Chapter Fifty
Cadence
The grand hall glittered as torchlight danced across the crystal goblets arranged along the table.
Laughter filled the cavernous space, and I let my eyes flit over the nobles with careful scrutiny.
Each tilt of their heads, every twitch of their fingers, and the fleeting glances they exchanged behind delicate fans were measured, calculating.
Each person here would gladly cast someone else to the wolves for their own advantage. That was what it meant to be Unseelie: loyalty was a luxury no one could afford when betrayal was the currency.
I doubted the Seelie Court was any better. Power was a plague that corrupted quickly, seeping into the very marrow of a soul until kindness became a weakness.
“How long must we stay?” Callum asked.
“I don’t know.” My eyes scanned the crowd, searching for the blond-haired prince who had summoned me for the evening’s festivities. “Ryker hasn’t even bothered to make an appearance despite insisting I had to be in attendance, so I can’t ask him.”
My brother let out a frustrated grunt, while Eamon chuckled from my other side.
“What?” I snapped, taking my frustration out on the hulking giant.
“Oh, nothing,” he said as he rocked back on his heels, his hands stuffed into his pockets. “It’s just amusing watching you squirm.”
“I’m not squirming.”
“You are,” Callum said, earning my ire.
I sucked in a breath as I straightened my midnight-blue gown. “I’m not squirming, I am surveying.”
Eamon’s gaze sparked with laughter. “What’s the difference?”
I was spared from having to respond when my brother made a choking sound next to me.
“Who is that?” Callum growled.
When I followed his gaze, my eyes landed on Riordan and the beautiful redhead draped over his arm.
“That’s Lady Beaumont.” Eamon’s tone held a note of amusement as he studied Callum. “She has been courting our dear Prince for some time now, and it looks like she’s wearing him down.”
My brother ground his teeth together, his fists clenching at his sides. “If you’ll excuse me.” He handed me his goblet before he stormed in Riordan’s direction.
“What was that about?”
“No idea.” Eamon tried to appear aloof, but the crinkle at the corners of his eyes suggested he knew exactly what had my brother worked up.
As Callum approached Riordan, a smug smirk tipped his lips, and he pulled his date closer to his side. The redhead laughed at something the Prince said, her fingers trailing up his arm possessively.
“Well, this should be interesting,” Eamon mumbled, taking a sip of his wine.
I watched as my brother reached them, his shoulders tense beneath his formal attire. Though I couldn’t hear their exchange, I could read the aggression in Callum’s stance, the deliberate way Riordan angled his body to keep the redhead between them.
“Should we intervene?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the impending collision between my brother and the Prince.
Eamon shrugged. “And miss the show? Absolutely not.”
I shot him a glare, but didn’t move. Call it morbid curiosity, but a part of me wanted to watch the wreckage unfold.
“What are we watching?” A familiar voice asked from beside me, making me jump.
Storm-grey eyes danced with mirth as I turned to face Ryker. Eamon grunted something unintelligible as he took a monstrous bite from a turkey leg.
“Ah,” Ryker said, as if he’d understood Eamon’s every word.
“And where have you been?”
“Miss me, Temptress?” The smirk in his tone was clear, and my irritation flared in response.
“Hardly. I simply don’t appreciate being paraded around as if I’m some prized possession only to be abandoned.”
Across the room, Callum’s voice rose above the polite murmurs of conversation, and Riordan looked downright gleeful. The woman at Riordan’s side stepped back, her perfectly painted lips pressing into a thin line.
“Interesting, isn’t it?” Ryker said.
“What is?”
“How you can bury something for so long, refuse to acknowledge it, only to have the truth claw its way free, anyway.”
Ryker’s tongue flicked out, tracing the shell of my ear, and an involuntary shudder racked my frame.
He was no longer talking about Callum and Riordan, and we both knew it.
“Don’t,” I warned, stepping away from him.
“Don’t what?” His eyes gleamed in the flickering light, his full lips curving into that infuriating smirk that made my blood simmer. “Speak the truth?”
