House of Salt and Sorrows(41)

“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.