“Would you like a drink?” she asked me, from behind a pair of jade green eyes, and then she offered a plate carrying several long necked, tall glasses.

  The liquid inside of them matched the tone of her eyes and caught the sparkle of the sunlight flooding into the grand hall. Not wanting to seem rude, I nodded and took one, as did the other ladies as they came up behind me.

  The other girls went straight in for a sip, but I looked suspiciously at the glass.

  Sniffed it.

  Oof. Wine? It smelled fruity, but it was sharp, and strong; so strong that one whiff had made me feel kind of dizzy already.

  “What’s the matter, Kadeera?” asked Violet. I caught her bright, incisive eyes and the sly grin on her face as she peeled away from me. “Afraid it’s going to bite you?”

  Avery would’ve probably hurled an insult at her, but Kadeera couldn’t do that. Kadeera had to be smart, witty, and a little playful. “You should pace yourself,” I said, “You don’t want to make a tit out of yourself too quickly.”

  Violet frowned and turned into the crowd of people gathered all around us.

  Okay, that was neither smart, witty, nor playful. I kind of insulted her for no reason. I’m bad at this.

  I felt a hand close around my shoulder, followed immediately by Invidia’s looming presence. “Relax your shoulders,” she said, keeping her voice low and her teeth pressed together. “Don’t insult the nobles, and don’t you go making a tit of yourself tonight.”

  “Sorry…” I said, “I don’t know what came over me.”

  “Mingle. Talk. Eat, drink, do whatever you want. Just remember who you are supposed to be and what you are supposed to represent.”

  “Understood, Duchess.”

  Invidia let go of my shoulder, and I realized only as relief kicked in just how much pressure she had applied. The other women had already moved off to join their respective courts, but it wasn’t long before the courtiers started breaking ranks to go and interact with members of the other houses. A few moments later, and there were people dancing in the area directly in front of the band.

  I breathed in deeply, then exhaled. I wasn’t sure if I had passed or failed just now, but a lot had happened in only a few minutes.

  The drink in my hand stared at me like it was a coiled snake, eager to sink its fangs into me and release its poison into my veins. I didn’t know whether to drink or not. It smelled like it was going to hit me hard and fast, like it was a drink that wasn’t meant for humans.

  “You are right to distrust it,” came a strong, firm, but strangely soothing voice from behind me.

  A chill raced up my spine as I turned around to face the Viscount. Instantly, I took a step away from him, my body recoiling, not out of disgust, or fear, or anger. The Viscount was, after all, the reason why I was a world away from my home and dressed in a garbage bag with balls on it. I had every reason to be angry at him, and disgusted, and afraid of him.

  What shocked me was the sudden flash of heat as I laid eyes on him. The Viscount, with his broad shoulders, his soft, wavy chestnut hair, and those eyes… eyes you could fall into, eyes you could get lost in, eyes you could lose yourself in. I had to rip mine away from his almost violently, just to stop myself from staring at him.

  “Viscount,” I said, a little sharply. “I wasn’t expecting to see you there.”

  “I startled you…” he said, trailing off.

  “That’s probably going to happen a lot around here.”

  “Don’t let that be the case. For your own good.”

  I frowned at him. “Did you come here to criticize my resolve, Viscount?”

  “No,” he extended a hand, “I came to ask if you would like to dance.”

  “Dance?”

  “Yes. It’s customary for the Ladies of each court to dance with their Viscounts.”

  Scanning the room, I could see Violet intertwined with a man who was a little taller than her, and muscular without being bulky. Isolde was standing by her Duke, and the two of them were whispering to each other while they observed the room. Petal, meanwhile, was dancing all by herself at the front of the room, lost in a world of her own.

  “Doesn’t seem like a popular custom,” I said.

  “Are you rejecting the offer?” he asked, his hand still out.

  Eyes narrow, I took his hand with one of mine. I had my drink in the other, and I didn’t really know what to do with it. Drinking it seemed like a bad idea, but there was nowhere to set it down, either.

