She turned to Faun, eyes flashing.Keep your eyes up, Dorian.“We’re allying with Liora.” Then she strode naked toward the washing chamber. “Follow me. We have things to discuss.”
The two of them disappeared into Eury’s washroom and closed the door. Their voices echoed faintly.
Not two weeks ago, Eurydice and I had been alone inmywashroom. That night still seared through me.
I had wanted to explain everything to Eury, but we’d never gotten past pleasantries except that day in the meadow. And that day had been its own beast. I felt like a shade—barely real, acknowledged out of the corner of her eye.
I turned back to Haskel. The elder fae glanced up at me overtop his glasses and shrugged one shoulder.
“Since when do you wear spectacles?” I asked.
“How else am I supposed to win the heart of a Highmark lady at the ball?”
“Spectacles won’t hide the redness of your nose.”
Finch’s eyes went wide on his book, but didn’t veer up. Haskel returned his attention to his tome with a rumble. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re wrong about Gawain.”
“I’m not.” I passed around the fountain toward Mirek’s chamber. When I knocked, the tailor groaned from inside.
“What is it, Crowmere?”
Somehow, he knew my knock.
“My mask,” I said. “I need?—”
“No changes to the masks!”
“This matters, Mirek.”
A muffled huff sounded through the door. “Nothing in life truly matters except velvet and the perfect fit.”
“This is about fit.”
A pause. I thought he was ignoring me until footsteps sounded and the door opened. He wore some kind of white goop on his face and a silk robe.
I stepped back.
Mirek seemed to become aware of himself, because he snapped, “Have you never hydrated your face? Young fae and their arrogance…”
“The mask. I need you to add a scar,” I said. “Can you do it?”
“That depends. Where do you want the scar?” When I drew a line along my jaw, he threw his hand up. “The mask doesn’t even extend down that far!”
“I’m sure you can find a way.”
“Within a day? Absolutely not.”
Now I stepped forward. My voice lowered. “I don’t want to have to give you a command in front of Haskel.”
Mirek’s gaze rose to me, thick eyebrows lifting. He let out a low hum, then turned away. “Fine. Tell Eleyrie I need her.”
“The handmaiden?”
“My apprentice tailor.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Mirek.”
He grumbled non-words as he sorted through the outfits hanging on various fixtures around his room. When I’d retrieved Eleyrie, the two of them holed up in Mirek’s chamber with the door shut.