by Marisa Mills
Ten
ONCE WE RODE THE CABLE car up to the Floats, I finally got to see Reverie properly. Large buildings, built of brilliant, faceted crystal stretched into the bright blue sky. The roads, still slick with rain, looked as if they’d been paved of silver and were lined with shops. Bits of clouds, downy and fluffy, drifted by. Men and women walked along the streets, many wearing bright and elaborately decorated clothing. There were large, fur-trimmed cloaks, dresses of brightly hued velvet, elegant suits, and swords with intricately carved hilts. It seemed nearly impossible for all this wealth to exist in one place, and yet here it was. Stranger still, I was dressed as fancy as these mages.
Dorian had made us stop in the Argent so I could change clothes and get cleaned up. I shifted on the seat, trying to find a more comfortable position. The corset didn’t hurt, but it made sitting feel weird. I had to perch at the edge of the seat and lean forward, and I still hadn’t gotten used to the weight of the skirts or having sleeves that fell off my shoulders.
“What are you thinking?” Dorian asked.
I bit the inside of my cheek and decided against telling him how awkward I felt in the clothes. “Mages really love crystal,” I said instead.
“It’s a defensive measure,” Dorian said. “If Reverie is ever invaded, the plan is to section off the kingdom and hurl fractured gemstone at our attackers.”
The crystal was beautiful and dangerous, then. It fit these mages well. Outside the window, a row of brooms swept across the street. “So in the Floats—”
“Reverie. Did you bring your dialect back with you?”
“I’m sorry. I just wondered if you have magic brooms sweeping everywhere.”
“Sure.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to have people sweep?” I asked.
“I suppose it depends on who’s doing the sweeping,” Dorian said. “It wouldn’t particularly affect me either way.”
It still seemed strange. We passed a tall fence, made of iron and crystal. Beyond it, there were sprawling gardens, covered in snow, and a red-brown building with elaborate arches and tall glass windows.
“That’s Rosewood,” Dorian said, pointing. “You’ll stay here tonight after the opening gala, then I’ll walk you to school in the morning.”
“I’d expected it to be white,” I said.
“The color is because of when it was built. White was considered old-fashioned at the time,” Dorian replied. “You can bring what you’ve stolen there, and if you require anything while you’re at the Academy, don’t hesitate to ask. I’m willing to do what it takes to make us succeed.”
“Like setting curtains on fire,” I said.
Dorian looked at me quizzically, revealing nothing.
“Sure. And for what it’s worth, you’ll never want for anything while you’re here,” Dorian said. “I realize the situation isn’t ideal, but Reverie isn’t a bad place to live.”
It still wouldn’t be home, though. And no amount of material goods would make up for being away from Sterling and Briar. At the thought of Sterling, my throat tightened. I put a hand over my lips where he’d kissed me. I hadn’t even reacted. I’d just stared at him like an idiot.
“You might even make friends,” Dorian said.
I stifled a laugh. As if any of these rich mages would want to be my friend. Dorian’s continued kindness confused me. Maybe Dorian was trying to justify this all to himself. Maybe he wanted to believe that he wasn’t as bad as my uncle.
“But of course, I’ll expect you to remember why you’re here,” Dorian said. “Enjoy yourself, but not too much.” And there it was. He was only being nice so I’d steal for him.
“I don’t have any intention of enjoying myself,” I said.
“I see.”
“I do have a question, though,” I said. “Maybe it’s because I don’t understand, but you seem very wealthy for a man who’s trying to pay his debts.”
“An astute observation.”
“Am I wrong?”
“It doesn’t matter. Like Gabriel, you are going to receive only the information you need to know regarding what I’m trying to do,” Dorian said. “I’m surprised you didn’t piece that together considering the conversation you overheard.”
He really had caught me eavesdropping, then. I winced. “Are you mad?”
“That’s not quite the word I would use,” he said. “Mind you. That isn’t me encouraging you to eavesdrop. I need you to stay out of trouble.”
