It’s not that Eremisa couldn’t dance even when Hilette was the first to try and teach her; it’s that she didn’t know how to dance without Simone. She would tense up when Ordreya held her with her scorpion’s tail, maybe pulling her too tight to her while they practiced waltzing.
She froze with anxiety whenever after she was being spun by Dyn, staring at the snakes as they hissed at her stumbling, and this was a problem, considering that Simone was to use…no not use…but it was wasn’t it? She thought. Distraction for the nobles who believed her court had to be passionless, loveless.
She urged herself not to look at Eremisa for too long. All a distraction so you can grab the gourmet and flee. You don’t care what happens to the others.
No, not flee, she told her guilt, trying not to look at her arm, or think of Selene. Take back the crown. And if her parents were there.
Stand tall. She imagined Selene speaking it and wondered if maybe it would be better to return to shelter her baby sister, and her girlfriend. No, she would never be welcome back, not after what she had done.
She watched Eremisa trip once more and she met her eyes.
“Take five,” Hilette called. “Ordreya. Your form is atrocious. You need to sway with the music, not fight it. Dyn, don’t you laugh! You can’t always lead and I saw your hair get tangled up in the whisk.” Five days until the gala. They were so screwed.
“Oh there’s a lot of things I could whisk!” Dyn said, sticking out her tongue.
“I don’t know what you mean by that. Eremisa,” and Eremisa grimaced. “You’re getting better. Try to imagine that you like your partner and it will be a lot easier.”
Simone couldn’t help but chuckle while Eremisa stuck out her tongue. At either Hilette or herself. She still wasn’t sure.
She wish that she wasn’t doing this for her sister’s gala. For a moment she felt like she was beginning to get to know them.
Expendable.
“You like her, don’t you?” Ordreya hissed in her ear, nearly making her forehead slam into Ordreya’s chin, but she dodged the blow as if they were in preparation of a fight.
Meanwhile Hilette kept sneaking glances over at Dyn.
“Seems like that’s not the only interesting development,” Ordreya giggled.
A stunned silence fell over Simone. She had never heard Ordreya sound this upbeat. And was there really something going on between Dyn and Hilette!
“Maybe things can be this way after the gala?”
“Why wouldn’t they be?”
“I suppose they could be,” Simone said. “It’s not like I was going to lock you in your cages. I meant by what I said.” This land will be yours.
“What brought this on?”
“I miss my sister,” Simone said. It was the truth. “I haven’t seen Lila in a very long time.”
“And you probably won’t at the gala. She’ll be all gussied up, surrounded by her husband and all of his secret lovers that aren’t so secret.”
She gave Ordreya a look.
“Eremisa’s getting better,” she said flatly.
Making our relationship public would bring the hells down on us, she thought. But if she had the gourmet.
“Yeah, she is.” Simone watched her as she began to get better at the reverse turn as Hilette spun her. Dyn looking satisfied as if she had been the one teaching her.
“Not even the committee knows she’s an Empusa. Do you really think it’s safe taking your girlfriend to see your sister’s husband? What if your parents are there?”
“Are you always this direct?” Simone asked, and Ordreya’s lip curved upwards, tail flicking back and forth. “Or do you just enjoy antagonizing me?”
“So you don’t deny that she’s your girlfriend and we’re all your trophies?”
“That’s not fair.”
“I’m giving you a hard time, Simone. If I didn’t like you, I obviously wouldn’t be at your step. Regardless, I care about them and what would happen if we’re not careful enough. Correction, I’m warming up to you.”
“How we do not know each other after all these years of marriage, that’s exactly what’s wrong, what’s wrong with this system!” She stood up and all of them looked at her. Dyn with a curled lip, and all of her snakes matching, some of them drooling more than others, which made Hilette yelp as she stepped away from the glassy eyed gorgon. Eremisa cocked an eyebrow and began dancing by herself, but not before moving her booty directly into Hilette’s path.
“You’re not trophies,” she said, and Ordreya rested her head between her paws. “Far from that. If I could have freed you I would have, but…I would never have you married off to another. Not where I could protect you better!” She blushed.
“Presumptuous.”
“I'm not saying you don’t know what the committee is like, but they would sell you off to the highest bidder.”
“You don’t think I could figure it out? Learn how to slink away. They’d never find me, but instead you kept me, us on a leash.”
“I thought you were all about safety.”
“I am! I just wish you would have trusted us a bit more, is that fair?” That burned, and it started to eat her within.
“I’m not good with it, okay?” she said, the words pouring out. “When I came out to my parents they wouldn’t look at me the same way anymore. At first it was like walking on eggshells. Then it was necessary to stay in their good graces,” she spat. “And I still feel as if I am in their shadow as I live on the throne they’ve built for me. None of this is my own. But I will make it my own, even if it kills me. And yes, you’re right. I should trust you more. Should trust them as well,” she said. “But it’s hard for me. I’m trying. I really am. I’ve lived in fear for so long and it’s not fair to any of you.”
Ordreya draped her arms around her shoulders. “You are trying. The girls, we…we recognize it.”
Now what’s the real reason you want to go to the gala.
But Ordreya never asked her. It was as if she already knew.
***
Eremisa woke her in the middle of the night, kissing her on the forehead and then her hand. “C’mon I want to show you something.”
She steeled herself as a flush brimmed across her skin, but she found herself being nearly dragged by Eremisa. Was the committee here? Had they been monitoring them until they found the moment to strike?
