Chapter 36 Rune #2
I fidgeted with my fingers as I took a deep breath, inhaling all of their scents. “Everyone looks so put together.”
The others wore varying formal wear: Aura and Eleanor wore glittering ball gowns, not nearly as scandalous as mine. Hawk, Lorian, and Raze wore different-colored suits.
An usher glided up with a silver tray of sealed envelopes. “Your assignments.”
“Take them,” Jarvins told us, wearing a ridiculously enormous hat with a rat mask over his face.
We grabbed the envelopes with our names on them and waited for further instructions as the usher walked away.
“You are invited to a high-stakes diplomatic gala. This is a fully immersive scenario. You each have a unique assignment within that envelope. Choose your own persona, but make sure it fits the mission you’re assigned.
You will be graded on your completion of your primary objective, maintaining your cover, and your adaptability to unforeseen events.
Failure to complete your mission isn’t an automatic fail, but breaking character, drawing attention, or causing a breach in secrecy is.
Remember, you’re a squad first.” He grabbed a champagne flute from a waiter carrying a plate of them and winked at us. “Best of luck.”
I let out a small breath and opened my envelope.
Steal the magical artifact ring from a diplomat.
I bit my lip, frowning, until I looked up and saw TARGET flashing in red above a man’s head. He was a graying envoy with a gleaming blue ring flashing on his right hand. It hummed when he laughed.
“What’s everyone’s mission?” Dimitri asked, putting his envelope away. “We’re a squad, so we need to complete tasks as one. My objective is protecting Rune.”
“No fair,” Slater whined, his gaze locked on my cleavage. “I want to protect my mate. Instead, I’m tasked with spreading chaos and causing a distraction.”
“Well, I have to identify a double agent using my special power to pull the truth from a broker.” Zuko pouted, gaze on my ass.
“I have to get a ring from a diplomat,” I told them.
“I have to extract a code phrase from security,” Koa mumbled, his gaze flicking from my legs to my face.
“I need to protect Eleanor,” Lorian stated, helping her stand as she took ragged breaths.
“I need to…” she trailed off before blinking a few times and straightening the best she could. “Disguise myself as multiple guests and gather clues. I think my special power could come in handy…if I can manage to shift.”
“I have to assist Rune,” Aura replied, tucking her envelope between her breasts.
“I get to eliminate a rogue diplomat before he delivers a false treaty. Should be fun.” Raze flashed a wicked grin.
“I need to guard the vault key without revealing my role or its location.” Hawk gestured to his crotch, where I had to assume the key was. Though, I didn’t know why.
“Let’s do this,” Dimitri whispered. “Everyone, go complete your tasks now. Aura and Rune can go for the diplomat, and I’ll protect Rune.”
“What about me?” Aura frowned. “Am I in danger?”
Dimitri just shrugged. “My mission is only to protect Rune. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
I smiled, adjusted my mask, and drifted toward my target with Aura a half-step behind me. I lifted a fluted glass from a passing tray without breaking stride and let the chandelier light catch on the rim as I slid into the envoy’s orbit.
Up close, he smelled like bergamot. I loathed bergamot. The obsidian ring on his right hand pulsed as he gestured to the man he was talking with.
“Forgive me,” I interrupted smoothly, tilting my head so the edge of my mask kissed my cheekbone. “I’ve been trying to find a way to introduce myself all evening.”
He turned, gaze dropping to take the measure of the little fabric of my dress before politely climbing back to my eyes.
The smile he offered in return held too many implications, but from what I’d studied, that was a good thing.
“Have you? Then, allow me to save you the trouble. Envoy Vlaken for Cursinia’s Academy of the Enchanted Arts. And you are?”
“Elara Vale,” I purred, giving him my persona’s name and nothing else. My fingers brushed his sleeve, but I made it seem like an accident. “I’m here for my late arranged mate’s potion shop. I’m actually a collector and seller of rare potions.”
His mouth twitched. “A widow? I am so sorry for that.”
“Don’t be. Dead men keep secrets better than live men do.” I giggled lightly.
His smile turned devious. “We could use patrons with a sense of humor.”
I wasn’t really joking.
“Mm,” I said, letting the sound become a smile. “I have a fatal weakness for a man who can appreciate a joke, you know.”
Gross.
But Jarvins had drilled into us that flattery went far with seduction.
We let ourselves be carried a few steps by the conversational tide toward a large column veined with gold. The gala churned around us. Guests in masks were drinking and murmuring as music threaded through the air.
I let my fingers trail along the edge of his cuff, admiring the stitching. I tapped the ring with my nail to test him. The ring hummed in the bones of my fingertip.
