“May I have this dance?”
A man dressed in dark blue stretched his hand out to Rosalie. With an eager smile, she was whisked onto the crowded dance floor. Lenore and Ligeia soon followed. Their dresses fluttered as they twirled beneath the most unsettling fresco I’d ever seen.
It was a painted forest, dark and deep. A pack of wolves raced through black trees, chasing after a large buck. The deer’s eyes glistened in terror as it rose on its hind legs, trying to free itself from a mess of briars. Real wrought-iron vines twisted across the painted ceiling’s length. Some draped down, curling above our heads. Others knotted in on themselves, holding little orbs of bright red light.
“Poor deer,” Verity said, following my gaze.
“Why is the prettiest girl in the room sitting this dance out?” Fisher interrupted, coming up beside us.
Camille swirled by on the arms of a man wearing a mask of red leather, like a phoenix bursting from the flames. It matched her dress perfectly. Her head tilted toward him as she listened intently to every word he said. They looked radiant together, a king and queen presiding over their fiery court.
Fisher grabbed Verity and guided her out onto the floor, spinning her around and around until she snorted with laughter. He threw a wink back at me, promising I was next.
I made my way along the sides of the dance floor, amazed by the sheer spectacle. At the far end of the hall, a fireplace took up nearly the entire width of the wall. A massive blaze roared in the obsidian chamber, where a whole hog roasted on a spit. More metal vines crept around columns and along archways. Brilliant cherry-colored flowers, each with a small votive candle in the center, sprinkled down them. The petals had been painstakingly pieced together with stained glass.
“Quite a feat of engineering, wouldn’t you say?” I heard from behind me. “And I’ve not seen a single candle burn out. The staff must be going crazy replacing all those flames.”
I turned and my heart thudded wildly in my chest.
“Cassius!” I wanted to exclaim it, to loudly express the surprise of seeing him here, but my words came out with no more power than a breathless whisper.
He was dressed in a fine suit of blackest wool, impeccably tailored to his frame. A dark mask obscured his face from forehead to nose. Tiny jet beads sparkled at the edges.
He offered a quick smile. “Are you so certain? I am wearing a mask.”
Though he teased, I would recognize those blue eyes anywhere. Dark as the sea, with specks of silver, they’d haunted my dreams every night since our encounter on Selkirk.
“What are you doing here?”
“The same as you, I’d imagine. The same as all of them.” He swept his arm across the room.
“They’re all dancing,” I pointed out. I didn’t know if it was the anonymity of the mask or the opulent and seductive pull of the castle, but I’d never felt so brazen in all my life. I was practically daring him to ask me to dance.
“Are we not?” he asked, looking down at our feet as if surprised to find them standing still. “We should rectify that.”
My fingers slid into his outstretched hand like water over rocks. He led me out to the center of the room as a new tune began. I snaked my free arm up his shoulder and felt my breath stop as his other hand came to rest at my waist. A warm ribbon of desire unraveled inside me, and I dared to wonder what those fingers would feel like against my bare skin.
I soon found out.
It was a lively jig, full of complicated spins and twists. Cassius skillfully led me through the unfamiliar steps, his smile bright. As the song came to an end, he drew me in, so close I could feel the heat of his chest singeing my thin satin, before twisting me into a spectacular dip. His palm splayed across my back, supporting my weight with a deft grace. Behind the mask, his eyes burned down at me.
The crowd broke into applause for the orchestra, and I felt a tap on my shoulder.
“Ready for that dance now, Minnow?” Fisher asked. “Unless you’ve already made plans with…”
I inhaled deeply, catching my breath. “Fisher, this is Cassius. His father is a captain on Selkirk.” I turned back to Cassius. “Fisher is—”
“A family friend,” he interjected. He grazed my elbow, gently drawing me to his side. “A very close friend.”
They sized each other up, their glances heated and decidedly masculine. It was a strange sensation, being caught between the two of them. Though it was flattering, I couldn’t help but feel like a swimmer circled by two sharks, wondering which would strike first.
After a pause, Cassius shifted his eyes toward me, his face relaxing. “Save me your next waltz?”
“I’d be delighted—” I started, but Fisher spun me away as a new song began, and I didn’t know if Cassius had heard me.
