Scavenge the Stars (Scavenge the Stars #1)(14)

Soria read his worry easily.

“I’ll be perfectly fine here,” she had said, patting his hand as if he were the sick one. “Father is home tonight, and Miss Lawan will be with me.”

“But—”

“You’ve hardly been outside.”

Because ever since they’d discovered she had ash fever, Cayo had been worrying himself to the point of exhaustion. Kamon had had enough sense to buy the Hizons’ silence, but Cayo had been consumed with Soria’s needs, calling for a doctor and putting down the payment for her medicine as soon as possible. For the first time, he thanked the god and her stars for his father’s business.

“I’m livid I have to miss this party,” Soria had told him. “And that I’ll miss you going off on the countess. You better tell me all about it afterward.” Her breathing had been strained, her face slightly gray, but still she had managed to smile. “Just don’t fall back into old habits, all right?”

Soria hadn’t been the only one to try to convince him.

“It’s impossible to tell if the Hizons will keep news of Soria’s illness to themselves,” Kamon had told him this morning. “Now that they’ve called off the engagement…” His father’s jaw had clenched. “Before the rumormongering begins, we can still represent our family at functions such as these. We need to keep up our reputation, now that Soria’s candidacy is forfeit.”

“Are you sure I’m the best candidate for that?” Cayo had asked with a brazen quirk of his eyebrow.

Kamon’s answering look had been dark as a storm cloud. “Better a former rogue than a carrier of the fever.”

Cayo didn’t care what the gentry thought. After everything his sister had done for him—cleaning him up after wild nights in the Vice Sector, lying for him so that their father didn’t know where he was, then eventually convincing Cayo to end his service to the Slum King—the least he could do was take care of her. Now, with her engagement to the Hizon heir severed…

Rounding a potted palm, Cayo took a moment to lean against it and catch his breath, tugging at his stiff collar. It was too hot in here. As he scanned the greenhouse for a waiter with a pitcher of water, an arm landed heavily across his shoulders.

“Finally, you emerge from your cave! I haven’t seen you at the casinos in months.”

Cayo rolled his eyes and shrugged Tomjen’s arm away. “You know why.”

“Oh, trust me, I know.” Tomjen leaned in, tapping the side of his pointed nose. His brown eyes were bright and glassy with what Cayo assumed were his first drinks of the night, his black, slicked-back hair already somewhat in disarray. “You’re licking your wounds.”

“What? No.” Still, he was filled with a hot, dreadful shame at the reminder of what he’d lost. But this wasn’t about pride, not anymore.

Tomjen slapped his back in what he must have thought was encouragement. “I have every confidence you’ll win it all back. Look, your glass is empty. Go get another and we’ll find some fun. I spy a lovely group of flowers.”

Cayo was confused until he realized Tomjen was steering them toward a small group of women. They were dressed in taffeta and silk, in bright colors and jewel-encrusted fabrics that winked in the light as they moved. They really did look like flowers, or a box of vibrant candies.

“Ladies,” Tomjen said, showing off his best bow. The young women tittered, one of them using a silk fan on herself. “How may I best be of entertainment to you this evening?”

“We were just about to play some rounds of Bilge Rat,” one of them said. “Would you care to join us?”

Cayo’s fingertips buzzed again. Bilge Rat had been one of his favorites, the game fast and intuitive, with a card turnover rate so quick that a game could be over within mere seconds. It was one of the more dangerous ones.

“The pleasure would be mine,” Tomjen said with another bow, the very model of a wealthy merchant’s son. Cayo, in comparison, felt like a diamond that had reverted back to coal. “Cayo, shall we deal these lovely ladies in?”

Soria’s warning enveloped him like a shawl. With an effort, he shook his head, forcing that dimpled smile again. “Not this time, I’m afraid.”

Tomjen frowned but let it go, eagerly gathering the girls to him and loudly proclaiming that he had the fastest shuffling speed of anyone here. As they left, Cayo temporarily abandoned his search for the countess and found the nearest door. He needed the open air to clear his head.

Outside, he leaned against the thick glass wall and took in a deep breath, studying the canopy of stars overhead. The night was warm and close, the sea dark and quiet compared to the light and bustle within the greenhouse. The moon shone upon the water’s surface like a blanket of pearl.

It took him a moment to realize he wasn’t alone. A little farther down the wall stood a young woman in an elaborate gown of silver and gold, the formfitting bodice patterned with tiny diamonds in the shape of waves, the full skirt half-covered in a ruched, gauzy fabric. It was the sort of dress Soria would have drooled over.

Cayo smiled halfheartedly at the young woman, who smiled back. She couldn’t have been more than seventeen or eighteen, likely an aristocrat’s daughter who had been sent to one of the empires for schooling. Her dark, thick hair was swept up into a simple style with a jade clip to hold it in place. He guessed she was of mixed lineage, her skin somewhat darker than those from Rehan and Moray, her eyes more round than curved. Her shoulders were broad and her arms showed a subtle swell of muscle, and her nose was a bit crooked, as if it had once been broken.