18. Chapter 18
Chapter eighteen
Heads turned as we entered the party through wrought iron garden gates.
We must have looked like quite the pair, both draped in leather and black, our drops of blood red.
If only they’d seen us earlier.
Or perhaps they were just unused to seeing Kaed at these events.
He did say he was unlikely to get invited in the first place.
Murmurs and whispers passed between guests as they watched, their eyes lingering a little longer than was seemly.
I was used to that, though. Looks and words couldn’t faze me at this point, but I wondered what Kaed felt under the eyes of the masses.
Kaed always seemed like someone you’d move aside for. Even the first time I’d met him, something deeper, primeval awoke in me. Like a mythical creature waking from a slumber for centuries and finding they were starving.
People gathered as we entered the twinkling garden.
I wasn’t sure I felt as formidable as Kaed, but I held my head high, shoulders back. I was not a victim.
If I said it enough to myself, maybe I’d believe it.
And I was going to enjoy the view. Play the game.
This was the best opportunity I had ever had.
I was in a city, at a party, surrounded by fae; there were so many of them.
Excitement bubbled inside of me at the thought of being surrounded by those like me.
Or in so much as I was like anyone. Power didn’t hum from the party guests as we arrived.
I had thought it might in the same way it did from Kaed.
Before us was a sea of coppers, sand and warm or inky browns as people parted for us, their hair styled beautifully for the event, only outdone by their shimmering outfits.
Kaed offered me a bent elbow, and I took it. I think it surprised both of us that I did.
Maybe it was the events of this morning, but Kaed had been a little on edge up until that moment. I hadn’t spoken to him since he’d left me at the bathing chamber.
I wondered if he realised how his charade of our betrothal now rested with me—the power to uphold or destroy his reputation and expose his lies.
As we walked into the embrace of the garden, we were canopied by a pergola encompassing the grounds. Every beam was adorned with delicate glass baubles filled with warm fae light. The entire orchard flickered with enchantment.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, and Kaed regarded me with a steady look.
I felt pinned, like I wanted to hide beneath my lashes. But I blinked up at him. The spring air was warm, even in the night around us, but something warmer budded in me. I couldn’t pull my gaze from his painted eyes.
They urged me to look. To keep looking.
Heat bloomed in my cheeks under his scrutiny. And I felt Kaed look right through me.
“Nice to see you’re alive, Imogen.” Gavrin shattered the tension that had been twining like a vine between Kaed and me. As I broke eye contact, my flush faded.
“Brother, do you even have an invitation to this?” Kaed turned to Gavrin, who was wearing a gold silk shirt and a black dress coat. It was … decadent, to say the least.
“Daeghan won’t mind.”
“Pearl might,” Kaed countered.
Gavrin grunted. “She will be happier with my attendance than yours.”
I didn’t know who these people were, but luckily, Gavrin noticed the confusion on my face.
“Kaed, here, insulted the Lady Pearl recently by rejecting not one, but both of her offsprings’ hands. I think Daeghan is a smart male, though. He saw he’d be wasting his legacy on you.”
Kaed elbowed Gavrin in the side, and a solid “umph” crashed out of him.
I swapped my escort then.
Gavrin wasn’t exactly at ease with taking my arm, but the look on Kaed’s face was worth the trade. I was glad of the space from Kaed’s eyes penetrating mine.
“Two proposals, you say? Both rejected.” I leaned into the scandalous nature of it, and by the time we reached the centre of the party, Gavrin was bellowing a laugh into the skies as he told me about the awkward exchange with Lady Pearl and Lord Daeghan.
“We should meet our hosts.” Kaed came up beside me and took my arm. Firm. No mistake in the reminder that this was his game. And I was to play along. He speared a look at Gavrin as he took me back.
It was easy to forget he still thought of me as his toy in all of this. So easy to forget when he looked like that.
“Are you coming?” I shot to Gavrin as Kaed pulled me farther into the enchanted embrace of blooms and light.
“Is Audrie—Is she with you?” Gavrin looked feverish as he asked after her.
I almost felt bad for the beast of a male. That tiny woman would drive him demented.
I just laughed in response. Audrie might have enjoyed this type of thing. But it was clear this was a fae-only event, judging by the patrons in attendance with pointed ears.
