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“I don’t?”
She shook her head. “Not unless you wish to. It’s an Ongarhi osnat, a customary wedding adornment, mostly to wear when you’re outside the home, my lady. So others will know you are spoken for.”
“Then I can take it off?” I asked hopefully.
She giggled at my expression. “Of course. So, which necklace would you like to wear tonight?”
I hated being a fish out of water here. I made a mental note to grill Tilly later on everything I could think of.
I eyed the choices: a thin silver torque with filigree etching, and a simple braided silver chain with a teardrop aquamarine. I chose the latter.
Facing the mirror at my vanity, I watched as she unclasped my choker—osnat, I corrected—removed it, and placed it on a slender velvet tray. When she put the silver necklace on me, I let out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding. I felt as if a layer of fog had been removed from me, making me feel more like myself. It was the osnat. Not that it held some kind of magical power or had a spell cast on it. It was what it represented, what its absence represented. I remembered how Demos had placed it back on me as we were leaving the forest. How the closing of the clasp had a sound of finality.
As I touched the gentle thin skin of my neck, I wondered why he had removed it in the first place. Could it be possible that he had wanted only me, with no trace of the Ongahri’s symbol marking me as theirs? Or was it out of guilt, knowing I was promised to another man?
My heart hurt just thinking about it.
“You look lovely, my lady,” Tilly said, hesitating before laying a hand briefly on my shoulder.
“Thank you, Tilly.” I dropped my hand and met my strange turquoise eyes in the mirror. Yes, with the osnat removed, I felt free. Now, if only I could remove something that would ease my heartache.
Chapter 36
Sierra
Even though I’d already seen the formal dining room on my tour, seeing it in candlelight transformed the room from elegant to magical. Stained glass windows of roses in plum, indigo, and maroon took up much of the western wall. The other side was a dark wood paneling, almost a purple black, with wide, ornate wainscoting in the same color and wood. The table, also made from the same dark material, was long enough to sit at least eighteen people. Shining silver cutlery and gleaming crystal decorated the table. The two crystal chandeliers above were lit with dozens of tapers, casting tiny rainbows around the room.
A few people were already seated, but the rest of the guests, the queen excluded, were arriving through the doorway ahead and behind me. Lysander had escorted me in and now led me to my seat near the head of the table. A servant pulled out my chair, and I sat down, Lysander doing the same on my right.
Directly across from me sat Fadon, and to his left was Demos, who was seated next to an older man I didn’t recognize. The stranger wore vestments and had dark markings on his cheeks that looked like some kind of plant, a fern or a sheaf of wheat. Around his neck was a thicker version of my osnat, the stone smaller. I wondered what it meant on him.
A glance down my side of the table, and sitting beside Lysander, revealed a lady whose hair was covered in a thick peach silk wrapped around the top of her head. She smiled kindly at me. Her skin was dark, like toasted chestnuts, her eyes large and brown. She was stunning. I smiled back.
Next to her, another man I’d never seen before. He was older as well and gave off a haughty air that reminded me of one of Father’s friends.
My attention turned to the doorway as a guard announced the queen. Everyone stood, and we bowed our heads as Mari entered the room, her gown white this time, a satin, long-sleeved garment that hugged every inch of her. At her waist, draped at an angle, was a thin leather belt of deep red with a ruby clasp. Her hair was piled high atop her head in thick chunky curls, and tiny ruby hairpins dotted the black mass like crimson flowers in a nighttime meadow.
She sat at the head of the table, at my side, her red lacquered lips titled in a smile. “Please, sit.” She glanced around the empty seats. “Where are our guests?”
A guard ventured forward and whispered something too low for me to hear as we all sat back down.
“Seems they are delayed,” she said. “Then we shall wait. Tell the staff to hold our meal until our guests arrive, Shela,” the queen said to the maid in the corner before turning to me. “I’m so sorry about not seeing you today, Sierra,” she said. “Today has been filled with way too many things to attend to.”
“Of course, my queen,” I said meekly.
“Forgive me for the delay, Queen Alpha,” a deep voice said behind me after a few moments. The voice had a raspy vibration to it that made me think of thunderstorms in summer.
He appeared at my side and bowed deeply to the queen. I caught a scent of summer rain on the wind. He even smelled like a storm, I thought. When he straightened, I saw he was tall, with dark hair a little past his broad shoulders. He wore no shirt, only dark tight-fitting breeches of supple leather with matching boots. When he went around the table to find his seat, next to the older gentleman at Demos’ side, my eyes traveled over the array of tattoos that splayed across his hairless chest, shoulders, and down his arms and hands, markings of swirls and lines in stark black against his tawny skin.
“Lucius Dega,” the queen greeted him. “Will we have the honor of dining with your companions tonight, or are they resting from their journey?” It wasn’t said with heat, but I sensed an annoyance in her words.
“They will be along shortly,” Lucius said in that deep, husky tone. “We had a little… issue that needed dealing with.” He smiled but only with his lips, no teeth. He looked away from the queen and his gaze settled on me. His eyes were an unusual shade of gray, not a dull tone but a startlingly silver-gray. With his dark hair and brows, the mercury color gave his masculine face an exotic look.
But they were also disconcerting, as if he could see exactly what I looked like under my gown. I quickly looked away and tried to rest my gaze somewhere else.
“Pardon our absence!” another late arrival said.
Marching into the room were a group of three Ongahri, one of whom was the man I’d seen at the gate earlier. They too were dressed in black leather breeches and boots, although these men were, thankfully, fully clothed, unlike Lucius. No matter how long I’d been exposed to the Ongahri baring their chests, it was still alarming to see.
