Chapter 23
twenty-three
Finare
Ivy’s feed was taking longer than usual, and Finare’s worry was growing. Voresta’s impatience was wearing thin, and Finare’s capability of keeping him calm was dwindling.
“Where the fuck is she?” Voresta growled, his eyes swinging up to the mezzanine, as if hoping to find her coming down the stairs.
“I’ll go look for her.” Voresta merely grunted in reply. Finare pushed away from the table and moved through the swarms of people obstructing his path to the stairs.
As his conversation with Ivy on the dance floor ran through his mind, he knew that finding his Broodmate wasn’t going to be simple.
I need you to distract Voresta for me. That meant she wanted to do something that would piss Voresta off…
and the thing that seemed to fuel Voresta’s rage and hatred these nights was Killian Maurell.
Finare noticed the change in Ivy in recent months, and he’d be foolish to not acknowledge that Killian had played a part in that transformation.
For some reason, the Hunter caused her to make foolish choices—from finding ways to slip Voresta’s supervision, to the way she freaked out during the fight in Oaris.
He wasn’t sure what it was about the Hunter that Ivy found so alluring, but Finare often noticed a change in her scent when Killian was near.
Scenting was a Fae ability that was amplified upon Finare’s Creation, and he found it to be both a blessing and a curse.
He used it to his advantage now as he tried to get a trace of her scent in Lunarian’s private feeding rooms. Despite the commingled scents of various Vampires and Humans, Ivy’s smoky scent was nowhere to be found.
It appeared she hadn’t sought out a feed like she’d indicated.
Finare’s worry started to grow claws within his gut, and he followed his nose as he widened the search.
There were traces of her on the mezzanine that were strongest within one of the archways, but even that was faint at best. Another scent mingled with hers that he recognised instantly—wood, with a hint of vanilla.
Killian. The traces were so old that neither would have been detectable by Vampires without at least a splash of Fae blood in their veins.
Those claws of worry were raking down Finare’s insides as he made his way back down to Voresta. When their eyes met, Voresta pinned Finare with a look that asked, did you find her? Finare shook his head. At the response, he saw Voresta’s eyes darken.
Voresta was on the move before Finare even returned to the table.