“Can I come?” she asked.
He looked at her as if she had asked if she could have his throne. “Absolutely not.”
Then he vanished.
Late that night, Isla was bored to death on her bed, reading her latest book for the tenth time. She had already filled the margins with notes.
With a sigh as dramatic as she could manage, she flipped onto her back and flung the book to the other side of her bed. She wondered what the ball was like. Were women throwing themselves at Grim? Of course they were. And he was probably accepting them with open arms. The thought made her more than a little nauseous.
She had already changed into her pajamas and was ready to go to bed when her starstick glimmered from beneath her floorboard. It was almost like an invitation.
One she accepted.
A quick, thieving trip to the night market later, she was dressed in about as little fabric as possible to still be considered clothed.
She doubted Grim would even see her. She would stay out of sight. Even if he did see her, so what? He would have to pretend not to know her, to keep up appearances. It was late enough into the night that most of the people at the ball were probably too intoxicated to notice. They couldn’t leave until daytime. The party was meant to last until the morning, she realized.
Isla portaled to the Nightshade castle.
If the worddebaucheryhad been a place, Isla was looking at it.
The halls of the castle were filled with music so loud and fast it drowned out the moans she could hear only when she passed by the dark halls, people moving furiously in the shadows. Inside the ballroom, all pretense of propriety was abandoned.
People danced with long ribbons of black silk, on platforms lining the room between full suits of armor. In the darker corners of the rooms, couples were coupling, not seeming to care in the slightest that they had hundreds of people as their witnesses.
Before, Isla had felt embarrassed by the amount of skin she was showing, but now she saw she was wearing almost the most fabric in the room. Her dress was black gossamer, with a dipping neckline, two pieces covering her breasts, then coming together in the middle. It had a slit up to her hip.
Eyes were on her immediately. At first, she panicked, wondering if they somehow recognized her.
No—their gazes were not threatening. They were hungry.
Tonight, she embraced it. It felt good to be seen and wanted.
Isla assumed the party would be crowded and raucous enough that she wouldn’t even see Grim, but—
He found her immediately.
She felt his gaze like a brand, and when the crowd naturally parted at the sound of a new song, there was a direct path, across the room, from him to her.
Even from far away, she could see he was furious. Women fought for his attention, barely clothed, but he was watching her, eyes blazing with so much anger, he looked ready to wage a war.
Isla did the most foolish thing possible in response to his anger, which was smile and blow him a mocking kiss.
Immediately, he stood, knocking over some of the goblets that the women had placed around his throne. He didn’t even look down; all he did was take a step forward, as if he was going to portal to her and send her straight back to Wildling.
No. She knew it wouldn’t do much good if he really wanted to find her, but she ducked into the crowd. In the center of so many people, Grim wouldn’t dare appear and whisk her away. She was unknown in the court—it would lead to too much notice and too many questions that Grim had gone to great lengths already to avoid.
That was what she told herself, at least.
The music seemed to get louder, and Isla danced, just one person in a crowd. She met gazes that looked her up and down and seemed to like what they saw. One pair of eyes never left her as she moved until the song ended, and the man walked over.
He was tall and had a scar across his cheek and hair cut short to his head. He wasn’t shy with his notice. “You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen.”
Creatureseemed like a strange term, but she had never been spoken to so boldly, and she felt her skin prickle. “I am?”
He took a step closer to her. “I’ve never seen a face like yours,” he said. “Not ever.”
Isla could feel herself blush. It was so stupid, but the compliment made her feel like a puddle.
