“It is rather stuffy,” Aveen’s sister said with a coy smile.
“Perhaps there is somewhere more private where we could retire for another drink.” I tugged one of her curls, wishing it was gold instead of brown.
She glanced around the ballroom, her gaze landing on the door. “Go into the hallway and wait for me.”
I gave her gloved hand a kiss, then started for the hallway. Some people recognized me and waved. I nodded but didn’t linger. There wasn’t time for idle conversations if I wanted a chance to say goodbye to Aveen.
The moment I was alone, I poured more magic into my glamour, so I was no longer Edward but his spirited younger sister, Marissa. I ran toward the ballroom, making my way between guests nattering on about this and that, and caught Aveen by the dessert table.
Let her go. Make her stay.
“I wanted to say goodbye,” I blurted, sounding like a fool.
Aveen’s blue skirts glittered when she whirled. Her bored expression gave nothing away. “Goodbye,” she said, as if I were some stranger.
Her gaze flicked toward the balcony, where her sister had gone bowling past.
“Aveen, last night I said something I—”
“You think I want to discuss last night?” She laughed, but there was no mirth to the hollow sound. “I never want to speak of it again. As far as I’m concerned, nothing happened.”
As far asIwas concerned, it had been the best night of my feckin’ life until I went and mucked it up. “I understand better than anyone that intent does not matter. But I want you to know that it was not my intention to use you in any way. I just got caught up in the lie. It will not happen again.”
Her expression hardened. “Go take care of my sister.”
A woman in a hideous red dress with poofy sleeves shouted for Aveen.
The distraction gave me a chance to escape to the balcony. That was it. The last interaction we would ever have. Her final memory of me would be in a feckin’ dress, begging for forgiveness. So much magic wasted, and for what? A feckin’ apology? And now, she was about to go to my brother, a man cursed to embody her deepest, darkest desires, and kiss him.
I balled up my fist and slammed it into the stones, cursing fate. Cursing the Queen. Even cursing Aveen. I’d been fine before that infernal human had set foot in that feckin’ shed. I’d had a goal, a purpose. And now . . .
Now it felt like nothing would ever be enough. Not defeating the Queen. Not finding my heart. None of it.
I evanesced back to one of the hallway’s bay windows, shifting two glasses of champagne, almost forgetting that I needed to turn myself back into the ambassador. I’d just finished my glamour when Aveen’s sister fell into the window next to me.
“I thought you’d changed your mind,” I said, somehow keeping the extent of my hatred for her from tainting my words.
“Not tonight,” she replied, a little breathless.
One moment, she was standing on the other side of the space, shadows concealing her features, the next, she had her arms locked around my neck, lips smashed against mine.Once I got over the shock, I managed to pull away and keep from spitting to rid myself of the taste of sour wine and champagne. Aveen had insisted her sister loved Robert. If she truly loved him, why the hell had she kissed me like that?
“You’re so beautiful,” I said, kissing her neck instead, swallowing the bile in my throat.
“Liar.”
It wasn’t a lie. Not entirely. She was nothing compared to her sister, but I could see how men would find this one attractive—when she wasn’t trying to jam her tongue down their throats.
She stiffened as if I’d spoken my thoughts aloud. “I’ve changed my mind. I want to go back.”
Oh, thank the stars.She tried shrugging me off, but my feckin’ cufflink snagged on the layers of frilly lace around the top of her dress.“One minute.” I angled my hand toward the moonlight in an attempt to see how exactly we were ensnared.
“What are you doing?” she shrieked, shoving my chest, making her sleeve slip down her slender shoulder.
“I said give me a damned minute.” What’d the shrew do? She shoved me again. “Stop hitting me. My cufflink—”
The woman drove her elbow into my gut. I jerked, ripping her dress and catching an eyeful of her bare breast before she shrieked and covered herself. Even with my eyes bulging, I still couldn’t unhook my feckin’ cufflink.“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I’m so—”
“Ambassador?”