Page 26 of House of the Beast

Chapter

T he truth was, I had never liked Sevelie. She made me feel small, moving through the world with such easy charm, bright and beautiful and confident—much like those girls in the books of my childhood, the ones I knew I would never become.

I swallowed the instinctual urge to tell her to fuck off. As Aster and I glanced at each other, I remembered I still had a role to play.

I rose to my feet, shoulders squared as if going into battle. “Keep an eye on me?” I said, feigning confusion. “Whatever for?”

Sevelie’s smile only became sweeter. “Please don’t make this difficult for either of us. I’m certain you know what I’m talking about.”

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“You caused quite a ruckus during the trials. I’m simply doing my duty as the next First Hand’s fiancée. At such an important time, we must keep House Avera strong, even if it means watching over certain members to make sure they don’t stir up any more trouble.”

I raised an eyebrow. Given her perpetual perfect manners, I had not expected her to be so blunt with her accusations. Then again, she had no reason to be cordial to me.

“So, she has claws after all,” said Aster, amused.

She clearly did—I just wished she wasn’t using them on me.

“You can rest assured that I won’t, in fact, be stirring up any more trouble,” I said. If everything went according to plan, there would be no need. “All I want is to make the Beast proud.”

Her dark eyes narrowed and she lifted a delicate finger to her chin as if in thought. “And yet you’ve done everything in your power to insult His House. Is it for glory? Are you doing this for attention? You cannot truly believe you are so special that your behavior can be excused.”

I wondered how much she had heard, likely from unkind sources, in order to form such a negative opinion of me.

It was so blatantly insulting that I had to laugh.

“Are you really here because your pure heart worries for the honor of House Avera?” I asked, losing patience.

“Or because my father put you up to it?”

Despite Sevelie’s claim of duty, Kaim was too proud to send someone to spy on me. Either my father had instructed her to do so or she had taken the initiative in a misguided attempt to earn his affections.

Her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed. That was all the answer I needed.

Disgusting.

“I think it’s better if you leave,” I told her with the same poisoned politeness she had granted me. If she wanted to act at being superior, I was capable of doing the same. “I serve powers above your comprehension; I have no need to explain myself to you.”

Sevelie puffed herself up, incensed. “Do you really? I at least know that Lord Zander has House Avera’s best interests in mind—but you, Alma, I trust very little.

You are rude to your father, and often impose upon the household staff, and now you’re running off on your own when Lord Zander has been looking forward to this Pilgrimage, with you as his second, for so long.

If you hear the voice of your god, the least you could do is use this power to support his endeavor. ”

My patience had run out. “You are an idiot if you think you know my father at all.”

I wondered if Sevelie had ever witnessed the true cruelties my father was capable of.

She hadn’t been there when he cleaved my arm from my shoulder even as I begged and cried.

She had never heard his acid words when he criticized my reading or my swordplay.

She wasn’t aware that he’d barely spared me any kindness, even as he expected me to continue living up to his ridiculous expectations.

She didn’t know how he had all but ensured my mother’s death, just for his own selfish means.

I could only conclude that my father had her completely fooled. Whatever charms he must have used on my mother, and his countless other affairs around the estate, clearly masked the truth of his nature. I had little interest in playing nice with anyone silly enough to be so misled.

But Sevelie was not done. “I know him better than you do,” she said, reverence seeping into her voice.

“He talks to me, confides in me—which, clearly, he needs since both his daughter and wife are so awful to him. He has plans to make Avera a better place for everyone, but he can’t do that until he’s First Hand—which you could help him achieve.

He knows Kugara needs to change, and if he can earn this victory, he’ll be the one to change it. ”

I rolled my eyes so hard I almost sprained a muscle.

In all the years I’d known him, my father had cared about only one thing: earning the glory he felt was so continuously denied to him.

Whatever visions of the future he had painted for Sevelie were likely placations for a starry-eyed, naive young woman, keeping her attention in order to stroke his own ego.

“You may believe whatever you like about him,” I said, suddenly and overwhelmingly tired of the topic. I turned and took my seat again, done with the conversation. She clearly was not going to change her mind and I didn’t want to argue further. “I won’t stop you.”

