Aspen studied me for long uncomfortable seconds as if trying to read me.
Finally, he released me and took a step back. “You’ll join the Regency for dinner in an hour, and when asked about your display earlier, you will be contrite and claim that your human emotions got the better of you. You will promise that it will never happen again, and you will behave.”
My neck was stiff as I forced a nod.
“Good. You’re dismissed.”
I escaped the room and joined Blossom in the hallway outside. A couple of Tuatha walked past, eyeing me with open curiosity.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
She looked genuinely concerned. My skin pricked. Was she one of the Tuatha who could feel?
She looked away, and I realized I’d been staring at her. I bit the insides of my cheeks. If she was one of them, calling her out in public wasn’t the way to go. But if she was one of them, she needed to know she was doing a shitty job of hiding it.
“Take me back to my room.”
“Of course.”
Blossom dried my hair and brushed it out. She was humming. Oh god, I needed to say something to her. If she continued to display such behavior, it wouldn’t be long before whoever scouted for ‘feelers’ picked her up.
“Do you like to sing, Blossom?”
Her hands froze, hairbrush mid-stroke. “Mistress?”
“You were humming. You sounded…happy.”
“I was? I…I wasn’t aware. Happy? I have no idea how that feels, but I’m content.”
I met her gaze in the mirror. “I’m not a Tuatha, Blossom. I’m human, and I recognize real emotion when I see it.”
Her expression hardened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You feel, don’t you?”
For a moment, I thought she’d continue to deny it, but then her bottom lip trembled, and she fell to her knees beside me.
“Please, you can’t say anything to anyone. If they find out about me, they’ll take me away, and the ones who are taken never come back.”
I took her hands in mine. “I would never do that. Your secret is safe with me, but if you’re not careful, you’ll give yourself away.”
She squeezed my fingers. “I know, I know. I slip sometimes. Mainly around you. I feel more around you, and I say and do things without thinking.”
“You need to work on that.”
“I know, but it’s getting worse.” She twisted her hands from my grip and began to pace.
Her body relaxed, and it was like a veil was being lifted off her. If not for her Tuatha beauty and silver hair, I would have mistaken her for human.
“I should resign this position,” she said. “But even if I do, there’s nowhere to hide.” Her eyes brimmed. “Every day is so difficult, and if not for the others—” She slapped her hand over her mouth.
She was like Slade. She was like the Danaan who could feel, and there was no doubt in my mind there were more like her that the ancients hadn’t succeeded in rounding up.
“It’s okay. I know there are more like you. I can’t help them all, but I’m going to help you.”
She stared at me, wide-eyed. “How?”
“By getting you out of here.”
Even as I said it, I was internally kicking myself because what the fuck? How would I even achieve this? Killion was coming for me. Me. Not a bunch of Danaan, Magnus, and Blossom.
But Blossom was staring at me with hope in her eyes. “You have a way out?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I do, and I’m going to try and take you with me.”
“It’s beautiful!” Blossom clasped her hands together, eyes bright as she studied me.
I fingered the corset that cinched my waist into minuscule proportions and stared at my bosom, which threatened to spill over the top. The pants that came with the outfit looked like they’d been painted onto my skin.
The gold and blue hues of the outfit made my bronze skin shimmer, but I looked indecent.
“No.” I shook my head, mouth downturned. “I’m not wearing this.”
Blossom gasped. “But Lord Aspen was very specific.”
“Fuck Lord Aspen—”
“Really?” Aspen said from the doorway.
I spun to face him. “Don’t you know how to knock? I could have been naked.”
“Yes, you could have.”
Huh?
“But you’re not.”
“I’m not wearing this…this… God, I don’t even know what you were thinking.”
“You don’t like it.” Not a question. A statement.
“No.”
Blossom bowed and backed into a corner of the room as Aspen strode forward and began to slowly circle me.
I wanted to cover my boobs, but instead, I planted my hands on my hips and glared at him.
His gaze lingered on my bare flesh, skating over my breasts then sliding up my neck to linger on my face.
“It looks fine to me. Standard fare for a Regency dinner, modified to suit your status as Winter’s Blade. Alternatively, I can have something more feminine brought in for you?”
I caught Blossom's eye across the room, and she shook her head slightly in warning. I guess the other option’s worse than this? Better the devil you know, right?
“Well?” Aspen asked.
“No, that won’t be necessary; I’ll stick to this one.”
“Good. In that case, let’s go.” He offered me his arm.
I took a deep breath and hooked mine through his.
It was time to swim with the sharks.
7
Aspen guided me to a part of the Keep even more elaborately furnished and decorated than his chambers.
Gold busts and moldings decorated arches, and paintings hung on walls. In this part of the Keep it was easy to forget we were underground in a spaceship, but then we passed a window, an actual fucking window, with a view of a lush green landscape with lilac skies.
My feet faltered, and Aspen came to a standstill abreast of the window, which on closer inspection, was a holoscreen. It looked so real, though, and I almost believed I could reach out and push the glass open and breath in the air.
“Elantria,” Aspen said. “Our last home before it died.”
“What happened?”
“We happened.”
Was that bitterness in his tone? I looked up at him sharply, but his expression was cool and impassive.
“You destroyed the planet?”
“We dug and reaped and took, and we enslaved the people who eventually rebelled. There was war, and there was death.”
I guess they hadn’t had a drug to pacify the indigenous species of that planet, then. “So, you left and came here.”
“Yes, we came back.” He arched a brow. “But, I’m sure Palamon told you all this in your little tête-à-tête in the treehouse.”
“Wait, what?”
“I made a point of leaving ears in several parts of the arena, Danika.”
Fuck. Had I said anything else incriminating? Shit, my mind was a blank.
He drew me away from the window and continued down the corridor, past several other fake windows looking out at different scenes. Different planets. Were these all dead planets now?