26. Chapter 26
Chapter 26
A long with the other dancers, we slow to a stop, but I don’t immediately let go. “Is everything alright?” Orpheus asks.
I blink at him. The ballroom is crowded, the air is heavy with perfume and the corset Urryse insisted on me wearing is extra tight, but that’s not what’s bothering me. It’s the very thought of what’s about to happen. “Yes, I’m just nervous about this,” I reply with a dry mouth.
He squints at me suspiciously, then gives me a smile. “I shouldn’t be long.”
Dragging my eyes down his outfit, I fail to stop myself from saying, “You’re looking handsome, the Countess should be pleased.”
“Yes, I’m wearing her favorite color after all,” he replies flatly.
My eyes narrow. It takes me a moment to realize he’s joking, but I’m not finding it funny. “Go,” I tell him, eager to get this over with.
He laughs and does this charming little bow. “At your service, my lady.”
He moves to walk away, then stops to throw me another squint. “Anyi?”
“Yes?”
“It might be better if you joined the other guests on the terrace.”
The way my body seems to be refusing to move makes me want to smack myself across the face. “Of course,” I say.
I force my legs to obey. I turn my back to him and start weaving through the crowd, headed straight for the enormous French doors leading out onto the terrace. There, I find dozens of other attendees enjoying the view of the cascading gardens with drinks in their hands, their silhouettes soft against the darkening sky. I find a spot in the corner, settling next to a stone vase with a blooming bush sprouting from the fragrant soil.
I’m painfully aware of how ridiculous I’m being. I mean, what am I even expecting to happen here, in a room full of people, with me listening in? Or more importantly, what does it even have to do with me ? This is a man who’s my husband only on paper. Still, I have to literally force myself to shake it off.
I take the magic device for eavesdropping out of my drawstring purse and I put it in my ear, taking a deep breath just as I hear Orpheus ask, “Might I have this dance, Countess?”
There’s a moment of silence before I hear her reply, the seductive sweetness in her voice making bitterness flood my mouth. “Why of course.”
I hear the music start swelling, my mind flashing with an image of them stepping onto the dance floor. “To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure, Lord Grimm?” the countess asks.
“Can’t I seek out your company without having an ulterior motive?”
She lets out a coquettish laugh. “I should hope not. But this is the first time I’m seeing you without that wife of yours. Should I take it that my prophecy is finally coming true?”
I grit my teeth.
“Which one? You seem to be a prolific prophet, Countess.”
“Indeed I am. In fact, there’s a new vision entering my mind right now — of you visiting me at my summer estate for Saint Mistila’s.”
The audacity.
“I’ve a lot of urgent business to take care of in the following weeks,” Orpheus replies. “The family is in need of an alliance with the Crown, but the other party is proving to be exceedingly difficult to find.”
“Is that so? Do tell.”
“We’re looking to double our metal exports, so they should be both influential in the eastern region and willing to deal with the Scions. As you yourself know, the latter is enough to make the matter… complicated.”
She laughs. “Oh how sweet it is, the chance to prove you wrong.” There’s a moment of silence during which I imagine her leaning closer. “I know for a fact that Count Adelberg is willing to overlook pretty much everything for the promise of more coin dropping into his purse.”
“Adelberg, really? But wasn’t it only a couple of years ago that his father died?”
“Three, to be more exact.” She turns a little more serious. “But what does that have to do with it?”
“I hear the Count has been struggling ever since, on all fronts.”
The countess laughs again. “Adelberg wasn’t close with his father.” It’s in a conspiratorial voice that she adds, “In fact, it seems he had a lot more love for other people’s fathers.”
“I’m not sure I know what you mean,” Orpheus tells her.
“Oh you haven’t heard?” she asks, but the fact seems to be bringing her a lot of joy. “Do you even know that Marquis Heldin passed away?”
“ That I do.”
“Well,” she starts in a low, excited voice, “as soon as the word was out, Count Adelberg requested permission from the King to search the Heldins’ winter residence.”
“Search their residence? Whatever for?”
She pretends to hesitate. “Around three years ago, Heldin’s father fell ill. Heldin moved him out of the city and told everyone he wasn’t fit to receive visitors. No one cared, except for Adelberg.”
“Ah. The two of them were involved.”
“Yes. And Adelberg resented the son for not letting him visit the father, but there was nothing he could do about it. Until Heldin’s death, that is.”
“The King granted him the permission?”
“He did. But lo and behold, when he arrived at the palace, he learned that the old man had never even been moved there. The son is dead and the father officially missing.”
“Interesting.”
“Yes. So I’d dare say Adelberg is shaken up at the moment, but my dear Lord Grimm, I don’t see why that should have any effect on the quality of your deal. After all, it’s vampires you’re looking to enter into an alliance with, is it not? And to any self-respecting vampire, personal affairs are personal affairs, and business is business.”
“Why thank you for the advice, Countess.”
“My pleasure.” She drops her voice. “But now that I’ve saved you some time, Orpheus…” The use of his first name makes my blood boil. “Why don’t you thank me by making that little prophecy of mine come true?”
Fighting to keep my cool, I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
“I’ll most certainly think about it, Countess,” Orpheus says just as the music starts dying down. “Thank you for the dance.”
I keep standing there, breathing a sigh of relief as everything I’ve heard finally starts sinking in.
It’s not Adelberg? It was that Marquis who asked me to dance at that wedding?
It startles me, when Orpheus appears right next to me. “Would you mind if we left?” he asks with a somber look on his face.
My lips curl into a smile. I shake my head, he puts his hand on the small of my back and we start making our way out of the mansion.
We find our carriage already waiting on the gravel path in front of the main entrance. We hop inside and with a crack of his whip, the driver gets us moving.
“Do you think it really was Heldin?” I ask as soon as we’re out on the road back to the Academy.
Orpheus thinks for a second. “The man I saw, he did have a male child of Heldin’s age with him.”
“But he’s dead, so we’re right back where we started.”
“No, we’re not.”
I frown. “How so?”
He leans forward, resting his forearms on his thighs with the moonlight caressing his face. “The man who killed himself, he told you the Order had started viewing restoring balance… somewhat differently?”
“Yes.”
“Well,” he says with this mysteriousness in his voice, “there’s this place where the Anti-Treatyites love to gather. It’s also the place I know Heldin used to frequent.”
“I see. What’s the place?”
“The Southwestern flesh market.”
Disgust twists my face. “Sounds delightful.”
It’s just at that moment that the carriage comes to a screeching halt, the horses’ whinnies making blood curdle in my veins.
We exchange a single somber look before Orpheus cranes his neck to demand, “What’s happened?”
“Your Grace,” the driver starts in this frightened voice, “there’s something out there.”
Clenching his jaw, Orpheus turns his eyes back onto me. “Stay where you are, I won’t be long.”
I open my mouth to protest, but he’s already out of the carriage.
The dead silence that ensues seems to make time come to a stop.
Until this sudden, violent noise makes my head snap to my left, my eyes rounding as a pair of hands grab me by the skirt and start dragging me out. “No,” I yell out, grabbing onto the seat with one hand and blasting the hooded attacker with the biggest flame I can muster.
But that only makes the figure whip a knife out. I lift my leg to kick and he swings the knife to cut.
The blade cuts deep and the cut burns hot. I open my mouth to scream, but all of a sudden, I’m so nauseous, I can’t do anything to stop the hands from grabbing me and roughly dragging me out of the carriage.