Chapter 17 This Is Why I Don’t Dance
\[INITIATING TROPE: BALLROOM DANCE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW IF THIS COUNTS AS A KEY BEAT? OR WOULD YOU RATHER KISS HIM FIRST AND I LAUGH AT YOU AFTER IF IT IS NOT?\]
Maeve couldn’t hold back herself from holding her middle finger, which she noticed immediately got blurred by the stupid witch floating thing but she didn’t care. Not like it mattered when her arms were around Cassian’s shoulder and they were swaying to the music.
“I have a… strange feeling that this is not how it goes,” Cassian had his lips turned up slightly, a strange… a strange half smirk that would have her insides turning if she could see clearly.
The magic of sunshades, my dear friends. “How what goes, your highness?”
“You being barefoot and standing on my feet,” He looked like he was chuckling, holding himself back from doing it anyway. There was a softness to him, Maeve also noticed. He was strangely easily… royal. It was almost impossible to even imagine him as a playboy. His voice was breathless, posh, but gentlemanly. And he kept staring at her like he could hear music playing in the background—
Well, you know, romantic music. Not the one that was currently playing right now.
Maeve sighed, “I don't know how to dance this sort of things,”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Hard to believe,” His smile didn’t move an inch. “Every noble is taught how to dance from the moment they could use their legs,”
How sad. How terrible. How Jesus Christ, she was never having a child in this sort of economy. “Well, things happen. Would you like to push further on the topic?”
“No.” He looked completely mesmerized. “I am okay with you like this.”
Maeve would have found this cute, she really would have, but in this circumstance, she couldn’t. It didn’t make any sense for him to find her attractive, especially now. She literally looked like a widow, clearly stated she couldn’t dance and was stepping over his feet. When was he going to lose it?
That could count as a Key Beat, right?
Then she’d fake cry, and maybe— maybe, some girl will come, and she’d try to help her, and he’d see the girl acting all naive and cute, AND MAYBE, the story will see her as the main character. And then when the brand sells, voila! She’s a billionaire. And house not foreclosed! And bed of coins!
Plus, she did have a plan coming here. Asking him questions. But he kept smiling at her, looking like the angel he is. How was she supposed to ask someone as beautiful as this about little petty gossip? And again, she had a strange feeling he might ask for something in return,
And Maeve was slowly realizing she didn’t have much in her bank at the moment. Nor did she know a lot about him to trust someone like him.
“You are always thinking about something else,” Cassian cut her out of her thoughts. “Always. Whenever we meet. Your brain… moving. Analyzing. Is this because of my Mother?”
There was something Maeve was also beginning to realize about him. He sounded like a child when he mentioned his mother’s name. It oddly, for some reason, reminded her of the times her siblings would ask for their Mother and she had to lie some bullshit about it not to make them sad.
Yess, she was aware that comparing him to her younger brother was sort of weird but it didn’t matter, did it? Not when her own family decided that they would abandon—
No. Focus. “I think because I wish to sleep.”
He nodded. “Just like that day in the meadows,”
“Yes,”
“We could do that. If you want. I can… it can help reduce the… work? Whatever it is that you’re doing. We can go together. I will make sure no one bothers us. Not even Adrian,”
Ah. Ah, she didn’t like where this was going.
She started to scan around, noticing the people that Amir was speaking to, the women. She took note of each one, already planning how all of this would work before she felt his hand grabbing her chin, forcing her face forward as he said, “Look at me.”
The order was sudden, immediate. It struck something so dark in Maeve that her immediate instinct was to shove him away, pushing him as hard as she could from her vicinity.
The result of that action was fast. He bumped backwards, toppling over a stack of red wine over his entire body and turning his regal attire red. The entire hall froze, everyone stopping with even the music. Still, his focus didn’t even stay on himself.
Cassian’s eyes moved to hers, something akin to panic and fear clashing in them as his hand reached out, “Isabella—”
Maeve felt her skin almost jump from her bones as strong hands wrapped itself around her wrist, a deep icy voice speaking quietly but harsh all at once, “Come with me.”
Duke Adrian didn’t wait for a response, nor did he care for one. He began pulling away from the literal crime scene, an act that instantly made all the other nobles crowding him immediately.
Maeve turned, her eyes falling on Amir who she shook her head slightly at before realizing that she had messed up by not asking Cassian what she needed to but now… now she knew she had no other choice but to pull out her other card.
He dragged her till they reached the gardens of the ball court, shoving her a few feet away from him, close to a fountain before he snapped, “I do not trust you. Whatever you are. If you harm—”
“If you’re about to threaten me, just know it wouldn’t work,” Maeve rubbed her wrists, trying to ignore the pain of it. “If you truly wished me pain for being so different, you would have told the Queen something by now, but clearly, you were just hiding in the corner and waiting for an opportunity to take me away so we can be alone. Which is very disappointing,”
Adrian was a handsome man, but there was something refreshing about seeing his icy facade shatter. He looked like he was on the verge of destruction as his chest rose and fell, a look of pain clashing over his face before he asked, “Do you truly not remember anything?”
“No.” Maeve said, deadpan. “I need to know, Adrian. Did we ever meet—”
He was suddenly on her, his hand over her mouth. Maeve’s eyes widened, the man’s large and powerful frame shadowing him from the moonlight as his icy blue eyes stared down at her.
It made her think of all those fanservices in anime when a male character looked like their lives were in shambles but still looked so… hot. By the heavens. What did she create?!
\[KISS SCENE ACTIVATING\]
What? What?!
She started shaking her head, but it didn’t matter. He was already leaning, as if there was some force pulling him into her mouth— WHICH DID NOT MAKE ANY SENSE WHEN HE HAD ACTIVELY BEEN ATTACKING HER SINCE THEY MET.
So having no other choice, she did the ultimate maneuver.
Her legs shot up, instantly shooting his crotch. The release of her face was instant as he moved away, while she— somehow, tripped over and fell directly into the fountain.
“What are you doing?!” He suddenly snapped.
Maeve almost drowned, realized the water was only three inches deep before she stood up, spitting out a tiny fish before she hissed, “What happened to asking a lady before kissing her? Plus, I AM PRACTICALLY MARRIED,”
“Kissing you? Why would I kiss you?” He looked like he was on the verge of strangling her. “I was going to whisper something to you. There are curtains we cannot— why would you do that to someone? Losing your memory does not turn you into a wild beast!”
She gasped, “Wild— And what do you mean you weren’t trying to kiss me,”
NACE appeared almost immediately. \[I CAN LIE. JUST SO YOU KNOW\]
This… this…
Her mouth opened, ready to let out a blare of curses without caring if loud bleeping sounds would echo around before she realized she couldn’t speak because blood kept bubbling out of her mouth.
The first thing she realized was she felt paralyzed, then the numbness hit next before the pain suddenly exploded through her body like a hundred shards of glass piercing into her skin.
The pain felt nothing like the other things she had felt. It was like her skin was trying his hardest to flail from her muscle, the pain so blinding she almost missed the flash of a message from NACE, \[ALTERNATE KEY BEAT ACHIEVED: PROTAGONIST IS SUFFERING FROM POISONING SCENE\]
What in the lord's name?
Poison? She never wrote any poison. This was a romance novel.
And why was that a key beat? And did that mean all her other practical shameful pursuits were pointless if it would all end in this stage?
“Isabella!”
Ah, she thought as her eyes began to close, the world slowly drifting away as NACE began to glitch. Free sleep. Finally,
And then Maeve Strum shot down.