Unfortunately, she’s not all that interested in taking the job. Last time we chatted, she glanced around the clearing at all the other women who want to leave Agron, and her face hardened. “Would you want to be responsible for all these lives?” she asked. “If Alexis can prove to me that the AI system can basically fly the ship itself, I’ll do it. But I’m not about to take everyone else down with me.”
Sarissa nudges me, and I blink.
“Sorry, I was thinking about Kate.”
She nods. “She’s a lone wolf, that woman. Without the chip, she’s likely to put her foot down. Even with the chip, it’s going to take all our considerable charm to convince her to take the job.”
I laugh at that. Most of the time, Sarissa has about as much charm as a quarterback who just lost the Superbowl. But there’s no question that she can still turn it on when she needs to.
“I’m going to go get ready,” I say.
When I open my door, a random woman is waiting for me, and I jolt.
“Uh, hi.”
She runs critical eyes over me. “Not yet dressed at this hour of the day? And your hair not even combed?”
Shame makes my shoulders hunch, and the familiar feel of it pisses me off.
“And just who are you?”
“Your maid.”
“I don’t need a maid.”
She runs dark eyes over me, the look of disdain reminding me of my mother.
“Clearly,” she says, “you do.”
“I can dress myself. Leave.”
“The king ordered me to provide you with the help you so obviously need. I take my orders from him.”
I grind my teeth. “Fine.” I’ll deal with her today and take this up with Arix next time I see him. I don’t need to be humiliated first thing in the morning. “What’s your name?”
“Cauri. Hurry up, your bath is waiting.”
I scowl at her but roll my eyes, padding into the bathroom. As I slip into the warm water, I imagine Sarissa dealing with a lady’s maid, and the thought makes me grin.
“Out, out, we don’t have all day,” Cauri says.
“What are you talking about?”
“You will go to the marketplace with the other human woman.” Her brow creases in obvious disapproval, and I wonder if she was eavesdropping.
I scowl. Arix and I will have words, oh yes we will.
I get out of the bath at her urging, wrapping a large cloth around myself. She points toward my bedroom, where I step into a dress of her choosing, muttering under my breath.
The dress is a light-pink color, with silver thread woven through it. It’s pretty enough, but my cleavage is poking up higher than even I’m used to.
I like playing dress-up—it’s my job on Earth after all—but the gown Cauri is currently tightening until I can barely take a full breath…
“This seems a little over the top for a trip to the market.”
“You’re staying with the king. You represent him now.”
I roll my eyes again but suck in a breath as she tightens the strings even more.
“Tiny waist,” she says approvingly. If I roll my eyes any more, they’re likely to get stuck up there.
“Sit down so I can do your hair.”
I comply. “Aren’t maids supposed to take orders? Ow!”
She pulls my hair, and I glare at her reflection in the mirror. Her expression is mild, but I huff. She definitely did that on purpose.
The familiar feeling of sitting in front of a mirror while someone does my hair…it makes my stomach clench.
When I was a kid, I briefly thought I was going to be a doctor. My nanny once read me a book about different careers, and I told my mother I was going to help sick people. But my mother killed those illusions. And over the years, she set fire to them and buried them.
“Darling, you’re too pretty to be locked away in a lab,” she cooed. “You need to do something that will show off that gorgeous face.”
I was four.
My mother got to work, and within a few weeks, I had an agent. Within a few months, I was doing commercials. Within a few years, I was modeling in a kids’ runway show in Paris.
My mother was ecstatic.
My stomach rumbles, and I force myself to push the memories away.
“I’m hungry. Where can I get breakfast around here?”
Cauri waves her hand toward a tray I hadn’t noticed on a small table near my bed. My stomach rumbles again, and I tense, ready to ditch the maid and leap on the food like a hungry wildebeest.
She tugs at my hair again. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Ow!”
I glare at her. I spent hours of my life sitting in front of mirrors being painted and prodded. I’m not putting up with it on this planet.
“Enough.”
She must realize she’s dancing on my last nerve, because she slides one final pin into my hair and pronounces me ready to go.
I may dislike this woman, but habit—and manners—kick in.
“Thank you.”
Surprise flashes across her face, and she nods, pointing toward my breakfast.
“Eat,” she says and then stalks out of my room.
I would’ve killed for a maid in Rakiz’s camp. Now I have one, and she’s a dictator. Just my luck.
Chapter Three
Arix
Another of my most trusted guards is dead with no warning. My hands fist as I stare down at his body. Heril was a good male. One who guarded me loyally after the deaths of my parents.
“How?” I murmur.
Bevix leans down and pulls aside Heril’s black uniform, revealing the wound.
“Stabbed in the heart,” Korzyn mutters behind me. “Quick, lethal, and done by someone he trusted enough to let them get that close.”
And that makes it so much worse. Over the
