House of Secrets and Vows (Crown of Deceit #1)

32. The Blur of Memory

32

THE BLUR OF MEMORY

A few minutes after Nevan follows Colesef, two female servants arrive to help me get ready.

They introduce themselves as Cara and Isla. Neither is much older than me. From afar, they could be mistaken for sisters. Both have ivory skin with mousy blonde hair. But closer, Cara holds an exuberance that Isla lacks; her eyes are cold and lifeless.

I glance at the door every couple of minutes as if Nevan might return soon. It's a naive hope. Whatever he’s been whisked away to do won’t be good or quick.

After Isla disappears to the washroom, Cara begins to brush my hair as I sit in a chair in the middle of the room.

"Your hair is lovely, Miss," Cara says as she pulls back a loose strand of my hair.

"Thank you, but I really am capable of getting myself ready."

"Mavet instructed we help you." The servant pulls the brush through a tangle.

I wince. "I'm sure you'd rather be doing something else."

"We do as Mavet pleases, Miss."

As much as I hate being doted on, having these women alone is an opportunity I shouldn't pass up. Servants are always a good source of knowledge, constantly moving through the world unnoticed. "Have you been here long?"

"Almost a month now."

"Did Mavet force you to become his servant?" The word servant stings my tongue.

"No, I'm one of the few who volunteered." Cara sets the brush down and runs her fingers through my hair.

My scalp tingles as the servant’s nails gently scratch along it. “What about the rest?"

Cara hesitates, glancing at the washroom door. "The Blood King has resorted to more drastic measures to bring servants into his palace."

"Such as?"

She leans in close to my ear. "He's started stealing men and women that won't be missed from the streets."

"What does he want them for?"

"Their blood." Cara circles around me and then parts my hair. "Many of them aren't capable of much else."

Isla returns with a small bucket of rags. "Focus on your task, Cara. We don't need Miss Zariah arriving late because you can’t keep your mouth shut."

"Of course." Cara finishes brushing my hair, and then moves on to styling it into a braided updo.

Isla sets the bucket on the floor by the edge of the bed and squeezes out a rag. Then, she wipes my arms and legs off one by one.

“I’m truly capable of bathing myself,” I say through gritted teeth. It's one thing to have my hair styled, but having my skin washed by someone else feels too personal for my liking.

Isla holds up the rag in her hand to reveal the dirt she had scrubbed from my arm. "Clearly not."

It takes everything in me not to snap at the woman.

Instead, I close my eyes and focus on the warm water soothing my skin as Isla moves onto the next arm. The woman has been ordered to be here and will be punished if I show up to Mavet’s ball unkempt.

I can’t, in good conscience, refuse, despite how wrong it all feels.

As Cara weaves her fingers through my hair, she tugs a strand too tight, and I flinch.

"Sorry, Miss."

"Careful," Isla warns. "If you do that to one of the vampires, you might lose the finger."

I open my eyes and smile. "I'm fine, really."

“It isn’t you that she should be worried about.” Isla empties the bucket in the washroom then returns to the room. "You're going too slow, Cara."

"I'm trying to be careful."

"Well, be careful and go faster," Isla says. "I'm going to grab Miss Zariah's dress, and you better be done by the time I return."

"I'm feeling quite famished," I cut in. "Would you mind finding me a snack? Perhaps some fruit?"

I fake a thankful smile.

"Of course, Miss." Isla dips her chin and exits the room.

"She's a bucket of sunshine," I grumble.

Cara laughs under her breath and lifts the final section of my hair.

"Why did you agree to come here?" I ask. I’m not sure how long Isla will be gone, so any questions I have will need to be asked quickly.

"I needed money to buy medicine for my little sister. She grew ill over the winter. We'd hoped the warming weather would help, but her cough only worsened."

"So, Mavet gave you medicine?"

"He gave my family enough money to buy the medicine and enough food for a year if I offered myself as a servant for ten years."

"Are there others who agreed to be here?"

"Yes, the younger healthy ones of us are usually the ones who bargained with the Blood King. We're given jobs in the palace and only required to offer our blood twice a week."

"And the ones he took from the streets?"

"They are either imprisoned in the dungeons or kept in a room where the vampires go to feed."

Goddess above, I thought I’d prepared myself for what this place would hold. But people stolen from the street to be locked in a room and used as human blood banks? That surpasses even my worst predictions.

“I’m looking for someone." Sharing why Nevan and I are here is a risk. But with only three days to find Aella, it's a risk worth taking. "Back in the winter, a friend of mine went missing. Her name was Aella and she was just older than me. Long chestnut brown hair. Kind, light brown eyes."

I picture my friend in my mind, desperate for any detail that might help, but am met with only a blur of old memories. "She was petite, but not frail."

It's only been half a year since I last saw her, but I can't form a concrete image of her, try as I might.

