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“Thanks, mom, I think I can handle it.” He nodded curtly and strode out.
Kasha helped me into the dress and curled my long black hair into loose ringlets. She put some light makeup on my face as well. I wasn’t sure how she did it, but when she was done, my eyes looked impossibly large, and my mouth was stained a red that complimented the dress perfectly.
“Now, for the final touch,” she said, fastening Elvira’s Circlet over my brow. I looked at myself in the mirror of the bathroom and gaped. I barely recognized myself. I did look like royalty.
“Wow, Kasha, good job.” I said, and she smiled.
“It wasn’t hard; you’re already pretty cute,” she winked at me, and I blushed.
We made our way to the common room to meet the rest of the team. Amon was speaking to Dossidian, Conrad, and Rycon intensely. The table in the conversion pit did not have any food on it.
Instead, Meredith was bundling herbs, and had a small cauldron boiling in the center. She seemed to be making some sort of draught. Amon looked up as we came in, and his eyes widened.
I blushed again as his eyes met mine. He let his gaze slowly roam over my body, taking in every detail, before he slid away from the others.
“You look stunning,” he whispered, tracing his fingers over the thin scars on my arm. I looked at him and smiled, feeling slightly more shy than usual.
“Thanks. Kasha did a great job with the hair and make-up.” I said. He swallowed and nodded. We stood in silence for a moment before he shook his head and cleared his throat.
“I brought you this.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small but long black box. “It was my mother’s, I thought you could wear it today.” He opened the box to reveal a choker made up entirely of large round emeralds.
“Amon…” I gasped, “It’s beautiful.” I don’t think I had ever seen anything so exquisite.
“Turn around,” he said, I did, pulling my hair up so that he could fasten the choker around my neck. When I turned back to face him, he thumbed my silver ring of ravens that hung lower on my chest and smiled.
“They look good together,” he said before looking up at me. “Green seems to be your color.” And here, I had always thought my color was black. However, remembering what I had looked like when I first glanced at my reflection, I agreed with him. Maybe I should be adding more green to my wardrobe.
“Ok, so what’s the plan?” Dossidian asked. Amon suddenly snapped into the other version of himself. The version of himself that was authoritative, a leader. The version of himself that demanded obedience and compliance.
“Raven and I will shadow walk Kasha to the front gates. There is no point in her disguising herself until we’re inside. The widowmakers will know who she is at the checkpoint. Once we’re inside, we will meet with Ash Nevra.
“Her summoning said she would be greeting us in the Great Hall. While we meet with her, Kasha will disguise herself as Kieran and go to the throne room to look for the Omnikey. Once she has it secure, we will come back here.”
“’Ere, Kasha,” Conrad said grimly, stepping forward to hand her The Lens. “Every hoe have dem stick a bush. Walk good.”
Kasha gave him a curious look and he explained, “Is Jamaican proverb. It mean dat everyone have deir own way of doing tings, and must follow deir own path. It also means good luck.” He winked at her.
Kasha took The Lens from him reverently and nodded. “Thank you for trusting me with this.” She said, knowing how seriously he took his position on The Board.
He gave her one of his best lopsided grins, “Mi know yuh good for it.”
Amon continued, “the summoning is for two days, but we will not be staying the night. If I have to kill every single one of her guards to get us back here before nightfall, I will.”
Fuck. The seriousness of what we were about to do finally set in. We were going to an enemy's court. The outcome of this meeting would end in us declaring war, no matter which way I looked at it.
There would be no more pretending, no more hiding. No more tiptoeing around. We were going there to challenge her, not bow to her.
“I am making several healing potions for various ailments. Should you need medical treatment, we can use the common room as a makeshift infirmary when you return.” Meredith said. Amon nodded, smiling kindly at Meredith.
“I never thought I would be so glad to have such friends among the magick folk,” Amon said. I remembered what he had said about daemons not making good healers. He turned to me.
“Are you ready?”
I nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” I responded, and he took my hand.
“Let’s go then,” Amon called his shadows and took us to the Court of Lust to see the Queen.
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