Chapter 16

Then, we’d better use it, huh?”

saw the hesitation in Amber’s eyes. “Never mind,” Maya said at once.

Amber was the youngest of seven siblings. Her parents were farmers, north of the valley. And at the end of the day, they just hadn’t been able to afford a seventh mouth to feed. Her father had packed her up, taken the donkey into the big city, and deposited her on the steps to Draco Mountain. He’d done it out of love. She’d have a much better life here than where she had come from, but that didn’t make it any easier.

Amber still felt the pangs of hunger and poverty, just as Hadrian did. Maya… had never known such. She had only seen it secondhand on the streets and from her friends. Though she would have preferred to have grown up with someone like Amber’s parents. Who had left her out of love… not shame.

“No, no,” Amber said with a sigh. “Wear the powder. It will look lovely with your dress.”

“Are you sure?”

Amber nodded. “That’s why I got it, isn’t it?”

Maya took the small pot of powd