Luke nodded. “If she still wants me.”
I sighed. I couldn’t help it. “Still? After all my pep talks, you still think she might dump you for someone else? I mean look around Luke. She did this for you.”
Luke went to rub his hair, remembered it wasn’t there, and dropped his hand. “I guess if she’s still with the cowboy, that’s my answer right there.”
“I’ll beat him senseless for ya if that’s the case, all right? Problem solved.”
That got his smile back, and he discreetly gave my hand a squeeze. “Thanks.”
The room kept filling up, and it was uncomfortably chaotic. The exit to the garden at the far end seemed like a million miles away. Above us, the second-floor balcony that bordered the room was packed full as well. Laughter, flirting, drinking, white gowns circling over our heads—and a guard every five feet keeping watch.
“We need girls,” I said under my breath.
Luke had a sandwich in his hand and pretty much shoved the entire thing in his mouth. “Maybe you do,” he mumbled, forcing a smile as his hands trembled and his eyes darted around the room. He could feel Kaya’s presence, too.
“Seriously, we need to mix in better. Two men don’t go to a masquerade ball together.”
“We could hold hands, Oliver. If that’s what you’re suggesting.”
Ignoring him, I headed to the bar.
“Was it something I said?” he teased, close behind.
“Beer,” was my reply, mostly because I felt that tickle in my throat and was worried about tempting it into a full-blown cough.
“I like beer,” Luke said intuitively. “I’ll get the drinks. You get the girls.”
Music blared, and other instruments joined the violins. In the middle of the room, people had started to dance. Ladies skirts drifted and floated amongst the legs of black-suited men. I felt a small hand seize my arm.
“Care to dance?” said a lady, face covered with a jeweled mask outlined with tall feathers. They swished when she spoke. “It’s a good song.”
I inched back slightly. I realized I’d said we’d needed girls, but there was something about this one that set me on edge. I had to remind myself that she would help me blend in.
“Can you dance?” she asked.
Her skin was aged like she was in her seventies, but there was no sagging at her jaw line. Stiff white hair was pulled up into an intricate bird’s nest atop her head, and it was streaked with purple.
“Dancing isn’t really my thing,” I said, hoping for just idle chit chat until I had to leave.
“Come now,” she said, not taking no for an answer. “We’re at a ball, darling. That’s what people do—they dance. Are you going to deny an old woman?”
Luke had his back to me. I casually noted the time; we had fifteen minutes. From over his shoulder, I realized I had the full attention of a guard, so I flashed my pearly whites at the lady while beads of sweat began rolling down my back. Looping her arm through mine, I led her to the dance floor.
“I’m Isabelle,” she said, and her voice didn’t match the rest of her. Not only that, it was strangely familiar. Had she been one of Kaya’s teachers? She had a strange accent I couldn’t place that stirred a distant memory. I twirled her away from me, mostly because I hadn’t thought of a name for myself yet. When I pulled her back, the palm of her hand came flat against my chest.
“I’m, uh… Samson,” I said, then instantly regretted it.
“You’re a wonderful dancer, Samson,” she said with a sly smile. “I knew you would be.”
“Oh? How’s that?” I asked.
Masks and shoulders whizzed past, my own mask obscuring my vision. When it seemed to slip, I quickly adjusted it. It was then that I noticed a couple, hand in hand and eyes on me, turn away and drift off into the crowd. My pulse quickened. Even disguised, with her back to me, long white dress flowing out behind her instead of sweat pants and hair pulled up into intricate waves, I knew Kaya Lowen anywhere.
Keep it together, Oliver. Keep it together.
I spun Isabelle away, checking my watch again as I did, then twirled her back toward me. The motion hitched my breath and a cough nearly doubled me over. It left the tell-tale signs of my illness on my hands, which I tried to discreetly wipe off on my sleeve. Good thing blood blended well into black.
Isabelle wasn’t deterred. “Oooh, that cough sounds nasty,” she said, getting close, face inches from my chest and peering up from behind her mask. “You should probably see someone about that.”
