Soon after, Regina found herself dancing in Robin Buren’s arms, though her skirt kept her far away enough that she could only faintly smell the flowers that his family magic produced.

“Would it be rude,” Regina wondered out loud as she stared at Robin’s smiling face and riot of green-and-brown hair, “to ask if that partially grassy hair of yours is a family trait?”

As Regina watched Robin’s smile turn into a more wolfish smirk, Regina realized she truly had no idea what safe social topics of conversation were after years of pretending to be as close to mute as possible.

“Well,” Robin replied with a hint of laughter in his voice, “I am glad that you are concerned about what children in my family might… inherit. Normally, when people ask about the color of my hair, they wonder how far it extends.”

Regina stared at Robin in complete confusion before she frowned.

“As fascinating as that question is,” she said with a raised eyebrow, “you still did not answer my question.”

“No, that did not answer your question,” Robin agreed easily, spinning her in a way that defied reality considering the volume of fabric between her and him. “However, inheritance is always a tricky subject in Carcosan families, is it not?”

Regina had to momentarily close her eyes to avoid thinking about the lengths her family went to to ensure only the worthy inherited anything useful from them.

“Indeed,” she finally managed after a long and awkward silence ensued. “Depending on your noble family to give you anything worth inheriting can be a… dangerous tactic.”

Something flashed within Robin’s green-hazel eyes before he softened his face into another pretty and polished smile.

“Are you saying my grassy hair is a dangerous inheritance?” he asked, his tone light and sweet. “That does seem reasonable since it is the common feature of… most Burens and once people see it, they apparently expect a bouquet of flowers.”

“So,” said Regina dryly, “it is possible for you to answer a question, but only if you can make it into a joke.”

“A joke?” said Robin, bringing his hand, and thus hers, to his chest in mock offense. “Do you not see how I am withering away from constantly providing a lovely lady with blooms to match her own budding beauty?”

To Regina’s sudden frozen horror, she realized that there was something under her hand other than Robin Buren’s chest.

Pulling her suddenly shaking fingers backwards, she stared numbly at the pink blossom between her thumb and forefinger.

Something else passed over Robin’s face that Regina could not quite recognize.

She thought that on another person, it might have almost been sorrow.

Yet before she could try to overcome her own fear, the magically conjured flower was gone from her fingers and Robin was smiling again, almost gently.

“Oleander,” he said softly. “I would not recommend eating that flower, but should you manage to avoid throwing it into your mouth, it is quite safe to touch.”

For a moment, Regina just stared at Robin’s face before a smile flitted over her own.

“Thank you,” she said, “for the dining suggestion. I will do my best to ensure I do not bite into the next blossom you bring.”

Robin’s strange smile melted away into an odd peal of laughter at that – one that made him go from being a polished piece of perfection to someone who seemed a little more… real.

“I could bring you candied roses next time,” he suggested with a playful wink, even as he continued expertly guiding Regina through the dance steps. “Would that be enough to satisfy you?”

“No,” Regina admitted, something about Robin’s playfulness loosening her tongue. “I would rather you serve me with the truth. I keep seeing you all the time in the capital as a representative of the Buren family. Does that mean you are inheriting something great from them?”

After all, Regina had wondered why Robin Buren was in the company of far more powerful noblemen like Dukes Neville and Kuzey, even though he was not the current Duke Buren.

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Was Robin somehow in the family’s direct line of inheritance? Or was there some other reason he was his family’s representative?

Regina was even more startled when Robin threw back his head and let out a completely unconstrained full-throated laugh, even as he somehow spun her far closer than her skirts should have allowed.

“Oh my lady,” Robin finally said, his voice still vibrating faintly with laughter. “You are far too charming and amusing to have stayed hidden for as long as you have.”

Before she could even respond to that, Robin continued in a strange, almost thoughtful tone of voice.

“Inheriting something great? That is an interesting way to perceive it. My second cousin will be Duke Buren and I… gain the other inheritance of our family.”

