he was flustered, she was doing a good job of holding her tongue about it. “If you wanted to hide from me, you could’ve at least run for the doors or even the dusty corners. I hate getting my clothes dirty.”
A lie. Daron recalled her attire dusted with dirt not too long ago in the throes of the theater renovations. She had wanted to help. He hated how he suddenly knew that, too. “Noted.”
“Good. Now, come on. Pick up your feet,” Kallia said, already half-turning. “Or are you going to sit there all day?”
No trace of disappointment in her voice. None that he could detect, at least. “Don’t you … don’t you want to change partners?”
“It seems I’m stuck with you.” She gestured around, slightly bemused. “How could everyone not be dying to work with me, right?”
It wasn’t even ego, but honesty. Kallia was clearly the crowd favorite everyone was betting on. Except for Mayor Eilin and the other judges. For them, the game had stopped revolving around winning so much as beating Kallia, a force far scarier to them than being trapped in a city. Someone powerful, unstoppable, and nothing at all like them.
“If I didn’t know better, it would seem you were the one looking to switch,” she said, shifting her focus to her fingernails. “Am I really that impossible to be around?”
“No.” Yes. No. He was unsure what to say. How to convince her what a mistake it would be to pair them together.
If anyone could see through him, it would be her.
Her lips dipped into a frown. “I know this throws the most awful wrench in your attempts to avoid me, but—”
“Look, I never said—”
“Shut up, Demarco.” Kallia raised a brow, waiting until she was sure he was going to listen. The fire in her eyes, both certain and uncertain in equal measure.
“Whatever problems you have with me, they’re nothing compared to what bothers the others. They always find something to say about how I act, how I dress, how I go about my day.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t care if you think I’m too difficult or too much. In all honesty, I have a feeling we’d work fairly well together.”
“Why?”
“Among the top hats, you’re the only one I can tolerate. And deep down, I think you tolerate me, too. When you’re not too busy running from me like I’m the plague.”
She thought he couldn’t stand her. He’d certainly imagined she felt the same of him, back when only suspicion towered between them. But somehow, both mountains had flipped. He couldn’t even define where it left them, only knew that something hot and tense coiled in his chest every time she was near, telling him he could not work with her.
“And I never got the chance to thank you.”
Kallia spoke so quietly, Daron wasn’t even sure it had come from her. Soft words from a sharp, red mouth, the combination derailed him. “For?”
“Last night, on the stage.”
She didn’t face him as she said it, not out of embarrassment. As if no one had ever done such a thing for her, which he couldn’t fathom. “Kallia,” he murmured. “You don’t have to thank me for that.”
“You didn’t have to help me, either.”
“Of course I did,” he countered, immediately irritated at himself for owning that power, like it had been his intent. His choice. “It was nothing.”
“Don’t go all modest on me, it was something. And that’s why I have to at least try.” Something akin to longing lifted her voice as she cast a sad gaze to the stage. “I can give you a win. But I need a mentor, or else they won’t let me perform. Those are the rules.”
“Aren’t you fond of breaking those?” A dumb question. If he didn’t stay with her, they’d force her to forfeit. No wonder the mayor looked particularly gleeful about their pairing. No doubt relying on something to go wrong. A fight, a split, something to take her out of the game.
“I never signed up to be a mentor,” he admitted. “That hadn’t been part of the deal.”
“You don’t even have to do anything,” she promised. “Join me on stage and let me do my act, that’s it. I swear, I can give you a fantastic show and you can brand your name on it next to mine, it’s just…” Her lip quivered before stiffening into a sharp bow. “If I lose, I can’t lose this way. Not by default.”