Eremisa was wearing a red maxi dress with curled pink flames swirling around her, her iridium leg slipping through. Her horns shifted upwards along her head, growing taller until they were fully extended. Making Simone sweat. How did she get so lucky?
“May I have this dance?” she said.
Eremisa swept her up. “I missed leading,” she said.
“We can change that.”
Eremsa’s laugh took up her entire face, holding Simone close, and Simone knew this was right where she wanted to be. Then why was she risking everything for more?
“Nervous?”
“I’m not a dancer. And you were pretending not to be. Why?”
“Keeps the wives guessing?”
“Oh?”
“No,” Eremisa said. “Keeps the wives together. Did you see how happy Hilette was when she was trying to direct me?”
“She was beaming.”
“Was she really? Crazy I could have that effect.”
“You always have that effect,” Simone said, swaying as Eremisa spun her and then held her close, kissing her cheek.
“Do I?”
Simone shivered.
“Darling, are you cold?”
“Something like that.”
The towers gleaming lights lingering behind them. There was no music and yet they heard the song swimming in the air.
***
Simone carried Eremisa down the stairs and tucked her into her bed, giving her a lingering kiss. She did not care if the others had seen. Her wife mumbled something reaching for her hands, trying to pull her into bed with her, but Simone let her hands drop, a cold feeling burning within her.
She needed air.
She stepped out into the jilted, rainwithered night, her footsteps sounding a mile away as she dashed around the corner and held herself, shaking. What if someone had seen? What was she thinking?
All the while she could sense someone was watching her and she sat up abruptly. The scent was unrecognizable. But how? Here?
She shot up and a blade was at her throat before she could move. Not a blade, teeth, and then suddenly she stared at the spot where a figure was wrapped in one of her wive’s garbs. A woman?
“So I hear you’re interested in the gala? Lila would be so happy that you’re going to be there.”
“Who are you?” Her voice trembled, and she felt something dribble down her neck.
“My name is Kjula Van Moirte Vas. You can call me Veela for short.”
Their voice rang with masculine timber, but they looked so feminine. She felt a twinge of jealousy at their thin shoulders and taut stomach.
“Nice crop top.”
“It suits me.” She could not agree more.
“What is a dhampir doing in the hells?”
“I hear you’re interested in the gourmet. I think Lila would be rather disappointed to find her sister was snooping around her palace when she has very good intention to welcome her sister home.”
“And you’re her what… maid?”
“A good friend,” they hissed. “And you have friends as well?”
Could he know? What she was planning with Lila’s husband?
“Or should I say a lover? Last I heard showing preference to wives is considered worthy of a marking.”
“Are you threatening me?” And she hated the way her voice cracked.
“A mere reminder that you are guests.”
She had trouble finding her breathing there.
“And if you’re going to use any sort of distraction, I would advise that you use something other than your wives’ dancing. Even the hippy is very bad at it.”
She wondered who the hippy was? She could almost hear Dyn and her many snakes cursing her name.
“Just calm words of advice. Maybe leave this place behind.”
“Don’t you think I want it?” She couldn’t help herself. She wasn’t even sure if the dhampir was on the committee.
“I can see it in your eyes. Going after the gourmet, it might be disastrous. Especially with that dance,” they shuddered.
“Okay, I get it, enough about the dance! Since you’re Lila’s spy you’re going to tell her?”
“Tell her? No, no, no, that would ruin the entertainment. She wants to see you safe. She wants all of her sisters to be safe.”
“Lila would say that.”
“And she has her strengths. But she can’t protect you or your,” they coughed. “Loved ones if you’re doing perfectly reckless things.” They almost hissed again. “Just give it some thought.”
“Lila can’t protect us anyways. She thinks she can, but it’s a far cry thinking that she can when she’s locked away in her tower surrounded by man servants.”
“Man servants," they scoffed. "I wish. I’m not one of her servants. Like I said. Just a friend,” he said.
“Cute."
“I would like to think so,” he grinned.
“What happens if I don’t leave?”
“Then I welcome the challenge,” he said, bowing, and she wondered what that meant, and she wanted to get the last word, but before last drop could drip from the walls he had slunk off into the night, leaving her completely alone. Or at least she wanted to be. She really wanted to be.
The challenge? She tossed and turned in her nest, unable to sleep, unable to think about anything other than what those words could have meant? Did he want her to steal the book? Was he baiting her into it? Or was he interested in the gourmet as well? And did she really mean it, that her sister could not protect them? Had she been? Is that why the committee had shone up.
You’ll have to use something other than dance. His words echoed in her head.
She stood, pacing, careful not to wake them. She looked at Eremisa swaddled in a burrito nest and her heart hummed. She could snatch her up right away and leave like that dhampir wanted or she could stand her ground, do what Lila could not and form a new life with the gourmet away from the hells, and then begin protecting her sisters.
Eremisa yawned, stretching out her hands and right now, she knew it was stupid and selfish and incredibly reckless, but the only place she wanted to be was. She slipped into bed, leaning into her lover, as her arms closed around her.
Being the little spoon never felt so good. Eremisa nuzzled her back, and she could have sworn she was purring.
“Reckless, I’ll show you reckless,” she mumbled. Ordreya's right. I need to trust them more. It was her last thought before she drifted off into her lover's arms.