Avery’s POV
The seamstress really had outdone herself. The deep midnight blue fabric almost seemed to shimmer like thousands of distant stars against a clear night sky as I turned in front of the mirror. We’d gone for a simple but elegant off the shoulder neckline, with an open back that made my skin prickle pleasantly in the cool evening air.
When I emerged from my room, Sebastian was standing in the hallway, looking handsome in a tailored tuxedo. His pocket square and tie matched my dress.
“Wow,” he said, pushing away from the wall where he had been leaning. “Avery, you look…” His eyes wandered over the fabric, then moved to my hair, which I’d kept loose and free down my back. “You look really beautiful.”
I blushed faintly. “It’s not too much?”
“Too much?” Sebastian scoffed. “Avery, you look like the moon in the sky.”
Sebastian offered me his arm, and I took it. We headed downstairs, toward the banquet hall, which was already teeming with the noise of hundreds of guests. Many of them had already spilled out into other areas of the house. Laughter, music, and the clinking of glasses filled the air.
The banquet hall had been utterly transformed for tonight’s banquet. When I’d first come to Evergreen for the last ball, that had been incredible. But this was something else entirely. The rafters were hung heavy with drapes and streamers. Everything was lit with the warm glow of candles that glinted off the gold of the chandeliers. Every pillar was wrapped with bright white roses to symbolize the full moon, and projections of the night sky were being cast across the vaulted ceilings, making it feel like we were already outside.
We walked in together, arm in arm, just like we planned. Heads turned. A cluster of women near the entrance looked our way and then leaned together, talking behind their hands. Two of them were looking at the gown.
“They’re looking at you,” Sebastian whispered, leaning close.
“No, they’re looking at the gown-”
“Avery. They’re looking at you.”
I looked up at Sebastian. His expression was soft, his eyes reflecting the light of the candles flickering around us. For just a moment, his gaze flicked down to where the blue fabric strained across my shoulders.
“Avery,” he said, turning toward me, “there’s something I was hoping to talk to you about tonight.”
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