Chapter 12
“Hi,” Bryce breathed, her silky black hair swishing behind her.
I choked in surprise, barely managing to cover the sound with a feeble cough. I was certain that Casimir observed my discomposure and marked it with rakish amusement.
Bryce’s dark eyes swam with desire as she took in Casimir’s appearance, lingering on his sculpted chest and across the crown of onyx curls that fell elegantly over his forehead. I couldn’t blame her for the way she greedily memorized each detail, but it irritated me all the same.
Casimir inclined his head to her in greeting. “Bryce,” he said.
She beamed at him, revealing a perfect set of dainty white teeth.
Gods, had she even brought along any books to this supposed study session?
From the way her gaze darted between the pair of us, I wondered if she had expected to be alone with Casimir.
Maybe—oh, gods—maybe he’d only invited me as a buffer to protect himself from Bryce’s advances.
Bryce’s gaze fell upon me, her nose wrinkling slightly in distaste at my casual clothes, and I was uncomfortably aware of the old jeans and faded sweatshirt I wore beneath my brown leather jacket.
She appraised me as a vulture might survey a picked-over carcass, as though she might, by sight alone, unearth what qualities I possessed that could possibly have led someone like Casimir to befriend someone like me.
My cheeks began to grow warm under her scrutiny.
Despite the heat fanning out across my face, I forced myself to meet her assessing gaze and attempted to appear as though her evaluation did not affect me in the slightest. Seeing Bryce again brought up unfortunate memories of that summer evening I’d fled the crowded pub, and all of the humiliation that had accompanied it.
In all the chaos of the past week, I’d forgotten that Bryce and Casimir had supposedly met during his new student orientation.
Bryce placed her bag down on the table and offered me a demure smile that did not reach her eyes. “I didn’t know you’d be joining us, Arden,” she said sweetly.
“Yeah, it seems a lot of things were left out of the schedule tonight,” I replied, shooting Casimir a death glare.
He remained obscenely unbothered as he eyed the pair of us.
“Listen, I wanted to ask if you’d like to come to my party next Friday?” Bryce batted her lashes at Casimir, and my insides twisted with unease.
Oh, no. She was inviting him to a Gilded Circle party?
Reluctantly, she turned back to me. “I would love it if you came, too, Arden.” Her soft smile did nothing to alleviate the saccharine taste of the lie.
I supposed that, under the circumstances, she’d felt obligated to include me in her invitation.
Or perhaps she merely wanted to impress Casimir by appearing charitable. But none of it fooled me. I didn’t need the gritty sweetness coating my tongue and teeth to know that her offer was disingenuous. I fought to maintain eye contact with Bryce as I bit back a grimace.
Bryce was still standing there, her cheeks tinged a lovely shade of pink as she waited for our answers. Pushing aside my irritation, I opened my mouth, prepared to politely decline her offer when Casimir interrupted—
“Of course, we’d love to come.”
I turned my head so fast that I nearly cricked my neck, but Casimir brushed off my death glare, his attention still focused on Bryce.
To no one’s surprise, Bryce faltered at his use of the pronoun “we,” but recovered quickly and offered him a dazzling smile.
“Wonderful!” she cooed. “Oh, I almost forgot!” She pressed an invitation into Casimir’s hands.
“All the details are written here. Don’t be late.
” At last, Casimir glanced in my direction.
Bryce’s dark eyes followed. I felt a bitter swell of triumph when she failed to conceal the grimace that flashed over her perfect, oval face.
“Anyway, I’d better go. I forgot I promised to meet up with Margot to finish a project for Astronomy,” she said.
The second lie spun across my tongue and lodged itself at the back of my throat, confirming my suspicions. Bryce had been under the impression she’d be meeting Casimir alone, and since my presence had spoiled her plans, she preferred to make herself scarce.
“See you next Friday,” she trilled, offering Casimir a coquettish wink before she swished through the creaking doors and back into the library, her long sheet of black hair catching the light as she disappeared from view.
