Chapter 22 #2
A spike of horror. The memory of Aenia, her fangs bared as she held a little blightborn girl in her arms. “And the fallout?” I asked grimly.
“Bad. Visha’s family hung the man on the gate leading into their manor. Now the whole village is on edge. The place is mostly blightborn workers, farm laborers who the Vaidya family employs. They’re fortifying, preparing for the worst.”
“The worst has already happened,” I said coldly. “They strung up an innocent man.”
“I know that. Visha knows that. Why do you think she feels so awful?” We both glanced over at her. Maybe she was listening to us; highbloods had good hearing. But if she minded us talking about her, she wasn’t showing it. And she was still here. Theo looked at me oddly.
“What?”
“We both know few highbloods would consider that man innocent,” Theo said.
“But he was. If Arjun attacked him—”
“I know,” Theo said quietly. “But highblood lives come first. They always come first. The Vaidyas were just following custom.”
“Doesn’t make it right,” I muttered. “Maybe just even more fuckedup.”
I thought of the blightborn boy I’d killed, weighing if it were the same.
But it wasn’t. He’d struck Pendragon first. She’d defended herself.
Then I’d made it so he’d never touch her again.
Seemed like simple justice to me. I’d have done the same to a highblood; it had nothing to do with the boy being blightborn.
If anything, I’d stayed my hand against the other girl because she was also blightborn.
I’d have gone harder against a highblood—used more cruelty, knowing they’d do the same.
Take Larissa: She was still recovering from the weeklong blood fast I’d forced upon her for biting Rodriguez.
I’d seen her slinking around the tower, looking pale and pissed off.
She wouldn’t be fucking with blightborn teachers again. At least, not anytime soon.
Outside in the corridor, a bell tolled, the signal for guests to begin filing toward the hall.
I crossed over to Visha and touched her shoulder. “Why not just stay here? You don’t have to come to this thing. Hang out at my place. We’ll be back soon.”
It went without saying that we’d been to a ball much like tonight’s just a few months before—and it hadn’t gone well. Visha had lost her girlfriend, Lace Ironstride, that night. Visha looked up at me, and I knew we must both be thinking the same thing.
“I’m sorry, Vish,” I said uncomfortably.
She nodded. “Thanks, but I’m going. Need a distraction.” She glanced past me at Theo. “Did you tell him the best part?”
Theo looked uncomfortable. “No.”
“What’s the best part?”
“She means the worst,” Theo said.
“His sister is sick,” Visha said hollowly.
“Whose, the merchant’s?” I said stupidly.
“Not the merchant. Arjun’s little sister, my niece.” Her face clouded. “He bit her. And his mother. And his father. Before he …” She choked.
“Shit,” I breathed. “What’s happening? Is this some sort of a plague?”
But we must have all been thinking the obvious. Highbloods didn’t get sick.
She shrugged. “Who the fuck knows. If it is one, maybe it’s been a long time coming. Maybe we brought this on ourselves.”
I stared at her. I’d never heard her speak so darkly. “Well,” I said slowly, “I think it’s good you’re coming with us. Theo and I, we’ll distract you.”
“Should be easy. We’ve all seen Blake’s dancing,” Theo quipped.
I punched him in the shoulder, just as another knock came at the door.
Theo’s face lit up. He had the door open before I could even make a move. “Vaughn!” he exclaimed.
The tall blightborn boy stepped into my room looking a little awkward.
He was in Orphos colors, dark gold trousers and a bright purple silk shirt.
His voluminous, tightly curled black hair had been combed back and pulled into a short ponytail.
“I told the warden I was here with your permission so she’d let me in. I hope that’s all right.”
“Absolutely,” I said enthusiastically. I glanced at Theo and raised a brow.
“He’s my date,” Theo said coolly.
I shrugged. “The more the merrier.”
Theo linked his arm through Vaughn’s, leaning into the lanky blightborn. He looked happy and excited, just like he deserved to be.
Viktor won’t be there, I reminded myself, trying to relax.
Theo would be all right. What was one more blightborn?
Florence Shen was blightborn. Everyone’s eyes would be on her tonight, not on Vaughn and Theo.
As long as we could keep them safe, a nagging voice in my head said.
Safe even from ourselves. But one night wouldn’t cut it.
We didn’t just need a few nights of freedom from Viktor’s threatening presence—we needed a lifetime.
I thought of the book on the table, belatedly realizing something. Was that what Rodriguez had drunkenly been hoping? That if I did the spell, if I merged with Vorago, I’d finally be strong enough to stop Viktor?
Would it be worth the price, if I were?
The refectory hall was already mostly full when we got there.
Swaths of jetblack silk looped between pillars.
Silver lanterns in the shape of crescent moons had been hung from the cavernous ceiling.
Avari midnight and moongray silver were the reigning colors, relieved only by the warm gold shimmer coming from the hundreds of candles in the castiron chandeliers dangling overhead.
Even the bloodwine being handed around had been poured into silver flutes.
Black dragons were displayed everywhere: embroidered on banners alongside the Avari motto, decorating the napkins, even appearing as tiny black sculpted sugar candies decorating each table.
A dragon—that bore no resemblance at all to Nyxaris—sat in midsnarl atop a massive cake displayed on the stand.
Blightborn musicians wearing shiny black suits played on a raised stage at the back of the hall.
It was clear Lady Avari had spared no expense on the spectacle.
We’d barely cleared the threshold when my friends vanished.
