Nikolai dropped his hand from Renata’s arm and stepped back. Had he said the girl’s name? He hadn’t meant to. Until now, it was a boundary he hadn’t crossed. The Game would have been easier if she were unnamed, if she remained a stranger.
But it was already too late for that. From the moment she’d charmed the canals, it was too late. And then she had spared him from the lightning storm, and he’d made her the Imagination Box. . . . Yes, it was much too late. In more ways than one.
Renata stood on the other side of the divan, awaiting his reply.
He cleared his throat. “How did you get into the palace in the first place?”
She gave a melancholy laugh. “Servants are interchangeable. They don’t keep track of us. I slipped in through a service entrance and picked up a tray, and they pointed me in the direction of the uniforms without even looking at my face.”
Nikolai frowned. It wasn’t that long ago that he’d been mistaken for a servant at one of Galina’s fetes, back when he wore whatever rags she scrounged up for him, before he learned to make his own clothes. And if Galina had never plucked him off the steppe, he could have been someone in a gray tunic, permanently. So it seemed patently unfair to Nikolai that he could be here, on one side of the ball, while Renata, his loyal confidante, could be on the other, wiping up spills and serving tea.
“Come with me.” He had an idea. Perhaps not a wise one, given his suspicions of how Renata felt about him, but he could not let her spend the evening slaving away when she had come for his sake.
“Where are we going?”
“Nowhere, and at the same time, somewhere better than this faux café.”
He came around the divan and led Renata farther into the corner. Then he raised his arm above them both and cast a shroud, such that if anyone looked in their direction, they would see only the curtains.
“What are you doing?” she asked, but her voice was steady, her eyes large and curious rather than afraid.
Nikolai untied a peacock feather from one of the garlands and gave it to Renata. “Hold this.”
She clutched it to her chest, and he pointed his fingertips at it, then lifted his right hand up and pressed his left, down, as if stretching the feather to Renata’s full length.
“If you are going to be here at the ball, you might as well enjoy it,” he said.
Renata looked down. “Oh, Nikolai!” Her plain tunic had metamorphosed into a green lace bodice and a skirt composed entirely of peacock feathers. Her shoes were patterned to match.
“And of course you’ll need gloves and a mask.” He clasped his hands, and when they opened, white gloves and a mask of green, gold, and blue glitter appeared.
She picked them up as if they would vanish if she handled them too roughly. She slipped on the gloves, and Nikolai helped her fit the mask on her face.
He bowed and offered her his arm. “May I have the honor of dancing with you?”
“I—I don’t know how.”
“I will show you.”
The shroud covering them faded away, and the harlequin led the peacock to the center of the ballroom, where the floor manager was filling the next set of dancers for a waltz. They took their places, and Nikolai rested Renata’s left hand on his right shoulder and wrapped his arm around her. With his other hand, he clasped hers and pulled her close. She held her breath.
“The beat is one-two-three,” he said quietly. “But don’t worry. All you have to do is follow me.”
As the orchestra began, Nikolai led Renata forward, sideways, backward, whispering, “One-two-three, one-two-three,” for the first few counts. She caught on quickly, and as they glided around and across the room, he dropped the count. “You’re dancing beautifully.”
Renata blushed.
They rose and fell with the music, whirling up and down and all around, and when the song ended, Renata asked, “Can we do that again?”
Nikolai shook his head. “Not immediately. It would be terrible etiquette if I monopolized your attention.”
“Besides,” a boy’s voice said behind him, “I would like a turn with the beautiful peacock.”
Ah, there he was. Nikolai knew it was Pasha without even looking. For all of Pasha’s claims that he wasn’t any good at planning ahead, he was masterful at it when it involved sneaking out, or, in this case, sneaking in.