But my humiliation was far from over. In fact, it was just beginning.
Solara lifted her infopad from among the iceberg sea of cosmetics jars on the desk, and held it up toward me for a few seconds. When she laid it flat again and pushed a button, a hologram of me appeared over the top. At least I didn’t have to watch a bright, fully detailed image of my nude body spin around in the air for very long before various fabrics and colors covered it.
“These are all my dresses. You are a bit sturdier than me, but a mod can be done in a hurry, don’t fret,” she said, never mind that I hadn’t been “fretting” about anything other than standing naked in front of everyone like a piece of meat at the market. I almost wished I could disappear entirely. A maid finally took pity on me and wrapped me in a soft, white robe.
“Hm, that one might work, if we shorten it. Or not. That one’s too bland. Too bright. No, no.” Solara was muttering, swiping away the options she didn’t like, which seemed to be most of them, in spite of the fact that they were all hers. I could hardly get a good look before they were gone.
“Aha!” she finally cried, but she waved the image away before I even caught a glimpse of it. “Just the thing to catch our dear Nev’s eye.”
“What?” I stumbled as one of the maids directed me to a chair in front of the wide, curving desk and mirrors, my skin definitely burning in a way that had nothing to do with hot water now. “Why would you want to do that? Isn’t he…?”
I couldn’t even say the blasted word. But why had I been so surprised? How could I have thought…what had I even been thinking?
I still wished Nev would stride through the silver double doors, swinging his Disruption Blade, and get me the blasted hell out of here like he had on the destroyer. That desire was second only to how much I wished I never had to see him again. On the Kaitan, he’d told me so much about himself, his family, his hopes and ideals, and yet failed to mention his fiancée. I’d trusted him to not mislead me, and yet he had.
Idiot, idiot.
I heaped the insults on. As if everyone else in the room weren’t doing a fine enough job.
“Betrothed,” Solara supplied. “Yes, of course, but it’s no fun if he simply dotes upon her. And I’ve seen how he looks at you. You do have a certain rustic charm.”
I hoped the heat of my skin wouldn’t combust the chair. Rustic charm, like I was a damned trinket from offworld, not the deftest flyer this side of the galaxy had ever seen. That, along with complementary colors, were two phrases I never wanted to hear again.
Nor did I want to hear that Nev had been looking at me like that. A day ago, it might have sent a thrill blasting through me as hot and powerful as a ship’s thruster. But not now. Because if it was true, despite him being betrothed, then that was a problem. For me, for him, for Ket, for the whole royal family. So why in the systems would Solara try to fuel the flames? Maybe she secretly hated Ket, who, I had to admit, was pretty deserving of hate.
“B-but…,” I stuttered eventually. Solara was watching me with an intensity I found uncomfortable—as uncomfortable as everything else, rather. “But if this is the event where they officially announce their betrothal, why would you want to make waves tonight, of all nights?
“Oh, it’s just a game we royals play—all in good fun. You wouldn’t understand.” Before I could simmer over that—or wish I could evaporate—she went on. “Besides, my brother could never be so dull as to focus his attentions on one person, anyway.”
At my astonished look, her laugh rang out again.
“Oh, you poor dear. You think he’s been waiting for Ket? Maybe that’s how it is on your planet, but I assure you, that’s not how it’s done around here. He’d never be so indiscreet as to muddy the bloodlines, if you catch my drift,” she said with sly enthusiasm. “But I have no doubt he dabbles wherever he wants. He could have anyone in the systems, after all. I know he’s been with a Xiaolan girl—not the heiress, Daiyen, but one of her cousins—and a Nirmana girl or two while he was studying at their Econom Academy. Oh, and then there was that friend of Ket’s, but maybe that was before their unofficial betrothal…” She began ticking them off her fingers as the list went on.
I tried to figure out what this feeling was, and then I realized it was like my guts were falling out through the bottom of the chair. I wasn’t sure why I was shocked. I should have known. Nev was a blasted prince, gorgeous and wealthy beyond imagining. Of course he would have been with other women. Dozens, by all accounts. Unlike me, he hadn’t grown up on a backworld ship surrounded by only family and friends so close they were like family, nor with blackness in his eyes to frighten everyone else off.
Suddenly, I felt just as na?ve and quaint as they’d been saying all day.
Solara reached over and patted my cheek, snapping my eyes up to hers. I’d never wanted to bite someone so badly before. Talk about uncivilized.
“Don’t look so forlorn! It’s a party.” She grinned at me, her own eyes flashing—so much like Nev’s, but so different. “And you’ll be dressed to kill.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. At least not when she said it, though I might not have minded killing Nev at the moment. Perhaps with my bare hands, while cursing him for bringing me here, for making me a part of the “games royals play.”
After decreeing that her hair and makeup were done—the maids had dabbed her lips in the vividest red—Solara leapt up from her chair and began directing the maids in how to do mine. Before I knew it, my dark eyes were glittering with a charcoal shadow that swept above and to the sides. More shadows emphasized my cheekbones, and the deepest purplish-red stained my lips. Solara was ecstatic, exclaiming how “exotic” I looked. I thought I looked nothing like myself.
I reached up to touch my face as I stared in the mirror, but Ollava smacked my hand away. “Not until I set it.” She looked to Solara for final approval, then waved a glowing wand over my face, where I felt a strange warming, then firming sensation.
I prodded at my lips with a finger after that, and the color didn’t budge.