I nodded and looked back outside. Eventually, the carriage stopped, and the doors opened. I stepped out carefully in my long, flowing skirts. A massive building loomed before us. It was white and gold, with columns made of crystal. Seas of silver-flecked stone stretched before us, lined by snow-covered grounds. Elegantly trimmed shrubs curved in long, spiraling rows. Small, blue flowers peeked through the snow.
“Welcome to the Academy,” Dorian said.
He offered his arm and led me up the main stairs.
The hallway opened into a lavish salon. Everything was blue and silver. This place looked peaceful, lit by soft light, coming from candles that floated far above my head. One of the servants took my coat, while I gazed upwards, looking in awe at the dark ceiling and the gilded vaults. I’d never seen engineering like this before. I hadn’t even realized something like this could exist.
“Wow,” I whispered.
Dorian bowed dramatically to the servant before surrendering his coat and hat. He kept his sword.
“Don’t worry. It gets old quickly,” Dorian said, linking his arm with mine. “Hopefully, we can find Viviane before Eleanor makes an appearance.”
Right. Viviane. I wasn’t here to enjoy myself. I was here to steal Viviane’s necklace. Part of me wished she wasn’t wearing it tonight. That way, there’d be nothing to steal.
We walked through the salon into a large ballroom. My jaw dropped as hundreds of people mingled before me. No, not people. Mages. I felt suddenly hot, like I might hyperventilate. “Focus on Viviane,” Dorian said quietly. “The rest of them don’t matter.”
I scanned the crowd, but I didn’t see her. “What if she isn’t here?”
“I promise she’s here, but if we can’t find her, Alexander will do for now.”
“Because if Viviane sees me with him, she’ll challenge me to a duel or something?” I asked. “She seems very attached.”
“Of course, she is,” Dorian replied. “He’s a prince. Viviane hopes he’ll become a potential suitor, and I’ve no doubt Eleanor is encouraging such a pursuit.”
“He’s a prince?”
“The youngest of six children. He’s recently become obsessed with proving his worth on his own merits, so he’s vowed to spend a year not being treated as a prince.”
“That’s…” I trailed off.
“Noble, if misguided,” Dorian said. “He can insist on not being bowed to or addressed properly. He can even insist on not having servants or certain privileges. But he’s still a prince, and everyone knows that. Still, it’s harmless. I did something similar in my youth.”
“That means a lot of people are gonna be watching him, though.”
“Will be, yes. Fortunately, there are rules to these engagements. If we find Alexander, all you need to do is ask him to dance.”
I remembered what Alexander said about the Gardens being not terrible.
“So I can be humiliated when he refuses?”
“He won’t,” Dorian said. “If there’s one thing you can expect from a prince, it’s a polite façade in front of crowds. He may dance and loathe every second. He may try to pull you aside, alone, and insult you. He may even do it with a few people around. But an entire crowd of them? Oh, no. He’ll stay true to form.”
I hoped he was right.
Dorian sighed. “There’s Eleanor.”
I followed Dorian’s nod, my gaze landing on a slender woman. Her thick, brown hair fell in waves over her pale, round shoulders and
tumbled over the bodice of her black, satin dress. Somehow, I’d expected something more predatory from Dorian’s alleged nemesis, something like my uncle Gabriel’s story about the monstrous mage-lady who ate children, but Eleanor was beautiful.
“I see you have similar taste in dyes,” I said.
For a few seconds, Dorian looked utterly bewildered. Then, he laughed. “It’s not that. In Reverie, when a parent dies, it’s proper to observe a year-long mourning period. You wear black for the first ten months, and for the last two, you’re allowed to add gray and lilac. My mother isn’t worth nearly that level of devotion, but unfortunately, I have a reputation to uphold.”
“How did she die?” I asked.
“She fell down the stairs and broke her neck. Or something like that.”
He said it as casually as if he’d been discussing the weather.
“You don’t believe she fell?” I asked.