Regina blinked, barely holding back her shock that Robin Buren was not the heir to the Buren duchy.

Why would the powerful and important Duke Neville – the greatest ally and perhaps even patron of the Buren family – even bother to spend time with Robin if Robin was not also the highest power in his own family?

“You do enjoy asking the difficult questions, do you not?” said Robin, a tinge of something sharper over his amusement as Regina realized in horror that she had spoken her question aloud.

Something passed over Robin’s face once again, too quick to read before he seemed to come to some decision.

“You have not been taught by your family as you should have been,” said Robin, more direct and blunt than she had yet heard him. “You are far more naive than any noble lady should be.”

“I cannot disagree,” said Regina, too confused to be offended. She knew better than anyone else that she had spent far more time learning to dodge death than attend to her etiquette and dress. That was precisely why she wanted to leave the Capital for a nice countryside estate as soon as she and Artem were wed!

“Then let me give you some advice,” said Robin, his voice somehow containing both steel and sorrow. “No family comes to power in Carcosa without sacrificing some of their own.”

Regina froze in his arms, stumbling as she had not yet in her entire time on the floor.

By the blood, she thought as she frantically stared at Robin’s suddenly blank face. Does this man somehow know that my family has been killing off their magical failures all of these years?!

The only reason she did not end up stumbling was because Robin was strong enough to physically lift and move her – indeed, he managed to turn her so well that to any outside observer, they would seem to be dancing perfectly.

“I do not know your secrets, my lady,” Robin responded in a soft whisper meant only for her, even as she startled at his acumen. “My words of advice apply not just to you but to all noble families. After all…”

He turned so smoothly that it was effortless to move with him, even as his hazel eyes burned like fire.

“Carcosa is a cursed land,” Robin softly said, “because all the nobles in it endlessly jockey for power. Families go to war with one another to be the greatest power in their little fiefdom, then ally or war with other families for yet more. Are the Sheridans somehow an exception to this shining standard of noble conduct?”

Regina was almost tempted to laugh, though his words were so honest it hurt her heart.

“No,” she finally said after he spun her once more. “No. No. No.”

“From the first moment I looked at you,” Robin quietly said, “I had a feeling it was so.”

Then Robin gently guided her into another turn before continuing on.

“Let me teach you a little of the history of my part of Carcosa,” said Robin as if he was not confessing something far too intimate to her.

“The Nevilles are far more powerful than the Burens,” Robin said with a strange, almost terrible smile, “but even so, they need us. They would never admit it but they need us in ways they would never confess to others.

“Likewise,” Robin continued, his voice light and sparkling, “ I am far less politically powerful than my cousins in the main branch who sit on the vast estate and make beautiful bouquets. Yet even so…”

Robin’s eyes were as soft and dark as wild flowers that might teem with hidden teeth.

“Even so, they still need me.”

Suddenly, Regina was against his chest, his mouth pressed against her ear in a way that was both intense and almost – almost thrilling.

“So if you wish to find a future, determine who needs you… and never let them know you need them in turn.”

Although her voice almost seemed to be drowned beneath the sound of her own heart furiously beating, Regina quietly asked: “Are you saying that there is no one in Carcosa I can ever rely on – or trust?”

The gentle, almost pained look on Robin’s face said everything and nothing.

For a moment, Regina could only stare at Robin Buren and wonder why he had told her so much about him – and what he wanted her to do going forward.

Then – perfectly in time to the fading sounds of music – Robin stepped back, executed a bow, and turned away…

Leaving Regina to dance with someone who terrified and confused her even more.

Crown Prince Aaron Alpin – the man who had watched Regina be condemned in a vision without so much as a blink – took command of her hand in a single fluid moment that might have mesmerized her in less fraught circumstances.

“My dear sister-to-be,” Prince Aaron said, and smiled in a way that reminded Regina of sharks circling a drowning body. “Would you care to dance with me?”