Page 154 of As Above, So Below

As she brushes my hair, she talks the entire time.

Even if I wanted, I wouldn’t be able to get a word in.

She speaks proudly about her family as she works the brush through my silver locks. I stand rigidly, holding the towel firmly in place over my breasts, steeling my neck against each drag of the brush. It doesn’t hurt, nor did I believe she intends to hurt me, she’s simply overzealous in her application as she holds her one-sided conversation.

Her family has served the Sovereign King of Erus for six generations, since they arrived from a region of the Unclaimed Territories in the south. An island, she says. She speaks about her daughter, now fifteen, recently being posted to the kitchens, and her son, now eighteen, working in the stables.

Oraphia admitted things in Erus aren’t perfect for humans, but they’re improving, especially since Sovereign King Alaryc came into power. As she continues raving about Ryc’s kindness and generosity, I roll my eyes and tune out.

She never notices.

I don’t need to be told what kind of fae the Sovereign King is. I already know he deserves a better Fate than to be contracted to a demon.

Taking a few steps back, she lets out an appreciative sigh at her handiwork. I have to admit, the silver of my hair glows in the bloody pink light of the setting sun spilling through the windows. Reaching, I pull a tendril through my fingers, my eyes widening at its softness.

Thinking she’d finished, I step away from the mirror as she moves across the room, toward the round table near the window.

“Oh no, Lady Ves,” she chides sweetly, grabbing a chair by its back to bring across the room. She sets it before me and with agesture adds, “We’re not quite finished yet.”

I feared that, honestly.

We’ve already spent close to an hour and a half between the bath, the drying, and the brushing, but now comes the getting dressed and the styling. Having had a troupe of twittering demons in wait in my early existence, I’m more than familiar with the purpose of the role. Shine me up, dress me pretty, and set me off to be put on display.

During those years, I learned a great deal on how the court of the hells functions, and how I played into it. I’d been introduced to Kassil, Druka had been one of my demons-in-waiting—all of it several lifetimes away.

“We still have to get you dressed,” Oraphia chimes as she grabs the dress she’d brought with her from the door.

It’s a long, slender, dark blue thing with thin straps that doesn’t seem like it’ll cover much of me at all. Oraphia approaches, and holding the hanger of the dress high above her head so the end of the dress doesn’t touch the floor, she reaches out with her other hand.

With a surprising speed, she rips at the towel I clutch at my chest, whipping it away from me, baring me naked. Before I’m able to argue, she pulls the dress from the hanger and forces it over my head.

“Bring your hands up,” she instructs. “Now through here… pull here…”

Strangled by the dress, I do my best to wrangle it down over my head as Oraphia’s hands pull at the material. It takes a second, but finally we manage to get it down and she smooths it over my body.

“When the Sovereign King chose this dress, I wasn’t sure. I thought the dark blue would be too much for your pale complexion. But now, seeing it on you,” she nods in approval, “I can see why he chose it.”

“He chose this?” My brows furrow in mild confusion.

“He did,” she answers, her eyes dancing with her smile.

I open my mouth to ask yet another question as I turn toward the mirror, but it dies on my tongue the second I see my reflection. Like the black dress had been, it’s a form fitting dress featuring alow, sharp neckline. Not nearly as low as the black dress, but low enough to raise my brows.

Turning, my entire back is exposed, the length of the Malbolge runes down my spine easily visible on my skin. Even with my hair down, only half of it would be hidden.

A high slit in the left side of the dress exposes my thigh when I move, pale against the dark blue. A sheer run of fabric flows from the rope-thin shoulder straps, creating a billowing epaulet-like cape that shifts and glitters with the tiniest movements.

The dark blue, the glittering silver… it reminds me of the night sky.

I pause, freezing as I recall the night I’d arrived, staring up at the night sky for the first time beyond the veil. The universe had been this color blue and it had enraptured me. The coincidence pulls at my heart in a way I’m not ready to fully acknowledge.

Fighting against the feeling leaves my chest tight and my breathing shallow. I look away from the mirror. I’d been introduced to the world of Celesta’s devotees that night. Tonight is an introduction of a different kind.

The kind I’d tried to avoid when I chose not to attend the gala.

Tonight is more than a dinner, this is Ryc introducing me to his world as Sovereign King. Dumbfounded by the thought, I don’t resist when Oraphia leads me by the elbow to the chair she set in front of the mirror. She begins to work on my hair once again, sweeping and twisting it to the side. I’ve always worn my hair down, parted along the center, save for the few times I’ve pulled it up while working at the temple.

“You are a stunning creature. Truly a diamond belonging in these halls,” Oraphia says affectionately as she places a few pins in my hair to hold it in place.