“Aurelie, we must attend,” Niall said once it had all begun. He was handsome in his suspenders, his shirt tucked in just so and his hair parted and slicked. But his face was pale, and his eyes darted anxiously to and fro. “Come, you can take my arm if you wish. June is not allowed to partake, as she is not of high enough standing. It will be you and me and CJ against, apparently, a quarter of all the Brauns and Femmes of Lykke.” I took Niall’s arm, the scarlet dress Isther chose for me to wear trailing behind us. “Speaking of CJ…Aurelie…have you seen her? I cannot find her anywhere, and it is certainly not the night for her to don a pair of breeches and traipse through the grounds.”

I had not seen CJ. And the fact that June would not be with me made my stomach lurch and my chest tighten. Or perhaps that was the work of the sinister corset that crushed my ribs and squeezed my breasts; a corset—might I add—which Poppy helped to place me in since none of my pyres could attend to me. I was grateful that Alexander had been careful with his bite marks, for so much of my skin was exposed in my gown. It hardly covered my nipples, and there seemed to be no fabric against my back at all.

“If it is any consolation, you look very beautiful tonight,” Niall offered.

But no, it was no consolation. I rejected consolation. Who would need such a thing? I did not need to feel better or for some embrace of words to comfort my feelings. I needed counteraction. With great immediacy. And utter completion.

As we descended the spiraling staircase and hundreds of salacious human eyes assaulted me, my mind was all-consumed with how best I could bring the glittery world they’d brought trembling to its very knees.

Episode 104: A Banquet Fit For The Finest In Northern Lykke

“And there she is. The light of the evening has arrived.” Braun Duval Rennington, with his stern expression, stiff high collar, and unbending posture, took me from Niall and turned his back as if his son was not even a gnat worth swatting away. I tried not to cringe at his hand as it held my gloved fingers. “Come, come, my niece. You have a few of the highest caliber you simply must meet.” He spoke with just enough volume for others to hear his admirable treatment of me. I wondered if they could not smell the deceit that perfumed every word leaving his pinched lips.

“She is the very image of her mother,” some unthinking woman gabbed, sipping a drink and smiling with her nose, though I did not think such a feat was possible. “But so well behaved. You truly have managed to tame the Andrea right out of her, Duval. Well done, well done.”