Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
I stood under the rays of the full moon, pale stone courtyard cool beneath my feet, an early autumn evening breeze nipping at my bare arms and shoulders.
Warmth at my back broke the breeze, the only warning before hands settled on my shoulders. As usual, he didn't make any noise when he approached.
“Why are you starving yourself?” Andrei asked softly.
“It's only been a day.” A day of not dancing. “The hunger will make me perform better.”
Which was why I hadn't danced for an entire day, strategically depriving that drop of Fae nature in my blood so that when I finally took the stage tonight, and unleashed, the dance would explode out of me.
Andrei’s fingers tightened. “You cannot beguile anyone in the audience, Hasannah.” Concern in my lover’s voice, but also the cool warning of a High Lord. The Heir of the city guarding his people from a threat.
It was kind of cute.
“There will be consequences, and my mother and sister will be present.”
“I'm getting better at separating the need to feed from the dance affinity,” I said. “I think I can control it. I can use the hunger to dance better, but not compel the crowd.”
Or at least that's what I hoped.
He turned me, looking down into my face. “You’re taking a risk. If my mother decides you’re a threat, if the High Lords of the Court decide you're a threat and petition her for your death, she might kill you.”
“She would do that to you?”
“To maintain the stability of the Sahakian-Casakraine rule? Yes.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “I'm not that powerful, Andrei. I'm not a threat.”
“It's not a matter of power, but more a matter of rarity. There are few succubi left, and your kind of power is not that of brutal strength but of insidious influence.”
So few left that Lord Iliweh hadn't thought to shield Vargas from my particular kind of said influence.
“I understand,” I said. “I'll be careful.”
He caught my chin in his fingers. “You must be. If she orders your death, mine will follow. And probably at least half of my luudthen because they would fight for me.”
I stood frozen for a moment, then deliberately smiled, raising my voice back into a normal tone. “We're both being a little dramatic. Nothing will happen. I'll give the best performance of my life, and that's it. Your mother will love me. Pinky swear.”
He released my jaw, his hands sliding around the back of my neck as he pulled me closer, lowering his forehead to rest against mine. “I've always admired your focus. Even if it’s the focus of a madman.”
“Woman. Mad woman .”
“As the humans say, whatever.”
I walked down the hallway in a cloth of gold halter neck gown, smoothing my hands down my hips. It had taken me a couple tries to get into the dress, my fingers were trembling so hard, and longer to apply the first layer of cosmetics I'd convert to stage makeup when we arrived at the theater. When we arrived, I wouldn't be entering at the side entrance, but on the arm of the Heir of Casakraine, his Housesworn at our backs.
This was our first official public appearance as High Lord and consort.
Andrei turned to me when I entered the foyer. The gathered luudthen turned as well, and for once I didn't preen under the attention. For once I was just nervous. I pressed a hand against my stomach, glad I hadn't eaten anything, and the men hadn't bullied me into it. Again, for once.
“Lady Hasannah,” Andrei said softly, approaching.
He halted and bowed, then held out a hand I accepted, still shaking. He said nothing; he knew what I felt. Adrenaline, hunger, imposter syndrome. A vague desire to flee howling into the woods.
Xavi crossed my mind, and I banished the thought a moment later. I wouldn’t give that earthworm the pleasure. He’d been ousted from the competition, ostensibly for starting the fight in the cafe, but really because Mathen didn’t like him and tattled to Andrei, who’d reacted predictably—though he’d ignored my demands to know what happened to the dancer once I realized Xavi was gone.
The luudthen had avoided questions about Xavi too. They probably knew where the body was buried.
I. . .wished I felt worse about it than I did. It was as if living with them stoked the grimdark side of my personality I’d tried to keep buried over the years. But lamia were supposed to be Dark Fae, the semi-mythical boogeymen of the species, so maybe I couldn’t help it?
Constin approached, and bowed with a flourish. “You’re a jewel in the crown of House Casakraine’s rule.”
“You need some crackers to go with all that cheese, Con.”
He straightened and grinned. “Still can’t take a compliment, darling? The Courts will envy us our mortal, you know. Pretty is easy enough to come by, but it’s harder to find the right mix of talent and power to go with it. You’re ideally bred, if one absolutely must take a human consort.”
I made a face and decided to ignore the offhand, and likely unintended, condescension. On the other hand, he could be needling me on purpose. They really couldn't help themselves, in either scenario, just like they couldn’t help but default to murder to solve a simple problem.
“I guess there's no fading into the background in this dress,” I said, fussing with the skirt.
“You were never,” Andrei said, “meant to fade into the background.”
