Page 89 of The Curse of a Kingdom
She stood, debating whether leaving at that very moment was the best chance she would get. No one could stop her if she did.
The knock on the door startled her. “Nava?”
What was she thinking? That she would leave her soulmate here when he had lost his trust in her after her lies? No. She couldn’t harm their already fragile bond any more.
Her heart shrank as she pushed down the sudden need to cry. Not wanting to be in this situation for a moment longer, needing to be near Aristaeus, but having to stay here instead, playing with pretty dresses and fearing that someone might kill her if she strayed out of this room for long.
“Be right there.” She took a fortifying breath to ready herself for the night.
* * *
Devon’s indigo suit and cobalt velvet cravat reminded her of the one he’d worn the day he walked into her shop almost a year ago. “You are looking rather ravishing today, cat. I would have loved to match your gown color today, but I’m afraid all my clothes are the same shades of blue.” He picked her hand up in a blur, his touch scalding and wrong.
Before his lips could touch her skin, she pulled her hand away. “Donotput your lips on me,” she hissed.
His lopsided grin became a full-toothed smile. “No fun. So who do I have to bed around here to get a different color outfit?”
The origin of such a dress was still a mystery, and in the middle of her fogged-out thoughts this afternoon, she hadn’t stopped to think whether or not it might be a good idea to wear it. Should she have questioned it more? “The clothes just appear in the wardrobe. I found it and thought it would be nice for a change from the regular blue clothes.”
Fael’s eyes had just caught up on her outfit as well. If his furrowing brow was anything to go by, he was not happy with this news. “I thought the dress was indigo.” He stepped closer, his gold eyes raking down her body. “Only the royals wear black.”
“What?” She shook her head, her bottom lip trembling as perspiration built up. “Then it must be indigo.”
Except it wasn’t. Nava lowered her gaze to the gown sleeves, semi-transparent black. She hadn’t seen Leela since the day of the ball; earlier in the day, she had gotten dressed on her own, not questioning a thing. What if this wasn’t a dress facilitated by magic? Maybe someone had placed it there to get her in trouble.
Or maybe . . . the changing in the tree somehow signaled the magic of the castle to change this as well?
She exchanged a look with Devon. “Do you think someone was trying to sabotage me tonight by putting this gown in my wardrobe?” Leela? The thought alone made her heart shrink. Part of her never had trusted the friendly questions. What if this was one of Leela’s partner’s creations? She was a seamstress, after all.
Devon shrugged. “Probably.”
“We don’t have time to do anything about it,” Fael said. “We are going to be late, and that will get more attention than the gown itself.”
Her skin turned clammy. “I should go back and change.”
The fae grunted in front of them, shaking his head. “No time. We have to be there before they close the doors.”
Or what? What could be worse than appearing in a crowded dinner wearing the royal colors in front of the king?
The garment itched on her skin. Maybe it wasn’t Leela but Marni’s doing, as a form of revenge for the way she and Leela had changed the horrid yellow gown the night of the ball. Nava had wanted to blend in with the crowd, not call more attention to herself. This was what happened when one didn’t have their head in the right place.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” she whispered in the same rhythm as her stumbling heart.
They turned a corner around the hall, which became busier with the sheer number of people gathered by the entrance. This was not a regular quiet dinner with a few people from the court. Fael took them across the crowd toward a room they had never been in before.
It was like a secondary throne room, similar in shape, with an impressive ceiling made of beams that formed an intricate honeycomb shape. Large stained glass windows lined the sides. The late sun’s rays made the colors of the art cascade onto the crowd in a shimmering rainbow. Nava spotted the royals at the center of the room. Both sat on their large ebony thrones.
The king’s aura swarmed around him like spilled ink in water, and his cerulean eyes snapped upon her as if called by a magnet. Nava’s legs shook under her weight just by the sheer fear running through her veins.
She had been so self-assured earlier, thinking she would be able to confront this man, tell him who she was. Nava shouldn’t have worn the damn dress. It would have been better to be naked, judging by the prickling sensation of all eyes fixed on her.
Trying to look elsewhere was proving to be impossible. She found herself a captive to the king’s deepening scowl, and the warm swarm of panic that raged in her stomach wasn’t only her own. Arkimedes’s emotions were so strong they sent hot and cold flashes through her body. Her steps slowed down, and she was too dizzy to keep walking.
Arkimedes’s hands tightened on the arms of his chair, his body tense. Feeling off-kilter and dizzy, she tried to get air back to her lungs. The light warning of insects crawling over her arms was a clear sign this was moving to a fight-or-flight situation.
Had this always been meant to be a setup, about a stupid dress that would end up getting her killed?
An icy hand grasped hers, bringing her hand across the crook of an arm. The velvet touch of fabric distracted her for a moment. “Look at me,now.”
