26. Ghost #2
I coughed, trying not to spit it back up, but the next second I felt fuzzy and warm, which was exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want to be fully coherent for what I had to do tonight.
The rider next to me held out his hand. I backed up as his fingers nearly grazed my skin. I met his gaze, finally turning to look at him for the first time since he came over. He was only a couple inches taller than me, his auburn hair gelled back to reveal a large forehead and even wider eyes.
“What?” I breathed once I realized he had asked me something.
He wasn’t ugly. Maybe I would have found him attractive before—but all I kept thinking about was Hael. I couldn’t get him out of my head—the way he smelled, the deep register of his voice, even the way he walked was haunting me.
Suns, I was in trouble.
I had no idea when I stopped hating him, but whatever this was—it was worse.
“I asked if you wanted to dance?”
“Oh—no thank you.” I forced a smile and walked away before he could ask me anything else.
I could immediately pinpoint the ones that were sterilized—not that they looked any different, technically there wasn’t anything identifying them from the breeding group, but they acted differently.
Half the riders were going from one female to the next, offering drinks and engaging in forced gossip.
They had no self preservation for privacy and acted without a care in the world.
But the other half, they kept to the sides of the room, talked to no one, drank quietly—those were the ones I guessed were selected for breeding.
The throne room was shaped into five points, all circling a large onyx speckled dance floor, making it the focal point in the room.
The lively music filled the space as couple after couple danced across the tiled mosaic floor.
Most were actually dancing, but there were some that were only using it as an excuse to touch each other.
Two of the five walls were lined with tables at opposite ends of the room, each filled with food and drinks.
There were obsidian dining chairs placed around them for anyone who wanted to sit down and rest between dancing, and I couldn’t stop staring.
Groups of people were sitting around the tables, talking, laughing, eating.
It all seemed so lighthearted. It made me wonder what that was like—to have friends and be able to live so carefree.
No ulterior motives. No devil waiting to drag you back to hell.
There were two walls in between the food tables, coming to a point behind me.
One held the musical group, their melody playing loudly, carrying across the space.
And the other held the double-doored entrance into the room, exposing an archway trimmed in an inky molding of dragon scales.
The arch itself was framed into a statue of the creature’s wings, having you walk below them to get in and out of the room.
It was a replica of all six dragons combined into one.
The elemental scales forming a perfect gradient into the others with the lower tips of the wings dipped in gray then ebony for the manipulation scales.
And besides knowing a dragon could only have a single colored scale, it looked so real—like it might move at any moment and take flight across the dance floor.
The material a perfect leather, almost translucent toward the tips of the wings.
The fifth side held Elion’s dais. It was raised above everything else.
Eight steps spanned the length of the front, each engraved with the names of the Gods and Goddesses on Hilithia.
The first step started with Ater, the Moon God of psychic manipulation; then Ferro, metal manipulation; then all four elemental Moon Gods were listed in order—Caerulus, Viridis, Ignis, and Crepito—with the last two steps left for the Sun Goddesses, Nessium and Cupio.
The name of each God and Goddess was written in an elegant swirling script with an etched drawing of either a sun or a moon hugging the words.
I stared at the last step, at Nessium, and wondered if the Goddesses picked us for our Tokens or if we picked them.
Our actions supposedly sparked the desire or necessity that our Tokens were stemmed from, but did we have a choice?
Was it all planned out before we were born into Hilithia?
I couldn’t stop thinking about it, wondering if my fate had always been tied to Dahes.
Was Hael’s fate already decided? Was I really going to betray him and let Dahes use him to kill Elion?
I had no problem with Elion dying after this morning, but to have Dahes rule over everything, to have him own the drakins, had my skin crawling.
He was already too powerful, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the catastrophic consequences that would unfold.
But the triplets said that fate was always moving, that they couldn’t accurately predict the future with too many variables.
Maybe I was the variable. Maybe I had a choice. Maybe I didn’t have to betray Hael.
As soon as the thought came to me, blue eyes flashed in my mind. A memory so long ago, it was fading. I couldn’t get his coloring right. I couldn’t remember if there was more gray or blue. I knew he had a tiny speck of green, but was it on his left or right eye?
