Page 152 of Taken By Shadows

“How Varris ever coordinates such a spectacular party every year, I will never understand.” Sapphine swaggered into the drawing room like she wasn’t just interrupting a private conversation. “I will, sadly, be missing this year’s event.”

Excitement danced behind my eyes at her impending absence but I tried to be demure. “What takes you from the city?”

A small amount of polite conversation would go some way towards ingratiating myself with Sapphine, for Tymon’s sake.

She speared me with a look as a sharp and unattractive smile spread across her face. “My lord father wishes me to visit my home in Gloriya. With everything in Gallen, we must ensure we’re prepared for the changes that are surely to come. I take an active and hands-on role in my father’s work. My brothers had no head for it, so I now see to the details. The bottom lines.”

I didn’t really have anything to say to that. She had no idea I knew about the faebane in the mines. Did she even know what the miners in Gallen had struck, or was she just concerned with the bottom line, as she’d said?

“Where is home for you?” Sapphine said with a plastered-on smile. Her eyes shone with a barely contained blaze. They might have been beautiful if they weren’t so cruel behind those russet lashes.

“Home,” I repeated, and paused to find a lie.

“Perhaps you two can discuss this another time,” Tymon interrupted as he stood, and I was so grateful he did. Whether he knew or not that I couldn’t conjure a lie, he’d stepped in.

Something pulled across Sapphine’s face, and I felt uneasy in the room. But she surprised me. “No, no, my dear. She must stay for tea. I will have the help fetch some. You’ll stay for tea, won’t you, dearest Imogen?”

I stammered. Had Sapphine just extended a kindness, or had I just been invited into a snare?

I flicked my eyes to Tymon, who looked as bewildered as I felt. But what was he to do? There was no malice in Sapphine’s tone.

“It’s settled,” she said, smiling broadly as she took up Tymon’s vacated seat on the sofa opposite me. A snap of teal magic crackled on her fingers, and a bell chimed somewhere in the house.

She sat with impeccable posture as she jabbed Tymon with a look that forced him from the room. Tymon offered me a pitying smile.

Dumbfounded, I puzzled on how I’d found myself alone with Sapphine.

The tea arrived on a silver tray, but before the cups were poured, Sapphine stood. “They’ve forgotten the cakes.” She was to the door and gone before I could stop her.

How had my day taken a turn to be sitting for tea with the last female I’d ever imagined doing that with? My mind fussed over the timing of it all, and I wondered whether she knew, did she care that Kaed and I were—What were we? She had believed from the start that we were engaged to be married. But everything that had unfolded between us, everything that had been building inside of me was finally let loose last night. Could she sense that? Was I different? I blanched at the memory of Kaed having scented Eryk on me after he’d kissed me.

Could Sapphine sense Kaed on me? Oh, gods …

“Absolutely useless help in this house. I would not have humans in my house in Gloriya, but Tymon insists on it here.” Sapphine huffed as she spun back into the room, a plate of cakes in one hand and a small glass jar in the other.

She poured me a cup of tea, and I felt entirely uncomfortable under her hospitality.

“Try it,” she said as she scooped two spoonfuls of the white shimmering grains from the glass jar into my tea.

“What is it?” I said, sniffing at the steaming cup in my hands.

“Mooncap sugar,” she said simply, “from the mountains that surround Gloriya.” Her back was bolt upright.

Not wanting to be rude, I took a sip. It was hideously sweet as it hit my tongue. Even Audrie might balk at such sweetness. But I smiled regardless.

Silence stretched between us for long minutes. But Sapphine looked perfectly content to just luxuriate in it while I fidgeted with the delicate porcelain in my hands.

I drank the tea for something to do.

“Does your father do much business in the city?” I tried to wake myself up from the peace that was settling into my skin from the heat.

“Some,” she said, a dismissive tone on her tongue. “Drink. Please.” She offered no further insight on that.

“And your trip to Gloriya is for business?”

Her eyes landed on me then, puzzling my question. Maybe I was pushing too much. But what else was I going to talk to Sapphine about? I didn’t want to discuss flowers and paintings. If she knew what Tymon’s mines had, maybe she had something to do with the missing records.

“Yes,” she said slowly, weighing my words. I took another long drink of the sweet tea, and at that, she continued, “My father wishes to expand his holdings, and as I am the one who now maintains the finances for the investments, I must review things with him.”