“Not entirely.”
He didn’t sound especially bothered with the possibility that someone might have killed his mother. Maybe he’d done the deed himself. I looked nervously towards Eleanor and wondered how she felt about her mom’s death.
“Should I be worried about Eleanor?” I asked.
“She’s a very dangerous woman.”
“You’re dangerous, too,” I pointed out.
“So I am. But Eleanor is always looking to stab someone in the back. I’d at least do you the courtesy of stabbing you from the front,” Dorian replied.
As if she’d heard him from across the room, Eleanor headed straight to us.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be, Wynter?” Dorian asked.
He was right, so I headed away, drifting into the crowd. Viviane or Alexander. Where were they? There were so many people that it was impossible to find anyone. I’d never stolen jewelry off a person before, but I had an idea of how I wanted to do it. Distraction was key. All I had to do was spill a drink down the front of Viviane’s dress, draw attention to her reaction and steal the necklace right under everyone’s nose. Or if I got lucky, Viviane would go to clean herself up and take it off. But it was still a huge risk. What was so special about this necklace? Did Dorian even want it, or was everything just a game to him?
I drifted to the wall and stood there, scanning the crowd. Finally, I found Alexander and headed towards him. My heart raced. Just ask him to dance. It wouldn’t be that difficult. Alexander saw me and ended his conversation with a blonde woman wearing a purple gown. I took a deep breath.
“Good evening,” I said.
Now that I knew he was a prince, it made talking to him much more awkward.
“Good evening,” he said.
“Would you like to—”
“Dance?” he asked. “With you?”
Maybe Dorian had been wrong. Maybe Alexander would humiliate me in front of all these people.
“Yes,” I replied.
He put an arm around the small of my back and drew me in closer. “Can I tell you a secret?” he whispered. “I hate dancing.”
“Me too,” I said.
“Why don’t we talk instead?”
“Um…sure,” I said.
Without warning, Alexander grabbed my wrist and pulled me along behind him. I stumbled at first, but then followed him out of the ballroom and down a long, dark corridor. This was a trap of some kind, but I didn’t know how to avoid it.
“Alex—”
We reached the end. I pulled my wrist away, but Alexander’s hand shot out, cornering me against the wall. He was even more handsome from close up, and his blue eyes were staring directly into mine with an intensity that took my breath away. I tried to say something, but all my thoughts scattered and fell apart.
“This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” he murmured.
“What are you talking about?” I asked nervously.
“You get all dressed up, attend a fancy ball, and hope to seduce a prince into a dark corner. Don’t think you’re the first to try.”
I sucked in a quick breath. I looked at his broad shoulders and then away.
“Why would I want to seduce you?”
“Why wouldn’t you? Unless you honestly think you’ve got what it takes to become a mage.”
“I passed the test, didn’t I?”
“Did you?” he asked. My breath hitched. Did he know I’d cheated? Had he seen the device?
“Besides, you’re not that plain looking, even if you do come from the Lower Realms. I’m surprised, however, you don’t smell like trash.” He leaned in close, sniffing slowly at my neck.
Asshole! I pushed him off, shaking, but he caught my wrist and spun me into his arms.
“Relax,” he whispered, “I’m just using you to rile up Viviane. It takes her down a peg, I don’t like her getting too sure of herself. Ah, there she is, right on schedule.”
I broke free of his embrace, just in time to see Viviane come around the corner in a sparkling yellow dress. I stepped away quickly from Alexander, leaning against the far wall.
“There you are,” Viviane’s voice drifted to us. My gaze dropped to her throat; the necklace glittered against her skin. I was furious with the way Alexander had treated me, and I wanted nothing more than to run back to the safety of the main gala. But I’d come for the necklace, and it was right in front of me. It would be easier to steal away from the party.
“Whatever are you two whispering about?”
“I was just telling Wynter how dangerous magic is,” Alexander replied.
