The Shadows Between Us

Rhouben delivers to Melita the forged letter asking if Orrin may meet her in her rooms. Alessandra returns to Orrin’s room and apologizes for her behavior, saying she wishes to improve her character. She lures him to Melita’s rooms, claiming she needs his help reconciling. She hands him a bouquet (which he takes without suspicion) and asks him to knock on Melita’s door just as Rhouben and his father approach. She walks away, hearing her plan go off perfectly as Melita and Orrin are caught kissing. She meets Kallias for dinner, both pleased with the success of their plans. Kallias has caught the Pegain insurrectionists; they will be killed the following day.

The false-coin plan is also progressing, but Alessandra produces the bandit’s mask and tells him to call off his search, that Orrin is the bandit. He is so pleased that he doesn’t even mind that she didn’t reveal her evidence until after she used Orrin for her own ends. They toast one another while making intense eye contact.

A servant arrives with an anonymous letter for Alessandra. The writer claims to know the identity of the assassin and requests she appear at a certain time and place, two days hence, with a flower in her hair to identify her. Alessandra believes Kallias was intended to see the letter, which is effusive in praising him. She predicts the writer hopes to lure Kallias out to harm him. Nevertheless, he insists on going, claiming they will both be in disguise. 

When Kallias brings a dress to Alessandra’s room, she is reminded of her night out with Leandros. She dresses as a sex worker as those are the only women permitted in the gentlemen’s club indicated in the letter. Kallias brings a flower but plans to give it to a different girl to lure out the writer. They each wear wigs, and Kallias adds a false beard. They have to enter separately, and Kallias urges Alessandra to leave if anyone attempts to touch her. Claiming to be a new hire, she enters through the kitchen. This ruse falls apart when she meets the woman who does the hiring. Alessandra improvises, claiming a need for money. The woman agrees. She offers meager pay for the week and takes away Alessandra’s gloves. She enters the club, struggling to find Kallias in the haze of smoke. A man propositions her forcefully, but Kallias arrives quickly. He pulls her into his lap to further their ruse, advising caution due to her missing gloves. Though he still wears his gloves, Alessandra finds his touch intense as he strokes her arms and sides. He notes her arousal and turns it into a game that she reciprocates. They touch one another over their clothes, never making direct contact. Someone jostles him, causing Alessandra to worry they touched, but Kallias’s shadows still work. They sit together, surveilling the room, tense from the close contact with one another. They linger too long; the proprietress urges them to move to a room so Alessandra, in her supposed role as sex worker, can earn money. Someone knocks them over as they move, their heads banging together. They stand and leave, and Kallias, horrified, realizes he can’t access his shadow power.

As they exit the club, they realize that whomever Kallias touched, it wasn’t Alessandra; his powers still work around her. They surmise that being bumped twice was no coincidence. Someone wanted him to become vulnerable. Kallias is likely now corporeal whenever the assassin is in proximity. He worries that his death is imminent, but Alessandra reminds him that many mortal kings live to old age. She forbids him to die, and he comments that they are “playing a very dangerous game” (290).

The next morning, Alessandra wakes feeling happy and realizes she dreamed of physical intimacy with Kallias though she can’t remember it clearly. She reminds herself that she can’t afford to like Kallias, not when she intends to kill him. She visits the healer, fetching a vial of poison native to Pegai so that her eventual crime will be attributed to the previous assassin. She feels soothed by this recommitment to her plot until she sees Kallias. She resolves that nobody else but her will kill Kallias.

At lunch, Alessandra sits next to Rhoda instead of Kallias. Galen attentively watches Rhoda, and Alessandra is astonished her friend hasn’t noticed the manservant’s attraction. All five council members are present, and Kallias’s shadows still work, so they weren’t the ones to touch Kallias at the club though Alessandra muses they could have hired someone. Hestia sits further down the table with a beau, finally wearing her own fashions instead of copying Alessandra’s. Rhoda laments that she’ll be alone forever; Alessandra points out Galen’s affection, shocking Rhoda. She resists the idea as he is a commoner, but Alessandra feels that Rhoda will consider it further.

That afternoon, Alessandra runs into Leandros, who acts uncharacteristically shy. He asks what she is wearing to her ball, as he wishes to match as a sign of his strong feelings for her. He no longer wants to be an afterthought to Kallias. He argues that, unlike Kallias, he will be able to love her physically. To emphasize this, he removes her glove and kisses the back of her hand. Alessandra enjoys the physical contact but tells Leandros she sees him as a friend. She realizes she would rather have Kallias’s friendship, even without touch, than have a fling with anyone else. Leandros asks if she loves Kallias, but Alessandra doesn’t know. As Leandros leaves, Alessandra thinks she glimpses Kallias’s shadows and wonders if he overheard.

Alessandra reluctantly heads to dinner with Kallias, hoping he doesn’t ask about the conversation with Leandros. Kallias instead reports that Orrin has been sentenced to life in prison, as have the peasants who received the money. Kallias is unhappy with the resistance to the arrests, and Alessandra fears he blames her. He clarifies he’s only upset because the council wants to soothe unrest with a royal parade, which would open him to assassination risks.

Kallias worries Alessandra blames him for being manhandled at the club. He explains he sees her as an equal but did not treat her as such. Unconcerned, she brushes off the apology. She helps a tipsy Kallias back to his rooms and is surprised he left the door between their rooms unlocked. He admits he saw her with Leandros and wishes he had been the one to kiss her hand. He tries, but Alessandra pulls back before he can make contact with her bare skin and tells him he can’t make that decision intoxicated. As she leaves, Alessandra confesses to his sleeping form that she refused Leandros because she doesn’t wish to be parted from Kallias.

The next morning, Kallias urges Alessandra to dress quickly for breakfast with the nobles, contrary to their habit. She admires him, blushing when he catches her looking, to her dismay. In the breakfast room, Alessandra sees that Kallias has commissioned a table where they may both sit at the head. She doesn’t understand the statement though she knows it’s a significant one. He reiterates that he sees her as an equal and shocks her by referring to a proposal. Alessandra struggles to feel that having power is more important to her than having Kallias in her life. Rhoda and Hestia sit nearby, complimenting the romantic gesture. Alessandra notices Leandros’s absence.

Kallias has cleared his schedule to spend the day with Alessandra, who feels awkward after his offhand reference to a proposal. He compliments her scheming mind and says he wants her by his side, including in political matters. He offers her equal power as his queen, which makes Alessandra realize she wouldn’t have to kill him. She clarifies that their relationship would be platonic, and he confirms this. She wonders when she started wanting Kallias himself as much as she wants power.

Epaphras, Kallias’s scribe, interrupts. Hektor’s father has arrived with a constable. To Alessandra’s dismay, Kallias has him admitted. Faustus and the constable enter and announce they now know Hektor was murdered.

Alessandra feigns shock over the news of Hektor’s death. Recent mudslides unburied his body. To appear innocent, Alessandra answers questions. Remains of a chest bearing the initials AS were found with Hektor’s body. Alessandra frets that Kallias thinks her guilty but keeps her expression calm. Kallias sends the constable and Faustus away and bursts into laughter at the realization that Alessandra killed Hektor. He says he pardons her and reasserts his proposal, shocking Alessandra with his nonchalance over her crime. He says she is pardoned either way—he is not blackmailing her into marriage—but that he would miss her if she left the palace. Alessandra demands a public proposal and that they never speak of Hektor again. Kallias agrees. Alessandra is thrilled to be free from her past crimes and to be marrying Kallias.

She realizes her upcoming ball will allow the assassin an opportunity to strike. Kallias reports that his shadow powers disappear when someone who has touched him is within 50 yards.