Dark Matter (5 page)

Another woman worked on my nails while
Lysanne set off to find just the right gown for the evening. She
hung five dresses on the wall when she came back. The first was
silver silk with simple flowing lines that reminded me of a
cascading waterfall. They got more and more extravagant from there.
One of them looked like something off Star Trek with metallic
shoulder-pads better suited to a linebacker. I shook my head
firmly, and it was hauled off in a hurry. The next was completely
beaded from bodice to hem. I picked it up and studied the fabric.
Heat flooded my face when I realized it was completely see through.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, it weighed about thirty pounds. I
made her take it back right away.

I moved down the line and looked over
the blood-red gown. Each puffy sleeve was as wide as my head. The
bodice narrowed to a tight fitting V, and the skirt belled out like
something a princess would wear. I wouldn’t be surprised to find
out that Lysanne had stolen the thing from the set of Gone with the
Wind. Even though it was stunning, I didn’t think I could pull it
off. I shook my head slightly and it was hastily
removed.

The last in the group had a bit of
promise. It was the color of sprouting grass with the same
iridescent quality as the gown I had worn to my bonding ceremony. I
could have stared for hours at the prisms it cast against the
adjacent wall. I walked over to it and stroked the soft fabric. It
slid through my fingers like water. The cut was daring, but not
overly immodest.

Lysanne was giving orders to some of
the other women, so I took the opportunity to slip it over my head
on my own. I didn’t like feeling as if I were a child that needed
to be dressed.

She rushed up to me. “Please, my lady,
let me help you with that.” Before I could blink the dress was
covering me, perfectly pressed. She lowered her eyes and asked, “Do
I displease you in some manner?” It was hard to miss the
devastation in her tone. “Would you like another to assist
you?”

I placed a hand on her forearm. She
flinched slightly. “It’s nothing like that. I must be a huge
disappointment for you. It just seems silly to have you do things
for me I am accustomed to doing myself.”

Her entire face looked tight as if she
really wanted to interrupt me; I doubted she ever would. She waited
for me to finish before speaking. “I am honored to serve you. You
must understand. I have won the right to be here tonight.” There
was a bit of leather behind her words. Was she saying she actually
battled somebody to help me get dress? She smiled wistfully. “I see
the rumors are true. You are different than most Elementals, both
in ability and in politeness.” She lowered her gaze from mine. “I
would speak plainly to you.” She scanned the room before she said,
“If you will allow it?”

I startled from her words. Could I
trust this woman? Was it possible she could help me? “I encourage
it,” I replied breathlessly.

She sat on the bench beside me. “I come
to offer assistance, my lady. I have heard you do not wish to be
called that, but I will not use your given name for security
reasons. I am told a certain princess had a brief conversation with
you before your inauguration.”

I immediately became guarded. For all
of Ainessa’s attempts at befriending me, I couldn’t shake the image
of her first meeting with Cassie. She had been more than a little
tyrannical. If this woman was in league with her, I needed to be
very careful. “Yes, I did.”

Lysanne leaned toward me. She took my
hands gently between her own. “She does not represent the vast
majority of women in our realms, even though she claims to. She is
cunning and can make you think you are serving yourself when in
fact, you are serving her. I have firsthand experience in this
regard. Most of us want to find harmony with our brother courts.
She wants power, nothing more. Do not trust her.”

I nodded slowly. “Who can I trust in
this place?” I whispered.

Her eyes darkened. “No one—not even me.
I come to you with my own agenda. I think it forthright, but some
might not. I will leave it to you to consider.” She nodded toward
the door. “Walk with me?”

I waved for Cassie to stay where she
was as I followed Lysanne out of the room. She was having fun. I
had no desire to take her away from the excitement. Lysanne led me
into an adjoining chamber.

It was my favorite room in this suite.
I imagined this was what a ladies chamber would have looked like in
the sixteenth century, only with a few more bells and
whistles.

Two comfy crème couches faced each
other in the center of the room. Between them glowed an open fire
pit over which hung an enormous chandelier made entirely of ice. A
linear band of gold flowed around the outer edges in stark contrast
to the intricate branches of lacy ice that hung down several feet.
It looked like pictures I had seen of a coral reef, only this was
upside down. It reflected the glow of the fire while radiating a
blue light of its own. The colors it cast over the space were the
soft blues and ambers of a sunrise. To my amazement, it had never
dripped in all the time I had stared at it.

This room abutted an atrium full of
thriving plant life. To my surprise, she walked past the sofa and
out into the garden. It was hard to tell I was in the middle of a
frozen wonderland when I was in this oasis. The Ignisian people
rarely traversed the glaciers or ice-capped mountains surrounding
their home. I had been told that in spring and summer, certain
parts of the country became lush with plants, but most of the realm
was a wasteland year-round.

She stopped at the reflecting pool and
sat on a bench. The fish were active today. A vibrant variety about
the size of coy, their scales gleamed florescent shades of pink,
purple, blue, and yellow.

The school crowded the edge of the
pond, wagging their tails like a bunch of Labrador puppies. Lysanne
reached into a pot at the side of the bench and scattered colorful
flakes over the top of the clear water. The fish went crazy
fighting for the morsels.

I waited for her to talk, knowing if I
said anything it would only drag the conversation out longer. Her
gaze rested at the center of the frenzy but seemed to focus on
nothing in particular.

Her cheeks rose in a small smile. “You
know what I most envy about humans?”

The thought that this woman would envy
humans at all bewildered me. She was beautiful in every respect. I
wasn’t sure where she fit in with her people, but I gathered she
was a leader. When she didn’t continue, I said, “What’s
that?”

