Chapter fifty-four
The ferns tickled as we passed them, weaving through the crowd.
No one seemed to have noticed our absence, and no one paid any attention to our return.
There was no one out of place or looking for us.
Or even Eryk, it seemed. Maybe I was wrong, and there wasn’t anyone working with Eryk to move on the council.
The music was still playing, and it filled the glass chamber like we were part of some sort of magical music device—a fae glass but to contain music, not light.
Back in the close embrace of the hothouse, it was easier to forget what had just happened.
But someone beside us let out a flurry of magical sparks as they drank and laughed with their friends. I flinched in response. Their magic was a warm magenta. Not yellow.
Clearly, I was not completely fine after Huxley’s attack.
And Eryk’s betrayal.
I had thought the worst thing he could do was coerce me into kissing him. And I wish I’d been right about that.
Kaed must have noticed my shoulders go rigid, because the next moment he was behind me, his chest to my back, his lips on the back of my hair. “We can leave,” he whispered.
I shook my head. “No. I’m fine.”
Kaed waited as I took a few breaths and I willed myself to believe it.
“Come with me.” His words were muffled as he moved my hair with his lips.
The orchid-covered spiral staircase cocooned us as Kaed led us up and away from the crowded party floor.
I looked down from our winding balcony to the tropical forest of leaves and revellers below.
It camouflaged the partygoers under a blanket of green dotted with tiny bobbing fae lights.
I could make out the occasional sparkling dress or tray of effervescent wine.
But the noise of the world below was a hum instead of a roar from up here.
“Thank you,” I breathed, turning to him.
For once, I was taller. He’d taken up a lower step position, and it was strange to see him from this angle.
“I am sorry.” Pain flickered across his expression as he clenched his mouth.
“You didn’t do anything.”
“That’s the point. I didn’t do anything. I should have been there.” His jaw was set, and he looked away as he spoke.
“Shhh,” I soothed, and took a step down to him. “Eryk did this. Huxley did this. They would have only hurt you if you’d been there.”
“Eryk will not survive this,” he said, almost to himself. “I won’t let him.”
I thought about Eryk then. I’d followed him so easily. And I couldn’t say why. “His magic … What is it?”
Kaed regarded me then.
“It’s just. It felt strange to follow him, but I couldn’t find the will to be afraid as I was doing it.”
“I don’t know for certain where his talent lies, but it sounds like he can influence people. Or at least subdue their instincts.”
My face paled at that.
Had that been why I’d kissed him so easily when he’d asked for it?
Why I’d felt so at ease around him since the moment I met him.
He was charming outwardly. But there was something more there.
Something that felt innocuous at first. Like a single spider’s web.
Harmless. But with enough strands and time, you’d end up tied down and helpless.
A sharp inhale sliced through me.
“You might have hit upon something there. If Eryk can persuade people to do things they might not naturally do, perhaps that’s part of his plan. There are only twelve seats. He needs seven members of the council to approve his appointment, and an eighth to stand down or be removed.”
I thought about the implications of someone with the power of influence like that taking a seat on a body that was meant to vote and judge fairly. What if Eryk used his power to shape what he wanted from the city?
“How do we stop him?”
Kaed ground his jaw. “We have to find him first.”
Ice distilled in my veins.
“We will find him,” Kaed said and rubbed at my arms to thaw my frigid stance.
“We should be out looking.” I tried to skirt past him on the stairs, but he blocked the entire walkway.
“You said it yourself we cannot disappear right after Eryk has. Stay. Please.” The way his voice softened as he pleaded with me was enough. And I stopped to look up at him.
“Are you sure you don’t have the power to influence people to do what they don’t want to do?”
He laughed and came a little closer. “Trust me, peach. I couldn’t influence you to do anything.” He took a step up, and I matched him, backing away.
It felt like he was coming after me again, like he had the first time we’d been alone here. Every fibre of my being awoke to that thought.
“I’m sure you have ways you could convince me to do things.” The purr in my voice was something I was getting used to around Kaed. The drop in my tone to a hidden, more secretive part of me.
Shadows darkened the air around us, and then Kaed was the only thing I saw. Distantly, I was aware of the party and the fae lights below. But Kaed had shuttered us into a seductive darkness. Intimate. Private. In front of everyone.
His palm opened, and his fingers pushed back. Shadows formed like wisps of smoke, and they moved for me like they could scent my anticipation.
I wanted him in so many ways.
I didn’t know what that meant for me. For us. But I’d nearly lost everything tonight.
And so, when his shadows touched my skin and wrapped around my arms and over my shoulders, moving around to my back, I arched into them and let Kaed take me.
His shadows lifted me off the step until I was floating towards him. My hands came to rest on his shoulders, and I could sense his hands wanting to trace the line of my legs, my hips, over the delicate layers of my dress.
But he didn’t touch the sheer fabric.
Instead, he let me touch him. As if offering himself in surrender, he held his arms back from me.
My fingers found the deep grooves of him where his shoulders met the hard panels of his chest muscles. His tunic was styled open at the neck, and my fingers crept under the fabric to touch the smooth skin beneath.
