“So, were you the emissary that Essos sent to handle whatever happened on Earth today?”
Finn looks surprised at my question.“He told you that?” He spins me away and then pulls me back to him. “More or less. A god who will be at the Calling Ball was acting out of turn. I’m not the right person to keep him in check, but because Essos is preoccupied here, I was sent to deal with it.”
“What did that entail?” I hope I’m able to keep with this line of questioning, since Finn is being vague. Maybe he’ll let some information leak, although, if I’ve read him right, I doubt he will.
“In this case, it meant going to bars and getting hammered. Essos is usually more diplomatic, but I do what I can. I’m not allowed to bring the heat; only Essos is. Instead, I get to booze up the troublemaker and remind him that he can’t throw temper tantrums in the form of ending mortal lives.” Around the room, Essos chats politely with a few girls before moving to the dance floor with Madison. Finn catches me watching and shakes his head.
“So, he’s a tough leader?” I counter.
“He’s hardly a fire and brimstone guy, despite his job title, but he has done a pretty good job of keeping people in line for the last few millennia.”
I catch sight of Zara stepping outside alone, and I let go of Finn abruptly and excuse myself to follow her. He looks surprised but lets me go.
When I reach her, Zara is breathing in the cool night air.
I grab her arm and spin her around to face me. “So, what, Tiffany tells you my idea, and you decide to market it as your own?” I ask.
I’m not sure where she came from, but Cat is suddenly at my side, followed by Finn. Zara feigns shock and stands up a little taller so she can tower over me. It makes me want to kick her in the shins. Zara might be taller, but I’m scrappier. While I had mostly good foster homes growing up, I was smaller than a lot of kids, which meant having to fight for everything I got before I was adopted.
She tosses her long dark hair over a smooth bare shoulder. “I made my own suggestion, based on a conversation Tiffany and I had, based on a conversation that you two had. I’m hardly responsible if you take every last minute to come down to dinner looking mediocre at best.”
I step toward her, but Finn and Cat each grab one of my arms.
Finn moves swiftly so he is directly in front of me. “If you hit her, you will get tossed out and you will never get to prove me wrong about getting better at dancing. She is so beyond not worth it.” Finn says it lightly, but there’s an undertone of seriousness in his voice.
Over his shoulder, Zara looks smug. My face burns, and I want to hit her all over again, but I loosen up. Cat and Finn both let go of me but look ready to jump back in.
I’m turning to walk back inside when I catch sight of a bed of flowers that just moments earlier had been in full bloom and are now wilting. “You are so poisonous, Zara, that these flowers—” I gesture at them “—are literally dying in your presence.” I push my way back inside, thankful that no one else seems to have paid any attention to us.
As I pass Tiffany, she grabs my arm, her eyes full of regret. “I am so sorry. Never in a million years did I think she would do something like that.”
I soften at her words and take her hands in mine. “Am I furious? Absolutely, but not at you. That was a dirty, underhanded way to win brownie points. But I hope it was as cathartic as we hoped it would be.”
Essos appears at Tiffany’s elbow and gives me a cordial nod. Tiffany looks like she wants to say something more but leaves with him instead.
Finn offers me his hand, and we step onto the dance floor again. I try to relax as we move into our usual box step.
“Can I ask what that was about?” he presses, trying to get me to look into his beautiful dark eyes.
“Why, so you can pretend like you don’t know?” I snap. I’m taking out my frustration on the wrong people, and I know it. Releasing a shaky, calming breath, I explain the conversation I had with Tiffany earlier in the day, already tired of rehashing it.
“Essos is an excellent judge of character. He knows when someone is genuine and not. I have to imagine that he saw through Zara’s bullshit when she told him about it,” Finn tries to reassure me.
“I’ll have to take your word for it,” I reply glumly, this time accidentally stepping on Finn’s foot. It hurts me almost as much as it hurts him. My shoes grind against my toes, and I wonder why the heels aren't imbued with magic to avoid blisters. I decide that when I do get a chance to talk to Essos or Sybil, the shoe complaint is going to the top of my list.
“You have to give Essos a chance. He sees more than you know.”
I think about how his gaze has a way of piecing me, making me feel like he’s looking into my very essence. “I can trust you, right? We’ve got some sort of escort-client confidentiality?”
“That’s what I tell all my Johns, or in your case, Janes.”
I stick my tongue out at him, wondering if I should let myself retreat and burrow back into my shell. No, I can’t do that. If I really want this, if I want to become a queen, I can’t hide when I’m scared of what the answer might be.
“Who is Dion?” Finn is the one who stumbles this time, stepping on my foot. “Ow.”
“Sorry, I’m sorry. You shouldn’t know that name yet. He’s…he’s my, uh, wow, okay.”
“He’s your what?”