The second she turned the corner, my false smile slipped, and the scowl that replaced it only deepened as I caught sight of Casimir’s expression.
“Something the matter, Farrow?” His brows knitted together in an expression of polite confusion, though the corners of his mouth continued to twitch.
“I guess congratulations are in order. You’ll be inducted into the Gilded Circle in no time. I just hope their ceremonies involve less blood sacrifice than the Order’s,” I sneered at him.
“What are you talking about?” He snorted. “As if I haven’t got my hands full with one dastardly society already. I have no interest in embroiling myself in the no-doubt sordid affairs of another.”
“Then why did we just accept her invitation?” I asked.
He looked at me with incredulity. “I’ve just told you, Farrow. Bryce has something I want.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” came my scathing retort.
Casimir shot me an exasperated look and muttered something about my being impossible.
“Listen,” he said, forcing his tone to remain calm, “I have reason to believe the Yu-Ri’s are in possession of a very powerful magical necklace.
You and I are going to this party, and you’re going to help me steal it. ”
I protested, “I’ve never stolen anything! And besides, I wasn’t really invited!”
Comprehension dawned over his features. “Is that why you look so sour? Because you don’t think her invitation was genuine?” He snorted. “I thought you were above such petty social slights.”
I fixed him with a glare sharp enough to cut bone. “That’s how I look when I’m forced to swallow someone else’s lies,” I spat. There, that should wipe that smug smirk right off his lips.
The amusement slipped from his face. “What are you talking about?”
I jerked my chin toward the door. “Bryce lied when she said she’d love it if I came to her party,” I explained. “And then she lied about her so-called project with Margot.”
He gave a noncommittal shrug. “I suppose one interpretation of that sour look on your face is that you tasted the disingenuousness of Bryce’s offer,” he hedged.
“The alternative is that you’re merely irritated that Bryce sought me out to invite me to her party, and then included you in the invitation as an afterthought. ”
Asshole, I thought.
“Didn’t you ever notice that August was lying to you? If, as you said, your abilities go so far as to detect the merest hint of falsehood.”
I faltered, at a loss for how to reply. I should’ve seen this coming the second I’d revealed my abilities to Casimir.
How could I explain that I had tasted August’s lies, how they had lingered on my tongue like smoke—that the lies of every person I’d ever met—with one glaring exception—exuded an intangible and unforgettable flavor, varying from sweet and cloying to the bitterest ash; and how, in spite of that, I had stayed, hoping against hope that one day August would wake up and stop lying.
That one day, he would choose me. Casimir wouldn’t understand.
“Maybe I couldn’t taste his lies,” I said. It was a lie, of course, but I couldn’t stand the idea of Casimir pitying me.
He sank back into his chair and eyed me from behind his dark lashes, his expression doubtful. “Is that so? Huh, funny how you forgot to mention it. How disappointing, here I was, thinking I was the special exception to your rule.”
I gave an unconvincing shrug. “Must have slipped my mind.”
He hummed. “You know what I think?” He tilted his head, examining me.
“I don’t particularly care what you think,” I countered, hoping he would let the subject drop.
“Of course not, my mistake.” He grinned wickedly as he took in my discomfort.
We both knew I was lying, but he was gracious enough to let me pretend otherwise, at least for now.
Casimir held up the invitation card, which I now saw was encrusted in pearls and embossed with silvery cursive writing.
“You made a bargain to help me stop the Order,” he said. “It’s time to pay up. We’re going to this party.”
I glared at the invitation. “I have no desire to attend Bryce’s stupid party. Least of all with you as my date.” Let Bryce have her fun with Casimir. Why the hell should I care? “Steal the stupid object yourself.”
“Ouch,” he whined, but his eyes glimmered with amusement. He leaned across the table and asked, “Who said you’d be going as my date?”