“Is the ring a family heirloom?” I asked, gazing at the ring.
“Tradition from my career,” he corrected, lifting it for me to admire. The stone looked like a sapphire. “From the founder of the academy. It opens…doors.”
I laughed lightly. “I prefer a key rather than an artifact to open a door,” I confessed densely, “but I respect a dramatic shortcut.”
“Keys can be stolen.” He rotated his wrist, obliging me with another angle. “Rings are harder to lose.”
“Good point.”
He offered his glass to a footman without looking, freeing up the very hand I needed access to.
I set my champagne on the column’s ledge and let my knuckles lightly graze his palm as I stepped closer.
He turned his hand instinctively. My thumb found the seam on the inside of the ring, and I choked back a gasp.
The key had a pressure lock. It was old magic pretending to be a new design, and I wasn’t exactly sure how to unlock it.
“Your shop,” he said, not looking away from my eyes. “How do you make enough to attend a charity gala such as this?”
“Opportunities,” I explained, my thumb applying a whisper of pressure and a force of intent to open through my magical essence. “I sell to academies, infirmaries, institutions like that.”
“Interesting,” he murmured. “You have heart.”
“I have an interest in the expansion of my shop,” I corrected, smiling, focusing on that pressure lock.
The band warmed under my skin before a tiny click launched down my bones.
I was so close.
“Ms. Vale?” A feminine voice cut in, too startling, and too close.
Wasn’t Dimitri supposed to be protecting me?
I turned to find Aura.
She smiled, one hand on the bar that was next to us as a bartender leaned in. She didn’t look at me when she spoke; she aimed her voice toward us. “Your special order. Shall I have the bartender send the…poison to your table or would you like it here?”
The bartender looked between us and fumbled, “Infusion, miss, I meant infusion of fae whiskey.”
“Poison?” Vlaken repeated, the word coming out as a trigger. His hand ripped from mine, and the ring’s hum sharpened.
I let go as if I’d only been tracing a line in his palm and reclaimed my glass in the same motion, giving him an innocent smile. “Oh, darling,” I said without glancing away from Vlaken, “the only thing I poison are snakes.”
I had to wonder what the fuck she was doing to interrupt my mission.
“Of course, my mistake.” She tipped the bartender a coin. “Surely, you would never poison yourself, right?”
Vlaken’s weight had shifted on his feet as he turned from at ease to suspicious. The ring turned a fraction on his finger as he flexed, showing me that I had unlocked it. “Ms. Vale,” he said lightly, “what sort of infusions does your potions shop prefer?”
“Fae-blessed water,” I said without missing a beat.
Back to square one, damn it.
With my free hand, I plucked half a lemon from a passing waitress. I held it over my champagne and snapped, watching the lemon juice spritz in.
The ring’s hum had softened again. Vlaken was curious again, not suspicious. “Ms. Vale.” He offered me his arm. “Walk with me? I’d like to hear more about your shop.”
“Gladly.” I set my fingertips lightly on his sleeve.
We drifted along the periphery toward the stairs. Music and chatter blurred into background noise. As we stepped, I brushed the ring again, casually.
“You’re not from Cursinia,” he said, turning to narrow his eyes at me. “I know all the shops there.”
“I’m from a village deep in the mountains,” I said. “Which you’ll find is not well known.”
He laughed. “So it seems.”
“It is,” I corrected.
My thumb rested on the seam again, and it was unlocked. He didn’t notice.
We paused at the bottom of the stairs.
“I’m happy to have met you tonight.” I grabbed his hand and squeezed before sliding my two fingers around the ring.
“That remains to be seen, Ms. Vale. Though, I do hope you don’t have any plans for me that don’t involve us going upstairs.”
Gag.
I slid it to his knuckle before we were interrupted—again.
“Sir.” Dimitri’s smooth voice, low and authoritative, hit my ears. “My apologies. Security needs a word.”
Vlaken blinked. “Security?” He turned with a confused expression. “Envoy Vlaken, right?” Dimitri said with ease, not looking at me at all. “There’s an issue with the Bizarre Academy envoy’s credentials. I’ve been asked to request your input.”
Vlaken’s earlier suspicion swiveled toward Dimitri. “Now?”
“Now.” Dimitri’s voice didn’t have a sharp edge. It was just matter-of-fact. “It won’t take long.”
“Another time,” Vlaken said to me, regret shining in his gaze. “Ms. Vale, perhaps I’ll find you later.”
“I’ll be here,” I promised, letting the promise mean something else. “I have a weakness for efficient men.”
Gag me, oh my Fates.
He smiled at that, and then he let Dimitri turn him with a professional gesture and walk him two steps away into the crowd.