He was not at the ball tonight yet.
I fisted my hands in frustration.I needed to take care of this now.Tonight.But it wouldn’t do me or the plan any good if I couldn’t find him.Perhaps he was still in his room.If so, maybe I could break into it.
Valeris strode by in his shiny black suit.I had been avoiding him all night, which hadn’t been difficult once I learned to keep an eye on his bodyguard’s whereabouts.He left the ballroom, and I found myself following, unsure why.I told myself I only wanted to know what he and his siblings were up to, and I had time for a brief diversion.He hadn’t contacted me since I had spied on his sister.
I crept out of the ballroom, staying well behind but keeping him in sight.I frowned when I couldn’t place his bodyguard, Howland.I didn’t understand how he seemed to become invisible when he wanted to, considering his height.
Valeris headed toward the palace gates at a brisk pace, making it difficult to keep my movements nonchalant in my dress.I decided to move parallel to him, watching him from the corner of my eye.My curiosity grew when he left the palace grounds without an escort, but no one would recognize him in his mask.A flash to the right alerted me to the location of his bodyguard, and my eyes narrowed.That man was always with him, never leaving his side, like he feared the prince was in a constant state of danger and he was the only one capable of saving him.His devotion went beyond the duties of a bodyguard.
People crowded the streets, some trying to hurry home but most in masks as the festivities extended down to the commoners.Banners and flickering torchlight decorated every street, musicians playing on corners and dancing breaking out everywhere, bodies pushing through the crowds.
The sea of masks threatened to drown me as I tried to stay parallel to Valeris, the costumes disorienting me.
What was he doing down here?
I picked up my pace, searching the bobbing heads to keep track of his black-and-silver mask, but he vanished into the crowd.When I couldn’t locate him, I found his bodyguard.He looked as lost as me.I shook my head.
“A pretty rose for the lady?”A smiling tinker eyed my costume as if deciphering the location of my coin purse.
I smiled warmly at him.“I prefer wildflowers, actually.”
He took on the most befuddled expression that I laughed, then immediately stopped.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had laughed.
I stared at the world around me, basking in the joy radiating from the people.There had been festivals in our kingdom back home.We danced with the commoners as if there were no social class.My father conversed with the farmers as if they were equals.Our people loved my parents.
For a moment, staring out at the Paravellians in all their bliss, I could forget the last five years, the horrors of that awful night, to a time when things were simpler.When I didn’t have to think about tragedies a child should never have to experience.
Silver flashed on the opposite side of the street.
Valeris.
I worked my way through the crowd, trying to keep him in my sight, but I was always falling a little too far behind, never catching up.The press of bodies suffocated me as I pushed through them.Valeris disappeared into an alley ahead and I ducked into it, glad for the reprieve.
But he wasn’t there.
Darkness touched every part of the alleyway, a strong contrast from the life in the street.The hair on the back of my neck prickled, wariness rising within me, and I turned to go.
Someone pushed me up against the stone wall, cold steel pressed against my neck.Fear swarmed through me as I reached for my knife, prepared to fend off my attacker, but I hesitated.Valeris’s emerald-green eyes shone from behind his mask.
“Oh.”He eased up on the pressure of the blade as his voice shifted to indifference.“It’s you.”He sighed as if disappointed.“You can stop following me.”
“You recognized me so easily in a mask?”I asked, his compliment from the night before coming to mind.
“It’s not like you’re difficult to pick out in a crowd.”
What was that supposed to mean?
I quirked an eyebrow.“How did you know I was following you?”
One corner of his mouth crept up.“When you’ve been followed every day of your life you get a knack for it.”
He hadn’t moved away, which left him crowding me against the wall.I pursed my lips, irritated he’d gotten the upper hand.If I’d had better access to one of my knives, I would have stabbed first and asked questions later.That wouldn’t have fared well for Valeris—or the questions it would raise about me.
“Did you think I was trying to rob you?”I asked.
“Or kill me.”
