Changeling (Sorcery and Society Book 1)(69)

“Well, you and I never have seen eye to eye on social issues.” Callista smirked at me. “I believe I need to go talk to some people. Have a lovely evening, Sarah.” And with one last triumphant waggle of her fingers, she flounced away.

I whirled on Mary, who was still struggling against the bond I’d put on her mouth.

“What have you done?” I demanded. “All of our lives, Mary, I’ve made excuses for you. I’ve tried to cover up your silliness, your recklessness. No more. I can’t help you anymore.”

I walked out of the parlor and shut the door behind me, sealing it with magic. I walked into the ballroom, but it seemed like I carried some sort of bubble of silence around me. Conversation died as I moved through the room. People stopped talking the moment I approached them. Mrs. Winter was standing with Mr. Winter at the bottom of the staircase, a stricken expression on her face.

“What. Happened?” she spat quietly through her pleasant mask. “You did so well in the office with that dreadful Crenshaw. You were on the verge of redeeming the evening admirably. What happened?”

“Mary,” I whispered. “Mary happened.”





16





Remorse and Retreat





Despite the usual policy of not leaving the Winter ball before midnight, guests started departing the moment I entered the ballroom. It wasn’t exactly a stampede, but the elegant party atmosphere fizzled as guests slowly ebbed out the front door. I retired to my room, pleading a headache. I saw Ivy’s stricken face as I passed, but I didn’t have time to explain.

I laid on my bed, not giving one care for the gown I was wrinkling to oblivion. I would lose Ivy’s friendship. Now that she and Alicia knew I was a liar and a fraud, the only two friends who had ever liked me for me would never speak to me again. I found that to be more devastating than the idea that at any moment, the Guild agents could break into my room and haul me away to a secret lab somewhere.

As Martha helped dislodge me from my gown, Mrs. Winter paced and drilled me on the specifics of the incident with Mary, who had already been sacked and told never to return to Raven’s Rest. I had no idea what would happen to her. By firing her, Mrs. Winter had guaranteed Mary would never find employment in any Guardian house in the Capitol. Mary would have to leave home to earn a living. She would have no references, which would mean taking a job in one of the lesser circles. At the moment, I couldn’t find it in me to give one floating fig.

“Damage control is key,” Mrs. Winter said, still pacing. “We must carry on as if nothing occurred, be seen socializing, shopping, attending meetings of the Demeter Society. You should spend time with your friends, before going back to school in January. Everything as planned.”

“Yes, I would think that the students at school will welcome me back with open arms, now that they’ve heard I’ve been lying to them from the moment we met.”

“Are you trying to be funny?” Mrs. Winter demanded as I slipped into a nightgown and sat on the foot of my bed. “Are you trying to provoke me now by being sarcastic and disrespectful?”

I pursed my lips. “No, that would be ungrateful, and I wouldn’t dream of that.”

“I understand that you are frustrated and upset right now, Cassandra, but we have to present a united front. I have just as much to lose now as you do. We’re in this together. I will not let anything happen to you. I know I haven’t always shown it, but I have become very fond of you.”

I closed my eyes and willed the gathering tears away. I had not expected that. I had come to respect Mrs. Winter as a mentor, but feelings of fondness? I’d never hoped to be anything more than a servant or tool to her.

“And I am certainly not going to let you drag me down with you.”

Ah, there was the Mrs. Winter I knew.

Mrs. Winter stood in front of me. “If someone so much as suggests that you are socially inferior, we will not even entertain the ideas as anything but ridiculous.”

“How? People surely heard Mary yelling, they had to hear what she was yelling. You know better than anyone how quickly the rumors will spread. How do you expect to get away with this?”

“The same way I have ‘gotten away with this’ for the past decade. With determination, stiff spine and with minimal whining. How many times have I told you, Cassandra, if you believe something badly enough, it becomes real.”

“Maybe that doesn’t work for everybody.”

She laid her hand on my shoulder. “It has to work for you.”

Martha peeled the blankets back on my bed and I crawled in. Mrs. Winter pulled the blankets up to my chin. “Goodnight, dear.”

Martha moved silently out of the room while Mrs. Winter touched the crayfire lamp and turned the light low. She traced the rune for “sleep” in the air, without her blade, but the symbol’s purple outline still glowed against the dim light of my room. The outline wafted toward me, losing shape as it became a warm, calming fog that seeped over my bed.

“Thank you, Mrs. Winter.”

She nodded and shut the door.

I turned over, punching my pillow into shape and burying my face in it. How would we all survive this? What would happen to me? Or my parents, what must my parents think? One daughter getting the other banned from the only place she’d ever wanted to call home. Would they be angry with me on Mary’s behalf? Would Mrs. Winter decide that I was more trouble than I was worth?