Fisher’s hand at my waist was warm and sure, and he guided us through the steps with far more confidence than he’d shown at the triplets’ ball. Though we faced each other for most of the dance, his eyes never quite met mine, always resting just above my shoulders as if searching the room to make certain Cassius was watching.
“Fisher?”
His face broke into a triumphant smirk, and as we turned, I caught Cassius leaving the ballroom.
“What?” He laughed, seeing my raised eyebrow.
“What was that all about?”
He shrugged, then spun me out as the music built in a swooping crescendo.
“Fisher!”
“I don’t know. I saw you across the room, dancing with him, and I just…I knew I needed to come cut in.”
I paused. “Why?”
The tips of his ears flared red, and he looked away. “It’s hard to admit, Annaleigh.”
“We’ve always been able to tell each other anything,” I said, drawing his gaze back. “Haven’t we?”
“Well, yes, but…It’s just…” He let out a sigh of frustration. “I truly did not like seeing you in another man’s arms.”
My steps faltered, and Fisher rubbed his neck, looking exactly like the twelve-year-old boy I’d been smitten with.
“Is that strange to hear? It feels strange to say. All my life I thought of you as a sister…a sometimes exasperating but always beloved little sister. But when I came back to Salten and saw you so grown up and beautiful…I didn’t want you to feel like a sister any longer.”
“Oh.”
I should have said more, I could feel him silently begging me to say more, but the words weren’t there. Fisher stood frozen in a crowd of swirling couples. His eyes swept over me, worried amber fervently searching for something in mine. But they didn’t find what they wanted, and he abruptly left the dance floor.
I trailed after him, my stomach in a twist of fluttering knots. As a girl, I’d dreamt of this moment, wished and prayed for its arrival, but now that it was here, it felt flat. Even after his admission, I longed to search the room for Cassius instead, worried he might have overheard.
“Fisher, wait!” I exclaimed, following him to the outskirts of the room.
“Forget it, Annaleigh. Just forget I said anything.”
I grabbed at his hand, forcing him to stop. “Where are you going?”
He waved his arm, freeing himself from my grasp. “Anywhere but here. Don’t follow me.”
“You…surprised me.” My words fell out, feeble and weak.
He raked his fingers through his hair. “I should have stayed quiet—especially after everything Camille said about that watchmaker.”
“What does Edgar have to do with anything?”
Fisher tilted his head, incredulity sharp across his face. “You’re not going to end up with a Keeper of the Light. I know that. I knew that. But when I saw you in that dress tonight…” He reached out and pushed aside a loose curl behind my ear. His thumb traced across my cheek. “I just dared to dream otherwise.” He shook his head. “Forgive me. I’ve made a mess of this evening. I just…I need to just…” He turned and raced out of the room.
“Fisher!” I called after him, but he was gone.
“Lovers’ quarrel?” A stranger loomed over me, impossibly tall and gaunt. His tailcoat had been cut from a gorgeously thick emerald silk. Embroidered across the lapels was a three-headed dragon, claws raised as if to attack. Its eyes seemed to wink in the strange floral candlelight, but it was the man’s mask that wholly disconcerted me. Made of a clear resin, it covered his entire face, hiding the man beneath. Enormous eyes were painted across his own, allowing visibility only through tiny pinpricks in the false irises. Their brushstrokes were full of jealousy, mad with want.
“Not exactly.”
“Excellent. Then if you’re not otherwise engaged…” He held up an unusually long finger. “A dance?”
I glanced back toward the door Fisher had run out of but saw no sign of him. Feeling miserable, I accepted the stranger’s arm.
“It’s a lovely evening, don’t you think?” the dragon man asked after a long moment of silent dancing.
“I’ve had better,” I admitted.
He laughed. “Come, come. Cheer up. This is a party, is it not?”
“I suppose you’re right,” I said, following him through a series of steps. “Who do I have the pleasure of dancing with?”
He raised up that long finger again, shaking it with a dark smile. “Ah, ah, ah. The very delight of such an evening is being your complete self with a total stranger, don’t you think? Spilling your innermost thoughts—ones too dark and deep to ever speak in the light of day, confessing sins of passion and pleasure, maybe even misbehaving, and none of it matters, because if you don’t know who you’re toying with, then what’s the harm in it?” His arm snaked up my back, flush and exposed, pulling me against him. “Tell me, pretty lady, what are your darkest secrets?”
