19. Chapter 19
Chapter nineteen
Amale with devastating cheekbones and rich ebony skin that almost shone like dark moonstone approached us with three flute glasses balanced in one hand.
Kaed leaned in until I felt his lips brush off my hair. “You can trust him,” he whispered.
“Tymon,” Kaed exalted and embraced the male.
I didn’t think he knew how to express affection like that, and it endeared him to me beyond base gratitude for saving me.
Tymon’s eyes were gentle, his hair cropped short. He wore a burgundy velvet jacket and looked every bit the respectable male to Kaed’s rakish looks. “My lady, a pleasure.” He took my hand with his free one and graced it with a kiss before offering Kaed a long and pointed look.
“Imogen, please,” I replied. “Is this how fae usually treat females?” I jabbed at Kaed as I was handed a glass and took a long draught without hesitation. I needed something to blunt the edge of my nerves.
“No, he’s just trying harder because he knows it makes me look bad.”
Delicate petals of silvery flowers caught my eye on Tymon’s breast. “From home,” he supplied as my gaze clearly had asked the question without my mouth needing to.
“Where is home?” I smiled, sipping the floral infusion. I fought the need to tug at my pendant and drank more. The token of my home swirled in my mind as I stood before the male who wore his home on his lapel.
“A mining city west of here. Gallen isn’t as large or as grand as Viverna. But we do have better company.” Tymon chuckled. “We’re not all as twisted as you, Kaedian.”
“Speaking of twisted. Where is your lady wife?” Kaed plastered a grin across his face that quickly fell as he stepped a little closer to me.
I nearly choked on the bubbles of my drink.
But Tymon didn’t bat an eye. “Sapphine will be along.” He sounded resigned to the fact.
We each sipped the pale wine, bubbles fizzed on my lips, and they tingled all the way down to my navel.
How had I not tasted something so sinfully delicious until now? Everything I saw since meeting Kaed had been a new experience. Sometimes good. Sometimes horrific. Sometimes divine.
Maybe it was the wine, but I was beginning to feel jubilant and drunk on the night. The soaring beauty and whimsical lights. The people—even if their stares kept snagging on me. The whole event. It was all more than Shadowfall had ever offered in my entire life there. It was intoxicating.
I took another swig of my wine before upending my glass.
“So has your heinous brother made his presence known, or is it just you this time?” Tymon asked.
Kaed’s brow gloomed into a dark curtain, and I looked between the two males.
Tymon’s light-hearted jab faded as his eyes went dark too. “Kaedian, has your brother been given cause to come here?”
Kaed shifted under the weight of Tymon’s question. “If Hart comes here. I won’t let anything befall this city. My brother would have to go through me first. And we know he can’t do that.” His eyes landed heavily on Tymon as his neck strained against something in his words.
There were questions on top of questions piling high like book stacks in my mind.
“Dearest.” A female of slight build, pale skin and auburn hair slid her arm into Tymon’s. He visibly stiffened at the contact. “Might we leave soon? This affair is quite dull. The company they invite is … lacking.” She trailed off as her eyes darted over every inch of me before narrowing.
Kaed went rigid beside me and his hand on my back strained.
“My, aren’t you unexpected.” Her voice was as sharp as talons.
“Sapphine, I presume?” I wasn’t sure whether to curtsy or shake. So I panicked and did neither.
“I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure?” the petite redhead said, her eyes wide and blinking at me.
“Oh, Sapphine. How I’ve missed your dulcet tones.” Kaed’s voice had never been thicker with venom. “This is my intended, the Lady Imogen.”
Sapphine looked as though she’d been smacked.
But she quickly readjusted her features.
“Charmed.” She seemed anything but. “Don’t break this one’s heart, Kaedian.
We know your history ...” She trailed off as her eyes swept over me and her lips pinched into a sour smirk.
“We can’t all mend as quickly as me.” She patted the lapel of Tymon’s jacket, crushing the silvery blooms.
What? He’d been betrothed to this female? How many marriage opportunities had he had? Pearl’s two heirs and now Sapphine too. It wasn’t going to be my fault if no one believed our betrothal then. Clearly, he had a problem making them stick.
“That sounds like a story worth hearing.” I pressed Kaed. It was a little too entertaining to watch him squirm and I felt a little more free in myself as the wine settled into me.
Kaed upended his flute of wine.