Constin’s grin turned to a smirk. “You know once they all see you dance, they're going to assume Lord Issahelle arranged this, right?” He waved his hand between me and Andrei.
“You can't arrange a soulbond.” Even I knew that by now.
“They'll still think she somehow did. You’re a coup, Anah. A feather in her cap. Proof that she wasn’t mad all along when she envisioned the perfect outcome of bringing human dancers to the city.” He paused, looking thoughtful. “Though some might think she really did have you bred for her son. The match is just too perfect.”
I rolled my eyes. I wouldn’t go that far. “So no pressure or anything. Do you all just sit around thinking about this all day? Do none of you have hobbies?”
“That. . .don’t involve bloodshed?”
“Why did I even ask.”
“My mother has Sahakian Arts, obviously,” Andrei pointed out.
I gave him a long look, thinking of Xavi. “You just made Constin’s point.”
Andrei canted his head, his smile winsome.
Yup. He’d murdered Xavi. And the luudthen had definitely destroyed the body.
Mathen came forward. “You'll do very well tonight, Anali.”
We walked out of the house toward the coach. Philea, also in an evening gown, fell in step. She was plainclothes security tonight and would mingle with the crowd.
I darted her little looks, because if I'd never noticed it before, she was stunning. It was a quiet beauty, easily overlooked when she spent most of her time in armor with a forbidding expression on her face. There was something about how she gleamed that now made me wonder if all along she'd been wearing a dampening glamour.
“Your eyes are going to fall out of your head,” she said without looking at me.
“As well they should,” I muttered. “I’m glad I’m not the jealous or competitive type.”
“Oh, you are,” was the cheerful, ruthless reply, “you just channel it all into ballet. Praise the Darkness.”
I stewed in my nerves while traveling to the theater, fidgeting so badly Andrei dragged me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me in an attempt to get me to be still. It was probably just an excuse to drag me into his lap, though.
It wasn't until the coach—and this coach wasn't the everyday, slightly scuffy blend into the traffic coach—pulled up to the venue that my nerves faded away.
Showtime, the inner succubus whispered, and took over as she usually did when the spotlights came out.
After the gauntlet of the grand foyer and milling crowd of rich and influential Cassanians, I left Andrei and his luudthen and escaped to the dressing room to change into my costume and apply my stage makeup.
I was applying finishing touches when the sole remaining Ninephene dancer among us spoke up.
“Hasannah, come help me with my makeup,” Coralene said. “Somewhere quiet. I'm already getting a headache from all the chatter. Bring your bag.”
“All right.” I rose from my dressing table and joined her as she led me to a darkened corner of the room stacked with used vanities and chairs.
“It's almost impossible to get you away from your hellhounds,” she murmured, handing me a pink makeup pouch and taking mine. “There's a datagem in the makeup bag. We'll switch. Do my lashes.” Her expression was indifferent as I coated her lashes with the black cosmetic.
“Find somewhere private and memorize the information, then speak the keyword ‘delete file’ and it will go dark. It’s a relay of people contracted to smuggle you out of Casakraine should the need arise. There are supply caches arranged in case you have to go underground but can’t get out of the city right away.”
“Thank you.”
“Memorize everything, Han, the sooner the better. I won't record the information a second time. This is already a risk. Does your Lord search your belongings?”
“Not my makeup or dance bag. He's on a nail polish expansion kick this week and hasn’t been able to decide on the exact right palette of neutrals that will take me from rehearsal to evening.”
I knew this because he’d discussed it with me, at length, in his cultured High Court voice. Meaning I’d sat on the bed and drifted as he talked and painted my nails with various samples. I had the sneaking suspicion he was having a collection customized for me. I guessed it would keep him out of some trouble—like murdering more of my rivals.
“Good,” Cora said. “I crafted it to mimic a low-grade music crystal, and it's keyed to you so even if he does go through the pouch, unless he's checking for malfeasance, he should ignore it.”
I blinked. “How did you key a gem to me? Doesn’t that require DNA?”
“You shed a lot of hair when it's not in a bun. You might want to consider that for the future.”
“I definitely will. Thank you again.”
She took the mascara wand and put it in my makeup bag; they were the same. Pink and nondescript, slightly scuffed and coated with years of makeup dust.
“Remember, if he catches you, you will die. So don’t run unless staying would also mean death.”
“I hope I never have to use it.”
Coralene paused and looked at me. “And Han, these arrangements do not account for a child. Do you understand?”
I recoiled. “Don’t worry. I don’t plan on having children any time soon.”
“Smart girl. And good luck tonight, though we both know luck has nothing to do with it for once.” She gave me an odd smile and sauntered away.