I politely tried to remove myself. She caught my arm.
“One more,” she insisted.
I noticed Luke moving through the crowd, a beer in each hand, and his eyes caught mine. He made a subtle chin nod to the garden doors, and I nodded back. I wondered if he had seen Kaya.
“I must go,” I said. “My friend is waiting for me. Perhaps I’ll make my way back to you later—”
A cough racked my lungs again, thankfully only lasting seconds this time. Isabelle did not blink or shy away. She just waited till I was done, then leaned in again.
“I have just what you need for that cough,” she said, rising on her tip toes to get close to my ear.
I got a better view of the makeup packed on her skin. Were the wrinkles drawn on? And the dark patch beneath her ear… was that a covered-up tattoo?
“Ya know, there is medicine you can take for that,” she said. “If you come with me, I might be able to help reverse the damage done by those little blue pills.”
I froze mid-step, mind reeling. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Her hand tightened on my arm. “Oh yes, you do. Come now, dance with me, Oliver. Or with one motion of my hand, your friend Luke over there—so obviously heading for the garden—will be dead in seconds.”
A ballad swelled, a singer joined in, lyrics swirled with the noise of the room. The beads of sweat on my back multiplied and were rolling between my shoulder blades. I felt my forehead dampen, the mask sticking to my skin. But I moved my feet in time with the music. Hand in hers.
“Ah. Good idea, Oliver. As much as I would like to have Luke back to play with, you could be quite a lot of fun, too.”
“You’re The Girl. The one who… tortured him.” I could barely breathe with anger. “I could kill you in a split second. Snap your spine—” I put one hand at the back of her neck, the other at the small of her back, smiling like a lover would, warning her, threatening her with the pressure of my hands; it would be so easy. So satisfying.
Her eyes dug into mine. “I found the guard in the control room that was supposed to open the gate at… oh, what was it? Seven minutes after seven? And that little maid that liked to bring supper to you in Kaya’s room—Ella, I think her name is—, I have her, too. Chained up in the basement where I believe you spent quite a lot of time in your youth.”
I could no longer pretend to dance. “If you hurt them, I’ll—”
“You’ll nothing. I know Kaya is here. She is the one who planned this little soiree. The silly girl thought it would be a clever way of sneaking you and Luke out under the cover of all these people. But there is one of her and hundreds of us. So, play your cards right.”
I lowered my hand, placing it on her arm. “Have we met before?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“Oh yes,” she hissed, her accent thicker now. “But I won’t hold it against you for not remembering me. I had pink hair back then, and I wasn’t wearing stage makeup to look like an old woman. You almost choked the life out of my friend Barry at the Derrick bar. Remember him? I bet you’d like to do the same to me right now, wouldn’t ya, darlin?”
The waitress. The one who Kaya snuck out to go and see the night we…
“Angela?” I breathed. Stunned.
There was no way this was the pretty girl covered in tattoos who Kaya had thought of as a friend. After that night at the bar, Davis searched for her, but she had gone missing. It was clear just by the madness in her eyes wher
e she ended up.
“What the hell happened to you?” I asked as my stomach churned.
She smiled. “I was offered a taste of the good life. And now you’re going to do exactly as I say so I can have the full meal deal.”
Of all the things I thought I knew
This thing came out of the blue
It raged and rocked its way clean through
All the things I thought I knew
I stood in the ballroom just as I had so many times as a kid, only this time my nerves were wildly on edge. Not because Henry was looking for me or maybe even at me right now, or that Oliver had recognized me while he was dancing with an older lady, or the intense hum of the crowd, the armed guards circling the entire room, and the fact that the knife I’d strapped to my leg had to be left behind because there were metal detectors at the front doors. No, it was because of Luke. He was here. And when I saw him, I didn’t know what I would apologize for first.
Maybe the fact that I was holding Thomas’s hand.