“
Every one of them has a
future.” She turned to look at me. Her amber eyes held an ageless
sadness.

I felt sorry for her, and I wasn’t even
sure why. I wanted to tell her that she had just as much of a
future as any human, but she didn’t really. Her life would always
be as it was. Any change that would come would just be a different
version of what she already had. I couldn’t offer her painted lies.
“Yes, they do.”

The intensity in her expression
deepened. “So do you.”

“
I know,” I said. I wasn’t
sure where she was going with this.

“
Some Faeresians hate humans
because of this.”

“
You don’t?”

She shook her head mournfully. “I
cannot say I haven’t felt the pain of hate at times, but I am here
because of choices I made. I refuse to blame humans for my
actions.”

How very adult of her. I wasn’t sure
where the resentment in my tone came from, but no fae had ever just
shot the breeze with me. “What is it that you want from me?” I
asked sharply. They all wanted something, and this woman was no
different.

“
That person we were
discussing earlier desires to switch the roles of women and men in
our realms. She will not openly admit it, but it is her goal,
nonetheless. I see a need for us to work together. I ask only this:
the prophecy is cryptic, but I believe part of it refers to your
ability to reject bonding altogether.”

I brightened at the thought that she
might actually tell me what I had been so desperate to find out.
“Will you tell me what it says exactly?”

She laughed softly. “To do so would be
to influence you to your detriment. However, I will share one thing
with you. It says that the choice must be yours. Many of us are
staking our happiness on that choice, my lady. I know it is a heavy
burden I lay at your feet, but I am asking you to choose no one. I
think it is the only way we can achieve a lasting
peace.”

I was confused. “How would that help
you?”

“
Only when we are forced to
realize there is no salvation will we truly be able to live.”
Lysanne stood and paced in front of me. Her every movement was a
study in grace. She stopped, looking down on me. “We fight because
we think there is something to fight over. If you were to refuse
the throne, we would have to seek an alternative to our
problem.”

I had no idea what she was really
talking about, and it was clear to me that she wasn’t going to
speak in more than generalities. “I see,” I said. “I will take that
into consideration. I haven’t decided at this point what I will do,
but I can assure you I will not enter into any decision
lightly.”

She nodded and gave me a ghost of a
smile. Had she ever really smiled before? Was her life so bleak
that this was the best she could come up with? When I thought about
it, though, I realized my return gesture was probably just as
shallow.

“
We had better return. You
will be missed otherwise.”

I followed her back to my room in
silence. She didn’t even say anything as she placed jewels in my
hair and around my neck. Her show of respect didn’t go unnoticed.
She left the room for only a moment and returned with a pair of
sparkling emerald-studded heels. She slipped a shoe onto my foot
and it auto-adjusted to my size.

“
Cool,” I breathed. I stood,
expecting to wobble a bit, but I was as stable as if I were wearing
hiking boots. I raised my wondering gaze to hers.

She smiled. This time it almost lit her
eyes. “I never said there weren’t advantages to being
fae.”

I laughed, practicing walking even
though I didn’t have to. She came up behind me. “Turn around,” she
said. She picked up an upside down mask and pressed it against my
face. Just like the shoes, it shrunk to fit my features perfectly.
I walked over to the mirror, unable to believe I was the person who
stared back at me. The mask only covered my eyes, but I didn’t look
like me. It gave me a sense of autonomy. I was suddenly grateful to
the queen for letting me hide in plain sight.

I whirled back around and straight into
a mist of perfume. It smelled of musk and made me a little dizzy. I
frowned. “I wish you would have warned me before you did that. Au
de BO would be better. It appears I don’t need any help attracting
men around here.”

She smirked. “My lady, you could smell
like a cesspool and they would still flock to you. Besides, this
may mask a bit of your overwhelming charm.”

“
My what?”

She raised a brow as if I should have
known this about myself already. “Your power radiates from you like
a small sun. It is almost intoxicating at times. None of us are
immune to it. Some of us are just better at covering up our awe of
you.” Her eyes became distant. “That particular princess we were
talking about has been the only female of our kind to seek to
attempt a bonding, but with power like yours, I understand her
reasoning for wanting to.”

She didn’t look at me as I backed away
from her, making an excuse that I needed to find Cassie. I didn’t
feel powerful at all, but these people acted as though I was the
ultimate Energizer Bunny.

I finally found Cassie. She was holding
a diamond choker to her throat. It sparkled against her pale skin.
Her dress was silver and she had a gold crown woven into her hair.
Her mask was black and covered half of her face. Her pale eyes were
nearly glowing.

She caught a glimpse of me in the
mirror and smiled. “You look absolutely stunning. I love your
dress. Who are you supposed to be?”

I narrowed my eyes. “What do you
mean?”

“
Didn’t they tell you? Each
costume represents a mythical figure.”

The first thing that popped into my
mind was that dress with the absurdly big shoulder pads. Who was
that supposed to be? “Lysanne didn’t mention it.” I turned around
to ask her, but Cassie and I were alone. “Who are you
tonight?”

Her smile had a ting of embarrassment
to it. “Belisama.” When I stared at her dumbly, she said, “She was
a goddess of fire, not a well known one, but I thought it
was…fitting. What do you think?” She held the choker higher. “This
one…or,” she lowered the necklace and raised a diamond pendant that
fit snuggly against her generous cleavage.

An easy smile settled on my mouth. I
waggled my eyebrows at her. “I guess that depends on whether you
want Finn to look you in the eyes at all tonight.”

“
Rayla!” she
sputtered.

I pushed her shoulder lightly. “It’s
true and you know it.” Before she had a chance to contradict me, I
continued, “You look beautiful, by the way. I guess you didn’t need
my help after all.”