28
R ay had learnt how to dance when she was fourteen, barely five years ago when she’d taken her first steps with her. When she’d thrown her head back and laughed deliriously as they had moved around the living room and laughter had emerged from every corner of the room.
This was nothing like that time.
She was so close to him that she could feel his beating heart. She was so near that she could smell that coffee scent that made him… him. Angel gazed down at her, all nerves of steel as they swayed with the music. It was soft at first as if they were testing the waters. As if they were slowly coaxing the crowd in with them. And Angel, with his charming smile and his dark locks of hair. With his strong body leaning over hers, always challenging, always torturing – it seemed like the moment was stretched into a thin line for forever.
Ray tipped her chin upward, her head lifting in a silent gesture, her face the mask of cold indifference. This was how it was meant to be. Angel De Santos, the golden boy with his perfect way of operations and communication. With his lovely smiles and dangerous demeanor. And her, Raylene Walker, the cold wildcard that had brought forth a motion that they would all have to prepare for.
Angel might have read her thoughts, because his hands tightened on her waist, his other hand pulling her impossibly closer as he said in a low voice,
“Keep your focus on me Storm. Stop zoning out.”
Ray hummed, finally letting a soft smile grace her lips as she leaned back in his arms, “You can’t tell me what to do Angel De Santos. ”
She whispered, her breath coming out as wisps in the cold air,
“And stop fidgeting.”
His thumb that was tapping insistently on her palm stilled and a mask of silence draped over his face.
Ray saw the flash in his amber eyes, and it was the only warning she got before the music turned, twisted and became something far more.
Quicker. More dangerous.
And suddenly, Angel was moving her. His hands tightening on her waist and his body going erect as he grinned down at her. Ray scoffed, a dark look crossing her eyes as she dug her heels in the floor as tried to move her back. A flash of surprise caught in his expression before it flickered away with a blink and then he was moving, leaning over her and masking her actions as a bow. Ray let a satisfied smile turn her lips as he leaned further down. Her eyes shut of their own accord, and her hand unwrapped from his and flew above her head in a smooth gesture. She heard the soft gasps, the words rise with the wind.
Beautiful. Lethal.
“Vicious.” Angel’s words drew her out of her daze, and her eyes snapped open, her head lifting to gaze up at him. She responded with a dark smile and turned her head sideways to look up at the stage upon which the players performed. As decided, her eyes caught the stranger’s and she gave a brisk nod. The man, who had already been looking at her nodded back and swiftly turned on his heels to face the rest of them.
Ray let Angel pick her up and took an inch of a step back when he righted her and placed a hand back in his. Another one of his shoulders and looked up at him with a murderous gleam in her eyes,
“Get ready Raven. ”
Was all she offered before the music switched and everyone came pouring onto the dance floor.
Angel could only scoff before Ray moved them both, a challenge in each step, a whisper in each sound, a promise in each breath. Together, they cut through the wind as the familiar dances flowed around them, in them, through them. Everyone around them, danced like the wind, cheered with pride and mirth.
But Ray didn’t dance to the same rhythm.
She willed Angel to see it, to notice and treasure it, because then they were cutting right through it. Same steps, same beat, but a different world. Ray's eyes drifted shut as Angel pulled her closer and whispered words she couldn’t hear as they moved across the floor. It was beautiful. The feeling of exhilaration and the feeling of being so close to each other slowly tore them apart. The music was fast and dark.
Her heels clicked against the floor as she leaned back ever so lightly. The feeling of the music consuming her, the feel of Angel's hand around her waist drugging her. Her eyes were shut, but her movements were anything but. She flowed, like snow in the air, with Angel right there in front of her, matching every step, every move like a personal challenge. She was lethal, she was dangerous, and she was elegant. The finesse in her moves was so mesmerizing that the audience stood in awe. No one stopped them. No one dared to.
“Open your eyes storm,” Angel coaxed her out and Ray blinked them open, a smile playing on her lips as he twirled her and brought her back close to him again. She breathed in his scent and jumped in his arms, moving and swaying,
“I don’t need to keep my eyes open, ”
she said in response, her words coated with a rare sort of mischievousness, “I just need to give the people the show they asked for.”
Angel clicked his tongue and took a step back and forward, moving her with him, “Always business with you,” he said in a low voice and Ray let out a huff of laughter. It was easier with him, laughing like this. Forgetting like this.
It was dangerous too.
Clink.
She blinked, her smile remaining intact as she heard the familiar note haul her back to their reality, “I think our time is coming to an end here Angel,” she said and looked back at him, ignoring the cool air as it buzzed past them. His brow arched and he moved so Ray could see who stood at the crown of the area. Saw the nod Alessandro gave his son and the look Maya shot her.
It was time.
And right on cue, the music subdued, a perfect edge to end at. Angel looked down at her, something odd gleaming in his eyes,
“Are you ready?” he asked and Ray looked back at him, her heart tightening at the thought of going at standing on that dais. Of becoming a target once again.
