Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
R est eluded my immediate future.
I woke and rolled to my side, noting Andrei's absence. Not wanting to be needy and chase after him as if I couldn't sleep on my own anymore, I forced myself to settle back down. And then stopped.
It might have been the developing bond, but I sensed a kernel of unease that wasn't entirely mine.
Crawling out of the bed, I stumbled into his closet, grabbed the first white dress shirt of whatever kind I saw and slipped it on. It went to my knees. Good enough.
He wasn't in the living room. I followed a murmur of voices to the wing of the house set aside for receiving callers, both invited and unexpected. It was well designed, a show of discreet wealth.
I halted as several gazes turned towards me, and suppressed a sigh. Andrei, Constin, and Theland stood conversing with a Fae I didn't recog?—
Wait a minute. My eyes widened. I did recognize the Cassanian.
The long, fiery red hair, white lashed green-gold eyes and sun-gold skin. The typical narrow, sculpted Fae bone structure but combined with slender, exquisitely shaped lips pursed in a tight line.
They weren't wearing makeup or dressed extravagantly. I almost didn't recognize them at all except for that hair and those eyes and the way they held their chin at a slight angle.
Iliweh.
“Is this her?” they demanded in their cultured high tenor. “Is this your mortal?”
“This is Lady Hasannah,” Andrei said in his High Lord voice.
He was dressed in a long brocade duster and narrow pants, jewels at his ears and fingers, his shoulder-length hair brushed into silky emerald dark waves around his shoulders. Constin and Theland were likewise attired, though Theland wore House Casakraine armor.
And I was hovering in the threshold with sleep hair, wearing my boyfriend's tunic.
Well, I could play it off. Play the part of the eccentric mortal diva.
I met Iliweh’s eyes and sank into a curtsy.
“Lord Iliweh,” I murmured, “it’s a great honor to meet you.”
I wasn't certain of the etiquette, so I didn't hold the curtsy long, and figured any mistakes would be chalked up to my humanity.
Constin moved towards me and bowed. “Lady Hasannah. Lord Iliweh has a request.”
The bow and Constin’s neutral tone warned me to be on my best behavior.
I glanced at Andrei. “My Lord?” What could Iliweh want with me? My brow furrowed in spite of my attempt to keep my expression neutral.
Iliweh took a half step forward, then halted and turned to Andrei.
“You claimed she was too weak to attend her, and yet here she is. Demand your mortal release my bonded.”
“Why,” was Andrei’s chilly reply, “was your consort not Shielded? You blame an infant for your oversight.”
“There were no succubi in the city,” was the equally chilly reply. “That oversight has been corrected.”
“Ah. Then you are in Lady Hasannah’s debt.”
At a loss, I hesitated to interrupt, but Iliweh’s bonded was Vargas.
“Is something wrong with—” Movement flickered at the corner of my vision as I stepped into the room. “Mistress Vargas.” I looked between her and Iliweh and Andrei, confused. “I don't understand.”
Whatever was happening, I was at the center of it. There was no other reason for the focused, glittering stares.
“You claim you have no idea what you did?” Iliweh demanded, their voice cold and resonant.
“I—”
“Consort.” Andrei held out a hand. I walked to him, sliding my palm against his. He turned to Iliweh. “Tell my Lady what you claim.”
“It is no claim, Lord Andreien.” They intercepted my gaze.
But Vargas moved forward from where she'd been standing across the living room. She wore sweats, of all things. Tailored and high-end but still sweats, and her hair, which was normally braided or pinned in an elegant chignon, was in a loose ponytail.
“Hasannah, do you recall earlier when you danced for me?”
As she approached, Iliweh lifted their arm like a barrier, preventing Vargas from coming closer to me. Vargas clasped her hands in front of her, the fingers white with tension.
“Yes?” My heart began to sink. Surely not. . .
Vargas fixed her gaze on me, the edges haunted, hungry. I almost stepped back, but Andrei's hand tightened around mine.
“I thought you were human,” the mistress said.
“I am human.”
She shook her head. “Not completely—you forget, I'm a human with Fae blood too. I don't believe any malice was intended.” She glanced at Iliweh and lifted a hand, placing it on her bonded's shoulder. “There was no ill intent.”
