Chapter 14 #2
Vesper cocked her head, every part of her a dare in that perfectly fitted dress.
I swallowed down the lump in my throat as I scowled at her, all the words I wished to hurl her way jamming there and festering.
Because I wouldn’t be offering her my wrath.
Not here. Not on her terms. I could see through this play of hers to the spark of need in her grey eyes, the corruption in her soul so clearly visible to me that I could only wonder at how no other Fae seemed to see it at all.
“I’ll dance for you!” a guard yelled, breaking into a vibrant set of movements with flamboyant arm flourishes and a lot of hip thrusts.
She ignored him. She ignored the woman who had just ripped her dress open to reveal her tits and the man who was pouring a glass of wine down his chest and massaging his nipples through the wet material.
She ignored the groans and cries for release, the stench of arousal on the air.
Every inch of her focus was locked on me. And me alone.
The royals were staring down the table at the commotion, Dragor looking thunderous as he pushed to his feet, his ire pinned on her, and despite my every intention, I shoved to my feet too, ending this before he did.
“Fine,” I snapped, taking her hand and yanking her against me forcefully so that our bodies were flush and her other palm landed obediently on my shoulder, though she had to stand on her tiptoes to reach even in the stiletto heels.
I slid my free hand around her spine, drawing her closer still, stalling the breath which tumbled from her lips as I leaned down to speak against her lying mouth.
“Is this what you wanted?” I asked in a low tone only for her.
“No,” she admitted, that word hanging between us, my glare boring into her storm-grey eyes, a thousand furious words falling still and fading away because what was the point in any of them?
She was no more deserving of my rage than she was of my attention but still she chose to steal both regardless.
We weren’t on the dancefloor but as the music struck up, I took the lead and moved her to the rhythm of it.
She stumbled at first, the steps I took clearly unfamiliar to this enemy of mine, both through a difference in our cultures and every change in trend and style which had taken place in the years I’d spent trapped beneath the ground.
But she only tripped once and my hold kept her in my arms. Then she used her gifts to sense what I wanted, her magic making it all too easy for her to follow my lead as I pushed her into a dance to which no other Fae here knew the steps.
I said nothing, pushing faster, our feet moving to the music, her body firm against mine yet soft in all the right ways too. She was so fragile in stature for one so stoic of heart. But despite appearances I knew she wouldn’t break easily.
I backed her up onto the dancefloor then spun her so suddenly that any other woman would have fallen flat on her face. Perhaps that had been my intent – to embarrass her, to wound her ego as she’d wounded my heart, for the stars knew nothing beat in her cold chest for me to aim at.
But she didn’t fall, she spun out and back, her leg kicking up the way the dance required and I caught it, her knee hooking over my elbow as I dipped her back and a woman gasped at the scandal of the movement.
I jerked her upright, keeping hold of her leg and our bodies became one as I dragged her across the dancefloor, her hands finding my cheeks, eyes boring into mine.
I pushed her harder, faster, our breaths growing frantic and movements more animal, more carnal. She appeared to care as little as I did, only focused on the movements I demanded from her and keeping up with the pace I set.
When the music fell still we were left pressed together, our bodies slick with perspiration, our breaths colliding, chests heaving, hearts pounding. And all I could see were those grey eyes peering into mine as if she had the right to see straight through me the way she so clearly did.
Silence rang out for several seconds and a lone fae clapping forced my eyes from hers, my focus finding Dragor who was applauding our debauched display from his seat, though his expression was anything but pleased.
The sycophantic congregation soon joined him, their dropped jaws closing, scandal turning to delight as if we’d simply been set to entertain them and hadn’t cleared the dancefloor with our power play.
“I need to speak with you,” Vesper said, her words hidden in the applause, fingers knotting in my shirt as she felt me withdrawing.
“We have nothing to say to one another,” I growled, straightening, but she held on.
“I have plenty,” she disagreed, her eyes flicking to the balcony doors so briefly no one else would have caught it.
A prickle of curiosity stirred in me despite myself and she gave me a cunning smile as she sensed it before straightening and releasing me. She curtsied like a well-practiced courtier and didn’t bother waiting for me to bow before turning and striding away.
