Chapter Twelve #3
“Yes. And she’ll likely have suitors in tow so that I can find the same happiness as my treacherous sister.
Miranda’s already a guardian with everyone fawning over her ‘training’ and ‘abilities’ but did she really need to also find a love match that spurs our mother to search all the harder for my ‘happy ending’ as she puts it?
” Cordelia sighed, cheeks growing flushed.
“Sorry. I’ve been sneaking more sips of punch than mother would approve.
I’m not normally this chatty with strangers. ”
“I don’t mind. I understand the pressures of having a special sibling, while I, mere human, am a constant disappointment.”
“Exactly! So maybe I can’t lift twice my body weight like it was nothing, that doesn’t mean I’m not capable of other things. I mean, has anyone ever asked what I like to do?”
“What do you like to do?”
Cordelia rounded on Sera, her sudden grin overpowering the frown as mischief danced in her eyes.
“I am so glad you asked! Presently, I’ve been following the exploits of this vigilante in the paper. I’m obsessed. A woman going around and stopping crimes on her own terms. The dream, I must say.”
“I’m sure it would be, if I were a guardian too.”
“She’s a guardian?” Cordelia’s eyes snapped to Sera’s. “When did you learn that? No one has been able to figure out what race she is, though there are guesses.”
“She wore a guardian uniform, so I simply assumed. And it would be difficult to imagine a human could best so many criminals and evade capture with such ease.”
Cordelia’s grin grew impossibly brighter. “You’re probably right, of course, but I can’t help but hope that she’s human. If only because it would mean that maybe I don’t have to settle for ballrooms and—”
“Cordelia!” A woman called the name while weaving through the courtiers.
“Ah shit.” Cordelia blocked her face with her hands. “You never saw me,” Cordelia whispered through her teeth, before disappearing into the crowd.
“Cord—oh.” A lovely woman who looked enough like Cordelia that Sera would know their relation without being told, stopped in front of her. “Now where did she run off to?” She overlooked Sera and continued her search.
At least now Sera didn’t feel so ostracized. While worlds apart, Cordelia and herself shared more similarities than she thought possible. Sera’s attention returned to the dancers, the barest whisper of longing filling her heart.
One glaring difference in their situations, Sera had never learned the steps required to dance. She feared that was one element of this fantasy she’d have to forgo, if she didn’t want to make a fool of herself in front of everyone.
“Evening.” A man stepped beside her, smiling as she jolted. “Apologies, I did not wish to startle you. I would have waited for a proper introduction, but I sensed you don’t have many acquaintances here.”
Sera stiffened. “Why would you assume that?”
“Only that I have never seen you before and you entered with a known recluse. You’re the talk of the night,” he said, brown eyes glittering in the flicker of lights. “No one was even aware that North was involved, let alone with a human.”
“I see.”
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad thing. Your beauty alone would have assured your popularity, but this lot is hungry for intrigue. You’ll not find any opposition to your situation, at least none that will voice it aloud, in such company.”
Sera nodded. “Thank you, I guess. I didn’t really care one way or the other if they opposed or not.”
He laughed, a nice, rich sound. “Normally, introductions are made by shared acquaintance, but I wouldn’t trust North to offer on your behalf. So, if you’ll allow me to shirk propriety, if just this one, my name is Lord Justin Hale, and I am most eager to learn yours.”
It was a decent line. He was handsome. Broad shouldered and pleasing features. His voice held a calming timbre. Human or guardian it was impossible to tell visually, there were no observable differences between the two.
Past Sera would have pounced on him.
Now, however, she found his attention irritating.
“I’m Sera,” she said, purposefully keeping her tone casual. She kept her gaze on the dancers, hoping that by avoiding direct eye contact he’d get the hint.
He seemed to detect her tone, his voice growing more tentative, though he wasn’t deterred.
“Well, then Sera, now that we have that out of the way, I was hoping you’d do me the honor of a dance.”
Sera’s heart stilled.
“I’ve noticed you watching the floor with impressive longing and felt compelled to be the first to offer my hand.
I assure you my intentions are entirely honorable and is in no way meant as competition.
