Chapter Ten
“Ireally don’t know about this...” Zahra laughed nervously, tugging back on her hand. But Shanmei kept a strong grip around her wrist, refusing to let go.
The other woman dragged her beneath strings of lanterns draped from tree to tree, illuminating their surroundings in the waxing darkness, and closer to where a drum beat reverberated through the air. The rhythm echoed in her body, enticing her closer. But every instinct warned her to flee.
“Come on!” Shanmei insisted. “It will be fun!”
She found herself digging her heels into the ground until her shoes picked up dirt and leaves littered on the forest floor. “Really, I’m fine with staying in for the night. No need to get me involved in this...”
“Party?” Shanmei lifted an eyebrow. “It’s the equinox. We all celebrate.” And then she scowled. “Don’t tell me Weiyu didn’t invite you.”
“No, he did.” Six times. She’d found it difficult to believe he was sincere.
In her clan, she had been expected to make herself scarce during any celebrations or parties.
Shifters only. Which was why she dragged her heels in again.
She didn’t want to get in trouble. Not when she loved it here, and she truly didn’t want to do anything that might get her kicked out of the Roost.
Shanmei ignored her protests and dragged her closer to the beating drum accompanying a variety of instruments. Members of the clan shuffled past, excitement in their expressions and a bounce in their step.
Zahra silently wondered how many of them were shifters. Likely all of them, right? If they were attending an important party that the phoenix king would make an appearance at.
The mere thought of King Weiyu caused her heart to twist like a wrung-out wash rag and her palms to become cold and clammy.
Being near him brought about a strange sense of nervousness.
But perhaps not an appropriate sense of nervousness.
She enjoyed the sight of his smile, the sound of his voice, the caring way he visited her and spoke with her.
He was attentive to everyone in the clan, but he especially paid her more attention than she deserved.
If he ever learned the truth of who she was...
He surely would kick her out of the clan. Or maybe something worse.
After her father had killed him twice, she couldn’t imagine him looking at her with that gentle smile or bright expression. He may never speak to her again
If she was lucky.
It was more likely he would come up with a terrible punishment for being one of Mogwai’s offspring.
Calm yourself, she internally chastised herself as she gripped Weiyu’s gifted necklace in her palm. Weiyu was good and kind and merciful. Even if he learned the truth of her identity, he would not be harsh.
Surely.
She released a wavering breath, trying to push all her anxious thoughts from her mind and instead focus on the drumbeats reverberating through her soul. Shanmei still held her wrist in a vice grip, intent on dragging her to the equinox celebration whether or not she cared to attend.
When they arrived on the beach, they encountered what seemed like a few hundred people talking, dancing, drinking, or watching the flames of the bonfire grow larger with each passing breath.
Zahra stared at the billowing fire in awe. The untamed, unrestrained, chaotic energy twirled toward the trees with unapologetic beauty. It simply existed. And people fell victim to the awe of its power.
Beside her, Shanmei laughed and nudged her ribs with her elbow. “You act as if you have never seen a fire before.”
Slowly, she shook her head, still gazing at the flames in wonder. “I’ve seen fire plenty. But I’ve never seen anything like this. You do this once a year?”
“The clan does this once a year,” she corrected. “But Weiyu, Kai, Yinyu, and I get together throughout the year and sit around a fire on a beach as friends.” Again, she nudged Zahra with her elbow. “I imagine yours is a face that will soon become quite familiar to those get-togethers.”
Her cheeks heated, though she wasn’t sure why. She also wasn’t sure what she was looking for as she scanned the beach, searching each face.
Or so she kept telling herself.
“I do not wish to intrude on your get-togethers.”
Shanmei turned her head, giving her an odd look.
Zahra shuffled her feet, disliking the way her cool blue eyes seemed to see straight through her like an icicle shooting directly through her chest. She wasn’t used to such intense scrutiny.
Being seen caused an itch to develop on her neck, only to crawl through the rest of her body.
It was better to keep to the shadows. The less people saw of her, the better.
“I-I-I think I’ll head back to my cottage.” She started to back away, itching furiously at a scratch that only seemed to grow stronger. “Maybe I’ll make an appearance at next year’s—”
The air rushed out of her as Shanmei grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around.
