Flames in the Night #2
My eyes went wide, terror gripping my heart. Gods, no, please…
The song ended, and he finally put me back on my feet with a last haunting smile, turning his back on me to head back to the table—a sign of disrespect.
Despite how shaken I was, I forced my chin up as I walked across the empty floor to my spot at the table. More whispers followed me all the way back, making the heat build in my chest.
“I had no idea you were such a dancer, Naci.” It was Varyn.
I bit my tongue on what I wanted to say. “I had a skilled teacher,” I said, barely keeping the anger from my voice.
“I see your manners have improved too. Although I must say I miss the spark.”
“Then maybe you should find another mortal to con into your bed.” I couldn’t stop myself, but at least I had the wherewithal to whisper it low so that the king couldn’t hear me on Varyn’s other side.
He barked out a laugh sharp enough to turn every royal head. “Ah, yes, there’s that spark.” And then he winked at me, making my stomach somersault.
“Naci, why don’t you be a darling and come tell me what you said that amused the prince so? I have a spot for you to sit right here.” Zareth patted his lap, and bile rose in the back of my throat.
My stomach twisted, acid and fear tangling together. This male was truly vile.
“Actually, Ambassador, Naci is my honored guest, and seeing how the rest of the room is now dancing, I would like a dance. Naci?”
He held out his hand to me from my right, and I just stared at it.
Dance with the male who broke my heart and betrayed me or sit on the lap of the male planning to purge mortals from my home continent.
Death might have been preferable if it weren’t for Nella.
The fact that the prince outranked the ambassador, and that I couldn’t deny him whatever he asked of me, took away the need for me to decide. I had to dance with the prince, no matter what I would have chosen.
Would I have chosen the perverse ambassador over this male that I once thought I loved? Gods, I didn’t know. My thoughts were too clouded with emotion.
I took his hand and let him lead me onto the dance floor.
And when he pulled me against him to dance, I felt static charges everywhere our bodies touched. I closed my eyes and willed myself not to feel.
We started up the second dance Thalen had taught me, and we danced in tense silence for a while. It felt like a private grieving for what we almost had.
“Naci, I—”
“Please don’t, Varyn…Prince Varyn. Just don’t.” This time, I failed to keep the hurt out of my voice.
His face dropped slightly, and I told myself it wasn’t regret I saw there. It couldn’t be. “I just wanted to say you look lovely tonight. Though I still prefer the purple.”
I hated what this was doing to my heart.
“That’s not fair. I trusted you, I…” I couldn’t say any more. I needed to get it together. The prince made it clear that none of it was real between us and that I meant nothing to him. There was nothing left to say. And I just knew the king was watching.
He cleared his throat. “Zareth looks to be dancing with someone else. You should be safe at the table now.” He said nothing in response to what I’d said. A small part of me desperately wanted him to deny his betrayal, but he didn’t, which was all the more proof of his treachery.
And so, when the song ended, we broke apart. He didn’t offer me his hand again, so I guessed the charade was over, however brief it might have been tonight. His mask was on.
Then again, had I ever seen anything real, or had it been yet another mask underneath the first?
We walked back to the table in silence and sat just the same until the queen came over with a fae female, who was striking with her bright blonde hair and massive breasts shoved up to her chin.
“The prince would be delighted to dance with you, dear,” I heard Malvina say.
The prince looked far from delighted. I was torn between amusement at his displeasure and jealousy over the thought of him dancing with this female.
At the sight of them moving toward the floor hand in hand, though, I found that neither feeling took over. Instead, it was red-hot anger. I needed to get this male out of my head.
Through the seething, I didn’t even notice that High Priest Malchior had taken the prince’s vacant seat beside me until he said, “You’re Naci Corren,” making me jump.
“Apologies, High Priest, I didn’t hear you sit down.”
He just stared at me. Gods, he was creepy. From this close, I could see the dark-blue veins running through his neck and face.
His eyes trailed from my face down to my chest. Gross. Who would have known that the priest was also a pervert? “I know you, Naci Corren. I know you are…unique.”
Unique was the same thing the banshee had called me.
“I’m sorry, my lord, I’m not sure I understand what you mean?”
His gaze then moved up from my chest to my scars. “Do you feel the magic?”
I guessed he meant Aemilia’s magic in my scars since that was where he was looking. “Sometimes, my lord. But not much anymore.”
He let out a small chuckle at my response. “Our queen is a marvelous queen, is she not?”
The abrupt change of subject left me confused and uncomfortable. Well, everything about this old male made me uneasy. But the way he was looking at the queen was endearing and…was it reverence or longing?
Was the high priest in love with the queen? That was gossip worthy of Ott and Moe.
While he stared at the queen, I glanced back to the dance floor, searching for the prince despite my desire not to see them dancing.
And then everything went dark as if night had turned on in the ballroom.
The music stopped, and everyone fell silent.
Someone yelled, “We are the flames of the night!”
And then absolute chaos descended as tall pillars of flame erupted in several places throughout the ballroom, turning the dark room eerily orange.
Fae ran in every direction, screaming, trampling others to get to safety as a row of guards withdrew their swords and formed a line in front of the royal table. There were already some fae on fire.
“Find them,” I heard the king shout over the noise.
Water magic started flying from multiple directions, trying to put the fires out, while more guards rushed in through the sea of fae trying to escape, various forms of magic in each of their palms.
Over the terrified screams, I could hear people yelling the same thing over and over. “We are the flames of the night.” I had no idea what it meant, but it was ominous.
Light came back to the room as the rest of the flames sputtered out, revealing a cloud high above us under the domed ceiling.
Except clouds didn’t flutter.
Everyone still left in the ballroom stopped running, pointing and looking up as a mass of white cards fell from the ceiling, each with the same picture stamped on both sides.
A single black flame.
From the dais, the queen had a hand clutched to her heart.
The prince conjured a long shard of sharp ice in each hand as he ran back toward the royal table.
But the king…he lost control and erupted into flames head to toe, screaming his fury, cracking the marble floor beneath him.
I felt the intense heat from where I had backed up to the wall.
I looked around frantically for an escape, but I had nowhere to go with the line of guards in front of us.
His eyes glowed white-hot, his hands grew into long, sharp claws, all covered in bright flames. His mouth was open too wide with his scream, which became unnatural. Otherworldly.
Gods, his vey form was a fire demon. The king was a Pyrrath Veythryn. Pyrraths were the stuff of nightmares. I hadn’t known they were real. It was more terrifying than the tales ever could have conveyed.
I was more scared in that moment than ever before in my life.
The remaining fae ran for the doors, wanting to leave the king’s wrath far behind them.
When none but us and the guards remained, the king’s flames slowly receded to reveal a furious Caedryn. His eyes were back to red, wild and deranged. His hair was a mess, his hands balled into fists, veins popping across his forehead. He was the very image of terrifying.
Then he turned and pointed a shaking finger at me. “You. You brought them here.”
“No, of course, I didn’t,” I yelled. “I don’t know who they are. I’ve been in my cell day and night!”
“If you didn’t bring the rebels here, then it was your sister. Guards! Bring me the girl!”
I registered two things in that moment—one, that I had just witnessed the work of the rebellion, which meant they were still alive and strong and opposing the king, and two, that the king thought Nella had brought them into the castle.
He would kill her for that. And this time, I wouldn’t be able to bargain for her life.