Chapter 9
God, his voice was good. Hearing him speak this closely filled my chest with warmth.
His voice was unbelievably smooth. The four simple words that slipped past his lips felt like a physical caress on my ears.
Muscles I didn’t know existed in my ears and head relaxed at the sound.
If sound had a feeling, his voice would be slowly stepping into a warm pool of sweet honey, savoring the sensation of being coated with it, inch by inch.
Instead of ice-cold fear racing down my arms and spine, a heat ignited in my core that I hadn’t experienced in a very long time. Maybe ever. It was enticing. His voice was calling to me; it made me want to lean toward him.
Absolutely not.
I studied the nereid I was dancing with, whose complexion had gone pale. Perhaps his grip on me wasn’t a protective one, but a fearful reaction.
While it was obvious that Drustan was asking to dance with me, I was serious about not accepting another offer, so without thinking too much about the consequences, I turned back to the siren prince and gave him a bright smile.
“Oh, of course.” I squeezed the nereid’s hand to get him to let go of me, but when he did, I quickly guided his hand into Drustan’s palm. “He’s all yours.”
And then I turned on my heel and made my way toward a dessert table, all too aware of the siren prince’s piercing gaze on my retreating form.
Off to the side, a woman laughed. Following the sound, I caught sight of Drustan’s date smiling into her beverage before taking a sip.
She had just witnessed her prince casually getting rejected by me.
When I looked around, several guests had their phones out, and a human woman rejecting a dance with the siren prince was now probably recorded at several different angles.
Whoops.
I helped myself to a cookie, biting into it. This cookie had a fruity flavor, and I hummed in appreciation as I turned around to see if I could find my friends.
I stood up on my tiptoes, looking, listening. But I couldn’t find them. All these tall Hyvenmerians were blocking my view of wherever they were.
I did, however, lock eyes with the siren prince.
Like a good sport, Drustan was now dancing with the terrified nereid man.
But his eyes weren’t on his dance partner; they were on me.
Their hands clasped together for a few steps, and the visual of his large hands grasping the nereid’s made my blood simmer.
Perhaps it was the way the siren prince kept his eyes on me, no matter how they turned and danced together.
Perhaps it was watching the way he moved, sensual and confident, as he shared a dance with someone that he originally had no intention of dancing with.
It was easy to picture myself in the nereid’s place.
Studying Drustan’s hands, his body, how careful and assured the siren was with his steps, made warmth pool in my belly.
I knew deep in my soul that the feel of Drustan’s touch on me would be rousing.
That I could easily be seduced by an attractive, large, dangerous man like him after sharing one dance.
I pictured him pulling me flush against his hard, chiseled body.
Even though he kept a couple of inches of space between him and the nereid that I practically pushed into his arms.
Every time he turned and was able to meet my eyes again, my pulse spiked with a surge of awareness. My cheeks were getting more heated the longer he and I held eye contact. The cookie in my hand was forgotten.
Murmurs from male voices caught my attention, pulling me out of Drustan’s spell. There was a group of men discussing something amongst themselves on the opposite side of the food table, looking back and forth between the siren prince and me.
One of them specifically appeared like he was working himself up to approach me, while his friends were holding his arm and encouraging him not to.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
Acknowledging my lack of strength and power compared to all these creatures, whose general interest in me only seemed to be growing, I set the cookie down on the dessert table.
As I did, I spotted a clean, unused knife that was intended for cutting slices of cake.
As slyly as I could, I slid it off the table and into my hand, gripping the handle close to my many layers of sheer skirts, attempting to conceal the weapon.
Feeling better about having a way to defend myself from unsolicited advances, I sped away from the table and curious male eyes.
I kept scanning the party.
Still no Audrey or Liam. No Fergus.
Where the hell are they?
Walking the perimeter of the room allowed me to brush past the luxurious linens and silks that lined the walls, framing portraits and works of art I admired as quickly as I could in passing.
Once I arrived at a side door with no guards stationed at it, I took it as an opportunity to slip out and get some fresh air.
