"Olwen." She bobbed politely, a sugar smile on her face. "I need to fetch a shawl for Mother, I think ..." And with that she pushed past him, grinning cheekily, as though to excuse her rudeness, and grabbed hold of my arm. I had forgotten how strong she was. But then, she was a little wolf-girl, I kept forgetting about that.
Looking up at Soren, I saw a flicker of amus.e.m.e.nt on his face.
"Follow us," I hissed, allowing Dalya to pull me with her, back towards the main entrance.
Oblivious to my companion, Dalya kept going.
"Dalya," I said, breathlessly, "steady on."
Obviously judging that we were at a safe distance from her family, Dalya stopped, her dark hair a little unruly.
Seeing Soren, her brown eyes narrowed.
"Who is this?" She looked sharply at me. "The vampire-boy?"
"Actually-" began Soren, but I silenced him with a look. We needed Dalya to trust us, we needed to tell her his story.
Her eyes came back to me. "This whole event is deadly," she said miserably. Mother is so neurotic, what with the wedding, and Lila is getting on my every nerve. And as for Luca well, he would be happier at his own funeral."
"He looks perfectly happy to me," I said, unable to keep the edge out of my voice.
"Of course he does." Dalya sighed dramatically. "Luca behaves the way he thinks he should behave. But I swear, she"s enough to-"
"We need your help," I cut in, changing the subject. "Soren needs your help."
Dalya turned imperiously to Soren. "So that"s your name. It"s an odd kind of name for a vampire."
"It is," he said, glancing quickly at me. "But my name is not important."
Dalya crossed her arms over her chest, regarding him suspiciously.
"So what is going on? How can I possibly help you?"
I took her hand. "Before we tell you, you have to promise to keep this a secret just for a bit."
"Of course. Is this about Luca?" She started to look alarmed.
"No. No ... well, in a way, yes. But there"s nothing to be concerned about." I drew her to me. "It"s about Lila."
"Lila?" she said, puzzled.
"It"s ..." I hesitated. "It"s about Lila"s family ... her true family." I looked sideways at Soren.
"Her true family." Dalya echoed. "I don"t understand."
"I am her brother," Soren announced abruptly. I glared at him.
"You can"t be!" Dalya smiled nervously. "I"ve met her brother."
Before Soren could respond to that I cut in.
"Lila is adopted. She doesn"t remember being adopted. But her parents, her brother they"re not her flesh and blood."
"Does Mother know?" Dalya"s face was flushed.
"I don"t know, I doubt it." Soren hugged himself. "Lila was taken in by a wolf family when she was very young. Four years old."
"But what happened to her real parents? Were you adopted too?"
"OK. So this is the hard bit." I bit my lip. "Soren was very young, and very hurt and angry, and ... he did a terrible thing."
Dalya shrank back. "I should get back," she said. "Henora will be looking for me."
"No. Dalya. Wait. Don"t be frightened. It was a terrible thing, but it was a long time ago and there was a reason."
"What did you do?" She clasped her hands together, gazing at him.
"I ... I killed our parents and our siblings." Soren"s voice was shaky as he spoke. "I was six. I found out that my father was not my father, that my upstanding family were not exactly that. They"d lied to me." He paused. "I felt very betrayed."
"So you killed them?" She stepped closer to me. "I mean, how ... No, I don"t want to know."
I put an arm around her.
"Soren deeply regrets what he did," I told Dalya, hoping that this was true, that I was doing the right thing. "And he is concerned for Lila."
She swallowed, absorbing what she was hearing. "You believe him," she said to me. "And I trust you, so ..."
"Yes, Dalya. I do believe him. I know he loved his family ... He lives his sister." I waited, hoping she would understand.
She was silent for a minute before finally taking a deep breath.
"Jane, I want you and my brother to be together more than anyone," she said at last. "But I don"t know ..." She looked very warily at Soren, who was not the most rea.s.suring of presences.
"You know that your brother does not truly love her," he said suddenly, almost abruptly. "And I believe she deserves to be loved. She has no family left ... No childhood companions but for me." His voice softened as he went on. "Imagine your life without your brothers?"
Dalya sucked in her breath. "Poor Lila." She sighed heavily. "She won"t sleep in the dark. And she talks all the time about the full moon and how she has to hide herself. She"s like a little girl sometimes. She can never be alone."
I looked at Soren. His face was taut. It must have been painful to hear what Dalya was saying.
"So that"s why her family are so keen to marry her off. Because she is not really theirs either ..." Dalya shook her head. "Poor Lila. n.o.body truly wants her."
"I do," Soren said quietly. "And I will never leave her again."
"And she needs to know the truth, Dalya," I said. "She needs to know she has a brother who loves her."
"Yes ... I see." Dalya looked thoughtful. "But she might not believe you ... I mean, she has been lied to herself. And she wouldn"t understand."
"I know. The truth is I don"t know if she will believe me. And telling her might cause more harm than good. But it will haunt me for ever if I don"t try." Soren rubbed at his temples anxiously.
"Well Luca must know too." Dalya"s eyes grew big. "And he can help us."
"No," I said quickly. "Not yet. He will think-"
"He"ll think that this is just a ruse to get him back." Her look seemed to pierce me, as though she thought that too. But then she smiled. "At first. But he respects you, Jane. That will count for something."