Vaughn pulled Theo towards the dance floor, while Visha snatched two goblets of bloodwine from a passing waiter’s tray and muttered something about getting some air.
I watched her stride towards the terrace doors, nearly bumping into Lady Avari walking with Kage’s mother, Natsumi.
The younger Avari woman was draped in a long gown made to resemble silver scales.
Elaria glared after Visha, then turned back to murmuring with her daughter-in-law.
As Visha disappeared onto the terrace, I threaded through knots of chattering guests, making my way towards the bar.
I was trying to catch a bartender’s attention when Kage Tanaka stepped up beside me, clearly intent on doing the same.
I sideeyed him. He looked as if he’d been carefully crafted to match the same mono-chrome palette as the decor: black jacket, silver satin vest, collar fastened with a curved sliver of silver.
His white-blond hair was swept back, and the sides had been freshly razored.
His dark eyes looked more brooding than usual.
We regarded each other like rival blades laid out side by side. “House Avari certainly knows how to throw a party.” I reached for the drink I’d ordered. “Congratulations, by the way. Florence Shen is … well, she’s brilliant, isn’t she?” I finished lamely.
I should have been used to this. Most highblood matches were arranged affairs. And yet there was something especially awkward about this one. Maybe because Kage and I both knew blightborns typically married for love. They also didn’t do triads.
“She is. But you congratulate me as if the choice was mine,” Kage said shortly. It wasn’t like Tanaka to sulk. I looked at him in surprise as he grasped a flute of smoky champagne and tilted it back.
“It’s a good match,” I said uncomfortably. “Shen will benefit from your house’s protection.” I lowered my voice a tad. “Gotta say, it’s a weight off my shoulders knowing you’ll be shielding her from Viktor.”
“Well, if it’s benefiting you, Drakharrow, then that changes everything,” Kage drawled.
I smirked. Now we were back on more familiar ground. “Seems to me we’ve been here before.” I gestured to the bar. “Last time was a little different.”
“It was,” he agreed, taking another sip.
“Was that invite back then just to make me jealous?”
He looked at me. “Why don’t you tell me. Did it work?”
I chuckled. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”
“Good. Maybe I’ll try it again.”
I eyed him coldly. “Don’t even joke about that. Besides, you have your own triad to worry about now.”
He winked. “Sure do. And there’s room for one more.”
I knew he was just messing with me. I sighed. “Look, let’s cut—”
But before I could say more, a fanfare sliced through the air, and conversation came to a halt. Everyone pivoted to face the entrance of the hall.
Florence Shen appeared, stepping slowly into the room from the hallway.
Her black hair was swept up with silver half-moon combs.
Her gown was a sleek affair, all satiny liquid moonlight that clung to her slender curves.
She looked every inch the startled, timid fairy-tale princess whose carriage had suddenly turned into a ravenous beast.
Behind her, a step back and to her right, came Pendragon.
I sucked in a breath. Pendragon wore Avari black, but it wasn’t the black of the night sky.
This was a starlit river. The gown shimmered as she moved, covered with tiny glimmering pearls.
A plunging scooped neckline revealed the freckles that dusted her collarbone like scattered flecks of autumn leaves.
She’d left her hair down, and it fell loose around her shoulders in a riot of brilliant copper.
A circlet of onyx lay across her brow, nudging her hair back just enough to reveal the tips of her pointed ears.
And at her throat gleamed the black dragon pendant I’d given her a few months ago—marking her as unmistakably mine.
Ours, something inside corrected. My newly healed eye pulsed.
I gave a low, possessive growl and felt Kage looking at me strangely.
I cleared my throat, shutting my eyes for the briefest moment until the sensation had cleared.
I looked back at Pendragon: She was fucking radiant.
Brilliant as a falling star. I felt dizzy just looking at her.
Beside me, Kage set down his glass. I glanced at him, noticing the tension in his shoulders; he wasn’t so cocky now.
No, the Avari leader looked like a man about to step off a cliff.
“Good luck,” I murmured.
He nodded as he stepped past me, moving towards where Florence waited nervously by the door.
Across the hall, Pendragon turned her head, and our gazes met.
Something lit up in her emerald eyes, hot and secret.
She smiled slightly, and my chest tightened.
For a moment of reckless whimsy, I considered sending her a new pendant the next day.
A red one, to match the beast that slept beneath my skin.
Then I pushed the idea aside. Pendragon’s smile was pure sunlight, warm and fearless.
But the dragon inside me didn’t know light, he only knew the darkness of eternal hunger.
If I let him slip out, he’d destroy me, destroy her.
He’d shatter everything in blood and fire.
Pendragon started walking across the grand hall towards me, the crowd parting, and all I could think of was the dragon fighting to get out. If I let that happen, my girl would be in the arms of a monster, not a man.
Kage reached Florence’s side, offering her his arm and leading her onto the dance floor. For a moment, I envied him; he might have two bodies, but at least he and his wolf shared a single soul.
Then Pendragon reached me. She put her hand on my arm, and I looked down at it, frozen for a heartbeat. Slender, freckled, so beautiful—and I remembered the truth that kept me standing. I’d rather burn myself to ash than ever let that hand tremble in fear because of me.
So if the Spell of Twin Hearts was the only thing strong enough to leash me, I’d swallow my fear and risk my death. Better to carry another dragon under my ribs than to watch the first one devour her light. Because she was it. She was everything. She was the line I could never, ever cross.