fears. Not wanting to deal with them more than I had to at this stage, I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep as Cly and Aegis came in, turning on the lights, dumping bags and boxes on the floor.
“—And did you hear what Lenora Hastings said?” Cly exulted. “She said she wished she saw that dress before I did! She said I had good taste! We have to invite her on another outing soon.”
“It was a good trip,” Aegis agreed politely.
In that moment, I almost felt sympathy for Cly. From what I’d seen of Lenora Hastings, anything out of her mouth was pure manipulation unless proven otherwise, but Cly had fallen for it thoughtlessly. She was a lonely, weak, scared girl who’d been shut inside Redbriar Manor all her life, and she seized at every scrap of flattery and ease that the frightening outside world offered to her.
But then she kicked at the sofa, reminding me that the main way she dealt with her fear was to take it out on others. “Stop pretending to be asleep! You think you can fool me?” When I was slow to respond, she snatched up the small rosewood box and shook it next to my ear. “Get the fuck up, if you don’t want another one of these!”
I opened my eyes, rage boiling in my veins. I struggled to control myself before I messed up my own plan. “I’m conserving energy, since you haven’t given me anything to eat or drink,” I rasped.
“Well, serves you right!” Cly snarled, looming over me. “I went to the Nightfelds, and they barely talked to me! They looked at me like I’d gone crazy! You messed things up with them last night, and now everything’s ruined.”
“At least they didn’t beat you up,” I said. “That was a thing that Acubens used to do.”
Cly reddened. “That might be good enough for you, but that’s not good enough for me. Aegis said he liked y—me! But you ruined it. You thought you were too good for them—”
Just as she was getting into her rant, a knock sounded on the door. “Cly?” came Acubens’s voice.
Cly leapt up immediately. “Coming!” she called out, then quickly muttered an illusion to hide me. She bent down and hissed in my face, “If you mess this up for me, I’ll—”
“Cly Redbriar!”
She broke off, giving one last dirty look in my direction before dashing toward the door.
Her body language was pure adoration as Aegis opened the door for her. Of course it was. Acubens and Arcturus Nightfeld, dazzling, powerful Great House princelings who rode roughshod over anyone who crossed them, were everything she wanted to be—now that they weren’t riding roughshod over her.
“I just wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier today,” said Acubens, earnestly thrusting a box of chocolates into her hands. “I was horribly rude to you.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Cly laughed, a little shrilly. “I was… yesterday…” She clearly didn’t want to take responsibility for yesterday, or even bring it up. She changed the subject. “Thank you, these look beautiful!”
“Just a little something.” It was a good thing that this was an awkward situation, because it let Acubens get away with seeming, at least to my eyes, obviously off compared to usual. Under his smile, he looked… miserable. “Actually, I want to make up for yesterday, too. Can we have a do-over? Another dinner with you, tonight.”
“Really?” Cly could hardly contain her eagerness. “That would be great! I’d love to!”
“Great!” Acubens couldn’t hide his relief. “I was worried it would be harder than this. Since we didn’t part on the best of terms.”
“No, don’t worry about it!” Cly said quickly.
“Let’s go, then,” Acubens said, offering his arm.
“Right now?” Cly said, startled. “I just got back—”
I gave my chain a carefully timed rattle.
Cly immediately changed her tune. “I mean, absolutely!” she said, through clenched teeth. “We’ll have a proper dinner this time. Much better than last time. Come on, Aegis.”
As they filed out, Arcturus’s eyes swept across the room through the doorway, lingering briefly in my direction. He gave the tiniest of nods before turning away, leaving with the others.
The door shut and locked behind them. I listened to their footsteps fading into the distance, settling down to another wait.
I hated the feeling of being stuck on the sidelines during the battle for my own future. I wanted to be out there, doing things, doing anything.
But having allies meant trusting them to do their jobs while I did mine. I’d