Chapter Twenty-Eight #3
“We threw many festivals in Allowyn,” I said. “The nobles danced with the commoners, and we didn’t have to wear masks to hide our identities.”
Valeris grinned. “I only enjoy dancing when no one knows who I am.”
The song ended, and we slipped out of the dance to allow others the chance to join, standing on the sidelines to catch our breath.
“Chocolate croissants!” Valeris’s blacked-out eyes widened as he charged after the dessert cart, returning with two steaming pastries. He offered me one then lifted the other to his mouth, hesitating before stuffing the entire dessert in.
The sweet dissolved the moment I tasted it, melting on my tongue and overwhelming my senses with heavenly pleasure. Valeris wiped the sticky residue coating his fingers onto his suit pants, leaving glazy streaks behind.
“You have an affinity for sweets,” I said.
“Always have, always will.” His words warbled as he spoke while swallowing the pastry. He stared out at the crowd. “I always wondered what it would be like to grow up like this. Never having the entire kingdom know your name. Being able to do whatever it was you wanted.”
I too had wondered what it would have been like to grow up without my kingdom being destroyed.
Without losing nearly everything I had ever loved and known.
Growing up without the scars of tragedy haunting you must be the greatest privilege of all.
What would I have become if I hadn’t been so marred by sorrow?
Valeris watched the emotions wash across my face. I tried to hide them, but it was too late. The mix of wonder, regret, sadness, despair ... he had seen it all.
“What would you be?” he asked. “If you could be anything you wanted.”
I smiled, the memory of the pianoforte filling my mind.
The countless hours practicing, feeling the music as it swirled around me.
I would have done whatever I could have with it.
Maybe I would have become a traveling bard, visiting the other kingdoms and playing before their courts.
The thought hurt. Stabbed me in the heart like death.
“I don’t know.” I kicked at a flower petal on the ground. “Maybe I would have pursued music.”
Valeris nabbed another drink from a passing tray. “Do you sing or play?”
My eyes flicked over to the band playing. “Neither. I used to, but it was a long time ago.” I turned toward him, changing the subject. “What about you?”
He sipped his drink. “For practicality? A swords master, although I don’t think I could have beaten our current one for his job.”
We laughed.
“But if I could find a way to make a living out of it, I would be a professional chess player.”
Something sparked in my memory. A young boy, furious, striding out of the ballroom. I hid a smirk. “Yes, what a career.”
Valeris disposed of his drink and held out his hand. “One more dance?”
I pretended to think about it. “One more.”
I couldn’t remember feeling so much joy, and I enjoyed that dance more than the first. My skirts swirled around me, hands outstretched to the sky, feet following the rhythm.
Valeris matched my energy until the last note played and the dance ended.
I slammed into him, laughing up at him as he threw his head back.
For a moment it was as if we were strangers meeting on the street, dancing at a festival for the first time, enjoying each other’s company and discovering more than we could see on the surface.
All duty and demands disappeared for a few brief seconds beneath the lanterns’ flickering lights in this masquerade of shadows.
Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I thought. Maybe beneath all his arrogance and demands lay a good person.
He cared for his people more than his father did.
Fireworks shot off at the palace, rattling my rib cage and lighting up the sky as the colors signaled midnight, and reality came crashing down, stripping us of the enchantment.
We were not strangers nor friends. We were enemies.
Nothing more to one another than an alliance.
Tonight had merely been a distraction in the middle of our endless schemes.
Valeris’s gaze bore into me, his face betraying he had reached the same conclusion.
I stepped back. “It’s getting late. I need to head back.”
He glanced around, the crowds dispersing and leaving more room to breathe. “Howland will walk us back to the palace.”
I retreated another step. “I can walk myself.”
Suspicion flooded Valeris’s eyes, and I knew if I tried to escape him now he would know I was up to something.
I shrugged. “But it’s probably better to not go alone.”
In the end, I was glad to go with him as it would have taken me far longer to get back to the palace on my own. Valeris parted a path through the crowd for us while Howland followed behind. We didn’t speak as we walked, the night speaking for us.
When we reached the Ferris Way Inn, I turned toward the entrance. “I think it’s time I retire for the night.”
Valeris had transformed back into that of a royal, the boy I had danced with at the festival long gone.
“I’ll let you know when I need your services again,” he said.
I nodded and strolled away without a backward glance, disappearing into the lobby and walking straight out the back door.
I had no intentions of returning to my room tonight.
Not yet at least.