In spite of myself, a dull flush rose to my cheeks. “I didn’t mean—Not as a date—I—” I spluttered. Oh gods, this was mortifying.
“What I meant was, the Gilded Circlites throw these kinds of soirees every few months.” I sniffed. “It’s just an excuse to get hammered and go skinny dipping in their parents’ private pools. I have no interest in attending.”
“Drinking free booze, watching Ouverham’s elite get rip-roaring-falling-down-drunk, rummaging through rich people’s sock drawers…” He grimaced theatrically. “How utterly horrid.”
I glowered at him. “I think you just want an excuse to spend some quality time with Bryce Yu-Ri. I’ll bet she’s just your type,” I added maliciously. “Pretty, popular, and a favorite with the Gilded brats.”
Casimir eyed me, a slow smile curving his lips. “And you think you know me so well?” he asked.
I took advantage of his momentary distraction to snatch Bryce’s invitation from his hand.
Casimir frowned as I examined the delicate paper, tracing a finger over a row of embedded freshwater pearls.
The address of the manor was written at the bottom in elegant cursive.
I’d never even seen a wedding invitation as lovely.
“Don’t I?” I muttered.
“Hmm,” he mused. “She’s attractive, I suppose.”
A leaden weight hollowed out my stomach. Ugh. He thought Bryce was attractive. And I’d practically forced him to admit it.
“Sure, if you love boring, brainless idiots,” I snapped. Great. Now I was a bad feminist, making shallow digs at other women.
A slow, wicked smirk curved Casimir’s lips. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you sound jealous.”
“Well, I’m not!” I spat.
“You’re being absurd,” Casimir complained.
I dodged Casimir’s hand as he lunged for the card, but he was too quick. He smiled at this small victory, flashing a set of gleaming white teeth. And then a striking thought cut through the haze of my jealousy.
“Casimir,” I began, and he looked at me sharply, noting the sudden change in tone. “Do you think Bryce Yu-Ri is the Keeper’s Heir?”
His expression was blank. “What makes you think so?”
I stood and began to pace in the small room.
“Didn’t you just say her family owns a magical object?
What are the odds that it’s just a coincidence?
Besides, her family is one of the oldest on the island.
She’s involved in almost every club and committee on campus…
It would make her family the perfect guardians of the Order’s secrets.
” I paused. A party would be the perfect place to probe for information.
“All those liquored-up Gilded Circlites, drunk on bacchanalia and self-importance? All it would take is one loose-lipped sophomore to let something slip…”
“It’s an intriguing notion,” he admitted, throwing me a sidelong glance, a sly smile on his lips. “Does this mean we’re going?”
“Regardless of whether I decide to go,” I growled, “you will not be attending as my date. Or chaperone. Or babysitter.”
He stood from the table and took a step toward me.
Too close.
I lifted my eyes to his, scarcely daring to breathe, my back pressed against the wall, and his eyes pinning me to the spot.
“Someone’s got to keep you out of trouble,” he whispered, his breath ghosting across my face.
My skin prickled, growing hot.
“What are you so afraid of?” he said, still pinning me with his gaze. “It’s only a party,” he added, his tone lightly taunting.
“I’m not afraid,” I lied. I was a worse liar than Casimir.
In truth, I’d never been invited to any of the Gilded Circle’s notoriously wild bashes.
I was torn between curiosity and fear; the fear of being singled out as the only middle-class girl, and a desire to unearth evidence that might help us stop Devereaux’s ritual.
“I was just thinking about how Hugh Langburg shattered his foot last year at Margot’s party while trying to jump from a third-story balcony into the swimming pool.” I shuddered. “They say he missed the water by a hair.”
Casimir laughed and stepped away and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’ll meet you on Friday for the party then,” he said. “Until then, catch up on your reading.” He turned to leave the room. “Oh, and Farrow,” he said, pausing to dip his gaze to the book still sitting on the table. “I meant what I said. Make sure you’re alone when you open that.”