something my father would have painstakingly crafted, one chisel strike after another. My skin flushes with heat.
The girl’s hair billows around her slender shoulders. Her beauty is unfair, masking the vicious predator within. But didn’t I expect that? Then why is my blood pounding?
Her large eyes glow umber in the moonlight. Her lashes are dark, not warm in color like her hair. I’m near enough to notice that now. Somehow I’ve moved another ten paces closer, drawn to the look she gives me. Feral, sure, astonished. I’m mirroring that look. We’re both staring at our destiny. Certain death. But I won’t be the one to die.
“What is your name?” the girl asks in a slightly high-pitched voice. She’s young, I realize. Close to my age. Was the Bone Crier who killed my father so young? Did she only seem older because I was a child?
“Bastien,” I blurt. So much for giving a false name. I meant to reveal my own in due time. I won’t slip up again.
“Bastien,” she repeats, her mouth carefully trying the word like she’s never heard it before. It makes my own name feel new to me. “I’m Ailesse.” She twists the bone flute in her hands. A sign of nervousness. Or a trick to make me believe she’s nervous. “Bastien, you were chosen by the gods. It is a great honor to dance with a Leurress, a greater honor to dance with the heir of Matrone Odiva’s famille.”
“Are you asking me to dance?” I play along and steady my feet. This girl, Ailesse, is the equivalent of a princess. My perfect victim. Her people will think twice before they kill another man.
A surprising bubble of laughter spills out of her. “Forgive me, I’m getting ahead of myself.” She smooths her hair back, walks to the parapet, and sets the bone flute on the ledge. When she returns, her eyes are focused like the huntress—the murderess—she is. “Bastien, will you dance with me?”
I fight the urge to glance over my shoulder. Jules should be under the bridge by now. With any luck, she’s already dug up the first bone.
I bow like I’ve seen barons do, one arm folded in front of me. The strap of my knife harness pulls tight across my chest. “It will be my greatest pleasure to dance with you, Ailesse.”
6
Ailesse
I INHALE A LONG BREATH, blow it out, and sneak a glance at Sabine. She peers at me and Bastien from between the branches of an ash tree in the forest. My peregrine falcon vision sharpens on her upper lip, caught between the tight press of her teeth. She’s just as anxious as I am. Maybe she thinks I won’t take the dance seriously, like the time I practiced it with her. Giselle taught us the movements together, and whenever they became too intimate, I crossed my eyes at Sabine. She finally fell into a fit of giggles, and Giselle threw her hands up and ended our lesson for the day.
I take three steps closer to Bastien and hold his gaze. We’re almost touching. We soon will be. Nothing about the danse de l’amant seems humorous now.
A rush of warmth prickles across my skin, and I restrain a shiver. Time to begin.
Fog rolls onto the bridge and clings to the lower half of my dress, blending into the white of my skirt. It makes it appear even longer. I lift my leg and turn on one toe, the fog swirling with me.
Bastien’s lips glisten and part as he watches. When I finish revolving, he flexes his hands and reaches for my waist. I touch his wrists and whisper, “Not yet.”
“Sorry.” He flinches back, his voice hoarse.
“All you have to do is watch for now. This is my part of the dance. When it’s your part, I’ll guide you.”
He swallows. Rakes his hand through his hair. Clears his throat. “Got it.”
His pensive expression draws a smile out of me, but he doesn’t smile back. Are all boys this focused? One day I’ll find out what it takes to rouse Bastien’s laughter. I’ll make a game of discovering all the ways to lighten his mood. I’ll . . .
You’ll do nothing, Ailesse. Not in this life. He dies at the end of this dance.
My stomach sinks, but I straighten my shoulders. I glide in circles around Bastien. My arms rise in the elegant arcs and patterns Giselle taught me. I’m representing life through the elements. The breath of the wind. The currents in the sea.