Though I couldn’t see his actual eyes, I felt them crawling all over my body.
As the song wound to an end, a string on one of the violins broke, ending the final note on a strange chord. I used the moment to squirm free of the dragon man’s grasp.
“I’m afraid I must go find my friend,” I stammered.
After a tense moment, he chuckled as if I’d said something amusing. “I’ll be back for you later.” He tapped his long finger against my wrist. “Count on it.”
I wanted to watch where he went, to keep track of him, but there were too many shades of green, and he melted into the crowd, gone in an instant. The orchestra rifled through sheets of music before finding a cheerful fox-trot.
“There you are!” Cassius exclaimed, suddenly at my side. He offered his hand for the next dance.
“Could we sit this one out?” I waved my lace fan back and forth. My mind was jumbled with too many thoughts, too weighed down to dance.
“Would you care for a stroll? I recall seeing a courtyard as I came in.”
I nodded gratefully.
“This way.”
Cassius led me through the huge arches lining the side of the ballroom and down the corridor, taking more turns than I could remember. Finally, we stepped out into a quiet courtyard, surrounded on three sides by towering cloisters.
The wind whipped by, blowing strands of hair across my face. It still smelled like autumn here. Pine needles and cold, crisp air, bonfires and moldering leaves, the world dying as it readied to be reborn. I took a deep breath, savoring the sharp tang.
An eerie cry ripped through the air. Another joined it, and another, and suddenly the night was alive with wavering howls.
“The Pelage wolves,” Cassius explained as I tensed. “They roam the forests at night, always on the hunt.”
Pelage. We were in Pelage. I tried picturing the map that hung in Papa’s study, showing all of the regions of Arcannia. Pelage was in the northeast section of the kingdom, about as far from Salann as you could get.
“It almost sounds like the whales at home. You can hear them singing on summer nights when the waters are still.” Thinking of Salann made my mind circle back to the one question it had avoided since running into Cassius. But I needed to know. “The last time I saw you, you were on Selkirk….”
His eyes twinkled under the mask. “I remember. You were the prettiest girl on the docks.”
I paused, taken aback by his open flirtation. “What on earth are you doing here?”
He looked to the sky as another volley of howls started up. “I could point out you’re just as far from home.”
“You’re right, but—”
“I came for the same reason as you,” Cassius continued, nodding back toward the castle. “The dancing.”
“Dancing?” I echoed. “You came all this way to Pelage for dancing?”
“Didn’t you?”
Our eyes met, and I got the distinct impression he somehow saw more of me than he ought to.
“You’re blushing,” he murmured, touching my cheek below the tulle mask. “I wouldn’t have expected that.” He traced one of the stars on my sleeve, curious. “What exactly are you meant to be?”
I ran my hands down the gown, heat sweeping from my cheeks throughout my body. “I…I just liked the stars. I thought they looked like a summer’s night sky.”
His stare weighed heavily across my skin. “They suit you.”
“And what about you?” I asked, gesturing to his all-black attire. “Are you scared of the dark?”
“Me?” He looked down. “I’m the most terrifying nightmare of them all.”
I raised my eyebrows, waiting for him to elaborate.
“Regret.”
I smiled, though it wasn’t funny. “Is that really a nightmare?”
“Can you think of anything more frightening?”
Another sharp howl split the night, followed by a barrage of snarls. The wolves must have caught the scent of something. They were on the hunt.
We stared out over the forest, trying to spot the pack, but there were too many shadows.
His fingertips brushed against the back of my hand, no more than a whispered question, sending a dance of shivers down my spine. When I glanced up, I saw Cassius looking at me, but it was too dark to see the intent in his eyes. For a moment, the world seemed to be willing us closer and closer together. I felt his breath on my cheek and knew if I took one small step toward him, he would kiss me.
“Do you want to know what my biggest regret tonight will be, pretty Annaleigh?” he murmured, his lips brushing the skin of my temple.
Every fiber in my being was paused on tiptoe, aching for him to bridge the gap between us. My tongue felt too tied up to properly answer, and as his hand slipped over mine, I thought my heart would shatter with happiness.
“If I don’t spend the rest of this ball with you on the dance floor.”
He gently tugged me back inside, toward the ballroom. As a new waltz began, I suddenly remembered Cassius had never actually answered my question about what he was doing there.
