Page 95 of Gothikana

Jade did her makeup as well, both of them ready, and then they put on their masks, hers a white and pink feathery half-mask, Corvina’s a shimmery silver.

‘Your mask is going to blind everyone,’ Jade said wryly as Corvina clasped it carefully under her ponytail. ‘It looks so expensive.’

Corvina didn’t say anything to that. She had no idea about the cost of any of this. She didn’t want to think about it, not knowing the thought behind his actions.

‘Should we go?’ Corvina asked instead, looking out the window at the clear starry night, a huge dark grey full moon rising steadily to the sky. The Ink Moon.

‘We’re actually a little late,’ Jade laughed, taking her hand as they exited the room and locked the door. ‘Don’t forget, we all stay in visible sight tonight.’

Corvina nodded, focusing on going down the stairs in the heels that made her feel tall. Hopefully, she would stand closer to his face in these.

They walked out of the tower into a throng of masked students on the cobblestoned path, all heading to the Main Hall, laughing and chattering excitedly. The air of the castle was pulsing with celebration for the night, and for that Corvina was glad.

The students didn’t know about the body found at the shack. Since the investigative team had already been there, they all thought nothing of them staying a bit longer, writing it down to the Black Ball.

Corvina tilted her head back and looked up at the castle building, tearing the sky with a looming silhouette lit with yellowed lights from the ground that faded into darkness higher toward the roofs, the moon a big orb hanging behind it. It was a vision, a moment of realising how small everyone was in the space of time, that these walls had been exactly as they were today hundreds of years ago, that they had seen many dances of death.

It was a chilling, sobering realisation.

Corvina shook off the gloomy thoughts and focused on walking the cobblestoned path in heels, which was trickier than heels in the lawns, the split in her dress allowing ease of movement, exposing her leg to the thigh with each step. The wind was cool on her half-exposed torso, her nipples slightly hard but thankfully hidden by the colour and thickness of the dress.

The Main Hall building was more lit up than she’d ever seen it before, actual fire torches stuck on slots in uniform distance, lighting up the entire area around the square building.

As they met with their friends outside, all of them dressed up and masked, all of them complimenting each other, Jax’s eyes lingering a little too long on her cleavage, Corvina kept swivelling her eyes around, trying to find the one man she wanted in the crowd.

Not many people towered over the others, and those who did didn’t have that very distinctive streak of grey in their hair.

Curbing her disappointment, she turned to her friends. ‘You guys wanna go in?’

They moved to the wide-open doors. The dining hall was redone, all the tables and chairs lined against the wall with a buffet of food on one side and a space for sitting on the other. The door to the Vault was locked from the outside. A giant bronze sculpture of two embracing lovers stood on the side of the staircase, their hands holding multiple lamps. It was glorious to see.

She and her group made their way upstairs, stopping to greet a few people on the way, girls from their tower, people from their classes, others.

And finally, they entered the Main Hall, the one that the building was named after but one that had remained locked for years.

‘Fuck.’ Ethan looked around the hall, his eyes wide behind his golden mask. ‘This is some grand shit.’

It was.

It was a ginormous open space, with a row of arched windows on the opposite wall with a direct view of the woods, the lake, and the mountains. The biggest chandelier she had ever seen, one with at least two hundred candles, hung from the high ceiling, wooden slabs and thick pillars supporting the weight of the roof in an architectural marvel. Fire torches stuck out from every pillar, from iron stands that looked so ancient she wouldn’t have been surprised if they were hundreds of years old.

Looking around, it dawned on Corvina all over again that this was the legacy of her lover, that his ancestors had been the ones to create all of it. Up until a few weeks ago, it would’ve made her feel small. Her legacy was mental issues and a possibly tough future. She had nothing to give to him.

But she had changed. Her outlook had changed. She didn’t have anything to give him but herself, and he seemed to want nothing more. A man with everything material and nothing emotional wanted her nothing material and everything emotional. They were an odd but perfect fit.

A grand piano, the one from the Vault, the one she’d been spread open on many times, took up one corner of the room, ready.

But he was nowhere to be seen.

A few musicians beside the piano played music on violins, and couples began to gather in the hall, pairing up for dances.

Corvina moved her eyes all over the room and over the various masked people, lingering on the men, trying to find him. Her eyesscanned the room once, twice, and on her third round, she came to a stop on a man standing in an alcove beside a window, wearing a black cape over his black attire, glass in his hand, watching her.

He was wearing a crow mask, of all the things.

One with a long, crooked black beak, holes for eyes, and a tall forehead that covered his head.

Corvina grinned. ‘I’ll see you guys in a bit,’ she told her friends, weaving her way through the crowd toward the man standing alone, knowing no one would recognise him.

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