Chapter 20 - Dusted
Bodies and hands moved all around me like I was treading through the sea.
Cackling laughter bubbled through the air around the ballroom. My feet twisted in a dazed tangle across the dance floor.
I ran my fingertips along my lace sleeves. My whole body shivered—the texture was delightful.
More and more people tipped the tiny glasses to their lips. Some started tearing at each other’s clothes. Others mashed up against the wall in an amorous tangle, not caring that everyone was around.
What a decadent romp it all was. I tilted my head up, spinning so the prancing bulls on the ceiling danced with me.
Strong hands gripped my shoulders and placed me squarely in front of a silver tray full of tiny glasses.
“Spin, girl!” a man commanded.
I stretched out my fingertips…only they did not feel like mine. I touched the edge of the tray and it was cooler than I thought it would be, deliciously cold. Suddenly the tray was spinning, sending the little glasses of the purple and clear drinks spiraling like a dazzling night sky.
My vision blurred, but then focused on the little cup of the sparkling clear liquid in front of me.
“Faerie princess it is!” the man hooted. More laughter sparked around me. They sounded like a flock of birds.
I picked up the tiny glass and a sharper hand gripped my shoulder. “Seraaa! There you are!”
Annalisa. Her glittering cheeks were ablaze.
“Dinah is telling everyone she is pregnant!” she slurred. “The Amberfields are celebrating their new heir!”
“What?” I hiccupped. “She is pregnant? Good for her…”
Annalisa’s eyes went as wide as ponds. “She would have only barely missed her cycle! If she is pregnant, then that means that I—”
Too much talking. I hopped up on my toes and poured the tiny glass into her furious mouth. “No more angry. It is your birthday!”
Suddenly, Annalisa and I were in the middle of the dance floor, moving our bodies to the sensuous music in all the ways we were never allowed to. Cheers spiraled around us. I picked up my skirt and twirled. The lace on the hem of my stockings fluttered. My garter ribbons caressed my calves.
I caught a flash of red hair in my vision. Brietta’s head was higher than any of the dozen men around her as she danced. Myles’s yellow cape flashed like a daffodil as he spun with her, only for Gerond’s sky blue cape to overtake him as he shoved him out of the way.
Brietta dipped her head to kiss Gerond. Then Myles.
Eat them alive, Brietta.
“She is sure having a good time!” cried a familiar voice.
I turned around to a wall of black and gold.
“Derrick!” I wrapped my arms around him.
He hugged me back, crushing me against him so hard my cheek mashed against the golden filigrees on his doublet.
“I looked everywhere for you, darling!” he cried.
I pushed off him, picking up my skirt in both of my fists. “Watch me spin!”
Candlelight swirled around me, but my ankles failed and I toppled to the left.
Derrick caught me and I looked up at him. The black pits in the center of his eyes had swallowed up everything but a thin ring of blue.
His delicious scent of oak and vanilla drew me in. My hands found his chest, his heart pounding like a drum against my palm. His lips were so close to mine.
I wanted him. For so long, I had wanted him…
But then the memory of what my mother had done tore through my mind.
I spread my hands against his chest. “I hate your father! He made my mother kiss you!”
Derrick’s smile did not falter. “What?” Then he blinked and shook his head. “Right! This helps me forget!”
He held out a thin silver canister that looked like a tiny flute. I picked it up—it was colder than an icicle against my fingertips. “What is it?”
His smile stayed on but his breathing was shallow. “Uncle Ragnar said it makes the pain go away.”
My thumb flipped open the lid. What a clever contraption! The metallic tang of silver hit my nose, but was it all silver? Something was underneath it…something stronger.
I took a deep sniff and breathed in a cloud of dust.
Fluffy pink clouds floated around us. Winged babies sang. Derrick and I swirled together, dancing in a dream. Every fiber of my body was awake and asleep at the same time.
“Derrick.” Even my sigh was a song. “Derrick, is this the first time we have danced?”
“Yes, my darling.” His voice wrapped around my waist and pulled me in closer. “A thousand wishes will never change what was written in the stars.”
“And I will shine forever,” I answered. “Because I am the sun.”
Someone had likened me to the sun once…too bad I could not remember who.
Derrick’s watery eyes made me gasp. “Derrick! You cannot be sad on your birthday!”
His lip trembled. “A thousand wishes. I should have made a thousand and one more. Then maybe it could have been us.”
“No, Derrick!” My hands searched his doublet until I found the pocket with the tiny cold flute. “Make the sad go away! Make it all go away!”
His hands found my jaw and lifted my face. I raised onto the tips of my toes as his lips found mine.
He tasted like an endless dream.
Derrick kissed my jaw, then my cheek. I was limp in his arms as his lips traced my cheekbone to the shell of my ear. He nipped my earlobe and I choked on a gasp. Every hair on my arms stood on end as he whispered, “ Mine. ”
The flying babies sang higher as he dipped me backward. Magical little dust sprinkled on the column of my throat. Derrick’s tongue followed the dust in a line, tasting me all the way up to the underside of my jaw before his mouth found mine again.
His tongue traced the dust against mine until stars exploded behind my eyes.
My breasts pressed against my bodice. Hands explored the laces on my back. Lips and teeth caressed my neck as my chin tipped up toward the night.
This was our dream, sweet and pink and beautiful. No one else was amongst the clouds but me and Derrick, my Midnight.
His breath caressed the shell of my ear. “I love you, Serafina. Do not seal your blood bond. Please. ”
Blood bond? Oh, silly Derrick! “I do not have a blood bond anymore.”
Derrick jerked back and grabbed my jaw. His eyes were new moons as he examined me. “Is he dead? Did the plan work?”
