Chapter 32: Two-Timing

"So that's how it is," Pyren said, rubbing his chin. I stared into the fire, my thoughts going in circles. He looked satisfied with my work, but I needed to find a way to overpower him.

"If I don't play along, they'll suspect," I said. "I'll risk losing their trust completely."

Pyren crossed his arms. "Then play along. The result will be to our favour. It's a done deal. What I want you to focus on, Yael, is to keep Waryn away from the conclave. No matter what, he cannot show his presence there."

"Why?" I asked.

Pyren frowned. He hated questions.

"Sorry," I said at once. Pyren wasn't asking me to kill anyone. All I had to do was keep Waryn away from a meeting he wasn't even supposed to attend.

I could do that much, even though it made absolutely no sense.

***

Lord Ian Kiri's belly was large enough to contain several babies. His five chins wobbled when he spoke with Lord Aspertin, waving his wineglass theatrically.

"These Masquerades have to stop," he said. "It's never good when we all come together. Look how many of our children we have lost. Murder, conspiracy, it's like that every time." What Waryn and Leah told me, the more I thought of it, the truer it became. Aspertin had killed my parents as a favour to another lord. He did it to create an alliance—this alliance, with the Kiri. The one that would enable him to claw his way to kinghood.

I tried to look at Lord Ian Kiri and see the man who took everything from me. I looked around the salon, at his three remaining children gathered round us.

I would continue what Leah started. I would make him suffer the same pain I suffered.

We all wore the white clothes of mourning, to honour the dead even though this was a celebration.

"This union wouldn't have happened without the Masquerade, Ian," said Lord Aspertin. "It's a small consolation to us bereaved parents that our children can find joy."

"Yes," Lord Ian Kiri said with a bow of his head, his chins folding in on each other. "At least there's that."

"Are you alright?" Mica whispered to me. I put on my smile for him, an adoring one that could melt hearts. After Emil gave me the third dose of serum, it was so easy to charm. Even Leah's gaze always lingered on me with an increasing softness.

It was easier to tolerate one so beautiful, as I was with so much serum in me.

"I want it to be spring already," I said, taking his hand.

"Spring will come fast now that we have something to anticipate," he said.

"Where's that steward of yours, Alik?" asked Lord Kiri.

"He will be here any minute," replied Lord Aspertin. He met my gaze and sent an approving smile my way. Lord Aspertin was impressed by how fast I moved on my prize. I wondered why he never shared with Afali or Dylana his plans to be king. Perhaps he didn't want his daughters involved, until the title was his.

But I thought again about his choice to make Dylana his daughter. The more I twisted it inside my mind, the more I realised that he had seen through me the opportunity of exchanging an alliance with the Canid to one with the more powerful Kiri.

I thought of my revenge against him. I almost didn't have to do anything. His only daughter was dead, murdered, his wife he himself imprisoned.

But what I was to do next would doubtlessly enrage him. I would take the crown right when he thought he had it.

"You will look lovely in yellow," Sara Kiri said to me, examining my form. "That will be the colour of your wedding dress."

"If it pleases you, my lady," I said, bowing my head gracefully.

She patted Mica's arm. "You know how to comfort my broken heart. It's a shame Yoav can't be with us..."

"Ah, there he comes," said Lord Aspertin. His new steward, a younger man with a large nose under his silver mask, bustled in, carrying a sheaf of papers in his hand. He placed it on the round table in the centre of the salon, and next to it he put down a pen and a small bottle of ink.

Lord Aspertin approached the table, with Lord Kiri at his shoulder. He spread the papers into two piles, one copy for each family. Then he lifted his pile, and made a show of reading the document.

"I, Lord Alik Aspertin of House Cervi will read to you this pre-martial agreement that stands as the engagement agreement between my second daughter, Lady Dylana Aspertin of house Cervi, and Lord Mica Kiri of House Usi the third son of Lord Ian Kiri of House Usi."

And so, he read it, every single clause. The nobles gathered around—a select few who held high favour with Aspertin and Kiri—moved restlessly. I listened only to the one clause in the contract that was important to me.

The termination clause.

When Lord Aspertin finished reading, he signed his document and also the second copy before passing the pen to Lord Kiri, who scribbled on his own mark.

Then it was Mica's turn to sign, and finally mine.

"It's done!" announced Lord Kiri, clapping Mica on the back. "You know what comes next, eh, boy?"

"Father..." Mica's face grew crimson.

"Grandchildren!" cried Lord Kiri, making everyone laugh.

"What? That's it? No kiss?" Lady Sara Kiri said.

Mica looked at me, and I curved my mouth into a smile. He bowed. "My Lady Dylana, you have my heart, may I have this kiss?"

"My Lord Mica, you already have my heart, you want a kiss too?" I answered. Laughter fluttered around the room.

"I would have a kiss too," Mica said. "If it pleases you, lady."