"Thank you." I smiled back, glad to have her trust. "So you understand. We must talk to Lila alone."
"I must talk to her alone," Soren corrected me.
"OK." I shrugged, turning to Dalya. "So, can you somehow persuade her to meet Soren alone? Tonight?"
Dalya puffed out her cheeks. "I"ll try. But it will be difficult. She is always surrounded."
We looked imploringly at her.
"Leave it with me," she said, thinking. Then to Soren: "Be in the gardens behind the palace kitchens, after the great banquet. I will think of something. But now I must go." She squeezed my hand.
"Thank you, Dalya. You"re a good girl," I told her.
"Yes, thank you." Soren took her hand and kissed it.
"Ugh." She withdrew it, though with a good-natured smile on her face.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.
Down below, the noise was giving Raphael a headache. He ran a hand through his hair, staring at the piles of paperwork in front of him. Stacks of paperwork, recording the history of the Celestial family. Births, marriages, deaths.
Deaths.
His father"s "death" certificate looked up at him, the first on the pile in front of him; underneath it was a scribbled note, difficult to decipher, but written by Milo. It detailed the description of his father when Milo had discovered him. But the detail was in itself vague. It talked of a "loss of presence", of a "physical disappearance". Milo wrote that he felt his master"s soul becoming at peace.
Raphael"s lip curled. What about my peace? he thought. The peace of those he left behind. Heaving a sigh, he felt as close to tears as he"d been in a long time. Emotions swirled: anger, hurt, sorrow. But not peace.
Nissilum was made of a desire for peace. What an irony. What hypocrites his family were.
On the back of Milo"s note was a couple of lines on his feelings of loss. And sadness that he must leave the place that had been his home. But there was no mention of where he was going. His father"s loyal servant had simply disappeared.
A sound on the staircase brought him out of his thoughts. Quickly he gathered up the papers and hid them underneath the quilt on his bed. He stood, waiting for whoever it was to make themselves known, but it must have been a servant, because the footsteps began treading down the stairs.
The noise was fading, which meant the banquet was about to begin. He was expected at the head of the vast table in the Great Room, to take his seat next to Celeste and Cadmium. Raphael looked into the full-length mirror opposite his bed. He saw a handsome figure. A head of blond curls, his body honed and fit from riding ... but a little thin, from lack of food. He had barely eaten the past few days. Still, in his Celestial uniform, he looked the part.
As he came out of his room, he glimpsed the figure of an older man at the foot of the stairs. His great-father, Cadmium. An elusive presence for weeks now. He looked terrible. Gaunt, haunted.
Cadmium nodded, a weak smile on his face.
"Boy." He stepped forward with the help of a cane. "Your great-mother is expecting us."
Raphael held out his arm and together the two of them descended the great staircase. He was shocked at how his great-father was. Stooped and wincing with every step.
"Perhaps you should lie down?" he ventured. "Celeste and I can host the banquet ..."
"No!" The old man snapped, his arms shaking. "We must be dutiful. We have an example to set these people."
Raphael gritted his teeth, suppressing the bile that rose in his throat. He had a sudden urge to let go of Cadmium"s arm, leave him to fall.
"Of course," he said instead, "I was only thinking of you."
"You understand," said Cadmium, his youthful-looking face at odds with his demeanour, "you understand what it means to preside over Nissilum? That all selfish concerns must be sacrificed? We are in a position of great privilege. It is unacceptable to abuse it."
"I understand." Raphael turned his face away, but not before he saw the critical expression on his great-father"s face.
"There is to be no repet.i.tion of your past behaviour." Cadmium"s tone was icy. "Pure sefishness."
Raphael didn"t trust himself to respond. A surge of pure hatred hit him. He wanted to confront Cadmium about his father, Gabriel. About the lies that had been told. He felt disgusted and on some level deeply disappointed in his family.
But he knew nothing would be achieved by speaking out.
"Come," he said, taking another step down, "they are waiting for us."
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.
It had to be the biggest table I"d ever seen. It took up the whole of the Great Room. And seated around it was a motley selection of Nissilum"s immortals. The witches shrieking and gossiping, their pinched little faces sharp and animated. And then there were the vampires. Vanya and Valdar alongside of course, but a whole row of similarly elegant and brooding men and women observing everyone else through narrowed eyes. And of course the werewolves. My eyes slid tentatively over to where Henora and Ulfred were sitting. Henora looked disapproving, fiddling nervously with her gla.s.s, while Ulfred was helping himself to bread and b.u.t.ter. With a smile I saw Henora reprimand him, slapping his hand away from the basket. Poor Ulfred.
My gaze roamed, searching for the others: Dalya, Luca and Lila, but they weren"t here yet.
Behind me I heard Soren sigh heavily.
"Good grief, I am not sure I can endure this ..." he muttered. "There are no seats left anyway."
I looked and saw two places vacant at the end of the table furthest from where Celeste was seated. Raphael and an older man who must have been Cadmium were setting themselves either side of her.
"Quickly," I said, "there are two places there."
Nodding at a pair of striking vampire twin girls next to me, I sat, confident that having touched up my make-up in the palace bathrooms, I was safe from recognition.
"Fabulous eyes," said one of the twins, gawping at my face. "Did you do that yourself?"