I rolled my eyes, determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing how much he affected me. “You wouldn’t know the truth if it stabbed you in the heart.”
Laughter erupted from Ryker’s chest, loud and hearty. It was such a rare sound that I couldn’t stop the grin spreading across my face.
Returning my gaze to Callum, I watched as he backed Riordan against a pillar.
“Your brother has terrible timing,” Ryker observed, sipping from a goblet that had somehow materialized in his hand.
“What do you mean?”
He tipped his head in the direction of the gathering crowd, taking in the spectacle.
“You’re enjoying this chaos, aren’t you?” I narrowed my gaze at him.
“Immensely.” His eyes never left mine as he took another sip. “Though I’d enjoy other things more.”
“Show’s over,” Eamon said, and I glanced back toward my brother, who was storming out of the hall, Riordan right on his heels, a victorious grin splitting his face.
“Well, I hope they sort out whatever their issue is this time,” I said with a huff. “I’m tired of playing the intermediary.”
Ryker chuckled, the sound vibrating through me. “Sure, they’ll sort it out.”
I eyed him for a moment, but decided I wouldn’t take the bait. It would give him power over me, and he had more than enough.
We stood in companionable silence as we watched the courtiers mingle and dance, eagerly exchanging theories about the cause of the confrontation.
“They’re already spinning tales,” I said, nodding toward a cluster of women whose painted faces betrayed nothing while their eyes calculated everything.
“Let them,” Ryker’s shoulder brushed mine as he shifted his weight. “Half the power in this court is perception anyway.”
“And the other half?”
“Desire.”
His eyes traveled the length of my body, his gaze lingering in places that made my skin heat.
Eamon cleared his throat, suddenly very interested in examining the rim of his empty goblet. “I believe I’ll get a refreshment,” he said, moving toward the table set up on the other side of the room, despite the identical one that stood beside us.
“I think we made him uncomfortable.” The corner of Ryker’s mouth lifted, betraying his lack of remorse.
“There is no we,” I said, flicking my finger between us. “That was all you.”
“You look breathtaking tonight, wife.”
The bond flared within me, and I sensed his awe as he drank me in.
“Thank you.” The words were barely a whisper, but I knew he heard them.
A prickling sensation crawled up my spine, shattering the intimacy of the moment.
“What’s wrong?” His eyes surveyed the room, and his jaw clenched when he locked onto something behind me.
Turning, I followed his gaze and found an unfamiliar man watching me from the dais.
“Who is that?”
Ryker’s arm encircled my waist, pulling me closer. The possessiveness of the gesture did not escape my notice.
“He is an emissary from the Seelie Court. Apparently, the Seelie King and Queen wish to propose a trade agreement.”
My eyes widened in surprise, and I regarded him with renewed scrutiny.
His golden hair was slicked back, and his face was all sharp features.
I might have thought him handsome if not for the unsettling color of his eyes: pale, milky white, making it impossible to tell where he was looking, though I felt his gaze all the same.
“But you don’t believe that?” My voice was low, as if he could hear me from across the room.
“No, I do not.”
At that moment, the King’s gaze landed on his eldest son, his head tilting in summons.
Ryker signaled to Eamon, telling him without words to return to his post. His friend nodded, heading toward us.
“Forgive me, Temptress, but it appears my presence is required.”
I inclined my head, unable to pull my gaze from the emissary. Even as Ryker approached, the man’s attention never strayed from me. Then his lips pulled up in a sinister smirk, his tongue darting out to wet his bottom lip.
A chill spread over my body, an instinctive warning that made my stomach roil. Just as I started to look away, a sudden pressure flared in my side, knocking the air from my lungs and shattering my focus in a single, stunned heartbeat.
My body registered it before my mind could. A jolt of heat, then a dizzying rush of numbness. My palm flew to the site, and warm liquid coated my fingers.
I looked down at my hand, and the sight made my head spin as nausea rose in my throat.
Blood.