^^inspiration for Kaira's dress.
I take the few hours I have to wash and agonize over what to wear. Bathing isn't an option, but I only throw up once as I pull the blanket off the tub, get in, and pour buckets of water over myself. My reflection looks a bit better than when I first came, but not by much. My cheeks have filled in a bit, as well as the rest of me, but are still mostly hollow. There's a sliver of color in my hazel eyes and that's what I hold onto as I sit down on the bench at the end of my bed, staring at the clothes I'd laid out on the floor. My hands absentmindedly scratch at my shoulder blades, but only seems to make the itchiness worse.
I jump slightly when the doors open and I find an irritated Nesta standing there. "You're being forced to go to this as well?" She says and sweeps in the room already dressed in a stunning deep blue gown to perch on the bench next to me. I don't bother mentioning that we're not being forced to go to anything since she'd apparently named me an ally and I could use as many as possible. I also don't want her as an enemy.
"You look lovely," I tell her while scratching at my back and she huffs.
"Beauty makes everything look lovely." She returns, but I note the slight softening of her face when she looks at me. "I received no word on the proper attire and no one seems to care one way or another, so don't worry about what you pick." Her tone is harsh, as always, but it's an offered assurance. A truce that we've had between us built on the foundation that we know part of what we've gone through.
"What would you choose?" I ask her opinion and her sharp eyes scan the outfits before she points.
"You wear such dark colors and with your hair down sometimes they blend together. Wear something bright and put your hair up. That would shock them." It seems Nesta is on a bit of a warpath, but I take her comments in mind as I consider the emerald green gown. "I'll help you." She offers and stands, snatching the gown off the floor to offer it to me.
The corner of my lips lift as I stand and Nesta keeps her word to help me. The dress is the finest thing I've ever touched. It wraps over my left shoulder and leaves my right bare, then cuts across my chest to wrap tight around my protruding ribs and hips before falling in supple folds to pool on the floor. She helps me into it and makes sure that it fits me properly, then pushes me into a chair to do my hair.
"Just keep those shadows away from me." She commands, but my shadows already seem to know to avoid her. We're silent as she braids, tucks, and twists my hair until I find words falling out of my mouth.
"My sister used to do my hair," I tell her and her hands freeze, then continue. "She was so good with her hands from sewing or knitting that I barely felt it when she did it. Her touch was feather-light." The opposite of Nesta who is firm and solid, but she doesn't tug or pull.
"She's dead," Nesta asks in a breath and my eyes meet hers in the mirror.
"My entire family," I confirm as she tucks a final strand into the heap with a pin.
"Elain used to do my hair as well. She was used to the movements from training vines in her garden." Her fingers curl and I see a flicker of the pain and exhaustion she'd been fighting alongside me this past month.
"Perhaps she'll teach me." I offer an empty assurance, but she takes a breath at my words.
"Perhaps." She relents before I reach out to the desk in front of me and stand, then swipe two silver combs off it and offer them to her.
"These would go well with your dress," I tell her and she says nothing in return, but sits down where I was to let me gently slide them into her golden hair. That little piece of feeling Feyre gave me grows a bit as I see this woman give me a slice of trust. She keeps me in my room a little past time for dinner to start and I'm positive that it was to make an entrance. We walk together through the stone halls, her heels tapping and my bare feet padding down the halls. Any warmth she showed me before now vanishes the minute we step into the doorway and all eyes turn to us. The room takes a breath.
YOU ARE READING
Shadowsinger
Fanfiction"Perhaps this is death and it's playing a game with me. Maybe that's all death is, reliving the moment it took those that you most loved." Kaira's life ends with her family in the cold snow on the edge of the wall dividing fae and human lands. She's...
