Moon Blood

XI. The Inventory

Croquet seemed a last resort for entertainment. It really wasn't warm enough, but the Grand Duke insisted so everyone pretended it was. It was sunny and cold and the raw morning air clung at the polar pink in my cheeks, the warmth and cold melting against each other. The courtyard was dead and dry in the edging winter, and the gray, brittle rosebushes clawed at the stone side of the palace in the wind. Snow hadn't come yet, but it wouldn't be long.

I bordered the game with the other ladies who didn't feel like playing; I didn't know how. Across the lawn, Levi waved at me with just the corner of a smile but I was glancing at Ezra. I don't think he'd ever played croquet before and he wasn't very good at it. His head and shoulders folded over the mallet, his huge height pulling into the little ball. It rolled short of the arch and as shallow, arbitrary claps bled he stood straight and his eyes crossed mine. I dropped my gaze to my feet, but his stayed where mine had left.

Anna and Esidra weren't aware that Ezra knew. I told myself that it didn't change anything that he did. Ezra didn't have to have anything to do with the Inventory. That was my business with Zayne.

Zayne. I looked up at the court scattered over the lawn. A certain someone was missing.

I passed behind the line of courtiers as lukewarm applause trickled through the crowd. Anna's body tensed, beneath rouge and skin her pulse stilted forward as I crept next to her. I had moved for a reason.

I let my eyes fall over the game, as though I'd only changed places for a better view. Count Magnussen, Levi's father, had bumped the duke's ball off course, and the duke was making no effort to snuff his pout.

"Maude," I breathed. "Zayne's not here."

Anna's eyes reared up at mine, but I stared at the blades of grass peeking from under my shoe. If our eyes touched like that, they'd notice.

She took the cue and turned her gaze to the game.

"Anna, we have to do it now. This is too important, too close. Both Jonas and the Monarch are gone, the court is distracted, we will never this chance again."

"Maude," Anna corrected. The beats tracing her lungs dragged at mine, her breaths feeling louder to me than they were. "Rye. I don't know that this is wise."

"Aurelia can take Zayne."

I peered past Anna. Esidra watched the game, flawlessly engaged and uninterested. I was glad she was here, but wished she hadn't moved. Two was meaningless chatter, three was something happening.

"He's smarter than that. Aloneness is insurance. He couldn't explain her death, Anna. He can't touch her."

"Harriet, please call me Maude."

"Anna, I can take him." The words scared me as they crossed my mouth but I knew they were true. "This is my fight. I can take Zayne."

"Are you sure Jonas would be okay with this?" Anna hissed to Esidra.

"Don't care. Whether or not, I'm still going through with it," Esidra chuntered.

I knew Esidra was right. It didn't matter; asking permission had become a luxury we could hardly afford. And this was too important, too close.

"This needs to happen now," Esidra said. We watched the duke sheer his ball back in the right direction. "The game is a quarter over and it's cold enough that I bet there won't be another."

"Once they've finished or started a new game, come find me," I said.

Anna's thin fingers fitted into mine. they wrapped in a single pulse, and said what words couldn't here. "Godspeed," she whispered.