the group, they’d have gleeful looks of pity. How like a woman to swoon in the face of danger, they’d think. How like a girl to be so weak.
Her nails pressed and pulled against the frayed edges of the cloth she’d kept in her purse. Before she shredded it to pieces, she threw it on her vanity.
No one could see her like this.
“You don’t seem fine.” Aaros leaned against a side table, as if bracing himself for when she might collapse again. “Where are you going? It’s late. Lie down for a—”
“I don’t need to lie down.” Fatigue trickled in. Not a show night’s worth, but ridding the air had been no small trick. And she couldn’t sit still. She hadn’t even realized she’d started moving until she paused at the door, gripping it hard. “I just need a moment.”
Alone.
She’d thought she was done being alone after the House, but it was the only safe place she could carve for herself. No eyes, no voices. No one to smile or pretend for.
Kallia slipped out without saying good-bye. Her head rang as she rested her ear on the other side of the door, listening for Aaros’s footsteps. Reluctantly, they departed from the common room, into the soft close of another door farther away.
Kallia’s sigh of relief left on broken breath. She leaned against the door, temple throbbing, and rubbed her hands over her face, fingers coming away with smudges of faded red and black. The water Aaros had splashed all over her makeup, but it was too late to care. Too late to be slinking around in her ruined dress, reeking of smoke and ash.
If she left soot smudges against the cream-colored surface at her back, then so be it. The cold support was the only thing keeping her standing.
That dinner party should’ve been a triumph. Her fingers tightened over her forehead as the chaos swept back into her mind. The fallen candles, the blaze they became, and what it left behind. While others had shot up in terror, she’d been mesmerized by what had been circling the table. A message, a warning: a crown of fire.
It couldn’t be.
If Jack had followed her to Glorian, if he were here, he wouldn’t waste time sending threats.
“You.”
Kallia stiffened against the wall, her heart racing. No. Mere thought couldn’t have conjured him. It couldn’t—
But when she looked up, a different shadowy outline came into view. Demarco. The last person she expected to stomp toward her, which almost warranted a laugh. Hastily, Kallia raked her hair back from her face and swiped the tears off her cheeks.
“What are you doing?” He neared, faltering. “Are you…”
“Mister Demarco,” she greeted briskly, the shakiness in her voice capped with a dry, sunny edge. “Should I even ask how you found me, or should we get right into it?”
The judge’s eyes flared. “Excuse me?”
“You’re the one charging your way to my suite. Don’t tell me you somehow stumbled here by accident.”
“Before you flatter yourself even more than necessary,” Demarco said, crossing his arms, “I’m in the room right across. Trust me, you weren’t the first person I expected to find loitering down this hallway, either.”
So she’d been a little wrong. “Disappointed?”
“What the hell happened at dinner?”
The accusation cut harsher than a blade, yet she hardly flinched. Used to it. Demarco didn’t like her. Maybe he never had. His approval had earned her a place in the competition, but from him, it was only a judgment. He was a magician who knew his craft on the stage and off. And he was no fool. She should’ve known she’d have to deal with those sorts of men, too.
“I don’t know,” she said slowly, enunciating every syllable. “There were over a dozen other magicians in the room. Why not suspect any of them?”
“They weren’t the ones who could’ve killed us all.”
“You’re joking, right? I saved your lives,” Kallia scoffed. “No one had any sense to conjure even a trickle of water. What were you doing when the fire almost roasted us all?”
Demarco shot her a stony look. “A contestant passed out from your elaborate display.”
“I did warn you beforehand.” She lifted a shoulder. “Can’t blame me for the one fool who didn’t listen.”
“Maybe not, but I can suspect the one who thinks too quickly on her feet.”
Seriously. It was all too easy to imagine how any of the other magicians would be treated if in her shoes. He’d probably receive a medal of honor.