A Sprinkle of Stardust

Chapter 17 - Belladonna

A shadow moved as Nash entered his room, but that was nothing new.

It came when he was alone so that there was nobody to distract him from its presence. It brushed against his spine so he would never forget that it was there. Except for Benje and Isarea, it was the closest thing he had to family.

Only when he stopped in front of his mirror and caught the reflection of a shimmer in the darkness did he take a closer look.

For the first time, the shadow in Nash's bedroom had a face, and a lovely one at that.

Black hair flowed over her shoulders. Between that and her dark dress, she might've looked like part of the wall at a quick glance. Eyes closed, she stood completely still.

Nash flinched at the pain that pulsed through his skull. He massaged his temples and turned back to the mirror, searching among the decanters on the table for the blue teardrop-shaped bottle.

He had only seen Lady Trelle's maid on two occasions, but she wasn't the kind of woman he would forget. She had walked in behind her lady at the ball this evening, but it had been her Nash saw first.

It couldn't be because she was beautiful, of course. It wasn't because she liked to hide, the way the sun could stay behind the clouds and remain the brightest object in the sky.

It was because she was a mystery.

She clearly didn't want to be seen, so Nash could act as if he hadn't noticed her and go about his evening. It might be interesting to watch her stew while she waited for him to leave so that she could too.

He could call in the guards to remove her from his room.

Or he could reveal that he had caught her and find out what she was doing in his apartment. Perhaps he could ask her the other things he had been wondering since he first saw her and set the restlessness within him at peace.

He needed to know who Lyrani Esch was and where he had seen her before.

Pretending to study his liquor collection, Nash reached for the light. It settled against his fingers, warm and reassuring even though there wasn't much of it on this dark night. With a wave of his hand, he illuminated the woman dwelling among the shadows.

Still facing away from her, he asked, "It's Lyrani, isn't it?"

Her sharp intake of breath was the first sign of life she had given. Nash watched in the mirror as she peeled her slender form from the darkness.

"Your Majesty." Lyrani kept her gaze level and curtseyed unsteadily where she stood.

Nash turned to her. "How did you get past the guards?"

They had been posted here for a reason. They hadn't been doing their jobs properly if a guest—not an assassin or a thief, but a lady's maid—had snuck past them.

Lyrani kept her distance, staying near the shadows. Nash wondered if they gave her comfort the way light did for him.

"They weren't at their posts. They must've gone to investigate a strange noise or something of the sort." Lyrani brushed a strand of her dark hair away from her face, her fingers long and graceful like the hands of a lady or a musician.

Nash took two glasses from the dressing table drawer and set them on the table with a clink.

This wasn't the first time something had spooked the guards away from their posts. Nash supposed he should reassign them somewhere their incompetence wouldn't get him killed.

If it was anyone other than Lyrani in his room, he might have fired them.

Nash couldn't have people snooping around his palace. There were too many hidden secrets he'd rather they not know, too many ways they could find of eliminating him if they chose to.