I didn’t have a choice because of him. Masin was my weakness. The obvious fracture in my armor, practically screaming to the world that I’d do anything to protect him—I had already done everything. I sold my soul to the damn devil, and I couldn’t take it back now.
I forced myself to look around the room, not wanting to think about my past anymore. It hurt too much.
There was a throne on top of the dais that Elion had been lounging on for the past hour. Hael was now standing to the right of him, and Cash had walked up the steps to his left.
I kept watching Hael as he talked with the king. He wasn’t looking at me now, so I took the opportunity to openly stare, taking him in. I turned my head and noticed green eyes on me. Cash smirked.
I quickly looked away and started beelining toward one of the tables with food, suddenly wanting another drink.
“Evening, convict.”
I whirled, finding Cash standing right in front me. My gaze snapped to the dais—now finding the left spot empty next to the king, but Hael was still there.
My eyes widened as I tried to compose myself. I didn’t even have time to exchange my empty glass for a new one. I maybe made it two steps before Cash was behind me.
“One night spent with Arrik and you already forgot about my Token?” he smirked as he took in my open mouth.
I snapped it shut, instantly feeling my muscles stiffen as I found myself clutching the empty glass tighter.
He was the reason Hael had his back cut open this morning. He told Elion where he had taken me.
My gaze flicked to the dais again without meaning to. Hael was staring at me now, even as Elion was still talking.
“Makes it hard for people to run away from me,” Cash continued, taking another step closer to me. “Even if they use a drakin to do it, my teleportation is faster.”
I glared at him, my eyes narrowing, before I turned back around, walking toward the refreshment table to the right of the room.
I needed another drink. Now.
“You bailed on us. Missed a fun night,” he said, keeping pace by my side.
“And you made sure to tell the king,” I spat.
He smirked. “Hit a nerve, did I? Didn’t think you’d care what happens to him.”
To my mortification, Cash turned to gesture toward Hael on the dais—and Hael—looking directly at us, saw. His eyes were narrowed, but beyond that, his posture was straight, rigid—a perfect obedient soldier. I would have had no idea what happened to him this morning if I hadn’t seen it.
“Your king threatened me with the same punishment.” I tried my best to keep my voice neutral as I replaced my glass, even though all I wanted to do was scream at him.
Cash kept smiling, running his hand through his blonde streaks. “I knew Elion wouldn’t punish you from a first offense,” he continued. “But Hael knew exactly what he was doing by bringing you there.”
“What is this? You justifying your actions?”
“Nah.” I hated that he kept grinning, like we were discussing something happy instead of literal torture. “You’d have to be guilty to want to justify anything.”
“Leave me alone,” I snapped, my normally willed patience completely gone. He told Elion knowing exactly what would happen to Hael. I picked up on the fact that they hated each other, but to purposely cause someone to get tortured was something else entirely.
“You might have run away from Moriann,” he leaned down to whisper in my ear, his voice lowering as his breath hit my neck, “but you can’t run away from me, convict. Don’t ever leave my training again.”
Before I could answer, Cash used his Token and teleported back to his spot on the dais. It wasn’t a blur of motion, but rather a blink. One moment, he was standing directly in front of me, and the next he was somewhere else.
I could see his mouth moving, saying something to the king, and in turn, Hael tensed even more, but I was too far away to make out the words.
I turned away from them, needing to do something other than just stand here stupidly. I made my way to the opposite side of the room, toward the octet, figuring not as many people could hold conversations over the music.
I was wrong.
Five more initiates tried to approach me by the time I finished my second drink.
I looked back up at the dais—something I’d been doing all night.
The only difference now was that Hael wasn’t there.
Instantly my heart rate skyrocketed. Shit.
I lost him. Maybe I shouldn’t be drinking.
If he left to go back to MonClem without me finding anything else about him, I’d still have to sneak there.
“Hey,” a deep voice sounded behind me. I turned just in time to find a dragon rider about to reach out and touch my arm.