Raya Banks

“Are you ready? The party’s about to start,” Some of the old maidens I had met earlier in the day crowed loudly and I turned to see them sticking their heads through the door.

I hadn't slept a wink the other night, or the nights since Nikolai’s public rejection. It had been one nightmare after the other, dark twisted things reaching for me until I snapped awake, gasping and panting and covered in my own sweat.

“Almost done! I'll be out in a minute,” I called back, smiling at the plump, powdery faces of the geisha wolves. They were part of the king’s royal court, the mid-ranks that...