It was enough to nearly undo me. Exploring something new about Kaed was like being drunk; emboldened and filled with heat. Every part of him I touched just made me want more.
His breathing was heavy, and his eyes never left mine.
Staying perfectly still, he let my fingers travel to his neck. To rake through his dark hair. My hands fisted, and I grasped the soft locks between my fingers. “Kiss me …” I wasn’t sure I’d actually managed the words, but then he pulled against my hold.
And he stopped when I didn’t let go.
I held him where he was, his lips just out of reach from mine.
Just for a moment. I knew he was stronger than I was. But he stayed at my will, where I held him.
“Kiss me,” I taunted again, my lips coming closer to his, trying to get him to beg first.
His mouth curved into a devastating smile, and I knew I wouldn’t have the power to stop him for much longer.
“Let me taste you,” he murmured.
I released my grip on his hair just enough to let him crush his lips to mine.
And it was exactly what I needed.
His kiss soothed everything while also setting a blaze inside me.
My lips parted for him, and he caught my breath.
His tongue swept to tangle with mine. With every movement, he deepened the kiss.
I thought I might need air, but I didn’t care.
I couldn’t care when I’d taken what I wanted tonight.
Finally giving in to what I needed and ignoring how much this would hurt tomorrow.
Kaed still held me up, now with his hands and shadows as one, my feet dangling below, as hundreds of tiny lights suddenly punctuated the shadows he’d hidden us within.
“What’s happening?” I asked, pulling away.
The room was filled with floating lights, enveloping tiny flowers and seeds.
He groaned and huffed a laugh as he turned. “It’s the Offering,” he said as he set me back down on my feet.
With a persuasive finger under my chin, he guided my lips back to his.
How did he know that just made me fall apart? It was annoying that he’d found that weakness in me.
“Should we not take part?” I asked just as his lips brushed mine.
Why was I so interested in the godsdamned party when Kaed’s lips were right there?
He pulled away. “I don’t take part in this celebration.”
He didn’t strike me as selfish. Wilful, yes. Brutal. Fierce. But not selfish.
“Why?” My voice was soft as I laid a hand on his chest. This was something more. More than just about sharing in this celebration.
Kaed slipped out of my touch. His chin fell to his chest, and he looked like there was a solemn weight around his neck. “No one wants my magic.”
A melancholy smile tried to tug at his lips as he began his descent down the stairs.
“Wait! Kaed!” I caught him by the arm again, and he stopped to turn to me. “I do …” I didn’t know what was hurting him, but it hurt me too.
“You don’t know what you mean by that.”
I stuttered. No, I didn’t. I didn’t know a lot of things about him. People thought he was dark or his father was, or whatever damned prejudices they had against his family. I didn’t care.
He went to pull away again.
“Kaed … wait … please?”
His jaw trembled, and I wasn’t sure I could stand seeing him like this. I’d seen him in agony from the faebane; I’d seen him caged. I’d seen him enraged. But this was heartbreaking.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone with the gift I’d give.”
I stepped into his arms, but he didn’t reach for me. “You’ve never hurt me with your magic. And you could have. You chose not to.”
He scoffed. “I kidnapped you. I tied you to me. Literally. Metaphorically. I think you might need to rethink that.”
“But you never hurt me. You’ve used restraint every time. You might think your magic is darkness and pain. But when it touches me, that’s not what I feel.” My voice fell as softly as if they were his shadows on my skin.
The lights and flowers floated all around us now, like we were part of the night sky filled with stars. Hundreds began to glide out of the open windows, drifting into the darkness. It was like a thousand fireflies had taken to the sky on a pilgrimage, their tiny torches burning a path for them.
“I don’t know what made you feel this way about your magic. But I don’t feel that. I believe it’s good. And so are you.”
“That’s because you don’t know me.” There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation as he refuted my words.
“I know enough to know how I feel.”
My words rang in my head as I watched the world around me slow. I couldn’t put into words what Kaed did to me. Physically. Emotionally. But I could feel it.
The same way I could feel his magic.
It felt like an eternity before he moved. Eyes downcast, he let shadows breathe out into the garden below us as he stepped up to meet me.
His shadows returned with two lantern flowers.
He floated a flower to my hand. “We’ll do it together.”
“I don’t have any magic.”
“I don’t care. Do this with me?”
My fingers curled gently around the petals of the delicate flower.
With a breath, Kaed closed his eyes and gritted his teeth like he was concentrating. A muscle flicked in his temple, and his brow knit together.
I gasped when it happened.
The flowers didn’t glow bright and light-like when Kaed wrapped his magic around them.
His magic shimmered silver and black, like quartz and inky agate. Bright black and starlight swirling all in one. It didn’t glow, it shined, beaming in my hands. It was more beautiful than any of the other lights I’d seen tonight.
We watched as the two dark stars floated up to join the other lights. They drifted out through the open window, and I leaned into Kaed.
His heart thundered against me, and I willed mine to steady as we followed the stars until they were grains of shining sand in the sky.