Page 20 of Grave Flowers
But I wasn’t dancing with Aeric.
I was dancing with Inessa, who wore the same gauzy red dress as before. She dragged me to her. Thick sludge poured from her eyes. I let out a cry and yanked my wrist away. Everyone murmured but they weren’t alarmed.
They didn’t see her.
Only I did.
Inessa grabbed me with both hands and cruelly dipped me, nearly bending me in half. Pain shot up my spine. She jerked me upright. My scar was alive, shooting spikes of agony into my wrist. Snippets of the guests’ murmurs reached me.
“The new princess is quite flexible!”
“How did she dip so far?”
“Flower magic! It must be!”
Everything was spiraling. I stepped away from Inessa. She came at me again, face twisting beneath the black muck. I had to get away before I started screaming in terror. I turned and pushed throughthe crowd, fleeing. Picking up my skirts, I ran back up the stairs I’d so grandly descended. I didn’t dare stop.
Inessa came behind me. I knew without looking; I could feel her, my nerves flashing and blinking beneath my skin in anticipation of someone catching me. Servants milled about as I ran through the hallways. They stared at me in confusion, unaware of my pursuer. The doors to my chambers appeared. I burst through them, my fingers shaking so badly, I could hardly turn the lock.
All the candles were lit, even though my girls had blown them out when we left.
With a suppressed whimper, I looked at my scar. Pink streaks unfurled across it, reaching farther across my skin, while the scar itself turned softer and spongy in a way dead tissue shouldn’t. Impulsively, I thrust my hand behind my back, as though it might somehow separate from myself.
Then I waited.
Doors and locks wouldn’t keep her out.
I knew it.
Sure enough, her hand came through the door. It caught on the wood, but it didn’t stop her from reaching forward. Flesh stripped back from her arm like a rind peeling from a vegetable. I stared in horror at the layers of stringy veins, the shredded muscles, and, at the core of the layers, the flash of white bone. The scar from our birth snagged on the frame and stretched more and more, until it snapped back into place. Every one of Inessa’s fingers strained and pointed, grasping and clawing. Another hand joined it, and then, with a sudden surge, she burst through the door.
“Inessa?” I whimpered.
She sank to the ground and then moved forward on all fours. Her head twisted side to side. A half hissing, half growling came from her throat.
“Inessa!”
At the second utterance of her name, she blinked. Black fluid spun around her eyeballs, crossing her pupils and dripping over her eyelids. She blinked again and her eyes cleared. Slowly, she straightened.
“I’m”—she looked around at my chambers and then focused on me—“starving.”
“You can’t just appear whenever you want!” I cried. “Don’t you want me to avenge you? You’ll have me locked away if you scare me in front of everyone. No one else can see you.”
“I don’t have a choice.” Spotting the floor-length mirror in the dressing chamber, she crossed to it and gasped, horrified by her appearance. Then a slow smile crossed her face, and she dipped her fingers into the black liquid, arranging it so it highlighted her lids and lips. I followed her. “I simply am in Bide and, without warning, find myself here. I have no control. Trust me, if I did, I wouldn’t travel all the way from the other side to be your dance partner. Now, how are you getting on? Have you learned anything about who might’ve killed me?”
“I only just arrived,” I said defensively. “But I must interrogate the head botanist and try to gain access to your chambers. Have you remembered anything new?”
“Head botanist?” Inessa asked, pausing as she fussed with her hair. Some of it hung limply over her shoulders and the rest was coiled around the top of her head. Pebbly whitish clumps clung to her strands. She frowned. “Too much light.” Annoyed, she blew out the nearest candle.
“Yes, Annia,” I said. “I’m not certain she poisoned you, but I figure I should see who had access to the flower berry before you ate it. I will visit the garden after the betrothal service tomorrow.”
“Ah, yes, the betrothal service. I think you’ll enjoy it. Mine was delightful,” Inessa said. Smoke from the candle twirled around her. “They say twins are one human living the same life twice. I’ve never believed it until now.”
I didn’t think it was fully true. We weren’t living the same life. Inessa had lived her life, and now mine was the water seeping into the footsteps she’d left behind. I came after her, crossing ground she’d already traveled. A chill gripped me. What if death awaited me, just as it had awaited her?
“It’s the same service we have in Radix,” she continued, “but it’s funny how everything feels different in Acus.”
“The service matters not to me.” I blew out a candle as well with a heavy, strangled breath. A sweet hint of beeswax rose with the acrid smoke. “I know you were supposed to murder Aeric. Father has me after the same end.”
