I watched her face carefully as her expression softened.
“You like it,” I murmured, feeling, absurdly, like I’d been victorious somehow. There was a hateful sort of satisfaction in the fact that I’d chosen something to her taste. That I’d brought her something she wanted, even if she wouldn’t admit it.
Grudgingly, I had to say that she was not the only one who liked it. The dull grey tunic she had on was now hidden, her narrow shoulders awash in slippery, shimmering black. It made her skin glow, made her eyes deeper, her hair colour richer. Like this, in my crystal chair, drenched in the colour of deepest night, she did not look like some frail human prisoner. She looked like a captured queen. Trapped, but radiant all the same.
“Doesn’t matter if I like it. I don’t need it,” she said, hardening her features as she turned her visage up to me. “I don’t need any of this. A few extra outfits would be useful, but entire chests of fabric for one person? With more on the way? It’s too much.”
I held myself in check with icy will, not willing to acknowledge how much the rejection of the silk was bothering me.
“You still do not understand,” I said, keeping my tone cold and detached. “This is merely one of many things you will be expected to accept in your role. You will be outfitted as befits your new station as the wife to a stone sky god.”
“Do all stone sky brides have to deal with this?” she asked tartly, like she’d sucked on something sour.
“I do not care what other stone sky brides do,” I hissed, control over my impatience cracking. “I only care about mine.”
Mine. The word had come out vicious. It startled Torrance, her defiance shifting to wariness.
“And sleeping in this room with you?” she said slowly. I stared at her mouth as she spoke. “That’s just one more thing I’ll have to accept, I suppose, considering you didn’t even bother to tell me.”
“Of course, you’ll sleep in this room,” I snapped. The silk was beginning to slide downwards. I let it go until it pooled around Torrance’s hips. “No newly mated stone sky god would sleep away from his bride. I’m surprised you would have expected otherwise. Is it different among humans?”
“Well, no, it’s not, but-”
“But what? I feel I have been very clear on the terms of this arrangement, Torrance. You must convince everyone, everyone, that you are my true mate. If you can’t even do that here among the Sionnachans, you will never make it past the keener eyes of other stone sky gods.”
Ah, there it was. That flare of pride I was growing to recognize in her.
“I can do it.”
“Good,” I said. “Now stand up so Aiko can drape you properly and get your measurements when she comes back. They won’t be much longer.”
It looked like I’d put acid under her tongue, but she did it all the same.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE Torrance
Less than one full day into our arrangement and I felt like things were already going way off the rails. I thought I’d have more control now. But somehow, even though I was now more free than I’d ever been on this planet, I felt the walls closing in.
And all of those walls were named Wylfrael.
I stared numbly ahead, keeping a phony smile plastered on my face as Wylfrael and Aiko brought out bolt after bolt of fabric in every imaginable texture and colour. Aiko fluttered to-and-fro as Wylfrael growled orders at her about which colour or type of fabric to wrap around me next. Every time Aiko asked if I liked something, I gave perfunctory responses about how much I loved whatever she was holding, even though I could barely tell one item from another by this point. There was just too much of it. The chests were gigantic, enough fabric to clothe an entire army of fake human brides. And there was more coming.
“Torrance?”
“What? Oh,” I said, focusing on Aiko, who was speaking to me. “Yes. It’s lovely.”
“I... I know. You already said that about this one.”
“Oh.” My cheeks got hot. I didn’t mind blowing Wylfrael off, but I didn’t want Aiko to think I was being rude or not listening to her. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
It wasn’t Aiko who answered, but Wylfrael, who loomed directly behind me.
“She asked about your wedding clothing.”
My wedding clothing.
“Oh, that. A white gown,” I said.
Shit. I regretted my response instantly. If I’d had more presence of mind, I would have made something up, told them I wanted to wear a bright green jumpsuit, anything to keep this from feeling so alarmingly real. But it was too late now, and Aiko had already turned her bushy tail around to go dig through what was left in the second chest.
“Ah, yes, this one,” she said, straightening, her arms overflowing with material. “This one is just gorgeous.”
Aiko was right. It was silk the ethereal colour of moonlight on snow. Distressingly perfect. So lovely it made my chest hurt. Aiko wasted no time, immediately draping the softly shimmering material around me as I tried desperately not to give in to the sudden, unexpected urge to weep.
“Oh, my lord, come around here and see how beautiful she is.”
No, don’t. I didn’t want him to see my face now. To notice that my mask had slipped, that I was already failing.
Wylfrael breathed in tightly before taking crisp, controlled strides around to my front. He stood behind Aiko, who was currently holding the material up against me, his hands clasped behind his back.
I almost wanted to laugh through my tears. If I thought I was failing in representing my half of our happy couple, then Wylfrael was doing even worse than me. He didn’t look like he was on the verge of tears, like I did. He looked like he felt nothing. Apart from a twitch of tension in his cheek when he saw the unshed tears in my eyes, he showed absolutely no emotion. It was only when Aiko twisted back to look at him questioningly that he finally spoke, uttering five short, commanding words before he turned and swept out of the room, leaving us both staring in his wake.
“She will wear this one.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX Torrance
Wylfrael didn’t come back for a long time. So long that panic began to claw at me, panic that he’d gone back on our deal, that the whole thing was called off. That I’d go back to being shut away in the room at the top of the Dawn Tower, no chance of finding my friends or freedom.
When Aiko brought me dinner, she seemed surprised not to find Wylfrael with me, two plates on her tray. So, they don’t know where he is, either.
I’d beamed at her and thanked her for the food, as if everything was fine in Torrance and Wylfrael land. Eventually, she left, and I hoped she hadn’t gotten suspicious about Wylfrael’s absence.