Page 75 of Night’s Fall (The Four Realms #1)

Deepest Pit

M y eyes puffy from crying, scratchy from lack of sleep, lying in a bed of sumptuous bedclothes, my eyes to the tall window, I watched the sky move from night to a murky dawn.

The weather, it would seem, was continuing to align with my mood.

I gave three fluffballs (yes, even Jupiter remained close) some pets before they were forced to scatter when I pushed the covers back and got out of bed.

The cats stayed with me last night. And although I loved them for their show of loyalty, it was another stab in the heart that they’d had to choose, and they, too, didn’t get to spend time with daddy.

Especially Nova , who always had a doleful look on her face, but now she seemed miserable.

I wandered to the window, not the bathroom, sat on the cushion in the window seat and looked out at the sea.

I caught a school of the sea’s namesake dolphins leaping and playing while swimming south, toward the Three Realms , seeking warmer water for the winter. The barely-there sun still glinted off their glossy skin.

Normally, this would enchant me.

I’d felt Aleksei’s presence leave the suite an hour before, and he didn’t even bother to stick his head in, so nothing was delighting me.

I’d maybe snoozed for about an hour. The rest of my night was sleepless, so his goal of not disturbing it was for naught.

I needed a serious stint with my spa-visor.

I also needed to buck up, suck it up, and get on with it.

Tour first. Shoot vid next. Have a meeting with Nata to get stuck in on the MdV ball, which I had decided I was going to spearhead. We needed more to do like we needed holes in our heads, but farg it.

I, too, was sequestered at the Palace , and I’d go nuts without something to do.

That was something to do. And I’d never organized a ball, but I figured I’d be good at it.

Time to get on with it.

I turned from the window, headed to the bathroom, my Denti - Clean and my spa-visor.

* * *

“And we’ll be delighted to host five lucky winners, with their plus ones, at this event, along with providing feeds on social tapes, so you can tour the exhibition and be a part of the ball, even if you can’t travel to Nocturn .”

I took a short breath, lifting both hands to hold them, one over the other, at my chest, my smile still pinned to my face, and I continued.

“I’ve lived my whole life fascinated by clothes, not only style, but function, construction, the textiles that make them, and history.

This particular fascination of mine is something I cannot wait to share with all of you.

I also cannot wait to open the door to the Royal Catalogues and share the treasures we store here with the citizens of Night’s Fall with the hope you’ll be just as fascinated as me. ”

I dropped my hands, holding them together in front of me, and I tilted my head very slightly.

“Thank you for watching. See you at the Musée .”

I kept smiling, not too much, not too little, at the cam.

“Annnnnd… we’re out ,” the cam operator called.

Germaine hurried forward.

“That was a good one. We’ll go with that one. Perfect ,” she gushed.

Standing in the sublevel of the Catalogues , in front of Queen Mathilde’s gown, I hoped it was perfect, since that was the eighth take, my feet were hurting, and I wanted nothing but to get out of there, get in the hover-cart, be whisked to the Palace and get into my retreat where I hoped they’d stocked the fridge and snack cabinet as I’d requested.

It was only early afternoon.

I still had every intention of kicking off my shoes, mixing myself a drink and getting the next item on my day’s agenda done and behind me.

For that one, I’d need a drink.

I’d had my tour of the Palace . It had lasted three hours. It was fascinating. And there was so much of it, I was sure I’d need a refresher in a week.

After that, a quick lunch with Aleece , who seemed even more distracted than her father had the night before. And there was a melancholy to her that was not a small amount of alarming.

I didn’t press her on it. We were all feeling it in one way or another, especially with the Masque fast approaching, when we’d all have to be on, no matter what was happening. But I also didn’t know her very well, so I didn’t know if I should.

Seemed to be the case all around with the Knightstar clan.

And the quickness of our lunch was due to Aleece’s distraction, because, no other way to put it, after she ate a few bites with disinterest, she barely looked at me while mumbling words of farewell and wandered out.

Commence an hour-long meeting with Nata to go over invitations and correspondence I’d received and our pitch to the MdV about me being chair of the fundraising ball committee.

At that time, I gave her a task so I could finalize the last item on my day’s agenda before we headed to the Catalogues . And now that item was up next.

I’d heard nothing all day from my mate, though I’d text commed him that morning to share I was starting my tour.

Aleksei did not reply.

