Page 51 of The Scarlet Star

“Go to bed.”

She released a heavy sigh.

“Ryn?”

It took Ryn a second to figure out where the soft voice came from. She turned all the way around before she saw Matthias at the end of the hall. She rushed over, turning pink as she wondered if Matthias’s greeting had alerted Calliope and her artist to her creeping outside.

She pulled Matthias through the hall, keeping her head down as she passed Calliope’s room, flung the door to her chambers open, and shoved Matthias in ahead of her.

Heva was lounging on Ryn’s bed with her dirty boots still on, and Ryn scowled. “You know, there might be a reason Seeda despises you so much,” she said.

Heva only grinned.

“What news have you brought, Matthias?” Ryn asked as she fell into a chair. “Has Kai changed his mind about me being here?”

Matthias kicked his toe against the floor. “Uh… No. I haven’t spoken with the Priesthood.”

Ryn’s face fell. “Then what are you doing at my room?”

“Well…” Matthias glanced back toward the closed door. “The King sent me to guard you.”

“What?” Heva lifted her head from the bed. “Does he think I’m incapable?”

Matthias scratched his head. “Maybe… If I let something bad happen to Ryn, the King promised to punish me. But it’s a good thing—I don’t have to sneak around to get here anymore.” He released an uneven laugh and dropped his hand to his sword awkwardly. Then he turned to Ryn and changed the subject. “Do you remember that time we stole sumac from the park trees and the neighbours chased us all the way down the street for it?”

“How do you still remember that? That was shortly after I moved in with Kai,” Ryn said, even though she wasn’t finished discussing the King’s threat to Matthias.

The sumac heist was one of her favourite memories—she and Matthias had mud all the way up the backs of their legs from running through the rain by the time they returned to the house. “The kabobs we made with the sumac were delicious,” she added.

“Of course I remember it. I remember every moment with you, Ryn, since the day you showed up,” Matthias said. His cheeks flushed, and Ryn’s smile faded away.

She remembered too.

In fact, Ryn hardly had any memories of the last six years without Matthias in them. Matthias was the one who spent the most time around her and Kai, who checked in at the house to make sure she was warm when it rained, who gave her a reason to laugh every year on the anniversary of her mother’s death. And with Kai and Theo lost to their plans to make Ryn a Queen or an assassin, maybe Matthias was her only friend now.

Ryn ran a hand down her hair as that settled in, along with Xerxes’s threat. “Matthias, maybe you should escape the palace before it’s too—”

Marcan barged through the door, and Ryn jumped. The artist was followed by six makeup artists and two more assistants carrying a sparkling navy dress with gold sleeves.

“Do you ever knock?” Heva mumbled from the bed.

“Not really.” Marcan waved his assistants over. “Estheryn, come try this on. If I got the sizing correct, you’ll be a dazzling goddess on the ballroom floor for the dance tonight.” He held up the gown, and Ryn sighed as she took in the remarkable gold threads and glassy blue beads over deep ocean-blue satin.

Another dress that would ruin everything.

The ballroom was grander than the Hall of Stars; more glitter, more lights, louder music. Ryn waited for the host to announce her before stepping into the glowing space—not that anyone was paying attention. The chatter in the room was nearly deafening.

Chandeliers hung from a glass ceiling below a dazzling night sky, and cool wind rippled in from four sets of open balcony doors. The walls were covered in mosaic murals of heroes and villains from Per-Siana myths; The Huma Bird, the Azhi Dahaka, the Peri, the Jinn.

Ryn searched the room for the other Heartstealer maidens first. Each of them was surrounded by a small crowd, andfiveIntelligentsia hovered by Calliope. She beamed, her smile a velvety crescent of pink. Truly, Calliope was the most beautiful person Ryn had ever known. With dark hair like satin and glassyporcelain skin, she practically glowed in the chandelier lights. Ryn had barely used a hairbrush before coming to the palace; she couldn’t imagine ever having hair that shiny.

The other two maidens, Ulita and Lis, stood at opposite corners of the room with their noble friends, and Ryn realized this was the first event where there had been no training, choreography, or order of events; it was strictly social. Her stomach tightened. She had no idea how to be social. If she hadn’t promised Xerxes a dance, she might have tried to sneak back out of the ballroom without anyone noticing.

She wandered to a table of refreshments and pretended to study the sugar-coated almonds, dried pomegranates, and chutes of bubbling liquid. She took a glass, lifting it as slowly as possible as she brought it to her lips and sipped. Then, she sipped again. When nothing happened in the room around her, she sipped a third time.

Divinities, this was going to be a long evening.

“Can you spare me a dance, Lady Electus?”

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