“This isn’t a joke, Mol.”
“Don’t you mean ‘Jani’？” I winced when my real name echoed, Jani Jani Jani.
Before I could draw a breath, Bel was at my side. “Do you want me to stop meeting you?” he asked.
“Like you would dare.”
He shrugged and started walking away.
“Wait. I’ll behave. I promise.”
“I don’t believe that for a second,” he said, but he didn’t leave.
Thank god.
As a kitchen worker, I was banned from setting foot inside the salon, but he wasn’t. “How is my sister?”
“You first.”
After that night in Alastair’s office, our meetings became transactional; Bel brought me news of Zosa in exchange for a single answer.
I glanced out the moon window again and wished with everything inside of me that I could see Aligney. It would at least give me some comfort. Instead, rain pounded Durc’s port. “The view is the same. My contract still doesn’t affect me. Now how is my sister?”
Before Bel could say a word, the lift rattled. King Zelig’s voice mingled with guests’ drunken laughter. There were never guests up here this late.
I looked around for a place to hide, and started toward a settee.
Bel grabbed my hand. “Don’t be ridiculous. There’s nowhere to hide up here.”
“Someone will see us,” I hissed. “We’ll be found out.”
“We won’t. Whoever it is will think we’re here for another reason.”
“What reason?”
I squirmed when his fingers pushed into my waist, facing us to look out. He pulled me against him. One by one, each button of his uniform pressed against my spine, and I understood exactly what the guests were supposed to think.
I could have murdered him.
“If they believe we’re a couple, they’ll give us privacy,” he whispered in my ear. “No one will question us. It’s the reason I chose this spot.”
“You could have mentioned that earlier,” I said through my teeth.
Bel sighed into my hair, and a searing sensation traveled up my spine.
“Remember it’s an act,” he whispered as the guests wandered up. I sensed a woman’s eyes on me, on Bel’s hands that smoothed their way up my hips.
It’s only an act. It doesn’t mean anything, I told myself as his lips pressed down on the back of my neck, and my stomach tightened.
“I think you’re enjoying yourself, Mol,” he whispered against my cheek.
I stomped on his foot. “Am not.”
“Whatever you say.” His nose trailed up the ridge of my ear, then he leaned into me, almost as if he were enjoying it, too. But he couldn’t possibly be. This was only a means for him to get information.
“It’s the Magnifique,” a guest remarked under her breath.
We both stilled.
“A shame he’s taken,” someone else muttered. “I’ve heard the reason they call him the Magnifique doesn’t have anything to do with moving the hotel, if you know what I mean.”
A terrible choking noise escaped my throat. Bel must have felt similarly because he buried his face in my shoulder to stifle his reaction.
“Is that a new perfume you’re wearing?” he asked at the sounds of the lift finally rattling down.
“Do you mean the boiled onions or the tarragon beef tips?”
“The boiled onions. Definitely the boiled onions. They accentuate your sparkling personality.”
“You’re an ass.” I shoved him back, flustered. His useless banter didn’t fool me. He was as calculated as they came, and yet I had to trust him. “How is Zosa?”
“She looked a little pale, but otherwise unharmed.”
The words did little to lift my spirits. “Why can’t I see her for myself?”
He shook his head and launched into his oft repeated warning. “Kitchen workers never go inside the salon. If you do, you’ll be noticed, and you don’t want to have the twins on your back. If Alastair ever caught us having this conversation . . .” Bel’s jaw went rigid. “Here, no one is safe in their job. All the workers are replaceable, even the suminaires. You can’t risk it.”
“But what about before Zosa’s performance? Or after? If you found an aviary key, I could see if she’s kept inside. Check on her myself.”
“We’ve been over this. Only Alastair and Hellas go inside.”
“So what?”
He gave me a scalding look. “Even if your sister is kept there, I can’t change her back without Des Rêves’s artéfact, let alone release her from her contract.”