Was who dead? “No. The blood bond is gone. Magic of the mountain.” I raised my hands, pushing away the pink cloud that was floating between us. “Poof!”
“Poof.” Derrick blinked. “Are…are you sure?”
A smile stretched across my face. “I cannot lie, Midnight.”
He laughed, bright and exuberant, and suddenly I was in the air. His hands were around my waist. We were spinning.
Suddenly, my right shoulder and arm ached. My breath was gone. Somehow, I was on the floor.
Derrick was on the floor too, but he was still laughing. He got up and straddled me, bracketing his arms around my face. How did I get on my back?
Sweat glistened on his brow. “Why is it so hot? I am burning up!”
I tugged at his Hyton Blue cape. “Then take your clothes off, silly!”
Then he kissed me, gentle as a whisper. I closed my eyes and savored the feel of his cape brushing against my lace sleeves, his silken curls against my fingers, my stockings across his belt as my legs hooked around his hips…
I wanted him. I had always wanted him.
“Lord Hyton?”
Candlelight and shrieking laughter broke through the pink clouds. I gripped his doublet and shut my eyes. My dream was collapsing.
“Lord Hyton, I am sorry to interrupt, but—”
A growl rumbled through Derrick’s chest. “What?”
“Um…your performance, my Lord.” The voice was small—must have been a mouse.
Derrick groaned. He slowly pushed up and helped me onto my feet. He lifted his coronet from his head and placed it on mine. The warmth of the gold surrounded me like a halo.
Derrick winked. “Hold onto this for me, darling.”
He slowly walked through the crowd toward the other musicians as his Hyton Blue cape slipped off his shoulders.
No, I could not let him leave me. Derrick was the beginning and the end. I was his dream. He was my star.
It was always supposed to be us, damn it!
The air dragged against my face like honey as I pushed through the crowd, following the gold on Derrick’s clothes.
Gold. Gold. Gold.
I found gold. A man wore a crown of gold around his silver hair. His goblet was gold. His eyes were the deep blue of the sea.
I gripped his sleeve. “It was supposed to be us.”
The man furrowed his brows. “Serafina, what the hell are you doing?”
My lashes were wet. “He was supposed to be my forever. He waited for me…he waited for me.”
The man gripped my face so hard my teeth scraped my cheeks. He leaned closer, his eyes searching mine for an answer I did not know the question to.
He bared his teeth like a lion. “Who dusted you?” He turned his head. “Someone get Adalia!”
“Attention, people of Lycaster!” Derrick shouted.
The man turned his head again and his eyes became big as saucers. Derrick stood in the center of the dance floor, his violin in his hands and his shirt missing.
“Oh, fuck. ” The man tore away from me. My hands stayed flexed, open where his puffed sleeve had just been. My eyes followed the man wearing deep blue as he dragged Derrick off the dance floor, then my feet followed him.
I needed Derrick. I was going to be the next Duchess of Lycaster. That horrible man could not take him away from me!
He pulled Derrick behind a stone column, but I was not too far behind.
“The hell are you doing?” The scary man hissed. “Where are your clothes? Why are you letting other men get fistfuls of your wife?”
“Leave me the hell alone for once!” Derrick yanked away from the man. His face glistened like he just rose from the lake. “Do I not get one night—?”
“No! Baron Amberfield’s grandson just announced that he has an heir on the way and here you are with that stupid violin and no shirt! The damn Amberfields look stronger than us tonight!”
I pressed my fingertips against the cool stone. Maybe I could push the column over and knock the scary man on the head. I would save Derrick from the monster.
The monster would not eat my Midnight!
“It took you nine years to make an heir!” Derrick argued.
“And I almost lost the throne over it! I do not want to use Adalia like that again, so please fuck Serafina all you want. Just remember you cannot look like you love that girl in front of the Barons. You cannot show that weakness—”
“I do love her!” Derrick shifted, but I could not see what he was doing. “And I know something you do not know...”
“Boy, put those back on—!”
“Attention, everyone!” Derrick stepped around the column, gesturing with his violin bow.
The crowd gasped, but too many people blocked my view for me to know why. I pushed my way between two men and then I saw it.
Impressive.
I pointed at Derrick, naked as the day he was born. “That is no little rabbit!”
Everyone laughed for some reason, but Derrick smiled and spread his arms wide—proud as he should be.
The scary man appeared behind him and smiled tightly. “Behold, the…virility of the House of Hyton!”
I clapped. Only a few people clapped with me.
Derrick’s teeth gleamed as he smiled. “I dedicate this song to the newest member of the House of Hyton!”
I gasped. Who could that be?
“The Beast is defeated! Her blood bond is gone!” He raised his violin to his shoulder. “My darling Serafina is a HYTON!”
Gasps and cheers echoed around me. My fingertips flew up to the coronet on my head, savoring the warmth of the gold.
I was a Hyton—I won.
Derrick’s bow flew across the violin strings. The music lifted my feet and I bounced with each quick note. I spun around and around, twirling my skirt in the way I knew he loved.
The words of the nobles danced around me though their bodies kept still.
“How is it possible? Was it the magic of the North?”
“Does it matter? Bloodstone will have no heirs!”
“The North has fallen!”
I stopped mid-turn when my eyes found General Hyton’s. He stared at me, unblinking.
He probably hated me. Oh, well. Back to dancing.
Derrick sawed away at his violin, the sinews in his forearms flexing as he played faster and faster. His hair was damp with sweat. He flashed me a triumphant smile but did not stop playing.
He would never stop. We would never stop. He was my forever.
But why was I still so empty?
My brows creased and the emptiness turned into darkness that spread through my chest, then up to my eyes.
Before I could scream for help, the darkness swallowed me again.