Thomas’s fingers tightened over the makeup covering my scar and the freshly inked stamp courtesy of the guards at the entrance; Marlene had been right. There was no way Luke and Oliver were just wandering out the front doors to their freedom. The exit was separate and manned as heavily as a US border crossing where they stamped your passport in and out.
As we weaved through the room, Marlene and Georgia stayed close. Our dresses and masks were identical, hair all done up the same, turning us into a trio of anonymous guests. I gripped Thomas’s hand even tighter, fearing that if I let go, I might not be able to find him in the sea of matching people. Plus, I was so nervous I could barely get my feet moving. He led the way, a fake smile plastered to his face, black hair curling at the back of his neck. When we made it far enough into the room to feel a rush of night air through the open garden doors, he suddenly stopped.
“Dance with me,” he said.
“Thomas, there isn’t time for that. We only have minutes to get outside.”
“Thanks, love.” He ignored my protests and immersed us into the mass of people moving in time to a lilting ballad.
“Seriously,” I hissed. “What is wrong with you?”
Thomas’s eyes were dark stars behind the mask. There was a pleading look to them as he moved one hand to my hip, urging me closer, and with the other removed my champagne glass and placed it on a waiter’s tray. The feathers of my mask brushed his neck when he leaned in.
“First of all, we’re being watched—two guards beside the column—so we have to pretend we’re enjoying ourselves,” he murmured against my ear. “I just need a moment. One more moment with you, before you see… him.”
Any moment now Luke and I could be face to face, and suddenly I was unable to find my voice anywhere. I think it fell to my feet and was swallowed up by my floor-length skirt. I tilted my head back to look up at Thomas, and, noticing the two guards, moved in close enough to blend my body heat with his. We were certainly being watched, but upon contact, chest to chest with Thomas, my senses dulled to only him.
“Kaya,” he said, as the crazy thing between us increased and wouldn’t let up. “I just want to remind you that you can still pick me.”
Where was my voice now? Probably six feet under.
“And I love you,” he added.
I unraveled like a ball of yarn and fell into the pit with my voice. It took a good long while to climb up and shake off the dirt.
“Thomas, this is our last dance,” I said, meaning it fully and completely, even though I was as mad for saying it as I was mad for him.
His feet started moving to the music again, guiding me along, drifting calmly to the rhythm.“We’ll see about that,” he said. “The night ain’t over, princess.”
Princess. That word was a shove back into reality.
The room around Thomas came back into view. Marlene and Georgia had disappeared, and the guard straight ahead by the garden door was looking in our direction now. The music had changed to a waltz, and Thomas was oblivious to it all.
“I think we should get some air,” I said to him. “It’s kind of hot in here.”
He was staring at my mouth, and his gaze lowered to the swell of my dress. I could sense the effect my bare skin had on him.
“You are, uh… stunning in that dress,” he breathed, cheeks slightly flushed.
“Air?” I repeated.
His eyes met mine. “Uh, yes. Air. Air is good,” he said, clearing his throat.
We linked arms and took our plastic smiles to the garden doors. We were two lovers seeking a place to be alone, escaping the crowd. The guard let us pass and go out into the chilly night air while we maintained our act—that wasn’t an act.
“I am grateful for you,” I whispered to Thomas once we were outside.
He’d grown tense, muscles in his arms rigid. “Yes, I am a good distraction.”
His tone was odd and face unreadable behind the stupid mask. Was he implying something? Or was he reaffirming the fact that we were a distraction, out here to cause a scene if we had to, so Luke and Oliver could escape unseen. That was the plan. That’s why Georgia and Marlene were out here too, flirting with a guard standing at the pathway entrance. Dan—smoking a cigar with a few other men next to a blazing fire pit—was laughing extra loud at absolutely everything. At least there weren’t many guests marveling at the ornamental trees and shrubs sparkling with snow. It was too cold.