  The Viscount tugged gently at my hand, pulling my body toward his. A moment later, he had hold of my waist and my hand, and we were moving slowly toward the area where the rest of the dancers were. My heart instantly started to race, not only because I didn’t know the first thing about dancing, but because the Viscount… his scent did things to me.

  I wanted my nostrils to seal shut and keep the heady aroma radiating from his body from entering my system. It felt like a drug, intoxicatingly sweet, but dangerous all the same. I knew it was. And yet, I leaned a little closer to him, drinking more of him in as he led me toward the dance floor.

  “Your drink,” he said, trailing off.

  “Yeah, I’m not sure what to do with this,” I said.

  He leaned a little closer, letting his cheek touch mine and his hot breath graze my ear. Another shiver shot up my spine like a lightning bolt. “I’m not going to ask whether or not humans drink,” he said, his voice low, “Because I know for a fact that you do.”

  “We do,” I said against the side of his face. “But this smells like it’s strong enough to make an elephant topple over. What is it even called?”

  “Emerald Ambrosia. It’s made from the finest Thorn Berries in all of Arcadia, which we grow in our vineyard.”

  “You have a vineyard?”

  “That surprises you?”

  “I don’t know why it does; you guys have a maze right outside. I guess I’ve just never known anyone who owned a vineyard before.”

  “We also have an archery range, stables, a farm… Emerald Hall is far more than just a structure.”

  “That’s impressive. I’m still not going to drink this right now. The last thing I need is to be slurring my words and falling over this hideous dress.”

  “Far be it for me to encourage you to drink something you don’t want to drink.”

  “Oh, so now you care about what I want? Where was this when you kidnapped me?”

  “The situation was complicated, and I am sure it could have gone differently, but we cannot live in the past, can we?”

  I frowned. “That’s a cop out, but I guess you’re right.”

  The Viscount took the drink from my hand and set it in the hand of a servant who was walking past. He then gently spun me around and dipped me, and for a moment I caught something in his eyes that I hadn’t expected to see. Tiredness.

  He looks tired

  I remembered him earlier, when I had last seen him, I’d noticed something off about him. The way he hid behind the crowd, the look on his face, the color of his skin. To me, he’d looked a little pale, maybe, a little out of sorts. Considering this was a man who had never looked less than his best, those small signs I’d been able to pick up were huge.

  As was this one.

  “Are you alright?” I asked.

  The Viscount pulled me up again and spun me out. Breathless, I held onto his hand as if for dear life until he drew me back in like a yoyo. “I am fine,” he said, then his eyebrow arched. “That dress is…”

  “Hideous? Yeah, I noticed you hadn’t tried to correct me when I used that word earlier.”

  “Ceremonial… that is the word I would use.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Great, you just validated every feeling I had about this dress.”

  “I would not be so knock it so hastily. Some tailors work their entire lives to have their unique versions of these ceremonial dresses featured in any Favoring. You should consider it an honor to be wearing such a… unique, and carefully crafted piece.”

  “Do they have to be so ugly though?”

  The Viscount’s eyes found mine, and for a moment we just stared at each other. I could see the tiredness in his eyes, but there was more than just that. It was like there was a storm brewing inside them. For an instant, I thought I could see turmoil, an inner fight, a struggle. With what, I didn’t know, but it was enough to catch my attention.

  “It suits you…” he finally said.

  “It suits Kady, you mean,” I said, turning my eyes away from his.

  The Viscount remained silent, choosing not to answer. That was probably the right call for him to make, but it didn’t make me feel any better about the bag I’d been stuffed into today. I couldn’t wait to get it off me and never wear it again. All I had to do was wait until the party was over, and that was almost—the lights went out, suddenly and without warning, plunging the grand hall into ink-black darkness.

  I thought I had fallen unconscious, because a moment ago, the hall had been filled with natural light; there were no lamps to turn off.