Viviane’s green eyes widened. “Why, that reminds me! I never finished telling you what happened to the last mage from Argent. I think it’s terribly tragic.”
Something bad was coming. I just knew this was going to be some terrible, morbid story. But I played along anyway.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Well,” Viviane said, “He was a prodigy at the Academy, until the day he went mad. Couldn’t handle the pressure. He started hearing voices, talking to himself. Finally, he slit a noblewoman’s throat. I heard he tossed pieces of her dismembered body off the edge, before leaping to his death. People say you can still hear them calling to each other at night on the outskirts of Reverie.”
“That’s not true,” I said uncertainly.
Viviane sighed and shook her head. “You really don’t know anything, do you?” she asked. “You’re hopeless.”
“It doesn’t matter how much I know,” I said. “It matters only what I’m willing to learn.”
“That was almost profound,” Viviane replied. “Did you steal it from my uncle? He likes to make people think he’s profound.”
Hisses struck my ears. At first I thought I’d triggered the device accidentally, but the noise was coming from down the hall.
“We should head back,” Alexander said.
“You might be right,” Viviane said. “Mother is so overprotective sometimes. Just a moment, I need to finish my drink first.”
She stepped closer to me, until we were face to face, and then she slowly emptied her champagne glass down my dress. I gasped as the cold, sparkling liquid dripped beneath my corset.
“There,” she smirked. “All done.”
I squeezed my hands into fists, blood rushing to my face.
I hated them both.
The hisses grew louder, sweeping down the hall towards us. I turned my head, just before the floor buckled. With a yelp, Viviane fell to the ground and pulled me down with her. Portraits swayed and then clattered to the ground. The overhead lights blinked out, flooding the hall in near darkness. Another quake.
Viviane was clambering and groping in the darkness. Her hand touched my shoulder. Something sparkled in the dim light. Her necklace! I shifted, catching the outline of her neck. I took a deep breath and reached forward, feeling for the clasp. She moved away before I could unhook it. Then, abruptly, the lights returned.
Viviane screamed, and there was the familiar ring of steel as A
lexander unsheathed his blade. At first I thought I’d been caught red-handed, but they were both looking away from me, down the hall. I sucked in a sharp breath of disbelief when I saw what they were staring at. It was a being of some sort, but I didn’t have the words to describe it beyond that. It was tall and inky black. Vaguely humanoid, with long, claw-like fingers. It reached out jerkily and speared one of the portraits, ripping it from the wall. When the creature opened its mouth, it unleashed a roar that pierced my eardrums.
***
“Run!” Alexander shouted, stepping in front of us.
Viviane fled without hesitation. I followed, blindly running down the hall. But then, the lights were gone. All the flickering flames of the candles were extinguished in one fell swoop. I turned around in time to catch Alexander, sword drawn, slash through the monster’s middle. The blade passed harmlessly through.
“Alexander!” Viviane screamed.
The prince jumped back, trying to parry the monster’s wild swings, but they swept right through the sword’s blade. Viviane darted into an open room. I ran after her and let my device slip into my hand. I swiped my thumb over it. Blue flames emerged as Alexander swept in. It may not stop the thing chasing us, but at least we could see where we were going. The room was wide and filled with tables and chairs. A fireplace cast an orange light on half the room. A silver-haired man sat behind a long table, surrounded by stacks of books and notes. He bolted to his feet when he saw us rush in.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“It’s a demon,” Alexander said. That was the only thing he had time to say before the door exploded inward. The creature entered the room like a black, spiky cloud, but grew upwards towards the ceiling. Its red eyes burned down at us like glowing embers in the dim light. I held up my hand, ablaze with blue flames, and lifted it up towards the being.
“Stop it!” I shouted.
No! Came the response.
I stumbled backward in confusion. Alexander met my eyes, with a look of awe. Had he heard it, too? The monster unleashed a roar that seemed to shake the entire room. Immediately, the older man, who looked like he could all too easily be snapped in half, placed himself between the monster and us.