Her gaze locked on a pair of golden eyes shining brightly on the opposite side of the bonfire. The golden hue burned with life, with power, with regality, and she found herself powerless to look away.
The itch on her skin subsided. A warmth burned in her soul that had nothing to do with the billowing flames before her. She found herself taking a subconscious step forward before her mind managed to catch up with her feet.
Weiyu smiled at her, bright and brilliant through the dancing flames.
He rounded the bonfire, approaching her wearing a regal gold vest embroidered with blue water designs and blue pants embroidered with gold.
He might have appeared far more kingly if it hadn’t been for his bare toes peeking out from beneath the sand.
She tried to smother a grin but couldn’t quite manage the feat. Not when Weiyu continued to surprise her with each turn she took through the foreign and unique landscape of the Roost.
“I didn’t realize my shoes were against the dress code,” she teased.
He wiggled his toes playfully. Her heart caught unexpectedly at the elegance of his feet.
Softly curved. Elegant. Really nice to look at.
Even the gentle shape of his ankles drew her eye, similar in appearance to his hands and wrists.
They were thin and slender but held a quiet strength with each flex of his tendons.
Biting her lip, she forced herself to glance away lest she get caught staring at the king’s ankles of all things. But it was his fault for not wearing shoes!
“I suppose you didn’t read the invitation’s fine print carefully enough,” he teased back. “No shoes allowed.”
“And where in the verbal fine print might I have found it?”
Was she batting her eyelashes? Oh no. She definitely was. Hopefully, Weiyu thought it was only a trick of the shadows. If anyone caught her attempting to flirt with the phoenix king of all people...
Well, he was certainly far out of her league.
He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, his grin widening and his eyes sparkling with mischievous intent. “In the verbal part of it. On the lips, maybe. Or behind the tongue.”
Overwhelming heat flooded her face at what seemed to be a blatant innuendo. But it likely was just her imagination. And it was the heat from the bonfire warming her face. Nothing more.
“Ugh...I...” She blew out a heated breath and turned abruptly. “I need to go—”
“Will you dance with me?”
Huh?
She turned around slowly to find him holding an outstretched hand, the muscles in his bicep flexing with the movement. “I don’t know how.”
“I will show you.”
After a moment’s hesitation, she offered her hand, and he reeled her in and slowly led her in a dance. Wrist to wrist. Complex but repetitive footwork. After five sequences through the same moves, she finally raised her head, more confident in her movements as he led her through the dance.
He spun her by the hand in a circle and pulled her back in until they were nearly flush against each other. “This may not be like the dances you are used to in your previous clan, but...”
“I was not allowed to dance,” she admitted, thinking once again of her lowly non-shifter status at the Perch. “A non-shifter has nothing to celebrate.”
He tripped over his own foot, kicking up sand in his faltering steps. “That’s not true. You must know it’s not.”
The sincerity in his eyes made her want to believe him. But years’ worth of being told she had no worth in the clan, in the family, made her hesitant.
“I want to believe it,” she answered honestly.
His grip on her hand tightened. “Then that’s enough for now.”
Giving her no time to ponder his statement, he spun her around and around until laughter bubbled out of her mouth.
She threw her head back with abandon, enjoying the drum beating through her soul, the warmth from the flames on her skin, the strength of Weiyu’s arms holding her steady.
This was happiness.
This was safety.
This was home.
She startled at that last realization. Although she’d only lived at the Roost for several weeks, there was no other place she felt more seen, more wanted, more understood.
This was home. With Shanmei and Kai. Yinyu. Weiyu... The villagers. People who she now considered friends. And she realized just how much she wanted this. To fit in here. Not only that, but to truly believe she belonged here.
She wanted it more than anything.
Weiyu pulled her close so suddenly that she bumped into his chest. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear.
“Come with me.”
Keeping a tight grip on her hand, he led her through the throngs of people, and she followed, more compliant than she’d ever been before.
At some point, her shoes had gone missing, and now the cold, dry sand squished beneath her feet and between her toes.
Following the verbal dress code had never felt so wonderful, so freeing.
“I have something I want to show you,” he continued in his whisper-soft voice. “Do you trust me?”