“It was decades ago now, really. But it was quite a mess. He is rather good at creating those.” Sapphine looked at her nails, inspecting them for chips as if completely unbothered by the “mess” she alluded to.
Why did it sound like she enjoyed that fact in some way? Like swirling a cocktail of chaotic ingredients was her drink of choice.
“My dear, must we?” Tymon had clearly heard this one before.
“Kaedian here broke my heart when he rejected our marriage proposal. After his father and mine had already signed and delivered the deed. It was the eve of our celebrations, wasn’t it? I can’t recall.”
From her tone, she recalled just fine. And then some.
“Lucky, your brother, Hart, was more forthcoming with his honour,” Sapphine mused.
My shock was not concealed as I regarded Kaed. Sapphine had been involved with his brother? I couldn’t picture this slight creature, so prim, so proper, with Kaed.
But Kaed’s brother … I was having trouble finding where he fit into this.
Before I could ask—which was probably for the best, as Sapphine looked far too entertained by my ever-growing eyes with each revelation—Kaed broke the circle of tension between the four of us.
“As fascinating as it is to relive this part of history any time I see you, dear Sapphine, I must steal my bride-to-be for a dance.”
I hadn’t heard the music until now—I had been too consumed by the glow and twinkling of the garden to notice. The percussionist and string quartet atop a dais beyond the dance floor were like flowing water as they breathed their music into the sea of dancers.
Kaed pulled us to a paved section of the lawn, where couples dressed in elegant, flowing gowns and tailored tunics and bodices spun in unison to the quickening pace of the music.
“I can’t dance,” I protested.
But Kaed was already taking his place amongst the dancers. His hand never let go of mine. And maybe I should have loathed the way his touch warmed my skin but the bubbles of the fae wine allowed me to forget for a moment who he was, why I was here …
The one and only party I had ever attended had been Leesha’s wedding celebration in the foothills of the Banes, in a small clearing to the north of the village.
Bray had spent the entire night goading me to dance with him until, finally, I relented. I hadn’t wanted to be a spectacle, but something about Bray that evening had made me, for the briefest of moments, forget that I didn’t belong there.
And I had left him in that meadow.
Kaed’s finger to my jaw pulled me back to the present. “Let me lead.”
My heart thrummed in my chest from the touch.
I didn’t feel comfortable with letting Kaed take the lead with anything that had to do with me. But the alternative was turning to ice in front of everyone, and mortification won out.
The musicians gave a few notes to the crowd, and we all took our places. Kaed faced me and took a step into my space. The aura he exuded was crowding me even in such a magical setting; the vibrant, citrus embers of his scent scintillated over my senses as he came closer.
Kaed placed my hand on his chest. His fingers were cool, and the taught leather across his chest was supple under my touch.
And then he tugged me closer until those embers became flame and I could breathe in the mix of amber and bergamot, the citrus current and heat that awoke a hidden part of me.
This was dangerous.
I forced a shuddering breath through me, and then the music took off with the rhythmic pulse of drums.
At first, my body resisted the movements. It was stiff and refused to find comfort in the beat. Tension soured my muscles to the point of aching.
“Feel the pulse. Find the thread that makes you want to touch the music.” The words didn’t sound like Kaed. They were too warm. They were charged. Not enough mocking in them.
All I could feel was my hand resting on his chest. His fingers that grasped my hand, the hard plane of his body pressed into the curve of mine.
This dance was less of a swirl of water and more a thrumming of a heartbeat. It undulated, seeming to breathe in and out with the swelling of the violins and the drums commanded my chest to beat with them.
My eyes landed on Kaed’s painted ones, and I forgot to fear him.
The lure of the blue and sparkling sea surf of his eyes was piercing and they snared me in their wake.
Finally, my body gave in to the languid movements of the music. There was a momentary clench of everything in me as the drum hides beat against my skin, but then I let the music vibrate through me.
I didn’t know the steps. But it didn’t matter. I could feel them.
My face was level with his chest, and I looked up to see a cascade of his dark hair framing his face.
Heat swam through me and my hand untangled from his. My fingers hovered over the faint red line of his scar. I didn’t touch it. I wanted to. Something deeper than lust for his body wanted to know how he’d gotten it. The story it held. The pain.
In the air, I followed the punishing line of it until my fingers came close to his lips. I went to touch those, but his hand enveloped mine.
“Peach, what are you doing?” he whispered.
I stammered as I tried to pull my hand from his, but he held it. I didn’t have an answer. What was I doing? I had overstepped his line and mine.