I didn’t try again.

Space .

Now, one last thing to do, something I absolutely, one hundred percent didn’t want to do, but the idea came to me, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. It might be a huge mistake, but I was doing it.

Because I also might get some answers.

And then, maybe I’d get drunk. I didn’t know, I hadn’t planned that far. But I suspected getting drunk was going to be etched onto my agenda after I got my next line item over and done with.

“We’ll release this on social tapes after the Masque ,” Germaine decreed.

“ It’ll be the perfect follow-up. Everyone is always in thrall about what beings wear to the ball.

We’ll give the Masque a couple of days to run its course, so this announcement doesn’t compete with it, and then we’ll release.

I’ll let Nata know when it’s scheduled.”

“Add another day or two.”

“It really would work better on the heels of the Masque ,” Germaine disagreed.

“And it would also seem like I don’t give a dang about the fact my bodyguard was streamed down in broad daylight, and I’m skipping joyfully onward in planning a ball just days after she died protecting me,” I retorted.

I noted immediately Germaine saw my point.

“You’re right. A week?” she asked.

I nodded, but said, “ Let’s keep in touch, play it by feel.”

“You got it,” she replied.

At this point, Germaine began bossing the cam crew around, so I made my way to the lift, outside which Nata was dallying.

When she saw me, she ordered the door to open.

“Hey,” I greeted as I stepped past her into the lift.

“Hey. I was watching. You did well,” she said, joining me in it.

“Thanks,” I mumbled as the lift started to ascend. “ Did you get the sequence?”

She nodded. “ I sent it in a text comm.” She then regarded me closely before she asked hesitantly, “ Are you sure about this?”

No.

“I’m sure,” I lied.

“It’s not my place…” She didn’t finish that.

But I knew what she thought wasn’t her place.

My heart pitched when I turned to her and stated words akin to ones someone wise said to me not too long ago.

“No offense, Nata , truly, please believe that before I say what I’m going to say next.

But we’re not going to be friends. It’s not our job to be friends.

The jobs we have are important, and we can’t let anything get in the way of them.

Even so, we can be friendly, and we definitely need to be honest with each other.

” The lift door opened, but neither of us stepped out.

“ But we’re in this together. So you need to feel like you can be forthright with me. ”

“This isn’t about my job,” she replied. “ This is personal.”

Oh yes.

I knew what that personal was.

“Okay, say it anyway,” I invited.

“I don’t know why you needed that sequence, but I’m afraid there’s no good reason for you to have it, and I’m worried that you asked for it.”

I couldn’t tell her why I needed it, so the only thing I could do was nod and say, “ You’re heard.” Then I lowered my voice and added, “ And thank you for caring. I’m sorry you’re worried, but I promise I’ll be okay.”

And I hoped I could keep that promise.

“All right,” she mumbled, realizing, accurately, that I was done talking about this.

Not done, exactly.

More like, if we kept talking about it, she might talk me out of it.

And as much as I didn’t want to do it, I couldn’t shake the sense I had to.

We walked out of the lift, out of the building, and we both got into the back seat of a covered hover-cart.

It was open on all sides. The nip in the air was now straight-up autumn chill, the skies were still gray, and it had rained or drizzled on and off all day (but it wasn’t now), and I wished I’d worn a coat, but too late.

Regardless, it didn’t take long for the driver to zip us into the tunnel under the hill that led from the Catalogues to the Palace .

While we glided, Nata briefed me about the various designers sending clothing and accessories to consider for appearances.

I knew she did this to get my spirits up, because I wasn’t hiding how down they were, and normally, it would.

But I hadn’t gone this long without connecting with Aleksei since we met.

So pretty much nothing would brighten my spirits.

“We’ll go through them the day after the Masque ,” I told her as we alighted from the cart in the cavernous area under the Palace .

It was replete with walls that were fortified by shiny black steel, other parked hover-carts, a few glide-cycles, a moto-bike, and alarmingly, six armored combat-crafts.

Not to mention, one whole wall was lined all the way across, three rows up to the ceiling, with at least a hundred powered-down defense bots resting (but doing it like they were at attention) in charge pods.

They were not humanoid, though they did have two arms, two legs, a torso and a head. They were made of a shiny opalescent black and purple metal with a sight screen that went all the way round their oval-shaped heads.

And they were killer cool, but totally terrifying.