Page 58 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

She shook her head. “No one has seen her since we left your room last night. Elena went to her room earlier but there was no answer. Camelya is supposedly looking for her.”

“We can manage without her,” Elena said. She tossed a poorly disguised sneer over her shoulder at me. “We did when you disappeared.”

I bit my tongue and kept walking. Talyssa was not like me; she’d seemed competent and, though timid, she seemed settled with this reality of ours. Though, given how much had been happening to me that I’d kept from the others, it was entirely possible that they all did the same. As we approached the ballroom, I wondered if that was by design, to isolate us and make us hoard our secrets and thoughts like the prince hoarded his most prized inside the castle.

The music began as we entered the ballroom, an eerie tune that crawled across the heads of those in attendance to reach us. The ballroom itself had been turned into a mockery of what the sunrise looked like before the mist descended. Swaths of vivid peach fabric draped from the ceiling, falling down the walls around golden decor and bright pink flowers. Where they had found such flowers, I didn’t want to know. They’d likely cost more than an entire month’s wage just for plants that would be dead at this time tomorrow. A waste.

Further into the ballroom, a set of doors opened and then closed, and then the music faltered. Only for a beat, and then it resumed, but the effect had been noticed and those in the ballroom all turned their attention to whomever had entered. I kept my head down, focused on the tray in my hands as partygoers snatched drinks from it.

People were whispering, and there was a tension in the room that hadn’t been there any other night. My eye twitched, desperate to search out the cause for the whispers. As the last glass was pulled from my tray, the gap in the crowd gave me a view of what exactly had commanded everyone’s attention.

Tallon.

My feet forgot how to move and I was grateful for the shroud that covered my face as my mouth fell open slightly. Tallon was standing against the wall, which was far from unusual. It wasn’t his presence that had stirred everyone up, but his sartorial choices instead, it seemed. The jacket he’d had on earlier was gone and the sleeves of his shirt were rolled up, cuffed at the tops of his forearms and revealing the thick, black marks that decorated his skin. His collar was unbuttoned to the third button, revealing the matching marks that swirled across his chest as well.

It was no wonder the ballroom had erupted into whispers at his entrance.

I could see the moment he felt my stare. His head snapped up, eyes fixed directly on mine, and his shoulders fell slightly, easing down from around his ears. My cheeks flushed as that slow smirk spread across his face. His chin dipped slightly, a ghost of a nod, and then he was pushing his cuffed sleeves further up his forearms before letting his head tilt back against the wall.

I swallowed hard, eyes tracking over the curve of his neck and then trailing lower to map the muscles of his forearms beneath the thick black marks.

“It’s horrid that he’d flaunt them so.” Someone’s whispered venom pulled me out of my trance. “Prince Eadric will not be pleased.”

“It’s unnatural. It’s a shame the prince even let him in here.”

The words spurred me back into my body, unsticking my feet and sending me along through the ballroom, people already filling up my tray with their empty glasses. I felt Tallon’s eyes on my back as I worked, and I hated that I wanted nothing more than to settle into the wall beside him and return the favor.

I found myself conflicted in my feelings once more. There was no mistaking what had led him to choose tonight to forego his jacket and roll up his sleeves; it was clearly a response to our earlier conversation about my gloves and the shroud.

Had he chosen to display them in solidarity, to show me that he didn’t care what those others thought of the marks that adorned our skin? I was ashamed to say it pleased me that he cared enough to reassure me he didn’t mind my marks. Our marks.

It made me want to pull my gloves off and show the world that we matched, but I would never have the reluctant acceptance he was privy to. Still, the gesture sent me about my tasks with a small smile on my face.

Tallon watched me as he always did now. Unlike before, now his eyes were a welcome weight upon my back. Knowing that he cared enough to watch me, cared enough to send Sylviana in his place when he couldn’t.

“Do you know why he’s chosen to show off his marks for the first time since I’ve been here?” Zaharya murmured as she fell into step beside me. Both of us continued collecting empty glasses as we roved through the ballroom.

“He did not like my gloves,” I answered mindlessly. I was too focused on my task to realize what I’d admitted to her until the words were already out of my mouth, and it was too late to snatch them back.

The disapproval radiated off her, but she only hummed in response, as if she didn’t believe my answer. Without waiting for a reply, she split off and carved a path deeper into the ballroom. Returning my focus to my work, despite the growing pit in my stomach that those words would come back to haunt me, I continued until my tray was full and began to make my way to the kitchens.

“How horrid,” someone said to their companion, “that he chooses to mock those who cannot show their marks without fear of Prince Eadric’s response.”

“Truly,” the companion agreed. They both looked at me, though I kept my gaze down and did not falter as I passed. Even with my poor hearing, I heard their parting words. “Did you see her? The marks beneath her veil are covered, and yet he flaunts his. It’s hardly kind, but I suppose that’s the point.”

Despite the happiness I’d felt earlier, the couple’s words lingered, leaping into the pit that had already begun to grow in my stomach until it was a hard ball of anxiety that gnawed at my spine.

No one would dare say anything to Tallon where he could hear. No one would punish him for his marks being visible, not like they would me, and perhaps he wanted to remind me of that. Perhaps they were right, that it was a mockery rather than a show of solidarity. I knew what I wanted it to be, but I also knew that I rarely got what I wanted.

My hands ached to throw the tray to the ground, to smash the glasses against the polished stone floor and tear the tapestries from the wall. Ithadto be another one of his games, and I would not fall for this one.

Gritting my teeth, I continued my work, clearing out empty glasses, returning to the kitchen for more, and starting the cycle all over again. I tried in vain to keep my eyes off him, but I found myself watching him more times than I cared to acknowledge. And each time my gaze wandered over his body, he was watching me back.

Despite the overwhelming impulse to do so, I refrained from confronting him now and vowed to address it later. The games in private were one thing, but to bring them here where he could mock me openly and almost certainly cause me to make a mistake was unfair. He would not be punished if I made a misstep due to the distractions he caused. I would.

It felt like days had passed by the time the midnight bells finally tolled. The sigh of relief I let out fluttered my veil, but the emotion was short lived as the doors at the back of the ballroom—the ones Prince Eadric entered from—swung open. The room collectively froze and held its breath as he stomped to the stage and commanded the music to stop.

Against the wall, Tallon’s fists clenched and he pushed himself upright.

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