“Is there a problem, Your Majesty?” I asked, wincing at the stitch in my side.
“Yes.” He looked so severe, staring down at me with tight eyes. “You cannot breathe.”
“Please keep dancing.” I looked around, chest heaving, worried about causing a scene and riling Nemea’s temper. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“You’re panting like a dog.”
I could not parse whether the man was annoyed or concerned. “Please,” I begged, “I have no desire to disrupt the dancers. I’m well. Thank you.”
He stared at me for a heartbeat, gaze narrowing, and then he started our steps again, but at a half pace. He wove us through the other pairs, keeping us both in step with the music and out of step with the rest of the room. We were as close as my skirt would allow.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“I’m letting you catch your breath.”
“I said I was fine.” Panic edged my words. Out of the corner of my eye, Nemea watched us, angry color rising in his cheeks.
“Nemea made you wear this ridiculous dress?” His voice was deep and soft, sending a wave of prickling nerves over my skin.
I glanced down at my bodice. “It was a gift,” I said tersely. “He wanted tonight to be perfect and had it made specially for the occasion.”
“Remarkable.”
“What is?”
“Nemea is even cruel with his gifts.”
The music began to drone, one bar after the next. The laughter of the dancers grated at my ears, and King Theodore, annoyingly, kept our slow pace, leading me with ease through the reeling dancers all around us. I plastered an even, pleasant look on my face, eyes fixed over his shoulder.
He pulled back, just slightly, and cocked his head. “You look familiar.” There was a question strung through the words.
“Do I? Perhaps our talk earlier has you confused.”
He shook his head. “No. It’s something else.” He kept staring, just as he had on the parapet, meticulous and appraising.
“I assure you, you haven’t seen me before today. I was born here. I’ve never left Seraf. When I was orphaned, King Nemea benevolently took me in as his ward.”
He gave a bitter laugh. “And why would he do that?”
I kept my lips pinched, not eager to offer up the true answer: that my family had been wealthy, and it was my inheritance that kept King Nemea’s kingdom afloat. “You’ll have to ask him yourself.”
“I’d rather not speak to the man, so I’ll guess.” I’d caught my breath, but King Theodore kept us at a maddening crawl across the dance floor. “You are a sprig of mint in a fetid mouth. You are the balm that soothes the lash of his cruelty. Why else would he dress you up in half the archipelago’s available crystal if it was not to make it look like both his coffers and his heart were depthless? InNemea’s mind, he cannot be seen as truly despicable if he’s looked after someone so lovely and charming as you.”
I didn’t hide my wince. He’d given me no compliment; rather, his words curled with scathing distaste. I managed a wide, sweet smile despite the way my stomach sank. “And you, Your Majesty, are clearly too shrewd to fall for his elaborate scheme.” I boldly met his gaze. “You seem far from charmed by me.”
When our eyes locked, he stopped dead and stared in astonishment. His jaw slackened. He let go of my hand, released my waist. “I do know you.”
“What?” I made a quick scan of the room. “Please, you’re making a scene.”
He shook his head, a small movement, but those keen eyes of his studied the lines of my face further—the arch of my brow and the swoop of my nose, and lower, to the bow of my lips and the sharp dip of my chin.
“What are you doing?” I raised my arms, waiting for him to take my hand again. King Nemea had come to stand at the edge of the floor, his head tipped back in suspicion. “Please, Your Majesty, you’re drawing attention.”
King Theodore took a step away from me. A young woman spun into his back, but even that did not break the way he stared. Finally, he strode toward his guards, leaving me standing in the middle of the dance floor as the music dwindled to an end.
Fingers dug into my arm, jerked me sideways. “What did you say to him?” King Nemea said gruffly into my ear.
“Nothing at all, Your Majesty.” My heart was a lump in my throat. “He said he knew me. I have no idea what he meant by it.”
