Page 113 of Twisting Beauty

I led him toward Maeve with my smile fixed and my shoulders loose, though the weight of the room seemed to shift toward us with every step.

I kept my expression warm and turned toward Maeve with a hostess’s smile. “Mr. Mikhailov,” I said lightly, pitching my voice for the room, “may I present one of our loveliest girls?”

Then I dropped my voice and leaned closer to Deargán. “Take her with you.”

Deargán looked at Maeve. Then at me. One moment of silence, long enough that I thought he was going to say yes.

“No,” he said, quiet and final. “You’ll ruin everything for one girl.”

He set his glass on the bar and walked away.

The floor dropped out from under me. I stood there with trembling knees and my smile still fixed in place.

The ghost of Maeve’s hand was still warm on my arm. But Dervla rose up in my mind, then all those girls still trapped in the ward, then every name on every file I’d found in Alistair’s study.

I hated that he was right.

One girl for dozens. It wasn’t just about Alistair anymore. This was bigger than him. This was an entire corrupt system. I hated that some broken, brutal part of me understood it.

But I couldn’t leave her. I’d failed her once when I just stood back and let them lock her away in that ward. I just… couldn’t do it again. I would hate myself too much.

I scrambled for a plan, my eyes scanning for exits. Okay, new plan. I’d accidentally spill a drink on her. Feign taking her to my room to change her dress. I’d pretend she’d jumped me, had gotten away. I could fake a few injuries. I could make it look good. Nuala would hide her. Guilt weaved in me. I hated bringing Nuala into this, but… I had no choice.

I grabbed a drink off the bar.

But I didn’t get the chance to use it.

Alistair appeared at my shoulder, stepping between me and Maeve.

He said something to the man beside him. The man nodded and took Maeve’s arm.

Maeve stared up at him, her legs unsteady as he led her away. “W-where are you taking me?” she asked, her voice thin with fear.

The man did not answer.

Maeve glanced back over her shoulder at me, her eyes wide now, begging me to do something.

My fingers tightened around my drink, around my failed plan. I wanted to scream. To lunge for her. To fight him off. But I could do none of those things. I could do fucking nothing. Not if I wanted to keep Rua in play. Not if I had any chance of finding a way of destroying Alistair’s entire twisted system.

Alistair watched me. “What did she say to you?”

I swallowed everything down as the door closed behind Maeve. Down, down, down just like I’d spent my life doing. Even as something inside me screamed that this could be the last time I saw her.

A smile stretched across my face. “Just that she was enjoying the party,” I remarked in a casual tone.

He looked at me for a long moment, as if weighing whether to believe me.

Lorcan was watching from across the room. I didn’t need to look to know it. I could feel the heat of his attention, the way it sat differently on my skin.

The seams of my performance began to snap. I had to get out of here or I’d break.

“I, um, need to find the ladies’ room.”

Alistair caught my arm as I turned. “Don’t stay away too long, pet.”

There was a guest en suite directly off the drawing room, small, overdecorated, and mercifully empty.

I locked the door behind me and stood in the silence for one second, two, and then I hit my palm against the door hard enough to sting.