Page 107 of House of Embers
Zina reached into her pockets and plucked out a creamy white envelope with the Society seal on the back. It was open when Zina passed it to Kerrigan, and she read it.
“A Society Ball?” Kerrigan glanced up at her. “This sounds like a trap.”
“Easy cover at least,” Zina said with a wink.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The Ball
“Stop moving,” Viviana told Kerrigan for the third time. Her eyes flickered between the portrait of Anya’s niece and Kerrigan’s face.
“Sorry,” she said, stilling under her ministrations.
It was one thing to have Viviana on Ordrax’s back, which was still odd, but it was another to have Viviana working glamours on Kerrigan’s face. When Ordrax had suggested it, Viviana had looked offended that he had given up the secrets from her mother’s family. Apparently she had been perfecting glamours since she was a child to make herself look more beautiful. It was one of the ways that she had become queen in the first place.
And now they were using the talent to alter Kerrigan’s and Fordham’s appearance for the ball.
“You lookwild,” Clover said with a shake of her head.
It was good to see her friend again. It had been too long since they were together. Even here, it felt strange that they were in the Van Horn manor home and not in the Dregs. But Anya and Alura Van Horn were Kerrigan’s escorts for the evening.
“Yeah, it’s weird,” Kerrigan agreed.
If she hadn’t been watching her face transform before her eyes,she might not have believed that Viviana was turning her into Anya’s young niece. Her eyes were no longer a vivid green but brown. She had a rounder face, sans freckles. Her nose had been elongated and lifted at the tip. Her mouth was smaller, lips thinner, chin sunken back. Her jawline had flattened. Her hair was now an unrecognizable brown and straight as a board.
And her ears. Well, her ears were now longer and sharper—full-blooded Fae ears and not her daintier little half-Fae ears. She hated them.
In the drab green dress she’d procured, she could have been anyone. Anyone but herself.
Fordham had also been changed to look inches shorter than he was and like he had shoulder-length blond hair and plain brown eyes. He wore a navy suit to match the Bryonican colors and had left earlier to enter the party with Sonali of Bryonica.
Kerrigan hated the glamour even if it was necessary. Since the Red Masks were throwing the party, the thing was a masquerade as well. She slipped on the silver mask over her new features and was glad for that last layer of protection.
“The glamour isn’t going to last as long as you want,” Viviana told her. “So you are going to have to be as quick as possible. I won’t be there to top you off.”
“We’ll be fast,” Kerrigan assured her.
“Done,” Viviana said. “You look excellent if I do say so.”
Kerrigan glanced at herself one more time and made a face. “I look perfectly ordinary.”
Viviana laughed. “So no change?”
“Wow, thanks,” Kerrigan said as she pushed her shoulder gently. It was a joke, and Kerrigan couldn’t believe she was actually joking with Viviana. Bonding with Ordrax had completely altered her personality or perhaps just given her enough purpose to put the rest of her schemes aside.
“I wish you could have brought Darby,” Clover said on a sigh.
“I’m sorry,” Kerrigan said, taking her friend’s hand. “I know you wanted to see her, but do you want me to bring her into danger?”
“No,” Clover said softly.
Viviana tapped an imaginary watch. “Time is ticking.”
Kerrigan clicked her bracelet, and a small door opened in the middle of Anya’s sitting room. It led Viviana back to where the dragons were waiting.
“You’re getting better at this portal thing,” Viviana told her.
“Uh, thanks,” Kerrigan said.