"It pleases me, my lord."

We were actors in a play, me more than him. In front of all the people gathered, he shamelessly leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.

***

The next step of the plan was underway the moment the ink dried on the engagements agreement. Mica was lithe to wait to take me to bed now that we were officially engaged. It could've done it, for the sake of breaking his heart, but it was like Waryn had said back then, I needed one aspect about me that was loyal to myself.

It didn't take long to make Mica suspicious. At first, I was late to every event with my dress wrinkled or my lip paint smeared, or my mask askew.

Then, during the nightly trips to the Eloroan house, I wouldn't take so much care to be hidden. People saw me. They talked.

Rumours circulated.

I could sense Mica's mounting jealousy, even as he tried to keep it hidden. I knew when it became too much for him and that was when the time came to end it.

"Did he follow you?" Waryn asked. The chickadee-dee-dee call of a black capped chickadee nearby echoed dully through the snowy woods. We were hidden among the trees just beyond the clearing on the top of the Masca Delen near the ice rink.

"Yes," I said, kissing his cheek. I truly did have nightly trysts with Waryn, and used up vial after vial from the case he had given me. I learned to live with the taint of Pyren's command, and took what I could greedily.

"The poor boy," Waryn whispered, and he actually looked sorry. I tightened my cloak around myself. I had been working all this time on Mica that I truly did pity him.

"He'll live," I said.

I could hear the sound of approaching footsteps in the snow.

"Ready?" I asked in a whisper.

"What happens after this?" he asked me.

"You know how it'll be," I said. I wanted to tell Waryn that it wasn't yet time to end the game with Mica, even though we would both know that was a lie.

Waryn didn't let me say it. He tugged the front of my cloak, pulling me towards him for a kiss. His lips were familiar now, but my heart still rattled with every touch and caress. The he took my hand and led me out from among the trees.

He forced a laugh and I laughed at how fake his laughter was. A dusting of snow began to fall, large flakes sticking to Waryn's dark hair.

We pretended not to notice the lone figure crossing the empty clearing when it came into view. We were too immersed in each other's eyes. Waryn pinned my body against a nearby tree, making clumps of fresh snow fall off its branches, before pressing his body to mine.

I found his mouth, kissing him in a way that Mica wouldn't even know I was capable of. I was conscious of our audience, and the imminent confrontation. There would be consequences to our actions. I could now predict what Lord Aspertin would do as if I had a window into his mind.

"Dy—Dylana?" Mica's voice broke turning high.

Waryn and I turned to face him. I widened my eyes in surprise. "M—Mica. What...are you doing here?"

Mica couldn't speak. He opened his mouth and then covered it with his hand. Then his hand went to his hip and he pointed a finger at me. "Dylana you—" But words eluded him.

I moved away from Waryn. "Mica, wait," I said. "Don't be hasty, please. It's not...It's not important."

"Not important?" Mica bellowed. "You... Dylana, you don't get to speak. And you...Waryn..." Mica hesitated. "Dylana and I are betrothed. How dare you approach her?"

"She approached me," Waryn said, his back to the tree we had just kissed against and his arms crossed. "And who could blame her?"

My head whipped towards him, my shoulders coming up almost to my ears. "Waryn!"

Mica was now pressing his fist to his mouth and his face went through an astonishing series of colours. "I should've known..." he said.

"Waryn, what are you doing?" I demanded.

"I won't stand another man touching you," Waryn said with a shrug.

"Stop. You're ruining everything," I cried, my voice high.

Mica turned and began stalking across the clearing towards the stairs.

"Mica, wait!" I called, running after him.

***

I could summon fake tears in under a minute. I thought of the person I was pretending to be, and what it would feel like to have everything go wrong. I added from my own store of endless sadness, and then there were tears sliding over my mask, dropping from my face like droplets of rain.

Once I started, I could keep it up until my eyes were swollen.

I was forcing tears for quite some time while Lord Aspertin stood above me, screaming.

"You have no idea what your little mistake has cost us, you foolish girl!" he bellowed.

It had cost him the crown.

"Everything I gave you, you have taken for granted."

He thought he gave me something I valued but he never knew what he had taken away.

"You are a disgrace to me," he finally concluded.

And I was happy to be so.

"We will be leaving the Masquerade right after the Pinnacle. You will be confined to your room with armed guards standing at your door. If I hear so much as a rumour that you have seen that Eloroan boy, the consequences will be dire, Dylana."

I hurriedly wiped my cheeks and my streaming nose with my wet handkerchief. "But, father, I—" I said in a wobbling voice.

"YOU DO NOT ANSWER BACK!" he roared, raising his arm as if he would strike me.

I shrunk away from him, and he was satisfied.

But I was more satisfied. I had completely unhinged him. I took pleasure in the pain of the lord who killed my father and mother for profit.