Page 107 of A Game of Veils

If I lose too much of myself to the princes who’ve evolved from enemies to allies, I’ll have prepared my own doom.

The nobleman whose name I don’t know teases his fingers along my jaw. Anger vibrates through me—and I realize that now, just this once, I can let it out.

I can release the fury that’s built up inside me over the past week and a half, even if I can’t aim it at the right target.

I slap the man’s hand away. “Don’t touch me. I’m not here for you to play with.”

As I wish I could have shouted at Marclinus all those times before. As I’d like to yell in his face now.

He’d kill me if he knew I meant these words for him, but he’d want me to lash out against a potential seduction from anyone else.

This sick, sick game…

The nobleman in front of me starts to stammer. “I only wanted to admire you up close. It’s impossible not to be drawn to you?—”

“You’ll just have to figure out how,” I break in, letting my rage sear through my words. “Get away from me. I don’t want you anywhere near me. I didn’t ask for this.”

Someone in our audience lets out a low whistle. As the nobleman retreats, face blotchy with embarrassment, my listing gaze lands on Marclinus.

He’s grinning at me. So triumphant in my supposed faithfulness.

But the anger I just unleashed has taken enough edge off my temper that I don’t spit the same harsh words in his face. And then he turns, just as one of the other ladies sighs at her suitor’s caress of her neck.

The man tenses and glances toward Marclinus. The imperial heir gives him an encouraging nod, though his smirk has hardened.

“Shall I go on?” the nobleman says to his target. “You’ve always been the sweetest lady in the court. If I could kiss even your hand, it would leave my heart singing.”

Her face flushes. She pulls her arm back when he tries to carry out his request, but her eyes sparkle as she looks up at him. A giddy smile crosses her lips.

Just like that, she consigns herself to execution.

Marclinus stretches out his legs. “I prefer the ladies who have eyes only for me. If all it takes is a few glasses of wine to let another turn your head…”

He flicks his fingers, and another guard steps forward.

At the hiss of the drawn blade, I allow my head to loll forward as if simply out of drunkenness. Once again, I hear but don’t see the slice of the flesh, the thump of the body.

The sound rings on through my head alongside my jumbled thoughts.

Four left.

Any satisfaction I got from releasing a little misdirected anger sputters out.

It didn’t get me anywhere. I’m still just as trapped as I was before.

And gods only know what misery our adoring husband-to-be will put us through next.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Raul

Iremember hearing Lorenzo play when we were kids, before he had any gift. The way he’d get caught up in the melodies he could create with his own two hands seemed like a little piece of freedom.

Now, as the court circulates in the hall of entertainments, the strains of music that wash over me sound even sweeter than they did back then. All the same, my stomach clenches tighter with each new song.

They’ve turned into a reminder of how the emperor will take anything we can do and twist it to his own advantage.

Lorenzo doesn’t want to be playing for these pricks. He doesn’t even like any of them.

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