Page 99 of Daughter of No Worlds

I returned his laugh with my own. “Then you are not really looking, Zeryth.”

“Aren’t I?” He pulled back just enough for his gaze to meet mine, one eyebrow quirked. “You and I aren’t so different. Lots of the people you see around you today were born with privilege, your instructor included. The world was theirs to lose. You and I, we had to claw for it. I look at you and I see a victor.” His next words came closer, reverberating against the skin of my ear. “And that is very,verybeautiful, Tisaanah.”

For the first time, I allowed the sneer bubbling up within me to reach my face. “This is not a game, Zeryth,” I said. “I have twenty-seven scars on my back from the night I tried to buy my freedom and Esmaris rewarded me by trying to beat me to death. I was beaten, I was raped, I was almost killed. It is written into my body and soul, just as your guilt in it is written into yours, whether you want to see it or not. But you cannot ignore it. Neither can I. And neither can they, because I will not allow them to.”

I lifted a palm, waving to the crowd that had gathered around us.

Zeryth’s expression remained smooth, perpetually unrattled. But something — a certain spark of pleasure that I could not quite read or understand — leached into it as he said, “I have never ignored you.”

“No. You’d just rather see me on my knees.”

“I had to test you. And you passed.”

Test me for what?I wanted to ask.What would possibly excuse that?But instead I only said, “I do not need you to apologize for the past. I have only one question for you. What will you do to help me keep others from meeting my fate?”

And there it was. A crack across his serene, smooth exterior — so delicately masked that I almost didn’t see it. “Tisaanah, I’m—”

But before he could finish, I brought my mouth to his ear. And in a breathy hiss that sizzled into the air, I whispered, “I don’t care if you’re sorry.”

4, 5, 6, and…

And I spun away from his hands, hurling myself back into the crowd. I didn’t look back — I didn’t need to know he was watching me go. The spectators parted as I slipped away from the dance floor. They were watching, too.

A little, satisfied smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.

And it was then that my eyes looked out across the room and immediately settled on a familiar figure. One that I recognized instantly, even through the throngs of people that separated us.

As if he felt my gaze, Max glanced up from a conversation that he looked like he would much rather avoid. And when he saw me, that expression of disgruntled weariness melted into a little, knowing smile that, I knew, was meant only for me.

And without thinking, I returned it.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Max left his conversation so abruptly that it looked like he didn’t even say goodbye, turning to glide through the crowd toward me. And even from this distance, when he stood, I was a bit stunned by his appearance. He wore a purple silk jacket that looked incredibly expensive, meticulously tailored to his shape, lined with gold buttons and thread that sparkled beneath the flickering blue lights of the party. His hair was unusually tamed, combed and parted.

He was, at first, so striking that he was almost unrecognizable as my disgruntled and vaguely disheveled friend. But as we approached each other, I noticed a smattering of little off-kilter elements — that his jacket was open a button too low, the collar curled on one side; that one rebellious strand of hair had already escaped the oils meant to keep it in place; that the white shirt beneath his coat that was slightly wrinkled.

I loved those little idiosyncrasies.

I loved all of it.

“Thank you for providing a much-needed reason for escape,” he said to me, once we tucked ourselves into a quiet spot. We were relatively secluded, though stray glances still followed us. I wondered if they were intended for my scars or his reputation. Both, maybe.

“You are very late. I wasn’t sure if you would come.”

“Of course I would.”

I watched the corner of his eyes crinkle, just barely. Watched his gaze hold on me for a moment before flicking away.

Oh,Sammerin had said, with that mysterious glint,He’ll be here.

Then I ran my eyes again down his throat, over his shoulders, over sleeves crinkled as if they had been pushed up his forearms and then hurriedly straightened. And then I craned my neck, peering at his conversational companion, who now sat awkwardly alone.

“She was pretty.”

“I didn’t notice.”

I certainly did.

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