Her eyes widen, fingertips brushing the back of my arm. “This looks really sore …”
I slap my hand over the spot, catching her hardened stare in the mirror. “It’s nothing.”
“Did somebody do this to you, Orlaith?”
“No,” I bite out, equal parts denial and an omission of the ugly truth.
I did it.
I hate the way pity stains her eyes when she looks at me.
She offers me a sad smile. “You don’t trust me …”
“I don’t trust many people,” I admit. “Certainly not people I just met.”
She nods, glancing at my arm again. “I value the honesty. Especially in a world where lies are used as currency.”
A token of useful information I pocket for later.
She seems to deliberate, chewing on her bottom lip before she closes my washroom door and leans against it, stare dropped to the floor. After a few deep breaths, she looks at me, that vivacious sparkle gone from her eyes.
Frowning, I turn, leaning against the vanity with my arms crossed over my chest.
“When I was sixteen, I met a boy. He worked at the docks, and from the moment our eyes met, we just … fell into each other so effortlessly,” she says, tucking a fallen curl behind her ear. “I snuck him into my room and gave myself to him—because Iwantedto.” A brief pause, and she swallows, dropping her stare to the ground again. “One of my guards found out, told Mother, and I never saw him again. Anywhere. Like he just disappeared off the face of the continent.”
My heart plummets.
“Apparently, he wasn’tgood enough.Really, Mother had plans to couple me off with someone who would knot advantageous ties for the family line—someone who shared her chosen faith in the hopes that it would coax me into their religious fold—and mydiscrepanciesruined everything because of their rigid beliefs that women must remain chaste until they’re coupled.”
“Gael …”
She shrugs. “Mother dragged me to the Elder to atone, and I was told that I must take twenty lashings to purify my body.” She pulls her hair over her shoulder and turns.
My eyes widen at the tapered tips of risen scars scribbled across her back. I step forward, brushing my fingers across them, feeling their knobbed tracks. “That’s—”
“Messed up. I know,” she says, looking at me over her shoulder. “And to really top it all off, I was told tonevervoice myimpurities. To anyone. Because if word got out, I would bring shame upon my family.”
“I won’t tell anyone,” I assure her quickly.
“Neither will I,” she says, turning, nodding at my arm and giving me a half smile. “Now that you hold my greatest secret in the palm of your hand, I can cover the bruise if you’d like?”
“You can?”
She nods, then starts opening and closing drawers. “There’s sure to be a tinted cream amongst all these cosmetics … Aha!” She holds up a small compact, then flips the lid and dabs its contents upon my skin with a sponge, blowing it dry before applying a second layer. “There,” she says, leaning back to inspect her handiwork. “Can’t see a thing.”
“Thank you …”
She smiles and turns her attention to my hair, pinning sections into a half-updo with gold clips, then spins me by my shoulders, head tilting to the side. “Some kohl, perhaps? You’ve got such beautiful eyes. I could really make them pop.”
I shake my head and she sighs, coiling one of the strands left loose around my face with her pointer finger. “Well, you look beautiful without it.”
Frowning, I glance down at myself—the bodice cinching my curves all the way to mid-thigh, where it spills out in a burst of silky ribbons.
“You’re displeased …”
I pluck up a tendril, letting it breeze back to the floor.
“It’s just … there’s a reason I was hoping to go with something simpler.”
