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“Look closer,” Raphael said in my ear.

I stiffened as the heat of his breath caressed me, the tingle curling down the back of my neck. I hadn’t realized we were so close. But I obeyed, examining those nearest to us more carefully. A pair of women chattering behind feathered fans, hiding their necks. A trio of men,gathered around a high-top table, one gesturing wildly as he recounted some story. I cocked my head, trying to make sense of what I saw. All had cropped white hair of slightly varying lengths, and each had red eyes… but my attention snagged on the one on the right. His eyes seemed just a shade less vibrant. His skin didn’t have the same blue tint as the others had. And perhaps most telling, he was older. Maybe sixty, sixty-five, if I were to lay a bet.

There was only one explanation.

“No,” I breathed.

“Oh, yes.”

By the sixth hell. Bad enough they wanted to be vampires, but they even aped their appearance. Amalthea had said disguise cards were difficult to come by, so they must have spent a magical fortune in a Vampire Kingdom to match their appearances.

“All the time?”

“Mostly for special occasions, council meetings, and so on. Perhaps ten or twenty percent at most among the gentry are human. The nobles are a mix of long-standing houses and appointed posts. Obviously, humans can only rise in position from the latter, and when your competition has an endless amount of time to reach a post, you’re at a disadvantage. Make no mistake, the humans you find among them are some of the craftiest creatures in this room.”

“And so they want to fit in, for the vampires to forget they’re not like them?”

“As if the chasm between immortal and mortal is so easily crossed,” Raphael said with the barest snort. “The endless drum of their beating hearts and labored breaths will always give them away.”

I swallowed and put a half step of distance between us. He was right. Vampires were a world apart.

A servant returned with a crystal glass of icy water on a tray, a boon in the heat of the crowd. It wasn’t the same servant, but he looked familiar. Not from Damerel, though. I hadn’t learned any faces here. I tried to place him while he extended a tray towards me.

“For you, Lady Samara,” he said with a respectful half bow. His gaze was on the floor.

For a moment I just stared. Was my mind playing tricks on me? The face I imagined I hadn’t seen for many years, and only in shadows.

Raphael took the glass and handed it to me when I made no move to take it.

“Thank you,” I said, as the human servant retreated.A mistake. You mistook that other servant for another. I ignored Raphael’s curious look and tried to return to the subject. “Amalthea doesn’t bother. Trying to look more like a vampire, I mean.”

“The fates themselves could not convince Amalthea to do anything she didn’t want to.”

“I’ve known her only a short time, and I find that to be a fair assessment,” I agreed.

We spoke a little more but were eventually interrupted. More sycophants, much like Lazarus. Honeyed words, talks of politics and policies mixed in with cloying praise for Raphael: his sense of justice, his dedication to the kingdom, his wit, his majestic presence. Some might bear a grain of truth, but I suspected the same words would have been applied to a lobotomized rooster if it wore the crown. Some things didn’t change.

I occupied my mind by studying the celebrants of the room, both those who approached and anyone else in my line of sight. With each one, I made it a game to figure out if they were vampire or human. Most were vampires, as Raphael said. As I practiced, I got better at picking out the humans from the bunch. The clothing was the same style… but seldom quite as grand. The difference between a civil servant and a titled inheritor. They lacked the utter stillness the vampires were capable of, the grace that came when you moved with no excessive flourishes. There were differences in the red eyes, but while the vampires seemed to nearly glow as they sipped the blood mead, the humans were always lackluster.

Disdain swept through me. How quickly they begged to be rid of their humanity. Not just that, their individuality. I loathed the part of me that understood. Was it so different from the court of the Witch King, where courtiers constantly competed to dress in the latest fashion, or raced to tell the king the latest gossip? Was I any better, even if I was only here temporarily?

Many had chosen this. They had given up the second-class life of a mortal without magic in an enchanted kingdom to try to rise another way. I wanted to believe that made me different. But my choices had led me here too. If it was a matter of survival, would I disguise myself as a vampire? I couldn’t deny it. I’d let one feed on me, claim me.

I wouldneverlet one turn me. That difference would have to be enough.

A nasally voice caught my attention.

“And will she be joining us for the Tri-Lunar Eclipse Ceremony?” a female noble asked. Vampire. Definitely vampire. Her hair was up, her bodice cut low. She angled her neck as if beckoning. If ever there was someone inviting a bite, it was this female.Did vampires even bite other vampires?What was the point?

“Perhaps,” Raphael said noncommittally.

They must mean me. I edged closer to Raphael. I didn’t feel particularly threatened, but I didn’t care for the hungry look in her eyes. Though it wasn’t quite directed at me.

“Oh, it’ll be so exciting,” her companion added, punctuating her words with a demure flap of her fan. Her neck was covered in a high lace collar. “It’ll be my first one.”

“Youneverforget your first,” the first vampire said with a wink. “Mine was just barely three hundred years ago, and I’ve been waiting for the next one since.”

What exactlywasthe Tri-Lunar Eclipse Ceremony?