She was quickly swallowed by the crowd, her gifts drawing Fae closer to beg the favour of her company or the honour of her next dance and irritation prickled through me at their display.
I jerked around, ignoring the offers of a dance from several women who had flocked to watch us before pushing through them and the rest of the crowd towards the balcony doors.
The air outside was cool but the bite of winter had abandoned it along with the snow and the darkened landscape which I could see beyond the city limits was teaming with new life.
I ran a finger beneath the collar I wore, the green gemstone which had stopped me from shifting when embedded in my skin now clasped in a band of iron grey metal which was carved with runes and imbued with magic I had no idea how to break.
With the collar I could shift, my Dragon form available to me at all times, the metal able to adapt to my change in size. But it wouldn’t come off.
It was better than the cavern. I had to remind myself of that daily and likely always would.
Footsteps approached but I could tell by the pace and weight behind them that they weren’t hers.
I turned to look at an unfamiliar man as he stopped beside me, offering a bow I was certain I hadn’t earned.
“Prince Dragor wishes to let you know that you are free to return to your rooms. He appreciates how exhausted you are and thinks a rest may be in order.”
“Does he now?” I asked darkly, straightening my spine so that I loomed over the messenger and he squeaked in alarm before shifting suddenly into a Tiberian Rat, his clothes puddling on the ground at my feet.
He took off with another squeak of fright and I snorted my amusement before turning my eyes back to the view.
A gentle breeze tumbled over me from my right and I frowned as it swirled around me, noticing a scrap of white among it and snatching it from the air on instinct.
A small, folded scrap of paper sat crumpled in my hand, a few words visible on its edges. I unfolded it, my forearms pressed to the stone balustrade and my body hiding the note from view.
You’re as subtle as a sack of crabs.
Take the long route through the east wing on your journey back to bed.
I crumpled the paper in my fist, turning to look for her, but of course she was nowhere in sight.
The feast was being laid out in the ballroom, long tables filling with Stormfell’s most important citizens, the royal family lording it over all of them. The other Fae on the balcony were hurrying back inside and I caught a glimpse of pink hair at the table closest to the royals.
Well, if she was feasting then I had some time to myself.
I kicked my boots off, followed by my socks and the shirt I unfastened with ease. Shucking the elaborate ensemble in favour of my own brutal flesh was liberating in its own way. The trousers followed, leaving my body clad in nothing but ink and the collar I couldn’t remove.
A few scandalised and excitable cries came from within the ballroom as some of the Fae there spotted me but I ignored them, snatching my clothes from the floor and balling them together before leaping from the balcony and shifting in midair.
My gut plummeted as I fell, the shift not going exactly to plan, the years since I’d done such a thing having blurred my memories on how best to execute it and my clothes tumbled out of my grasp.
My tail slammed into the palace wall with a deafening boom, my belly pointing toward the sky in place of my spine and I cursed internally as the ground rushed up to meet me.
I threw my body into a cumbersome roll, my wings snapping out, one of them decapitating a decorative tree in the process before I manage to launch myself skyward again.
A flutter of movement caught my eye and I spotted some of my clothes dangling from a lower balcony. I twisted to snatch them in my claws, breaking the balustrade as I did so and sending a flurry of rubble down into the courtyard below.
But then I was off, powering towards the silvery glow of the moon through the clouds, a roar escaping me as the bliss of flight enraptured my soul.
This was what I’d dreamed of in the dark, the rush of wind and thrill of speed, every moment of it exhilarating in a way that was entirely my own.
No one could steal this from me, not truly, not even when my wing had been broken and butchered.
This was still an experience that was mine alone because there was only one of my kind.
I wasn’t certain how long I spent in the clouds, circling the mountains and releasing as much of the pent-up energy in my body as I could before finally returning to land on the balcony outside the ballroom.
The fires had burned low, the revellers long since retired to bed and only a single man awaited me, the same Rat who had delivered Prince Dragor’s message earlier and now promptly scurried away to no doubt report my return to him too.