Chapter 10
Sidney
Standing at the door were a pair of female vampires who wore the starched and pressed uniforms of house servants. They curtsied in sync.
“Lady Ilyana,” the vampiress on the left simpered, pressing her glossy red lips into a fake smile. The tint of her lip stain made her look like she was fresh from a feeding.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, my lady.” The other servant could've been her twin but for the garish pink cosmetics that made her doll-like face resemble a child playing dress-up.
I gripped the wooden frame reflexively. Vampirism was a goal for some servants, especially amongst the women, who clawed to get ahead of their peers by any means necessary.
If this pair were Turned, they were the meanest weasels in this den.
And if they were Born and had fallen from the grace of their blue blood, they were even less trustworthy.
I sneered, knowing they were contemptible either way. “What do you want?”
“We’re here to get you prepared for the ball this evening,” Dollface answered. She took a step forward, but I didn’t budge. Nor did I take an incriminating glance over my shoulder to show that I had someone hiding in my room.
The ball? By Aetherius’s light. I wanted to smack myself in the forehead. No wonder my head was so full of fog. Finn and I had talked the day away, catching up on years’ worth of separation. And maybe I’d enjoyed it a little too much. We probably would’ve kept going, if not for these two.
I rubbed one of my gritty eyes and fought back a yawn. “I don’t need help,” I answered plainly. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I heard how informal and not-Ilyana-like they were and cleared my throat. “Your assistance may surely benefit another.”
The first vampiress pressed her lips into a disapproving pucker. She dropped her voice to an urgent whisper. “The regent assigned us to help you. We have less than two hours to get you—” She looked me up and down with clear disdain. “—presentable before the whole House.”
Well, that’d given me everything I needed to know. One, she was Turned, with her catty attitude showing no regard for the standing of the Krudelbach family. And two, I had just enough time to prepare myself. Alone.
“I shall see to my own grooming.” I flicked my hand in dismissal. “Inform the regent that I don’t require his pity.”
“But—”
I slammed the door shut and bolted it before Dollface could finish that thought. A sharp series of knocks sounded behind me as I turned away. No doubt they feared a punishment if they didn’t complete their assigned task. Oh well. Not my problem.
I needed to get Finn out of my room, preferably undetected. He peered out of the wardrobe, where he must’ve ducked when I told him to hide.
Coast is clear, I signed.
He popped his hands out of the wardrobe to sign back, Why are most of the dresses in here the same color?
Ilyana really likes burgundy.
It is a… Then his fingers twisted into a shape I didn't recognize. I squinted, trying to pull the meaning from my memory, but came up empty. …color.
What was that last bit? I asked.
Finn didn’t look annoyed. He gave me that patient, goofy look and slowed down, spelling it out letter by letter. H-I-D-E-O-U-S.
A smile stretched my cheeks despite the situation. My face ached a little from smiling so much since Finn arrived.
I went to the window and brushed aside the blackout curtains, noting the last rays of sunset fading behind the high stone wall that blocked most of my view. No time for even a catnap—the night was here, and all the blood-hungry monsters were stirring across the estate.
I sighed and faced Finn. I have less than two hours to get ready for some ball.
I have maybe two minutes before I should be mucking stalls, he answered. When my nose wrinkled, he added, Punishment.
Why?
The seneschal gets highly embarrassed when a servant almost burns to death in the sun.
I rolled my eyes. Carissa?
One and the same.
When I became queen, I would fire that old bat.
I held up a finger and went to write a note to her, signed Ilyana Krudelbach.
Instructions to give Finn leniency for his sun exposure yesterday and for being late tonight.
What was the point of pretending to be a noblewoman if I couldn’t use her name to help a friend?
Carissa would be suspicious, naturally, but she’d survived decades of service as Nemea’s mortal seneschal. She’d follow instructions. If she didn’t, she risked answering not only to a noble vampiress, but potentially to the next queen herself.
Give this to her. If she gives you trouble, let her know I will follow up, I signed before holding up the letter. The movements felt smooth, falling off my fingers as naturally as they had when we were kids. My hands finally remembered the way to talk to him.
He pointed at the letter. Is that lenience?
I nodded, and he just looked at me for a few moments, his lips set at an odd angle.
