Page 49 of Taken By the Shadow Prince

The dress she wears now is exactly the sort of dress you’d expect to see your young Queen dancing in. Not quite as many layers of fabric, and falling to the ankles instead of to the floor, to keep her from tripping. It’s a recent style to wear them just a bit shorter than usual. I usually think it looks like the dress is just too small on its wearer, but I also think that Ellis has done a rather fine job at making this one look like an intentional cut off.

I could be biased. Hell, I probably am.

But the dressisexquisite.

I smell him before he even steps into my line of sight, stopping right at my side. Armin’s smell is unforgettable, whollyhim. Like the fog at dusk, like lightning bugs zipping above a flower field, like the drops of water on the petals of those flowers. “Why aren’t you dancing, Mavey?”

I shrug my shoulders. “It’s not something I enjoy.”

“Oh, come on, now. You can tell me if the men here are too cowardly to ask you for your hand.”

I scowl at him, but don’t bother answering.

“That’s it, isn’t it? They’re too afraid to even approach you.”

“How should I know what has them staying away?” I snap. “I don’t particularly care either way.”

“I don’t believe you, for some reason,” Armin muses. “I’ve been watching you, after all. You stand here with your hands shoved in your pockets and your knives clearly visible beneath your fancy dress. You know you frighten them away. You probably even prefer it.”

I wish he’d stop talking to me, about me, like he knows a thing at all. I turn to him finally, not quite leashing my anger as I say, “And what about you? Why aren’t you out there dancing, if it’s something that interests you so much?”

“There is no one out there that I would like to dance with. You know, since you’ve been lurking over here all night, trying to pretend like you’re not guarding that Queen you care so much about.”

I wonder if I should admit to it or not—then decide there’s little he could possibly do. “It would be a very clever thing, if those rebels decided to move their attack to the night that most people are off duty, and in a single room, distracted.”

“They don’t know there’s a celebration, Mavey. You can relax.”

“What a bold thing to assume, Armin. You think there’s not the possibility of rebels among us? That someone might not have slipped a note out to inform their ranks of how off-guard they might catch us tonight?”

He’s quiet for a long moment. “One dance, then. Just give me one dance and I’ll leave you alone.”

I narrow my eyes on him. “I don’t quite believe you.” He’s been with me almost every moment of every day since we arrived—whether we are talking or doing far more...intimate things—so I don’t expect him to suddenly leave now.

He laughs. “I suppose I don’t blame you for that.” Armin debates for a long moment. Then he says, “I’ll try, then. I’ll do my best to leave you alone for the rest of the night. How does that sound?”

I try to hide my smile. “It sounds like the bargain is weighing heavily in your favor. But alright, fine—one dance.”

He grins, takes my hand without me even offering it to him, and leads me to the floor. I catch sight of someone familiar as we go, and I stop in my tracks. “Wait,” I tell him. “Benji. I’ve only seen him once since I got back.” I meant to spend more time with him, but I completely forgot. I’ve been a little... caught up, I suppose.

“No,” Armin groans, his voice almost a whine as he tugs harder on my arm and sends me stumbling into his body. “Please, Mavey. Do not leave me for another man right now. Say hello later.”

I frown, but relent and let him tug me along. “It seems like a strong word for Benji.”

“What?” Armin asks, amused. “Man?”

I nod, trying not to laugh along with him as he chuckles, the sound deep, gravelly.

“He’s just so much smaller than the rest of us, it seems like. A harmless little boy.”

Armin shrugs as he pulls me toward him, our bodies pressed so close together that his warmth seeps into my skin. “Careful,” he murmurs. “It’s always best to not trust the ones you think could do no harm.”

I nod. He’s probably right about that in a general sense, but Benji is so... soft. Such a calm character, not so much a rock against a wave, but a pebble that has smoothed over time as it follows the river wherever it goes.

We don’t speak for a while, but I lose myself in my thoughts. I wonder aboutwhoamong us might be the ones Ishouldlook out for. I doubt any of the soldiers. It seems too obvious, to shove a spy in with the soldiers. Granted, that’s exactly what we did—but the rebels as a whole really onlyaresoldiers. Here, there’s plenty of stealthier positions to pose as. Like a cook in the kitchen, or a maid, who sees and hears all while going wholly unnoticed—never mind what kind of magic they might have.

And then I forbid myself from thinking such things, because doing so will not help me relax at all, which is clearly Armin’s whole point of this dance. I choose instead to think of the demon-witches, who we have gained by me playing fast and loose with my soul, but they have joined us nonetheless. The thought calms me, somehow, and they follow an arc until I’m wondering what it will be like to spend five years in Atheya.

I suppose there’s only one person here to ask. I know that I’ve been there before, that I’ve had a sample of it, but I’m smart enough to know that is just a tiny taste of it compared to what it will truly be like there.

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