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She gives me a wicked smile, as if already knowing where my thoughts have gone, and pats my shoulder.
“Your feet will regret it by the end of the night, but you will manage.”
“I wasn’t planning on dancing,” I tell her. One small mercy, I suppose.
But both women freeze on hearing my words and turn to me with wide eyes.
“You have to dance,” Isolde says, and Visha nods.
“I don’t know how. I’ve never learned.” I wince. Sidus don’t have many celebrations, and those we do have are usually full of drunken Sidus men who need constant reminders of where their hands should be.
“I’ve never needed to,” I tell them.
“Well, we can’t have that now, can we? What if one of the royals wants a dance?” Visha says.
“I doubt?—”
Visha moves over to me and quickly helps me into the shoes before pulling me to a standing position and taking my hand. I stumble a little but quickly steady myself, getting used to the new height.
I’m not a complete stranger to heels. Jarek somehow found a pair and made me wear them to ensure I didn’t miss out on the experience, saying all women needed to try it at least once.
So of course I made him wear them with me, and we never had so much fun or laughter as we did that night.
Visha places my hand on her shoulder, and her matching hand takes my waist. She then takes my free hand in hers and looks at me with nothing but warmth in her eyes. With the heels on, I am a half a head taller than she is, and with her leading the dance, it makes it a little awkward, but we manage.
“It’s very easy,” she says as she begins to sway, at first side to side before attempting to twirl me around.
I duck and bend, laughing as I bow under her arm. We practice a bit more, and I find the dance steps to be simple enough.
“Let your dance partner lead you, and he will be too busy being lost in those eyes of yours to wonder about your dancing skills.”
I shake my head at her, but she gives me a secret smile before attempting another twirl.
We dance for a bit longer, and I get used to the heels once more while we laugh at each other, and a lightness fills up the room with happiness and joy. By the time Visha and Isolde have to leave, I start to wish I could spend the rest of the day here with these two beautiful, funny women rather than meet with some hidden royals and their guards.
I make note to try to figure a way to come visit Visha and Isolde after everything is over, knowing I have made a lasting friendship with them both.
Once they are gone, I take off my shoes and leave them in the room while I sneak down to my cell to the hidden tunnel to check on the dark creature.
I pull my dress tight against me, careful not to let it touch the dirty walls should I ruin it and all the work Visha and Isolde have put into making me look and feel beautiful.
Moving through the passageways, I find the one I used to hide the dark creature in and head toward it. But when I come around the corner, my heart plummets, my stomach twisting when I find it empty.
Glancing around, I check that I am in the correct spot before moving to the next passage and the next, checking every path and room. Continuing my search, I find more rooms, passageways and caverns that open up to more paths than I realized was here.
It should be an impossible feat for the dark creature to escape those iron chains. But if it has, maybe it got lost among the underground maze of passageways and rooms down here.
But what am I going to do now? My entire plan is based on bringing the royals proof. The Caligo guards could easily deny the dark creatures’ existence, but with proof, they will not be able to.
Damn it.It is too late to go hunt another dark creature now, but this is my only chance to meet with the royals.
I glance around the passageway I am in, not really seeing anything but my mind and despairing thoughts. I can’t stay down here for much longer; the guards will eventually find me missing, and the celebration will start soon.
The only thing I can do now is go ahead with what I was planning to do. Meet with the royals but without the dark creature. Maybe I can suggest catching another and bringing it here as proof. It might be enough.
With a heavy sigh, I head back through the passageways and rooms, through the cavern, and up the tunnel. Resealing the hidden door, I listen for sound before moving through the cell room and back up into the palace.
I’m halfway down the hall from the room I was placed in after the trial when a heart-wrenching scream bellows out around me.
