54
The Pensive Dragon
Melody
The Pensive Dragon is a large bar in a beautiful woodwork townhouse.
Inside, the room is dipped in golden light coming from elegant crystal chandeliers dangling from the high ceiling.
The walls are paneled with black wood, the bar counter made from a glowing white stone that reminds me of the modern, elegant design of Caryan’s fortress.
Velvet chairs at polished bar tables made of the same material are arranged all around a stage and a dance floor.
That stage…
I’ve never seen magic used like this before.
My breath catches at the women seated with their instruments, at the tall figure standing to sing, all of them wrapped in a cloud of swirling snow and glitter.
Thick snowflakes drift on a gentle wind, tangling in their hair yet never melting.
I let my gaze wander over the women, recognizing none of them—except one.
The singer.
She is barefoot and clad in a low-cut silken dress as white as the falling snow, vying with the pearl color of her hair while she sings in a voice unlike anything I’ve ever heard before.
Her tune winds its way around my soul, lifting it up and up and up, making it glow and shine and brim. The woman is none other than Meanara.
Blair doesn’t seem to have noticed her because she’s already slunk between all the dancers with Morgana on her tail, her eyes closed as she gives herself over to the music.
Shay rushes after them, dragging Cassius along, and only Faye, Ryder, and I stay behind.
Ryder also pulls us toward the dance floor, and we all laugh and grin our heads off as we start dancing, too, holding hands and spinning, the music washing away every grief, fear, sorrow, until all that’s left is joy and the wish to move and laugh and love as we dance to song after song, each one more haunting and beautiful than the last.
Snow and glitter start to fall down on us too and Faye tilts her head back when Ryder comes up behind her. He let’s go of my hand and gently takes both of hers, and when I look again, the two of them are dancing very close to a slower tune while they stare deeply into each other’s eyes.
I smile to myself and dance alone for a while when an all-too-familiar rush of magic brushes up against mine.
A magic as dark and devastating as the hells, smooth as midnight velvet and burning like fire—yet not now.
Right now, it caresses my skin in the gentlest way, and when I turn, Riven is there, his lilac eyes on me in a way that makes my skin erupt in goosebumps.
He’s sitting at a table with Ronin and…Kyrith, who’s watching Faye at first, before he offers me a warm smile and lifts his keg of ale. I find myself actually waving back at him. Abyss, when in that year have Kyrith and I gone from mortal enemies to actual…friends?
Riven doesn’t smile at me, but his magic remains, winding around mine and slipping under my skin when I let him in. The sudden rush leaves me burning, pulse skittering—and it has nothing to do with the dancing. Maybe this is a mistake. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this. Not after last time….
Hells, I bet my ass he hasn’t even considered lifting the wards over my room after I told him to. Bastard.
But the way he’s looking at me in my dress makes everything else unimportant. Because he’s looking at me as if I’m the only thing that matters to him.
And I know that’s a lie because I know that he loves Caryan.
But right now, I can’t think about anything or anyone else but this man before me.
He doesn’t move from his place at the table, though. And I know that he won’t. That he can’t, even if he wanted to. Because being seen with me here, dancing…Caryan would know about it. Everyone would know.
And somehow, I know this is how it will always be between us—never easy, never simple, never just the two of us.
If there’s even the smallest chance he’d want us to be to begin with.
I finally make myself snap out of it and turn away, deciding that I will have fun tonight, no matter what. I can’t build my own happiness on a man.
I have my friends. My magic. Aris waiting for me when I get home.
Meanara leaves the stage—probably to take a break—and a group of bards takes her place, fiddles in hand, stomping their feet while their singers start a fast, wild tune. Just then, Cassius and Shay appear, Cassius offering me a sip from his keg, and we all start dancing again.
I don’t look back at Riven—afraid that if I do, I won’t be able to turn away again.