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My heels clacked on the marble floor, and the pair stopped to look at me. The smaller of the two, a brunette with dark eyes, had the decency to appear ashamed. But her partner smirked at me before pivoting around to dust at the statues and knickknacks on the entry tables.
I desperately wanted to say something in my defense, to explain that I didn’t want any of this stuff.
Is that how they’re all looking at me now?
“The servants have work to do,” an impatient voice snapped behind me. “They don’t need you micromanaging them by watching their every move.”
I spun around, shocked that anyone would think I was doing that. Odette glowered at me as she strode by, her fiery mane fanning behind her.
“I wasn’t?—”
“And breakfast is served between six and eight,” the enchantress went on. “Unless you’re the king. Do you think you’re the king?”
Humiliation burned my gut, my lip finding its way under my front teeth as Odette disappeared around the corner and out of sight.
Does everyone here hate me? They don’t even know me!
I was used to judgment, of course. My father and I had never had enough money, and after he had passed, my life had only gotten worse, but now I was Nyx’s guest. Didn’t that afford me some clout? Some respect?
Slowly, I headed into the dining room where, to my dismay, Odette was seated at the table, her plate half filled with pancakes and sausage links. She didn’t look up when I wandered in, but she reiterated what she’d said when she had passed me in the foyer.
“It’s almost eight o’clock. It’s not fair for the servants to be waiting for you. But I guess faeries like you keep all kinds of hours, huh?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know they were waiting for me,” I said quickly. “I’ll just have a runeshade tea. I don’t need to eat.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Odette whiplashed. “Sit down and eat. They’ve been cooking all morning. The least you can do is honor their sacrifice by eating something.”
I sank into my usual seat, the one to the right of the king’s chair, and directly across from the enchantress. She darted a glance at me, and I read the animus in her eyes.
“You’ve made yourself cozy here, hm?” It wasn’t a question.
It was a statement intended to make me more uncomfortable than I already was.
“The king has been very generous,” I squeaked, swallowing the dryness in my throat.
Odette grunted, and a cup of runeshade pepper tea was placed in front of me. I noticed that Odette watched me drinking it carefully, as if she expected the peppers to extract dark magic from inside me. Of course, that is why we drank runeshade tea, to keep dark magic at bay. But one only had a reaction to the tea if that fae was carrying dark magic inside them.
Apprehensive now, my appetite diminished, even when the fancy plate of cinnamon-baked toast and rosemary potatoes were brought before me. But I didn’t want to antagonize her any more than I already had, and I picked up my fork to force the food down. My stomach protested.
A blissful few minutes of silence passed between us, and I hoped that Odette had finished with me when she unleashed again.
“What are you doing here, dancer?”
I bristled at the generic name. “I’m Maren,” I told her flatly. “And I’m here because the king asked me to be.”
She snorted rudely. “I’m sure that’s the only reason.”
To keep myself from retorting, I shoved more food in my mouth and chewed quickly, refusing to take her bait.
“You can’t think this will last very long, can you?” Odette said almost conversationally. I eyed her balefully, but she was nonplussed by my anger. “He’ll outgrow you and move on to someone more fitting.”
I swallowed my mouthful and set the utensil down, wiping my mouth, before I carefully replied. “Does the king know you think he’s so… flighty?”
Blood drained out of Odette’s face, and her gray eyes sparked indignantly. “Don’t put words in my mouth, dancer!” she fired out. “It’s not the king who’s the problem.”
We held each other’s stare until a guard cleared his throat from the doorway.
“What is it?” Odette barked, reluctantly turning her head to address him.
