I’d have hispretty little headon a platter if he didn’t watch his tongue.
“When I return, I want you wearing your best dress and a smile. Do you hear me, miserable Aveen?” He flicked my shoulder.
“I hear you, oh magnanimous prince.”
With a chuckle, he vanished.
Eventually, I rolled off the bed to drag one of the few remaining gowns from my closet. It seemed a silly thing, dressing up to celebrate my impending death. But I had a feeling sleep would elude me and didn’t want to be left alone with my thoughts.
Once I’d dressed, I sank onto the chair in front of my dressing table, going through the motions of applying layer upon layer of creams and makeup, creating a perfect mask for the world to see.
I felt Rían’s presence before I saw him, like an electric charge, lifting the fine hairs at the back of my neck.
I caught a glimpse of him in my mirror’s reflection. His dark blue waistcoat matched the dress I’d chosen.
“Lovely,” I muttered. “You’re back.”
“Uh oh. Melancholy Aveen,” he said with a frown. “How can we get rid of her?”
I almost smiled. “You can’t.” When I reached for my tin of kohl, I knocked one of the glass pots onto the floor, sending it rolling toward Rían’s gleaming boots.
“We’ll see about that,” he muttered, bending to pick up the pot. Instead of setting it on the table, he popped open the lid and gave it a sniff. His nose wrinkled, and he coughed into his fist. “No wonder you’re melancholy, smearing this shite on your face every day.”
He was so dramatic. It didn’t smell that bad. “You are ridiculous.”
He shoved the lid back on and set the pot of cream by the others. “It’s better than being melancholy.”
“I’m not melancholy. I’m nervous.”
“What’s there to be nervous about? All you have to do is go like this”—he closed his eyes and pursed his lips, smacking them together and making a slurping sound—“and my brother will take care of the rest. We can practice if it’ll make you feel better.”
I didn’t know why my stomach fluttered. It wasn’t as if I wanted to kiss him again and again and again. And again. “What if something goes wrong and I don’t come back?”
He took my hands, dragging me to my feet. “I swear on pain of death that you will come back.”
I turned the words over in my head. There didn’t seem to be any way around it but, he’d tripped me up so many times before ,I didn’t trust my own ears. “You lie.”
His hair fell across his forehead when she shook his head. “About most things, yes. But not this.”
What choice did I have but to trust him when the alternative was to marry Robert Trench? After what had happened in town, I didn’t want Keelynn to marry him either. But that was a decision she deserved to make for herself.
Rían put his thumbs on either side of my lips, forcing them upright while making a sound like a creaking hinge. “Give me a different Aveen. This one’s broken.”
I forced a smile.
He snorted. “Fake Aveen? Pass. Next.”
I kicked him in the shin.
“Ohhh, violent Aveen. Welcome back, my dear. I’ve missed you. Grab your cloak, my little viper. We’re leaving.”
I rolled my eyes, fighting a laugh as I went to grab the blue cloak he’d given me from the closet. I draped the heavy wool around my shoulders and drew the hood over my hair. “Where are we going?”
Rían swept me into his arms and the world went dark.
Then we were falling.
Through darkness.