You arrived with North, that speaks to your attachment, but there is little harm in a dance and he has not offered, or you’d not be standing to the side.
” He gave her a slight bow and Sera’s fingers began to twist.
Sera couldn’t accept, she didn’t know the steps nor the etiquette involved, but then… she so desperately wanted to dance.
“You are uncertain. I promise, I’m deft enough on my feet for both of us,” he said.
Sera’s heart raced. Words stuck in her throat even as she already knew what her answer had to be.
Kieran kept an eye on Sera as she lingered near the dance floor. He checked for any traces of shadows, but found nothing. As expected. He cast his gaze around her, for any presence he didn’t recognize or that appeared out of place while he cultivated his usual five-foot buffer of—
“Kieran!” A woman’s voice drew his attention.
He recognized her from the office but could not recall her name.
Jane? He didn’t respond, caught off his guard by her sudden cheerful engagement.
He did another sweep to make sure Sera was well and noticed her conversing pleasantly with another young woman—one of the Wildes he believed—and no obvious threats.
“It’s nice to see you outside the office. ”
Kieran froze for a few seconds, unsure if he was asleep and this was when a bad dream became nightmare.
“Sorry, I know we don’t get a chance to chat very often.
But you look lighter this evening, less dreary.
” She teetered on her feet and Kieran had missed the obvious cloud of alcohol emanating from her.
Inebriation might explain why she was speaking with him, though not her observation.
“Less ominous,” she added, filling his silence with prattle.
Her hand flew to her mouth, “Oh, but I don’t mean you looked terrible before. Just that we were always too scared to talk to you. You know, cause of the death,” she whispered the last word before adding, “And you know, cause you always look like you hate everyone.”
“I see,” he murmured, though he still didn’t like the implication that his aura of disdain had lost its edge. Why was she speaking to him at all? Normally, he would recite from the standard script reserved for these occasions, being curt but not rude.
The damn heat was oppressive.
“No one mentioned that you were attached, but I am certain your special lady is the cause of the transformation.” She giggle-hiccuped.
Kieran flinched, titling his head to avoid the plume of inebriation wafting from her lips.
“A human, too! Very progressive of you. Someone has to get the ball rolling, so to speak. Bravo.”
Kieran endured her comments. He could debate her claims, but that would be pointless. Everyone here would have assumed the same.
Hiding his annoyance, he did another sweep for Sera, but found his view was blocked.
“If you’ll please excuse me,” he said, leaving without another word. He tried to realign his sight on Sera, as he sought a spot to spend the rest of this evening where he might not be approached again.
When he found her, she was maneuvering through onlookers, making her way to his secluded corner of the room.
While he felt a noticeable shift in his mood at her presence, he also had not wanted to draw her from the revelry.
She stopped and turned, matching his stance, and he could sense her even through the sparse inches she left between them.
“I was asked to dance just now,” she started, igniting a flash of alarm before he could stop it. Even if he knew that her presence beside him meant she had turned the offer down, the panic wouldn’t settle. Why was she here and not on the dance floor? “I had to decline, of course.”
“Of course,” he agreed, though he wasn’t sure to what. “Any particular reason?” He asked, not giving himself the chance to think better of it.
“Oh, well, I never learned to dance. I can see how complicated the steps are just from watching. There’s no way I could navigate it. They’ve probably had instruction since childhood. I would only make a fool of myself.”
Kieran had not been taught the traditional dances required at these gatherings either.
Occasionally, one of these parties would attempt a fae melody and he would recall the Winter version of steps he’d been required to learn.
That didn’t help Sera, who wouldn’t know fae dances either.
But Kieran had been coming to these balls for most of his working life.
He had watched these same dances for years.
Kieran took Sera’s hand and led her through the crowd.
“Wha—where are we going?”
Every party had a terrace or balcony or some other secluded area with fresh air to act as a respite to the confines and heat of the ballroom.
A surprising number of couples would inevitably use the darkness to indulge in pleasures that some still believed were better saved for marriage to the point where Kieran wondered if the whole point of these spaces was meant to include the odd dalliance as much as respite, given how ubiquitous it seemed.
Now, however, it would serve his purposes nicely.