The noise of the party quieted as I gently shut the door behind me. I grabbed my knife and slipped the blade into the waistband of my skirts, with the handle sticking out against my hip, in case I needed to grab it.
I was probably being dramatic.
But I still stood by my impulsive decision to bring it with me.
I padded down a smaller hallway, toward where I suspected the ocean to be, quietly admiring the pottery that occasionally stood proud against the walls.
I reminded myself that Audrey, Liam, and even Fergus all had super-Hyvenmerian hearing.
I figured that they knew how to find me whenever they decided it was time to leave.
The farther I got from the ballroom and the musicians playing in it, the more I focused on the melody humming in my mind.
Why did I only hear it here? Why didn’t I hear it back home?
But here at Fergus’s ball, it seemed much clearer now.
The specific notes were easy for me to identify.
I quietly hummed along with the mental melody as I traced my finger over the texture of a vase that stood almost as tall as me, admiring all the beautiful carvings and colors the artist used on it.
I moved on, approaching a stained-glass window that overlooked the ocean.
Ha, I was right. The colors of the sunset shining through the warm reds and oranges of the glass were breathtaking, but what caught my eye was the creamy material of the drapes that framed it.
I pinched the fabric between my fingers, holding it closer to my eyes as I noticed how it shimmered against the sunlight.
Every detail in this world was breathtaking.
Suddenly, a large presence appeared behind me, and I stiffened in alarm. A throat cleared, and I gasped at the same time I straightened, clutching the handle of my cake knife.
Without hesitating, I whirled around and struck.
Plunging the blade right into the side of the Mad Siren Prince.
Drustan grunted from the impact, his gold eyes widening in shock.
My eyes were also wide with shock, realizing what I had done.
I just stabbed someone.
Oh my god.
His hand was lifted as if he was about to tap me on the shoulder, but instead, he tightened his hand into a fist as he breathed through the pain.
He and I stood there, frozen in the moment.
Paralyzed with the knowledge that I currently had a hand on a knife that was buried in his side, to the hilt.
My jaw dropped, my lips parted in horror as I watched his nostrils flare with pain.
He squeezed his eyes closed, clenching his jaw, as if attempting to compose himself.
We were so close I could smell him again, and the seduction of his scent made my head spin. But I couldn’t enjoy it, because again, I just stabbed him.
The longest seconds of my life passed before he released a pained sound in his chest and took a step toward me.
I released my hold on the knife and backed away.
The silk of the drapes brushed against my skin right when he slapped a palm on the wall, bracing himself.
His forearm almost brushed against my shoulder.
Drustan’s eyes opened, and they were darker.
No, that wasn’t quite right.
His pupils had expanded. A lot. Color touched his cheeks as he huffed out short, pained breaths through his nose.
The muscles in his cheeks popped as he continued to work his jaw behind the firm press of his lips.
My heart was racing out of my chest, both from proximity to this handsome creature and from only being able to think one single thought.
I just stabbed him.
His other arm moved, drawing my attention to his grip on the knife I had left in his side.
While holding eye contact with me, mere inches away from my face, the siren prince slowly started to pull the knife out. His eyes winced, but that was the only thing indicating that what he was doing did, in fact, cause him pain.
I couldn’t look away from him, not even when he lifted the knife, releasing me from his gaze to study the way his own blood coated the blade.
I had just stabbed him, and in response, he had simply pulled the knife back out.
His tunic was stained with some blood, but he wasn’t bleeding nearly as much as someone who had just been stabbed in the kidney should.
Audrey had mentioned a couple of days ago that Hyvenmerian’s healed a lot quicker in this realm, but I had no idea stabbing a man would be this uneventful.
That he could act this nonchalantly about it.
It didn’t subdue him like it would a human man.
He hummed low in his chest as he turned the blade this way and that between us, and that’s when a familiar burn of arousal filled my lower stomach.
The temperature in this hallway was too warm.
A bead of sweat dripped between my shoulder blades, pooling in my lower back.
His scent, mixed with the low timbre of his hum, and his exposed torso that allowed me to count how many abs he had, disarmed me.
Every moment that passed between us, the more my muscles started to relax.