Cara pins up the last braid. “I’ve only been around Isla and a few other servants. That doesn’t sound like anyone I’ve met. I’m sorry. I wish I could help.”

I suck in a deep breath to keep the tears pooling behind my eyes from escaping. "Thank you for trying."

I’m not ignorant to the risk Cara took in speaking to me about the horrors of this place.

Isla returns with a burgundy dress draped over her arm and an apple in her hand. She sets the dress on the bed and then hands me the fruit. “Eat, and then we will get you in your dress.”

I can't imagine Isla’s commanding tone going over well with the vampires, but I remind myself I'm capable of biting my tongue.

I take a bite of the apple and give a closed-mouth grin as I chew. After hearing about the atrocities the Blood King is committing in Valazica, food is the last thing I want. But I force myself to eat the entire piece of fruit, bite by bite.

After I finish with the apple, Isla orders me to strip.

I hold back a comment about being surprised Isla thinks I'm capable of such a task.

Soon, I slip into the dress that molds to every curve I have. Cara applies some makeup to my face, and just as the servant paints my lips with a deep maroon hue, Nevan returns.

And he’s covered in blood.

Again.

I suck in a breath at the sight. Four lines of dried blood run from his mouth, down his neck, and onto the top of his tunic, where the fabric has kept the blood fresh and bright.

What startles me more than the blood is the haunted look in his eyes.

The apple I’ve just eaten sours in my stomach.

His grim expression quickly switches to a cheerful facade when he notices the servants tending to me.

"Don't you look stunning?” He crosses the room and places a kiss on my forehead.

A metallic stench strikes my nostrils, but I resist a cringe and fall into character. "Better be careful, or you'll smudge my makeup, and Isla might eat you.”

I flash a snarky grin at the servant.

Neither of the servants appears bothered by the prince’s appearance. I suppose a little blood is nothing in a den of vampires, especially when it’s someone else’s.

"We got you ready. Anything you do to mess it up is now your problem.” Isla turns her attention to Cara. "Come. Mavet has another task for us to do."

Cara packs up the makeup she brought in a small linen bag and then smiles at me. "Enjoy the ball."

"Thank you.” I meet Cara's gaze and hope the servant recognizes my gratitude.

As they exit the room, Nevan runs a finger down my arm. "I'll be the envy of the ball with you on my arm."

I smile as I scan him head-to-toe as the door shuts behind Cara.

Both of our flirty expressions fall from our faces.

Nevan holds a finger to his mouth and taps the air ten times before speaking. "Mavet took me on a tour of his palace."

"And?"

He shakes his head. "I didn’t see anything worth mentioning."

As in, he hasn’t seen Aella.

"You're sure?" With everything Cara told me, a part of me is relieved. I don’t know if I could live with myself if my friend had been used as an endless blood bank for the past six months.

But if Aella isn't somewhere in the palace, it means she's dead.

Nevan gestures for me to follow him to the washroom. After he turns on the bathwater, he leans in and whispers, "He has a whole dungeon of humans. There were too many for me to glimpse everyone’s faces, but none that I saw were her.”

I inhale through my nose with a nod. “And the blood?”

“Nothing you need to worry about.” He cups my shoulder. "We’ll keep looking. This is a large palace, and if he saved her from the tavern, I'm sure it was for something more than to toss her in a cell."

I want to tell him that I am worried about the blood. He came to this place for a bargain he made with me. And the blame for anything he does—or anyone he kills—while he is here is mine.

But to save my friend, I need to focus. And the less I know about the prince, the better.

After Nevan turns the running water off, we shift back into our characters until, a few minutes later, Tatiyana comes to escort us to the ball.

I walk by Nevan's side down the hallway behind her. "I expected Colesef to find us. It seems he's been assigned escort duty for our stay."

She glances back with a grin, her white teeth a sharp contrast to her red lipstick. "I volunteered."

Nevan gently touches me between my shoulder blades. “How long have you been here in Valazica?"

“Two months.” She turns a corner. "I've found your kingdom most beautiful."

"Do you plan to stay long?"

"No, I should return to my own home soon."

"I've heard Solendale is surrounded by natural beauty. If your home is outside the kingdom, I can only imagine it's a stunning place as well."

"Yes, Illadria is lovely. Though it's much, much quainter than Solendale.” She glances back again, her gaze settling straight on me. "Solendale is an interesting kingdom, would you agree?”

"I've never been," Nevan says. "But perhaps with the treaty now in place, I will visit soon."

"What about you, Zariah? Do you plan to visit the fae kingdom with the prince?"

I reach across my body and rub Nevan's bicep. "I haven't thought that far ahead. Though I'm sure, if it's as lovely as you say, I should consider it."

Tatiyana presses her lips together before turning one more corner and arriving at the grand ballroom's entrance.

Nevan shifts closer to me as we enter the large room full of vampires who would love nothing more than to feed on my blood.