I suddenly felt very exposed. Did any of them know I wasn’t truly fae? That I had no magic? I couldn’t even conjure the orbs of light that dotted the scene before me.
And then I distantly wondered who’d sacrificed their magic for this gathering. To throw a party like this was expensive by anyone’s standards, but magic cost people too. I had witnessed that firsthand. Did conjuring this beauty cost someone?
I blinked back the thoughts.
“You haven’t given me a backstory, dearest.” I tugged his arm to slow his progress.
“You haven’t exactly given me time.” Kaed whirled on me. “We were preoccupied with ensuring you didn’t bleed to death.”
My eyes narrowed at him in indignation. “Well, that aside,” I bit. “You can’t tell them you kidnapped me. Can you?”
Through the revellers, someone was coming our way.
“Make something up. Something believable.” I grinned as the woman entered our sphere.
Copper and silver.
“Celeste.” I beamed. The same long strands of hair were still pinned neatly in a bun. Her rose gold dress billowed as she walked to us.
“Lovely to see you again, my dear.” She clasped my hands in hers, warmth radiating from her. It wasn’t sweetness like with Audrie. It was goodness.
What had Audrie said? Healing was about channelling the feelings of peace and compassion.
My body felt that all over. Where every wound had been, there was only her healing there now.
“Thank you. For everything. What you did. I can’t repay you.” A chasm inside me cracked at that admission. The price she’d paid with her power to heal me without hesitation.
“No need, my dear. The debt is not yours to pay.”
Both of us looked at Kaed.
“We need to speak.” Celeste guided us to one of the darker corners of the botanical enclave where prying fae ears wouldn’t overhear. “Gavrin may have stopped you from burying yourself in a worse mess, Kaedian.” She said his name with stern familiarity. “But it seems someone saw …”
Kaed ground his jaw so tight I thought he would break it. “Saw? Saw what? Saw a female being attacked by three men? She was bleeding. Beaten.” His voice shook with outrage. And something else. Something possessive?
I tugged his arm to urge him to lower his voice.
“Someone reported the incident as a fae male, with wings and darkness pouring from them, attacking and taking a female. And three men, three human men, have shown up nearly dead.” Celeste’s voice was weighted with an ominous umbra. She let the last words sink in.
“But not dead. I think that’s worth something,” he shot.
“How can they say that?” He hadn’t taken me. Not like that. Well, not this time at least.
“I do stand out in a crowd.” He tried to shuck the severity of the situation with swagger, but it fell like a loadstone. Kaed smoothed his brow. “They won’t make a move against me. Or my father.”
The statement felt oppressive.
“I’m only letting you know as a courtesy, Kaedian.
This will not be going away any time soon.
I don’t know who reported it, but Councillor Varris is ready to believe anything said against you and your family.
I did what I could to assuage their concerns and said you’d been to my residence that night.
But as Huxley also saw Imogen, there was little else I could say as to her condition.
Without further details, they weren’t happy to hear my side. ”
Kaed’s jaw flexed painfully tight again, and he seemed to look around at nothing in particular.
I looked at everything. Why did I care if Kaed was in trouble? Maybe I was too willing to play my role as his bride-to-be for my own benefit.
“Is your father some sort of despot?” My bewilderment plain across my lined brow.
Celeste went rigid beside me at the question.
A shared look with Celeste had Kaed pausing before answering me. “My father is powerful.” He chose the word with deliberate slowness. “And he’s perhaps not the warmest of males, nor is he the most liked. In these parts. Or any parts.”
Celeste shifted as she cleared her throat.
“Celeste can attest to it that he probably worsened after my mother’s passing. She had …” He paused, his throat bobbing and constricting. “A way of tempering his mood.”
I looked from Kaed, who had only given me more questions, and then to Celeste, who looked uneasy at the topic of choice.
“Well, what do we do now? If they do think it was you attacking me.” I tried instead.
“For now, try to act civil. Without violence,” Celeste explained without needing to, as she turned to leave, vanishing into the party of people.
“Who do you think it was?” I turned to whisper to Kaed.
“We already know who it was. Celeste might not have said. Her wretch of a son is usually to blame.”
I fiddled with the gold cuffs at my wrist, spinning them around and around.
Kaed placed a steadying hand on my back, and we rejoined the swell of people that had grown at the centre of the garden.