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“What—”
“Answer me before I stab you!”
“Y-you!” I sputter, shrinking back. “What in toady hells, Camilla?”
Nostrils flaring, she lowers the pin. “That girl in the fayflower dress. She’s more enchanted than a pumpkin carriage. I think she’s a witch or—or—I don’t know.” Taking me by the arm, she hauls me toward the stairs that lead to the upper landing. Her own thumb is bloody, smearing a stain down my wrist and sizzling a hole on my sleeve.
“Careful! You’re melting the glamour.”
Camilla is barely listening, eyes trained below where her brother bows in front of the mystery girl. “I’ve never seen anything like this. I need to get that dress off her.”
I bite my tongue before a lewd joke can escape. “Camilla, stop.” May as well tell her the truth. She finds out everything soon enough. I lower my voice to the barest hiss. “Your father secretly arranged this. This girl—she was selected in advance. He told me to tell Cyrus that she was his true love.”
She blinks in surprise. “Who is she?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“Then if the fairy magic on her is strong enough to dothat,who knows if thiscomplete strangerenchanted Father into this as well?”
“Dowhat?”
“The charm. The—extra touch of glamour.” Camilla gives me a funny look, as ifI’mthe strangest creature in this room. She shakes her head. “It barely affects you, doesn’t it? That used to frustrate Cyrus.”
I only have more questions. “I still don’t—”
“Look at how that girl is drawing attention. It’s the same way people look at me and my brother, but much, much stronger.” Camilla snaps her fingers in front of a servant whose tray of glasses is slipping as he stares at the dancing couple, but it doesn’t make a difference. “We aren’t so desirable by accident. There’s fairy magic on us all the time. It doesn’t change how we look, but it adds a particular allure, charisma—call it what you like. You can’t help but look at us. Be a little seduced.”
The constant frenzy around Cyrus. How peoplepay attentionwhenever one of the twins enters the room. “That’s why everyone’s in love with you two.”
“Well, I don’tneedit to be desirable,” she adds quickly.
“Of course,” I assure her.
“The glamours work best on those predisposed to us, which is why if someone likes Cyrus, they like him very, very much. It takes all three of the fairies in the palace to manage what my brother and I have. That girl isdrippingwith glamour. Thank the Fates I knew to prick myself as soon as I sensed it.” She drums her fingers on the banister. “What to do, what to do…we have to get closer to them…Oh! Dance with me!”
Camilla shoves me back down the stairs and my armspinwheel to keep me balanced. Unlike Dante, the princess is a forceful partner. She presses me to her bosom before I can even answer. She drags my arm up in the air, yanking me into a flamboyant pose as I protest.
“Camilla—!”
“Hush! Andfocus!” She charges us forward, using our joined hands as a battering ram to part the crowd. Camilla’s threads flicker through my mind.
The crowd applauding her at the Masked Menagerie’s announcement.
A glass necklace with a drop of red liquid.
Parties upon parties filled with empty laughter, every gaze on the girl on her brother’s arm.
In the present, if Cyrus and that girl weren’t captivating every set of eyes in the audience, people might be wondering why a second pair of dancers suddenly joined the floor. Camilla and I spin our way toward them in a scramble of feet hardly better than a drunken jig. The candlelight above spin round and round, and I manage to kick my own shins; even my enchanted shoes can’t save me.
“Just a little closer—how does she have everyone distracted? I’ve never seen anything so effective,” Camilla mutters. “All right, don’t be alarmed.”
“I’malreadyalarmed!”
Camilla flips a blade out from her pocket. She slashes the soft pad of her thumb, wincing as it wells red. She grabs a jug of water from a servant at the edge of the crowd and shoves her hand inside.
Water and blood splash on me. I jerk away as my sleeves melt. “What—”
I stumble on the girl’s train. She gasps. Cyrus sluggishly recognizes us.