“Intent,” was the cold, tremulous reply, “is irrelevant. I am a Lord of Casakraine’s High Fae Court, and my bonded was attacked.”
“There was no attack, and no malice,” Constin said, drawing next to me, his voice steely in a way I had never heard. “If you continue to claim so, you understand the consequences.”
After listening to the negotiations between Ashlyun and Andrei, even I understood the consequences. I shook away from Andrei’s grip, stepping towards Iliweh.
“My Lord, I promise you that whatever I might have done, it wasn't intended to. . .hurt.” I swallowed and turned to Vargas. “Mistress, you asked me to tell a story, to spin a web, to weave a spell.”
Her gaze hadn't wavered from my face. “Yes.”
“I told you I danced from the heart. I thought. . .I thought that was what I was doing.” Faltering, I turned to Andrei, looking up at him. “It wasn't on purpose. You know that. You know I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't even know until tonight what?—”
I made myself stop talking. I was babbling, on the edge of hysteria. And I wasn’t telling the entire truth. Some part of me had known.
My full watt smile and my mermaid voice. The net I cast when I danced, drawing in my audience.
No, I wasn’t completely innocent.
But whatever I'd suspected had remained suspicion until coming to Casakraine. Meaning I'd had the excuse of denial for all these years.
I closed my eyes. Was I any better than the Fae? No, no better.
Andrei brushed my cheek with the back of his fingers. “You're a babe with a brush of power barely awakened.” He glanced at Iliweh. “Mistakes happen. We've only been made aware of my consort’s possible nature, and we will take steps to ensure she is trained.” He paused. “She has been mine for little more than a week, Lord Iliweh. I would beg your understanding, if not your indulgence.” He gave a faint smile. “My mother would be displeased with me if she knew I had upset you.”
The subtle flattery softened Iliweh, who glanced at their bonded and exhaled. “If there was no ill intent, no attempt to beguile my consort in order to gain favor?—”
Constin laughed coldly. “You claim that the consort of the Heir requires the favor of a dancing instructor?”
The whip of scorn in his voice incensed me, breaking my instinctive flinch at the H-word. I turned on him.
“Do you have any idea who Adoncia Vargas is?” I demanded. “A third of the prospective dancers who cross over to this realm to join the company do so just so we can have a chance to train under her tutelage! Show some respect, Constin.” I poked him in the chest. Hard.
He glared at me.
I turned back to Mistress Vargas. “Please excuse him. He is sauvage. But he means well.”
I deflated. They all stared at me.
Iliweh smiled. It was thin, but genuine. “Very well. As I was saying, if the beguilement can be broken, we will put this matter behind us.” Their smile faded, and they pinned me with a hard look. “And you cannot fool me, prima. You may not have had ill intent, but you did seek to seduce her to your side, to make an ally of her. If, as you say, a third of the dancers come to Casakraine to train under my beloved, all of them come to Casakraine because they have ambition. You are no exception."
I lowered my gaze. They were right, of course.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I'm starting to become more aware of myself now. It won't happen again.” I curtsied again, to emphasize the apology.
Andrei caught me up immediately. “Enough, Hasannah. Enough. Can you break the beguilement?”
I hesitated, rubbing the back of my neck. “I've never tried before.”
If you allow it, I will show you what to do. You have to open your mind to me, my Anah.
Of course.
Let us begin.
“That could have been a disaster,” Constin said once Lord Iliweh and Vargas left.
I was curled up on the couch in our living room, clasping a pillow to my chest, exhausted and trembling.
Andrei had walked me through how to break the beguilement and it. . .hadn't been easy.
I didn't understand what we'd done, but I understood the energy taken from her was; One, real. And Two. . .I'd had to give it back.
My stomach rumbled, but I wasn't hungry for real food. I dug my nails into my arms absently, scratching down.
“Anah,” Andrei snapped, seizing my wrists. “What are you doing?”
I glanced at my arms, blinking. I'd scratched long, scarlet rivulets into the skin.
“She needs to feed,” Constin said. “If she is what we think she is, she needs to feed.”
Andrei lifted me into his arms, his expression grim. “If? You still have doubts? I will feed her.”
He swept me back into his bedroom and into his bed, and began to teach me what it meant to be a mortal with a blooming drop of Fae blood.