just saying his name made the entire world tilt. She wanted to run. She wanted to hide. She wanted to turn around and never come back because this was the man who had killed her. He’d killed her mother right in front of her, and laughed as it happened.
All she could see were ropes of rubies around her mother’s neck that bled into wounds that could not heal.
She felt the pain around her own throat, the sensation of her skin parting as she felt the sword slash through her.
The wind whistled in her ears as she fell countless stories to the sea, knowing it was going to hurt even worse when she struck the waves.
“I think I might pass out,” she whispered, before the world started going dark at the edges of her vision.