But then those young eyes were flashing in the back of her mind. Those timid, pale hands in the open casket and–
Ray breathed out, her teeth clenching as she forced all her resolve in her stand, “Yes. I’m ready. Are you?” she asked him and saw him take a moment. It was in that moment the music subdued further. The note diminishing further and further.
And ending on the perfect cadence .
They froze in their position as others around them departed from the dance floor. Crashing back to reality and taking in the looks of their audience, Ray knew what she had to do. What only a powerful alliance would do. Both stepped away from each other and for a single second, Ray saw the look of something like deep sadness cross his gaze. She didn’t question it, but then he responded just as softly,
“I have to be.”
And it seemed as though Angel De Santos might be carrying a burden just like she was. But was vengeance really a burden anymore? It was more like a purpose now.
A magnificent way to the end.
Angel noted her expression and whatever he saw there seemed to do the trick. Because suddenly, he wasn’t the same Angel who had been sitting beside her and had spilled his guts about his father. No, he was the perfect, devious golden prince he was brought up to be. And right now, that was what she needed. In proof, a roguish grin took its place on his lips as she took another step back unable to stop a dark and mysterious smile from growing on her face.
No one bowed, no one shook their hands. Only brisk nods were exchanged and before they knew it, they were walking away. Away from each other. Applauses rose and then the moment drowned with the crowd. The smiles were constant on their faces and those smiles? They took all those tender moments of the dance away and turned them into dark, forgotten memories.
Ray breathed out as Alessandro rose his glass, and looked straight at her, tapped a metal spoon against it just once.
Clink .
And the entire crowd silenced.
Ray lifted her chin as Kyle took his place next to her and Maya took a step forward, her eyes twinkling with malice Alessandro began,
“It’s time you all learned why you were called here.” He said in a loud voice. The words seemed to sink deep inside her, her stomach dropping with the pressure of it all. Kyle bristled beside her as well but didn’t show it. Never showed it. Verana was silent, the perfect practiced soldier on Ray’s other side. Ray breathed out, just once and waited for the words to continue. For the sign.
“I invited you to my island, to my home, to share a revolutionary change in our ways.” His grand voice was carried by the wind, and although Ray wanted to turn and face the silent crowd, she didn’t. Not yet, she’d been instructed.
The cold air, suddenly biting, cut past her bare skin, making the back of her gown sway violently. But Ray didn’t dare sway, didn’t move an inch as Alessandro turned to his wife with a small smile and extended his hand in her direction. Maya was the perfect leader as she smiled back and took his hand, stepped forward as she did so. The fabric of her beautiful blood red gown rustled softly as the crowd waited with bated breath. Ray tracked her every move, reluctantly in awe of her deadly beauty. Maya didn’t look down at them once, just tipped her chin in air and smiled a dark, lethal smile.
“We have always been enemies in the same, recurring war.” If Alessandro’s voice was loud, Maya’s was coaxing. Was low but thunderous enough to seep through every single crack in the crowd behind them. Ray’s back stiffened at her words, at the way she looked out into the crowd, “Today, we mend that.”
A moment of deafening silence.
Followed by a rush of sharp inhales behind them .
Ray felt the goosebumps erupt on her arms as Maya’s smile extended and finally, finally–
Her eyes snapped down to face Raylene Walker.
Ray ducked her chin, and without warning, turned on her heels to face the crowd just as Maya’s voice roared from behind her,
“I present to you, Raylene Walker. Our mediator, our thread between our newly formed alliance .”
Her eyes cast into the crowd, into their wide eyes. So full of fear and dread as she let a dark smile tilt her lips. As she saw those amber eyes glint in the moonlight when he tilted his head back and Maya continued with her hand in Alessandro’s,
“The beginning of a new era!” Maya said and Ray’s chin tilted further. She glared out into the crowd, ignoring her pounding heart, ignoring everything. Because there were too many of them, too many eyes on her, too many people everywhere.
“The beginning of the Lions joining hands with the Ravens.” Alessandro continued and must’ve beckoned Angel forward because the boy stepped forward. Walked until he was standing right in front of her and stared back. Ray spared him no glance.
“Angel De Santos.” Kyle said, his voice equally jarring the entire crowd as he stepped forward and extended his hand in the other boy’s direction. Ray noticed the look in green eyes, almost balked at the excitement dancing in them. She couldn’t help but sympathize, because her heart was pounding right against her ribs, making her entire body light with a fire she hadn’t felt in ages.
She stared back into the crowd as Angel shook Kyle’s hand and said in his ever-charming voice ,
“Kyle Larsen.”
The people, the men and the women, everyone watched only her. Because now they all knew what stood between them and the greatest alliance to ever bless their world. And they all looked at her with only one intent in their eyes.
Murder.
Ray took it with a challenging grin. With a daring glint in her eyes as Maya clinked her glass behind her and said in a loud, blaring voice,
“ Let the new era commence !”
And so began a new sort of hell.