Stars twinkled, the moon was full, and I tried to remain calm while Thomas kept the pace at a stroll no matter how much I pulled against him. We eventually found ourselves at the end of the garden, alone beneath the old Mayday tree empty of all its beautiful flowers and leaves.
Thomas took off his jacket. “Here,” he said. “You’re going to freeze to death.”
I hadn’t felt the cold at all. The white gown, although thin up top and not covering my shoulders, had so many layers from the hips down that it held in the heat. Besides, my heart thrumming madly was keeping my blood warm. “I’m all right,” I said. “Really, I’m fine.”
I handed his jacket back and noticed a shadow approaching on the path.
“A guard is coming,” Thomas said, then with a sly smile added, “Kiss me.”
Clouds drifted over the moon. The only light came from two golden lanterns hanging in the tree. Thomas reached for my hands.
“No,” I said firmly. “That was our last dance, Thomas. I wasn’t kidding.”
This could be the premise for the scene we were to cause; a lovers’ spat.
I put my hand on Thomas’s chest and stepped back from him. I had forgotten about the shadow of the man coming toward us, until the clouds overhead drifted off and the moonlight took over, lighting up his black suit and mask. My hand dropped. Thomas tensed.
Luke.
I knew it was him. No one else could capture my mind that swiftly even with his face disguised. No one else made my chest flutter like this and cause massive surges of warmth and elation to steal through me with that complete and utter rippling madness of love. It was him.
Luke. Luke. Luke. Luke…
The breath left my lungs. The shape of his broad shoulders, the way he tipped his head to the side, his newly shorn hair—darker—and midnight reflecting in his eyes…
Breathe.
I made to run to him, but Thomas latched on to my wrist with a death grip. He said nothing as Luke came closer, and only by sheer will was I still upright.
“Let go of her,” Luke said.
I wrenched my arm free and backed away, finding the strength to stand on my own two feet in the same place where we’d first met. Where I’d fallen for him.
“Luke, I’m sorry—I—” Words caught in my mouth.
His gaze shifted between me and Thomas. Studying us. “It’s okay, Kaya. I am just grateful you came to help us get out of here, and that I get to see the man who stole you away from me.”
The stars fell on my head.
“I’ll go. You won’t have
to worry about me anymore,” he added.
Every single one of them.
He was moving to the garden door, and I was picking my teeth up out of the dirt and brushing them off so I could speak. “No. Luke, I mean I’m sorry I lied to you back at the beach. And the note—I didn’t mean it. I promise. I just said all those horrible things because I thought it was the right thing to do to keep you safe. I’m so sorry for all that.”
He untied the satin ribbons of his mask and its black crystals shattered when they hit the ground. He was so heart-achingly beautiful, but the pain and confusion tugging at his perfect features could have felled a forest in one swipe.
“What about him?” Luke said, motioning to Thomas.
Thomas remained still as stone, waiting for my answer, too. The truth was something that would hurt them both, but lying was not an option.
“I d-do love him,” I said, feeling a sting of tears behind my eyes.
Thomas gasped, and Luke almost doubled over.
“But,” I continued, putting my hands on my chest, hoping Luke would fully realize my honestly. “Not the same way I love you. My heart is yours, Luke, if you’ll have it. I want to be with you, and you only.”
Luke’s eyes lowered and he stumbled slightly, not expecting that answer at all and unsure how to react. He was shaking his head, backing away. “You don’t have to spare my feelings, Kaya. I won’t hurt him. I’d like to, but I won’t.”
Oh my God. He doesn’t believe me.
“Luke, you don’t understand—”
I wasn’t throwing words at him to protect him this time, and I was so desperate to untangle my lies that I failed to see two men come out of the dark. Before I could warn him, Luke was jumped from behind. But his attackers didn’t stand a chance. In a blur of precise movements, Luke connected fists to faces before weapons could even be drawn. When another two rushed at him, Thomas pulled me protectively into the shadows of the tree, and we watched Luke’s lethal reflexes in awe. His speed and agility quickly overtook the guards who were now unconscious on the ground.
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