Mask of Shadows (Untitled #1)(52)

“Works for me.” She touched my blood-spotted coat. “What happened?”

“A liar—an auditioner accused me of killing another auditioner, and I couldn’t prove it wasn’t me. Didn’t have an alibi.” I slowly took her hand, torn between keeping her close and running away fast as I could so I could sort through whatever feelings Elise had awoken. Out of all the things I’d done, how was this the newest, strangest thing to happen to me?

Elise straightened my collar, studying my face. Her hand fluttered next to my cheek. She didn’t touch me and didn’t pull away, only lingered. “I can’t picture you as a new recruit.”

I leaned very slowly against her hand.

“I’m glad you’re not.” Elise tucked a strand of my hair behind my ears. “They would’ve sent you somewhere far, far away.”

“Can ladies have affairs with common soldiers?”

“We can do anything we please,” Elise said softly. “Even if we should know better.”

“Like kissing people who could kill you?” I couldn’t keep the catch from my voice.

“Oh yes.” Elise slid her arms around my neck again, pulling me into a half hug. “Is this the last time I’ll see you?”

“No.” I tangled my fingers in her tunic till I could feel her warm skin and heartbeat fluttering in her veins. “I’ll come back tomorrow, if I’m still alive. I need to take care of a few other things.”

She hugged me, arms tight enough to break, and tucked her face into the side of my neck. I slid my hands around her waist, unable to stop the hesitant shaking that had taken over my limbs.

“Don’t die,” she muttered into my neck, lips hot against my skin. “I’ll stay here all night. Come back before you die.”

I didn’t want to die, but the idea of someone hoping I didn’t, asking me not to, made the prospect of tomorrow brighter. “I’ll try.”

“Good.” She pulled away from me, rubbed her eyes, and straightened up.

I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers. She blinked up at me, eyes half-shut behind her spectacles, and I kissed her more gently than I’d done anything else in my life. Her hand closed around my wrist. I pulled back. “Here.” She slid her silver ring over my finger. “Now you have to come back—to return it.”

I nodded. “Wouldn’t be like me to steal something like this.”

Without another word or touch, sure I’d be unable to leave if I lingered too long on how her mouth felt against mine, how her fingers curled just so around my wrist, how her eyelids fluttered shut over her dark, dark eyes with each shuddering breath, I turned my back on Elise de Farone and walked away.





Thirty


With a confused weariness tugging at my bones, I wandered back to my room and crawled into the perfectly made bed. The cleanliness of it all only made the loneliness more gaping. Maud must’ve thought I wasn’t coming back.

I glanced at the little constellation of ink that Elise’s stained hands had left on my skin, breathed in the leftover scents of lemons and paper, and sighed. She’d haunt my dreams longer than ink could stain my skin, and both thoughts eased the hollow chill in my chest.

“This punishment?” I asked the night sky, staring at The Lady’s stars through the open slats in the ceiling. “Retribution for killing? Losing my temper with Seve?”

Her stars twinkled back. I raised a hand to trace the line of her armor, the runes dripping from her fingertips, and the vine leaves curled around the roof shifted in the breeze. She vanished.

“I was doing it for funeral rites.” I took a deep breath and threw my ink-splattered arm over my head. “All those lords who spilled blood—your blood—and let it lie are here, and I’m returning them to you. Repayment for their debts.”

It would be an easy run for the ones left—I’d bet anything Two, Four, and Five would be the last three. It had better be Two. I’d smack Four if he was named Opal and I was still alive, and I’d not mind the punishment for assaulting a noble.

I’d have to see him in court, but that would be another chance to hit him.

Courts. The audition followed the same rules as courts, and witnesses recanted all the time. Grell used to stare down law-abiding folks till they ran out trembling and the charges were dropped. If Four recanted, I’d have proof it wasn’t me.

And I could make it fun.

The lock on the door clicked. I dove aside, darting to the wall and tucking myself where the door would hide me. The person let out a long sigh, stepping into the room with a shuffle, and adjusted the basket on their arm. A familiar plait of shiny black hair tied with gray ribbon flopped over one shoulder. The person shut the door and turned.

“Maud?”

She shrieked and tossed her basket at me. I caught it.

“Maud, Maud, stop.” I held out the basket. “It’s me, Twenty-Three.”

She stopped shrieking. Her eyes widened, and she flew at me. I took the first punch to my shoulder, falling with it onto the floor. She smacked my uninjured side, never hitting anywhere near my stitches, and rained a series of ill-done punches on my chest and arms.

“You ass.” Maud pulled her arms so far back that she tangled her fingers in her hair. “You were disqualified!”