“High realms.” My head snaps to where the sound came from. Marayke hurries over to the bouquet and lifts it from the ground, opening her palm right over the fire and absorbing it into herself.
Relief courses through the entire hall, the fire fae girls staring with wide eyes, hands on their chests or covering their mouths. They’re in shock.
“What in the high realms?” I whisper. “What just happened?”
I look up at Xerxes to find him staring at the bouquet that is now in Marayke’s hands like he’s looking death in the face. She stares back at him with alarm in her eyes.
“It’s a bad omen,” he says through clenched teeth. The muscles in his jaw tick, rippling under his cleanly shaven golden skin.
It takes a few moments for the crowd to settle down, gasps and unrest traveling through it like ripples through a huge lake. There are so many people here, even their murmuring is deafening. The fire fae girls approach eventually, holding out their hands for me, inviting me to climb down from the chariot.
When I do, I will be separated from Xerxes, and taken up the grand stairs to the master bedroom, where they’ll prepare me for our wedding night. Xerxes can’t look away from Marayke and the bouquet, but it’s the fact that she’s not even happy about it that worries me most.
“I would like Marayke to go with me upstairs,” I declare.
Both Xerxes’ and Marayke’s eyes dart to me. They’re both stricken. I realize it must seem cruel to her that I want her there, in the master bedroom, grooming me for the night, but since I don’t have a relationship with anyone here, let alone friends, she’s the only person I can talk to in confidence. She’s the only one who can explain to me what happened with the bouquet without sugar coating anything. The uglier the truth, the happier she’ll be to give it to me. Funny how my enemy has turned into the only person I can trust to tell me the truth in a place as huge as the Fire Court Palace.
As the fae girls help me down from the chariot I keep my eyes locked with Marayke’s. Only after she nods, reluctantly, do I look at Xerxes again. He still stands in the chariot, taller and larger than all the others, royal in his armor, with shadow rising from his body like smoke. His irises glow like lava. The expression on his face sends waves of current all over my skin.
Marayke leads the way up the stairs. I hitch up my dress and follow her, my heart still clinging to the magnificent fire god in the chariot behind me. My fated mate, the love of my life, the man for whom I gave up my world, my life and my dreams.
The stairs up to the castle’s higher levels seem endless, grand and wide, I don’t expect we’ll have to climb them on foot. But when something like a thick thundercloud descends for us, I can hardly keep my mouth from popping open. It’s definitely not your average elevator. I can hardly believe my eyes when I understand what it is—a kind of magic carpet that feels soft and thick when we step onto it. I take off my shoes before I do, even though the girls say I don’t have to. But somehow I don’t want to hurt it.
The cloud carries us all upward, the breeze created by its movement a caress on my face, running through the loops of my sophisticated hairdo. We glide past countless levels, the landings going from wide to narrow until we reach the very top. I don’t even look down as I step from the cloud onto the floor, because I know I’ll faint. I was never afraid of heights, but this is too much.
The big metal doors open to allow us into the royal bedchambers. Nazarean sits on the ledge of a high window that overlooks a landscape of volcanoes with rivers of lava, fire bursting out from craters in the distance. The master bedchambers are at the very top of the Fire Palace. On the outside, the tip of the palace that houses the bedchambers resembles a pyramid made of dark volcanic rock.
The girls scurry from the large sitting area into the bedroom and into the bathroom, starting to prepare the bath, the clothes, fragrances and flowers. They’re going to prepare me for my first night with the King, as his Queen. Marayke takes the place by the vanity mirror in the bedroom. I can see her from the sitting area, as I take Nazarean in my arms. He purrs at my chest as I head over, my eyes locked on Marayke’s face. I can see her pain, and for some reason it hurts me. Even though both she and her brother forced me into betraying Xerxes, I have a feeling she had less to do with it than him.
I sit on the cushioned stool in front of the mirror, and meet Marayke’s gaze in the pane.
“I’m sorry,” I manage as she positions herself behind me, starting to remove the pins from my hair.
“For what?”
“Marrying the man you love. I mean, I’m sorry that our union is causing you pain. I really am.”
Her thin lips draw in a hard line, and her hands grow rougher on my hair. For a moment there I’m afraid she might ram the pins into my throat or something, but Nazarean would hiss and jump at her with his claws out if she even thought about it. But he doesn’t react to her at all, which can only mean that I’m right, and she’s too heart-broken to hate me anymore.
“Is that why you wanted me to join you here,” she says after a few awkward moments of silence. “To tell me that you feel sorry for me?”
“You don’t believe me, and I understand.” I keep stroking Nazarean, which has always given me comfort. Sitting here, practically in Marayke’s hands, it’s tense to say the least. “But even though both you and your brother forced me to betray Xerxes, I can’t feel angry with you. I’m only angry with him.”
“You’re being unfair. I’m just as responsible for what you had to do as he is.”
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should hate you both, but I can’t. Maybe it’s because I don’t feel any hatred coming from you, and he always scowls at me like he’d use me as a target for throwing knives, if he had his way.”
She releases my hair completely from its pins, spreading it over my shoulders and my back.
“Get up. We have to take off your dress.”
I do as she says. She gathers my hair in one hand and drapes it over my shoulder so she can undo my corset dress. She tugs a little, and the dress falls and pools around my feet, white veils and folds of soft fabric surrounding me like the waves of a foamy sea. We both stare in the mirror now.
I’m wearing nothing but my white panties, my hair falling in shiny blue-back waves over my breasts. I hold Nazarean close to my chest, his green slit eyes meeting Marayke’s gaze in the mirror. I’m tense, expecting him to hiss or even attack, but all he does is watch her. I wonder what goes on in Marayke’s mind. She looks at me with something in her eyes that’s not hatred, or sadness. It’s a strange sort of admiration.
“You really are beautiful,” she says, turning to the side and taking a nightgown from one of the fire fae girls. It’s made of red flowing fabric, and it feels divine when she slides it on my arms, then rests it gently on my shoulders. I think it’s a bathing robe, but it’s so sexy I wouldn’t mind appearing in front of Xerxes like this.
“I’m not even surprised that you don’t hate me,” she continues. “You’re so kind that your skin glows, white like snow glittering in the moonlight. Your eyes are as soft as honey. No wonder he fell in love with you at first sight.” There’s pain in her last words.