Page 28 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

“That’s enough, both of you,” Zaharya said. She hadn’t risen from her vanity chair but was turned around to face us, her eyes wide at the shadows that still hovered around me. “Get ready for the party and stay out of each other’s way. We cannot afford any mistakes. We’ve been lucky so far, and you are doing well, Odyssa, despite last night. But that luck will run out eventually. It always does.”

Maricara and I stared off for another moment before she sniffed and went back to her own vanity. Taking a deep breath, I rolled my neck before allowing myself to do the same as the shadows retreated.

“What the hells was that?” Zaharya hissed. “Did you know you could do that?”

I shook my head. I had no idea where the shadow had come from, or what it was. It had emerged from my Death marks and I couldfeelit, as surely as if it had been my own hand wrapped around Maricara's wrist to stop her blow. My chest felt tight, and I forced more deep breaths. Looking down at the hairpins on the vanity, and then at my shaking hands in my lap, I knew it would be fruitless to attempt to finish my hair.

“That is not normal, Odyssa,” she breathed, looking over her shoulder at the others. “I don’t think I need to tell you to keep that hidden from the prince and from Tallon.”

“Will the others tell?”

“No.” She seemed certain; her answer was quick and firm. As much as I shouldn’t, I took her word for it.

With a nod, we settled into silence. I pulled at the pins that had already started holding the style and let the waves fall in a curtain over my shoulders and down my back. The energy in the room was odd, and instead of smoke or ash, the taste of something sickeningly sweet, so cloyingly disgusting, was settled over my tongue instead. I wanted to scratch at it to remove the feeling, the layer ofsomethingthat had taken up residence inside.

Tears stung at the back of my nose, but I would not cry. I would not falter and I would not fail. These girls had shown their hand, and I would be damned if I showed mine. My marks had set me apart since they first appeared on my skin. And from the moment I’d seen them, stark against the unnatural pallor of my skin following a week-long battle with the plague, I’d known they would not make my life easier.

Once again, I found myself wishing the bloody curse had taken me instead of my mother. But I would not wish this hell upon her either.

Cold brushed against my calf and I closed my eyes, feeling my heartbeat slow slightly. The cat was objectively terrifying, but I couldn’t deny the icy coldness was comforting. Knowing that another being, whatever it was, was there. I didn’t know what the cat was, or why it was following me. My eyes flew open at a realization. This was another of Tallon’s manipulations, almost certainly.

I chanced a look down at it, and for a moment, the yellow eyes staring back at me flashed gray. A familiar gray, so unmistakable for anything else.

“Get away,” I hissed, kicking my leg. The comfort the cat had brought was gone. At best, it was a spy for Tallon, and at worst… I knew those eyes, and after what I’d seen in the cellar halls and again in his bedroom, I was not willing to dismiss anything regarding him anymore.

I needed to get out of here, to breathe fresh air and let myselfthinkfor a moment without the heavy gazes of the others. Without the heavy gazes of these damned castle walls. Was I seeing things? Was this castle making me insane? The room felt like it was closing in, but the others did not shift or move, not even as the walls seemed to shift closer and closer.

Standing abruptly, I barely heard it when my chair clattered to the floor behind me. I clutched the green shroud to my chest. “I’m going to finish getting ready in my room. I will meet you in the kitchens when the bells toll.”

I left before any of them could object.

ChapterFourteen

Back in my room, I made my way for the balcony, barely stopping to throw the shroud in the direction of the bed before I flung the doors open and stepped out into the early night. I gulped down breaths, heedless of the metallic tinge of iron the air now held.

A firm grip on the balcony railing was the only thing that kept me standing.

Slowly, with each breath, my body released some of the tension it held until I was no longer shaking and was able to hold myself up as I gazed up into the red mist that blanketed Veressia.

I tipped my head down and took in the city below.

From this height, I could not make out many details of the city, and no sounds rose this high. I still searched for my house though, chasing a foolish hope that I would be able to glimpse Rhyon or Emyl.

Suddenly, I understood why the king threw himself from the spire after his wife had succumbed to the blood plague.

Would it feel like flying? Or would it only give that sick feeling of your stomach bottoming out as I watched the ground come up to meet me? Did it matter?

A chill against my calf brushed past me to settle on my left foot. It was an odd sensation as there was no weight to the specter cat, just a coldness. I still kicked it away regardless and took it as my sign to retreat from the balcony.

The sun was setting, and I needed to get ready for the ball still.

I focused on the rough metal of the balcony railing beneath my hands, the cool breeze across my face, the uneven stone of the balcony floor beneath my feet. Anything to ground me and keep me from falling into the panic building in my chest.

For the first time since I entered those gilded gates and heard them slam shut behind me, I was grateful for this shroud. Returning inside, I stepped up to the mirror across from the wardrobe, and all I could see staring back at me were bloodshot eyes and the dark shadows beneath them. If I’d been left uncovered, they were likely to scare away any nobility who saw them, appalled at my lack of care.

While I wanted nothing more than to take a running leap from the balcony and damn the consequences, my brothers needed me. Every day here was another chance for them to contract the plague, and our family’s luck would only hold once and I’d used it up. I needed the treatment the prince hoarded, needed to be able to get it and take it back to my brothers.

The emerald green dress in my wardrobe had thin straps that I knew would dig into my shoulders and a plunging neckline that would require careful movements if I wanted to keep from spilling out of it. It was wasteful, in my mind, to have these gowns hidden beneath the shrouds, when all we needed was something simple. The silk against my skin would serve as another reminder of the opulent waste of the Coward Prince. I pulled it on.

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