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“I am happy you are here.” This time she did allow herself to lay her head down.
Ephram didn’t answer but he didn’t need to. They danced while Ambrose listened to the steady beat of his heart and took comfort in knowing that he would not do what Burke had done. Ephram would never leave her.
When the song came to an end, the band took a break allowing Ambrose to hurry off the dance floor, stopping only to slip back into her shoes. She narrowly avoided the man who talked about the strength of the triangle and how his new home would be triple the size of his last. Dancing had left her thirsty and tired. While she sipped from a wine glass she looked to the staffs. Two staffs when there should have been four.
What little enjoyment she’d taken from the night was quickly disintegrating into guilt. Farah and Sienna should be here. They should be happily married and celebrating with her and Ophelia. This party felt like an insult to their deaths.
A guardsman moved aside to allow Ophelia to step forward and take her staff in her hand. She spoke to him quietly before she headed for the exit of the room with Burke at her side. Was she leaving already? Leaving Ambrose to the party by herself without so much as a farewell? Why was he going with her?
Ambrose set her wine glass down, perhaps harder than she should have because the noise of the glass hitting the table drew attention from the suitors who’d stood in small groups talking. She forced herself to smile nicely like she’d been taught to before she too picked up her staff and exited the ballroom.
Ophelia was only a few steps ahead of her and she easily caught up to her side. What she drank gave her courage and perhaps made her a little dumb.
“Do you feel nothing for what we have lost?” Ambrose said, stopping her sister in her tracks.
“Excuse me?” Ophelia spun and took a step.
“Do you feelnothing? Do you even have a heart?” Even to her own ears she knew she sounded pathetic.
Ophelia laughed but it was not a pleasant sound. It was full of wicked anger. Ambrose had found the right thing to poke at and she’d jabbed at just the right time.
Ophelia, one. Ambrose, one.
“I feel everything as a mother would. I watched each of you grow from infancy. I helped feed you, bathe you,raiseyou. Do not question me on something you know nothing about. Everything I’ve done has been for us, for this family.”
Burke kept his face downcast as Ophelia’s flames licked at the glass of her globe.
“Yet you do not care that they are gone?”
Ophelia scoffed. “You do not listen, little sister. You do not pay attention.” Ophelia made to turn around and continue to wherever she had been headed but when Ambrose spoke again she did not move.
“Do you know that Aylee is alive?”
Burke’s head snapped up.
Ophelia fought a smile, flaring up a nervousness in Ambrose. Ophelia never looked as… unstable as she did now.
“Aylee was the first to receive the gift of eternal life with magic even they could never hold.” Ophelia was snarling now. “When I’m done our whole family will be reunited and more powerful than ever, as long as you,” she shoved a finger into Ambrose’s chest, “stay out of my way.”
Now she knew her sister had truly gone insane. Raising the dead? Did she think she had such power?
A thousand questions bubbled up inside her head. None of which would be answered tonight as Ophelia stormed down the castle hall, leaving Burke behind. He stood there watching Ambrose as she tried to piece together whatever it was that Ophelia was trying to say.
“May I, uh, escort you to your room?”
“Did you know she was doing this?” Whateverthisis.
Burke hesitated, an act she did not miss before he finally nodded. “Only vaguely. I know there is a plan but I do not know any of the details so I’m not much help.”
They could no longer see Ophelia giving them the illusion of privacy as they headed for Ambrose’s quarters. Every biting step of her heels bothered her but she refused to show it.
Pieces were falling into place, Ophelia’s hard exterior and her lack of mourning were all explained by this one nonsensical belief that she could raise them all from the dead. Though she’d often wondered if Aylee was still alive she didn’t believe that her sister had been given a second life. She’d always assumed that Aylee had somehow survived it. Part of her had hoped she had. Her sister’s death had been the first time she’d put her country before herself.
Before she knew it she was standing in front of her door. Ambrose’s brows knitted together with confusion as she tried to remember the walk here and couldn’t quite recall it.
“Your room, my queen.” Burke bowed.
She waved briefly, already reaching for the doorknob.