“You won’t mind if I join you for this journey, then,” she said quickly, swooping into the seat opposite mine. Aster, sitting unseen beside her, gave her a bemused frown.

I narrowed my eyes. “I do mind. Very much, in fact. Leave .”

“I thought you had nothing to hide.”

“That has nothing to do with it. You’ve been rude to me, and I don’t like you, so I’d like you to go away.”

“Perhaps you’ll find something else besides my company worth your time, then,” she said. “I don’t believe you’ll have accommodations in the capital. You’ve never been, have you? I’ve been given a house in the eastern quarter of Sorrowsend, and I could offer you a place to stay.”

A place to stay, so she could monitor my actions at all hours of the day? She truly was deluded. “I’m not staying with you.”

She waved my rejection off with a lily-white hand and glanced around the cabin, wrinkling her nose. “Is that one suitcase really all you’re bringing?”

“I don’t exactly have anyone to help me carry the rest of my wardrobe,” I said, my eyes pointedly roaming down the length of her ridiculously ruffled skirt.

“If you’d simply remained with your father—”

“If you’re going to insist on sitting here,” I said loudly, talking over her, “I don’t want to hear another word about my father.”

To my absolute shock, it was Aster who spoke up next. “Now, now, Alma,” he said. “Maybe we should know more about him?”

I could not stop myself from jerking around to face him. Was he daft? I knew all I needed to about who Zander Avera truly was.

“What is it?” said Sevelie, jumping at my sudden movement.

I ignored her, staring at Aster with utter confusion.

He barked out a laugh. “I don’t mean that you should ask her to recite poems about your father’s twinkling eyes and supple lips,” he said, and I almost gagged at the thought.

“Silly Alma. This girl may be an idiot, but that means we can use her. Let her think she’s keeping an eye on you, while you keep an eye on your father.

She talks to him, and it may be worth knowing his movements leading up to the Pilgrimage. ”

I could not deny the benefits of keeping an enemy close. I knew how to keep my business to myself, so I could let her watch, all while extorting the information I needed. And though I dreaded Sevelie’s company, she had also offered me a place to stay. It could be a mutually profitable arrangement.

But I was not used to playing these games.

I had spent eight years on my own with only Aster to talk to, and the excitement of the last few days was already tiring in a way I had never experienced before.

I did not know if I had the endurance to keep up a facade for someone who obviously considered herself my enemy.

My monster could clearly still read the reluctance in my eyes, because he quickly reached over and tucked my hair back behind my ear, on the side where Sevelie wouldn’t see.

“Alma,” he said. “If we let your father think he still has the upper hand on you, he’ll have less reason to cause you trouble.

Let him believe you’re weak, like you always have. ”

But would my father be fooled so easily now that he had seen how savage I could be on a battlefield? Had he wondered how I managed such precise bladework, when I’d feigned difficulty all these years?

“Don’t worry,” Aster whispered. “Your father’s pride won’t allow him to accept you are my chosen. You can keep this foolish girl in check. If she tries to hurt you, I will end her.”

My traitorous heart stuttered at the fondness in his voice, even as he spoke his threats. And I couldn’t deny the appeal of humiliating my father further—to see him realize how he’d sunk so low as to spy on me, and still lost.

I turned back to Sevelie, who was watching me with wide-eyed confusion. I had been staring at Aster too long, and she’d noticed.

No matter. If she wanted to confirm the rumors that I was god-touched, she was free to do so.

“I’ll stay with you in the capital,” I informed her bluntly.

She blinked, taken aback by my return to the conversation. “Truly?”

“Yes.”

She furrowed her perfectly plucked eyebrows. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

I had to give her credit. She was not so foolish as to take my acceptance at face value.

“I have nothing to hide,” I said blithely. “If you want to confirm my loyalty to the Beast for yourself, I’ll let you.”

Sevelie gave me a slow, assessing look up and down. “Very well, then,” she said, folding her hands together in her lap. “I am sure we’ll have a wonderful time together, Alma.”

I sent a smile back at her, as false and vicious as the one she had worn when she greeted me. “Yes, I’m sure.”