  “Viscount?” I asked, but the darkness swallowed my voice, reducing it to little more than a mumble.

  I could still feel his hands around me, but when I tried to grab hold of him, they evaporated in the way things did when waking out of a dream. I wanted to look around, but there was nothing to see. I thought I could hear someone talking, a voice drowned out by the thickness of the darkness all around me, but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.

  I reached for the Viscount again, but he was gone. Completely gone.

  “Hello?” I tried calling out again, and again the darkness swallowed my words. This time, I took a step forward, if nothing else but to keep my sense of up and down in the right place. I was starting to feel like I was floating, weightless, but taking that step forward helped ground me.

  It did more than just that.

  The darkness around me cleared in an instant, the black ink receding, dark tendrils falling away from me in all directions until I found myself in the grand hall, only it was dark. The sun had gone. The people had gone. I was alone.

  Wait, not alone.

  There was someone else standing across from me, only in the dark of night they were little more than a shadow against an otherwise black environment.

  “Who’s there?” I called out.

  “Kadeera?” came Violet’s voice.

  “Violet! What’s happening? Where is everyone?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Fools,” came another voice; sharp, harsh, and cutting. Isolde. “Don’t you see?”

  “I can’t see anything,” Petal’s airy voice floated through the conversation. “It’s very dark.”

  Isolde grunted. “The Favoring has begun, which means this is a test.”

  I heard a crash and turned to face it immediately. It sounded like glass shattering, and it had come through the open arch that led into Emerald Hall’s foyer.

  “What was that?!” I asked.

  Another loud crash, this one followed by a series of thuds and thumps.

  “Stand by me,” Violet called out, rallying us to her side.

  I didn’t question the instinct to group together when it surfaced. I rushed to her side, Petal joining us rapidly also. Isolde didn’t like this plan, though. Instead, she started walking toward the dark throat of the house; toward the sound.

  “Isolde, what are you doing?” Violet shrieked.

  Isolde shot our group a harsh look. “If this is a test,” she said, “I’m not going to pass it by huddling next to you three.”

  She broke into a run a moment later, heading toward the noise, toward the danger. Only the danger was starting to sound like it was getting louder, and closer—like it was coming toward us.

  CHAPTER 6

  The thudding was starting to sound like skittering, and it was getting closer. Isolde disappeared into the throat of the House, last seen heading toward the foyer, but Violet, Petal and I hadn’t moved. We waited, watching like we were rooted to the spot and unable to look away.

  I heard a crash, more shattering of glass, or maybe ceramic. The entire house seemed to shake on its foundations, the vibrations racing through my feet and rattling the inside of my chest. I hadn’t realized it until now, but I’d been holding my breath this entire time.

  “What is happening,” I asked, exhaling.

  “Whatever it is, we should stick together,” Violet said, taking the lead again. She grabbed my hand, and I saw her take Petal’s. She wanted to be in charge, and considering I had no idea what was going on, I wasn’t about to argue. Elaith and I had gone over Fae etiquette and history—not this. I wasn’t prepared for this.

  A shout issued out from the darkness behind the open door to the grand hall. Isolde? It had to have been her. I gripped Violet’s hand more tightly. One of Petal’s hands flew to her lips. She was scared, but she was holding it together. We all were.

  “We have to do something,” I finally said. “We can’t just stand here.”

  “You’re right,” Violet said, “Not if Isolde is in trouble.”

  She took a step forward, and I pulled back. “Wait a sec, you’re going over there?”

  “You said we had to do something!”

  “Yeah, but I meant go somewhere else, not toward whatever’s going on.”

  Violet’s eyebrow arched. “Running away from something exciting? That’s not like you, Kadeera.”

  Shit. “No, I just meant… dammit. Alright, fine.”

  “Better. Now, stay close, both of you. We don’t know—” one of the windows smashed inward, sending a rain of glass scattering and clattering all over the grand hall floor.

