I wasn’t aging. I was decomposing like a spoiled fish on the summer docks.
“Jani, what’s happening?” Zosa scooted toward me.
“Don’t,” I croaked. Loose skin shuddered. At this rate, I’d be a corpse in minutes.
Before I could blink, Bel took off across the lobby. A sharp cramp stabbed my side. I stumbled, knocking the orange tree. An orange broke off, hitting the floor and smashing into shards. Even despite my current state, my brows furrowed. Fruit didn’t shatter.
Another cramp struck me, and I sank to my knees. Bel returned a moment later with a sheet of parchment. A contract.
“Do something,” I groaned.
Zosa whimpered.
He placed the contract in front of me, along with a large well of purple ink. With a flick of his switchblade, he stabbed my thumb and dripped my blood into the ink as the Durc clock in the square across from the hotel began its chime to midnight.
I managed to sign my full name by the eighth chime. Just before the tenth, Bel rifled through some big book leaning near the entrance. He pulled out his key and shoved it into the door’s lock. His forehead fell against black lacquer, the lean muscles on his back rising and falling at the eleventh chime.
I didn’t look at my hands. I couldn’t bear to see what was left. So I sat, dazed, waiting for that clock’s twelfth chime to midnight. It never came.
Bel slid to a crouch, eyes locked on mine. I caught the edge of a smile before his forehead collapsed on his crossed arms. “Welcome back.”
“He’s right,” Zosa said, amazed.
I touched my neck, my cheeks. My skin no longer sagged.
“Next time some fool tries to get in with an old invitation, remind me it’s a terrible idea,” Bel said, but I was too giddy with relief to let his words rile me.
“It’s after midnight.” Zosa hopped up and ran to the nearest window and tried to peek behind the shuttered drapes.
“We’re not in that alley in Durc anymore, are we?” I asked Bel.
His brows drew together. “We’re in an alley.” Pushing up, he stepped toward me and stopped when his heel crunched against one of the broken orange shards. “You broke an orange? It seems you’re not very good at following instructions.”
I shot him a peeved look, but he was already kicking away the remaining shards, hiding all evidence of what I’d done. Then he studied me with an intensity I’d never experienced from anyone, let alone a man. My skin prickled. He leaned toward me, but didn’t touch me. Instead, he grabbed my signed contract and swore.
“Is there something wrong with the contract?”
“Not exactly.” He tucked it down his pocket.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
We both jumped at the click of heels on marble. “There isn’t time to explain. I’ll find you tomorrow before your orientation.”
“When is that?”
He put a finger to his lips at the same moment Yrsa popped out from a back hall balancing a teacup on a saucer. “Ah, Bel! Glad you made it back, dearest. I was frightfully worried.”
“We both know that’s a lie,” Bel said, his eyes never leaving her teacup.
“Because of you I had to send the gathering guests to bed early. Surprise, surprise. You’re in a shitstorm of trouble.”
“I retrieved your hire, didn’t I?” Bel turned to Zosa, but it was me who caught Yrsa’s eye.
“What’s that one doing here?”
“I’m allowed to give out a contract every now and then under certain circumstances. Her sister refused to come without her,” he said. Not exactly the truth, but I wasn’t about to argue. “Don’t worry. She’ll be my responsibility. Besides, housekeeping needs the extra help.”
“You’re willing to take her on?” Yrsa sounded surprised and somewhat amused. “Very well. She can stay, but if she does something sublimely asinine, don’t come running to me.”
“She’ll behave,” Bel said, looking directly at me. A warning.
I thought of the two-week trial run and my stomach flipped. Luck got me here. Not merit.
Images poured through my mind—faces of workers plucked from the highest pedigrees. They’d all sense I was an impostor by tomorrow evening.
Stop it. You can do this, I told myself. No way I’d let anyone send me back now, especially Bel. He was probably already counting the ways I might mess up.
Zosa bounded over, skidding to a halt a foot away. She lifted an orange shard Bel had missed and yelped. The jagged piece bit into her palm. Blood dripped down her arm.