He approached me with his arms out, offering a hug with a self-conscious grimace.
When I accepted it, I expected a brief embrace, not for him to pull me in with full exuberance.
I barely hesitated before hugging him back just as tightly.
How long had it been since I’d let another person hold me?
Not since Zane was taken, I think. I missed this…
the warmth of another, their heartbeat pressed so close to mine.
And Finn’s heart was throbbing along. The half of me that was tainted with vampiric senses could smell how excitement made his blood all the richer.
As he stepped back, I caught myself memorizing the warmth where his hands had pressed against my ribs, the way his pulse had thundered against my chest. It wasn’t overwhelming, but just enough to leave a soft ache in its absence.
Zane’s embrace had always been gentle, reverent.
Finn held me like I was strong enough to weather any storm, and it awakened a thrum of yearning in my blood.
The thought sent a spike of guilt through my chest so sharp I had to press my palm against my sternum.
What kind of betrothed compared them at all?
Thank you. See you soon, he signed.
I gestured to the silver pitcher he’d brought in with him. It would be a flimsy excuse if he was caught leaving my quarters with it in his hands, but he could say he was returning it to the kitchen. He left the room with it and the note, plus a smile on his face.
Tongues would be wagging soon enough about Finn and me.
The first trial would undoubtedly challenge each candidate and her Devotion.
It seemed I wouldn’t be working alone after all.
Finn had offered to join me with all the over-the-top energy of a great joke, but the punchline was absent, replaced by the fire in his eyes.
He would help me dismantle the mansion brick by brick or die trying.
I had the feeling there was more to the spontaneous offer than a desire for revenge.
The way he’d looked at me before our embrace, not like the childhood friend he'd always been, but like a man seeing a woman he thought he’d lost forever.
My stomach twisted with something that wasn’t entirely unwelcome, and that terrified me more than any trial.
“Oh, Finn,” I said under my breath. “You and me against the world.” It was as if I’d never left.
Except I had, and I’d originally come here to save a man who wasn’t him. I traced the familiar shape of my engagement band through my clothes, blowing out a tired breath as I forced myself to move.
As I washed and prepared myself for the pre-trial ball, memories of Zane and Finn invaded the strategic thoughts I tried to muster.
I pushed them aside. Focus. I looked up halfway into my ablutions to see Ilyana glaring back at me.
A small gasp escaped my lips, though not as strong a startle as the last time.
“I wanted to do this by myself,” I told my false reflection as I applied cosmetics to hide the shadows in the hollows of my eyes.
How foolish of me to think I could pull off my revenge alone when I was already accepting Ilyana’s unwilling assistance.
I clung to Aetherius’s wisdom. “But if we must toil together, we’ll create something for the benefit of all. ”
A smoldering ruin of the House of the Sanguine. The blood of all my old tormentors staining the marble underfoot. And my grandmother’s unholy rose garden cleansed to ashes. I would work hard to create that future.
But first, I needed to wrestle myself into Ilyana’s finest ball gown. I wasn’t about to look like a hypocrite now and call for assistance. I managed the layers of burgundy fabric and chiffon with irritation as they tangled around my legs.
Felicity had quickly honed in on the laces at the back of my dress yesterday. This gown didn’t have to be tied all the way up my spine, stopping instead at mid-back to compliment the off-the-shoulder cuff sleeves. I secured it to my body with some twisting and a few graceless stumbles.
I braided part of my hair and pinned it up in a bun.
It wouldn’t be the exaggerated curls and exotic updos of the other Born, but it would do.
I wasn’t here to peacock for anyone’s entertainment.
If anything, I planned to slip from the ball as quickly as possible so I could rest before the horrors of the first trial.
“You know what they’re saying about the first trial. Half of us will soon be gone,” Felicity had said.
A smaller, quieter voice at the back of my head suggested that it would be a good strategic choice to observe my opponents. Rupture poison and slayer fighting techniques wouldn’t save me in a direct, five-versus-one fight. Even the surprise of my nullification magic would only go so far.
A group fight was the one situation I had no answer for, and my mind kept analyzing the possibility of it happening and the variables of my survival. Either I would adapt and find a solution or be driven mad in the pursuit of it.