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Five: Mal

The elevator shouldn't have taken us anywhere. I hadn't given it any directions except to go up, and we'd been too busy arguing for me to ask it to open its doors. But it did, and suddenly we were on the roof, the city's lights twinkling at us in the dark. Swathed in moonlight and ethereal magic, Alchimia looked like a new being altogether, but I didn't have time to stop and appreciate the awe on her face or the stunning way her eyes had widened as if they were trying to take in everything at once.

"Stay close," I told her. "The elevator has never just gone wherever it wanted before." I was on high alert, but a sinking feeling in my gut told me that I knew exactly who was behind this stupid trick. I took a step forward and confirmed my suspicion when I saw the tea table, already adorned in the Queen's signature colors and set up with her favorite treats.

"My mother?" Alchimia steped up from behind me, her gaze following mine.

"She must have heard us," I grunted, sweeping my eyes from side to side, hoping to catch her entrance so she might not eavesdrop even more than she had already. "Are you two in good standing? When was the last time you saw her?"

"I haven't. We're about to meet for the first time since I was 3 days old."

Alchimia's words coiled around my throat and squeezed, forcing me to look at her in a brand new light. For just a second, her glamor and confidence had fallen. I saw her for the first time as a broken little girl. It was a fleeting moment of vulnerability, and I should not have looked, but I found myself unable to tear my gaze from her, mesmerized by the carnage. This was some version of her I would not have guessed existed. Somewhere deep inside of me, sympathy bubbled up from an unknown place for her. I wanted to reach out, to pull her to me and console her.

But just like that, the moment disappeared, and she was the stuck-up princess I'd come to know in the dark gothic halls of the academy. I followed her to the table where we sat, and Chimi straightened her back, pointed her nose up in the air, and placed elegant pale hands atop crossed legs. It caused the fabric of her dress to ride up just a couple of inches and expose more of the supple flesh there. My attentions strayed from her moment of honesty, wandering over the hills of her thighs to the valley that they led to.

"I will do the same for my child," the heiress declared carefully, snapping me out of my daydream. "It should be a new tradition and I'm glad my mother started it. In this way, she was able to focus on her responsibilities to the city while I studied. Clearly, it was an intelligent choice. I've far surpassed all expectations." There was a beat that lasted hardly a second, but I picked up on it somehow. As much as I wanted to treat this confusing woman with the disdain and boredom I'd felt for her for all of these weeks while the city awaited her arrival, I was hanging on to every word. Each movement she made told me a hundred stories about her. "I intend to build a legacy that is infinitely better than what came before it." There was so much more to what she was saying, and I knew this but couldn't understand it. I wanted to grab her hand and let her mind tell me what was going on, the way it bent to me in the elevator when we touched.

"Such lofty ideas from a child."

The Queen was tall and slender like Alchimia, but not as fair. They were almost the same, but it was as if in giving birth to Alchimia, Liessa had been softened and born again. Improved upon. Her white hair was pulled back smoothly into an elegant braided bun, allowing the sleeek cream and gold Dragonian robe she wore to play centerpiece to her appearance without distractions. Alchimia stood, her hands clasped together in front of her politely, and bowed her head.

"Your majesty." Alchimia greeted her mother formally, and showed no indication that she felt anything.

Queen Liessa's eyes swept right over her daughter and landed on me, so she noticed nothing as she gave me a smile that made every inch of me uncomfortable. "Malfizan," she said lightly, briefly mirroring the sign of respect Chimi had just shown her. On any other day, the Queen hardly acknowledged me except to send word of which events she needed planned and when.

She cared nothing of the city's politics so long as her cup was full and her appetite for both sweets and companionship were satiated. Master of Ceremonies hadn't been a difficult position to acquire (though now I felt like I was hanging on to my power by a thread). Liessa made me Master of Ceremonies once I proved my worth. After I got the hang of ordering the right wine and cakes, inviting the right people--mostly the fey, whom Liessa swore made the best lovers, though it was well known they were simpling the most willing--and hiring the right entertainment, we rarely crossed paths. It was not custom for her to address me formally, but Alchimia did not know that. Technically, I did outrank Liessa.

Humiliating her daughter on the first meeting was the worst possible use of that technicality I could think of, and it was the spark my already-raw emotions needed to become enflamed.

She gestured for Alchimia to sit down without greeting her, and without thinking I reached out and grabbed my companion's arm to keep her in place, glowering at the Queen. "Your Majesty, may I formally introduce you to your successor? Alchimia Nethi is the most accomplished student from my time at Magikí Akadimía and the most promising of your line since your founder, Mother Corra, descended from Earth in servitude to Hades and built this city. She carries Zeus's blessing and is to be married to one of his own. You may show your respect now." I bowed my head, but I did not need to look at Liessa to know that she was seething.

"Well met, Alchimia," she said, without missing a beat and throwing herself into her seat like a child having a tantrum. Alchimia was arrogant and perhaps self-centered and immature, but she at least wanted her position. I couldn't help but know that her intentions were pure even if her ideas naive. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Liessa cared only for herself. As the only person at the table who had any real pull with the locals, I knew where my loyalties lie, soul bond or not.

"I was not expecting a tea so early, Mother," Chimi said, indicating nowhere in her body language that she'd been aware of the conflict between us, but I knew better. My charge was willful discerning. "I had the staff make plans for the three of us to have dinner tonight and was, to be quite honest, hoping to settle into my rooms and freshen up before we met."

Queen Liessa called the server over, who poured tea and served each of us our sweets. With a wave of her hand, sugar and cream stirred themselves into her cup. She allowed her daughter to wait in agonizing silence as she took a sip, and I had to clench my fists together to keep from causing a scene. This sort of power play was infuriating from a woman who did so little for her people. Where did she find the energy with which to torture her daughter when she could hardly be bothered to lift a finger otherwise? "That would be difficult," she said at last, to which Chimi tilted her head in question. "You do not have rooms of your own here at The Palace."

We both stared at her in horror. I had prepared Alchimia's quarters myself, painstakingly picking out the decor and furniture so she'd have nothing to balk out over the last several weeks, tracking down witches and other magi of particular talents to ensure it would be to her liking. This was so over-the-top petty that even I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"It turns out that I need the space we'd assigned to you, and I haven't the time or resources to find other accomodations. But Malfazan lives in the penthouse. You may stay with him, unless you prefer to return to the home you rented last week."

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