Mask of Shadows (Untitled #1)(81)

“We. You’re a part of this nation too.” He took a sip of his wine, completely at ease. “Did Seve tell you anything?”

I hummed, weighed my options, and shook my head. “Nothing I can’t tell you tomorrow.”

Wasn’t necessarily a lie—I got some names, but I couldn’t do anything with them. Nicolas might know what they meant. Still, would be impossible to handle those lords tonight.

Isidora and Ruby stopped next to us. Isidora glanced from my clenched hands to Nicolas’s face and sighed, glancing away long enough to flag the closest server. He bowed, blond hair falling over his pale eyes. She whispered a request to him.

“Are you corrupting my new protégé?” Ruby asked before plucking a knife from the server’s tray as he ran off and brandishing it at Nicolas. “He’s mine. You can find some other terrible swordsmen to teach your terrible ways.”

I scowled and turned to him. “I’m not terrible.”

“You’re appalling,” Ruby drawled.

“We were talking.” Nicolas pressed a kiss to Isidora’s offered hand, completely ignoring Ruby. “Are you leaving?”

She darted up and kissed his cheek. Ruby made a guttural sound of disgust next to me, and Isidora whipped her head to him. He raised his hands in surrender.

“Ruby’s doing my rounds with me.” She patted his shoulder and glanced at me. “I do house calls with the other physicians at night once everyone is home from work. You should come once you’re settled. It’s a good learning opportunity considering you skipped every day of my training.”

I nodded and smiled, glad my conversation with Nicolas was done but feeling oddly guilty. I’d been doing other important things.

The server appeared at her side, one glass of orange blossom water and another filled with mulled wine. She thrust the wine into Nicolas’s hand.

“You need to relax and eat something before you get back to work.” She moved away, sipping her water till Ruby snatched it from her hands, and beckoned Nicolas.

“Opal,” Nicolas said softly as he bowed goodbye. “Beware the Erlend winter.”

And in the space of a breath, he was gone and the familiar scent of spring washed over me. I turned.

Elise stopped a few paces from me, with her father on her arm.

“Opal.” Elise politely bowed a little, and I returned it with a slightly deeper bow. With her father’s eyes on us, I’d no desire to make him dislike me more. “I’d like you to meet my father, Lord Nevierno del Farone.”

I bowed even deeper and ignored the prickling sense of recognition at his name. Of course I’d heard it before. He was Elise’s father.

Nevierno was old Erlenian, and I was a fool. A traditional name for a traditional man.

Beware the Erlend Winter.

“Lord del Farone.” I stayed bowed, with his damned name chilling me down to the bone, and held back the growing ache for Elise in my chest. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Nevierno. Icy peaks and snow-encrusted forests, the old Erlend name for a winter as harsh and as cold as death itself.

Lady help me, he’d not even used a good secret name.

Elise hadn’t hated me before, but she certainly would now, no matter how monstrous her father. He had to die.

“Welcome to court, Opal.” He returned my bow, neck bared. It would be so easy to kill him here. I could jam my blade through the back of his spine and watch the life leave him. Quick and simple. More than he deserved. “I hope my daughter is being welcoming as well.”

Elise glanced at him, nose wrinkling. He was ill—a pink flush covered his neck and cheeks no matter how he tried to hide it with his high collar, and each word escaped his throat as a dry rasp.

“She is,” I said carefully, not sure what was off but sure that something was.

Maybe he was too sick to be particular.

“Excellent.” He coughed into a handkerchief, hacking up blood, a lung, and Lady knew what else.

But he was Elise’s father, and better that illness take him than me.

“I wish you’d go catch Isidora before she does her rounds,” Elise said, glancing at me and rolling her eyes back to him. “She’s bound to have something for that cough.”

“I am not so old that a cough will kill me.” He straightened up, folding his handkerchief into squares. A smear of red was bright between the folds.

Bright as the red cosmetic cream Maud had used on my lips.

Elise smiled. “Of course not, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

“Of course, darling.” He tucked his handkerchief into the coat pocket at his hip. Perfect. “I’d hate to ruin the festivities as well as your expectations.”

“Lord del Farone.” I bowed again, as close as I could without touching him, and handed him my handkerchief. “I insist.”

He nodded to me, and I let my free hand drift toward his side, as natural as any of Ruby’s wandering gestures. His handkerchief vanished up my sleeve.

“How generous of you.”

I glanced at the speck of red on white. Definitely cosmetic cream.

She stared at his retreating back. “I thought he’d put up more of a fight. Do you think he is that sick?”

“No.” I handed her my wine. He wasn’t ill in mind or body, only in his soul. You had to be to do what he’d done. “I’m sure he’s tired of getting told off for not seeing her.”