  Instinct forced me to turn away from the flying glass, the other girls did the same. When the glass settled, I turned to look at the open window in time to see something, a creature, clinging tightly to it. It was too dark to make any details out, but it was huge; so large that it took up the entire space of the window, which was already massive to begin with.

  It leaned into the grand hall, making an awful clicking sound that I could feel bouncing off the bones in my body. Then it pushed itself into the grand hall, going through the window and climbing up and along the wall on many, many legs.

  “Night-stalker!” Petal shrieked.

  “Night-stalker?” I yelled, “What the hell is that?”

  “Something really, really bad! We should run, right now.”

  The creature, the Night-stalker, drew itself all the way up to the ceiling, and I saw just how long its body was. It was covered in hard scales that gleamed in the ambient light. It had countless limbs it could use to move around with, pincers jutting out of what I thought was its mouth, and a spiked, pointed tail that looked perfect for impaling.

  It had to have been about twenty feet long, and it was staring right at us from the ceiling.

  “Uh, Violet?” I asked.

  “I’m thinking!” she hissed.

  My heartrate kicked up a notch as another Night-stalker pushed into the grand hall through the opening the first one had made. This one moved up the wall and toward the ceiling, but away from the first, as if it was flanking us. When a third creature appeared by the open window, my entire body chilled like I’d been dipped into a tub full of ice.

  “Think harder, dammit!” I yelled.

  “Isolde thinks this isn’t real,” Petal said, “Maybe it’s not real?”

  “Do you ever know what’s real and what isn’t?” Violet asked.

  “Sometimes…” Petal ventured. “For example once, when I was a dancer—”

  “—now isn’t the time for a story, Petal,” barked Violet.

  I shut my eyes hard and held them shut. “Rell,” I thought, “If you can hear me right now, I really could use your help.”

  But Rell wasn’t there. I couldn’t hear him, I couldn’t sense him, couldn’t feel his presence anywhere. What I would’ve given to have him intrude in my thoughts now… but of course, Rell only knew how to read my thoughts when it was convenient for him. Why would he help me when I really needed him?

  The first Night-stalker to have entered the room went skittering across the ceiling and positioned itself directly above us. The other two went left and right, knocking fixtures and paintings off walls, tearing giant rips off the wallpaper, and breaking windows as they moved. The grand hall seemed so much smaller now, with those three monsters surrounding us.

  On the plus side, I wasn’t the only one anymore.

  I had Petal and Violet.

  “Alright,” Violet said, “If we assume Isolde is dealing with one of these creatures, then there are four of them. One for each of us. I think the task is clear.”

  “Task?” I asked, “What task?!”

  “The first task of the Favoring. We each need to kill one of these creatures.”

  “Kill them?!” I shrieked, “How are we supposed to do that?”

  The monster on the far right of the room screamed an insect-like scream, then it hurled itself off the wall and came charging at us. Petal, the closest one to it, let go of Violet’s hand and raced toward it like she had no fear, kicking off her high heels as she ran. It was the most focused, thoughtful thing I’d seen her do since I had first laid eyes on her, and probably also the most stupid.

  “Petal!” I yelled, but she couldn’t hear me, or she didn’t want to.

  I was about to go after her, when the monster on the left—the one that had my number—roared and made its move. At the same time, the one above us just dropped, its huge body plunging onto Violet. Pushing each other aside, we managed only barely to keep it from falling directly on top of us. When it hit the ground, the world shook, the wood underneath it splintered, and the ceiling fixtures started to sway.

  This thing was real, alright—as real as the other one charging directly toward me.

  I hadn’t been given so much as a moment to think about what the hell I was going to do, how I was supposed to kill this thing, so I ran. Taking a page out of Petal’s book, I kicked my high heels off and bolted toward the other side of the room. The Night-stalker was behind me, and closing the distance quickly, but I couldn’t turn around to look for it.