Chapter 38 #2
“Kaeleron loves his court too deeply to wander and become forgotten. He guards it well, a vicious mother beast defending her precious kits.” Oberon sighed and his eyes gained a solemn edge as he looked at the ballroom again.
“The Shadow Court is more than just his home. It is his heart, and it has been from long before he lost his parents. Some of us feel a connection to the lands more than others, and can summon the power of Lucia to us through that connection. Kaeleron is one such beast, and that is why he was born to be a king.”
“But his brother should have ruled.” I risked a glance over my shoulder in the direction of the ballroom, but all I could see was light and glass and stone, and a blur of people that blended together thanks to their clothing.
“His brother had no right to sit on that throne Kaeleron guards so viciously and clings to so fiercely.”
I frowned at Oberon. “But he was the eldest. The heir.”
“An heir for sure,” he said thoughtfully. “But his connection to the lands of the Shadow Court was weak. Kaeleron’s connection to them is unbreakable, and through that connection he has made the Shadow Court strong. The court would have crumbled under his brother’s rule.”
“I don’t think Kael would be happy to hear you talking about his brother like that.” I wasn’t happy about it either.
“I only speak the truth.”
Oberon tilted his head and studied me, whatever he saw amusing him as his lips tilted in the semblance of a smile.
“Let us not argue. Not when our time together is so limited. I am an interloper here, unwanted and unwelcome, so I have probably ten… perhaps fifteen minutes before Kalyn informs the guards and they come to remove me. So…” He offered his hand to me, turning his palm upwards, and grinned. “A dance, milady?”
I easily accepted that invitation, one side of me feeling petty enough to take him up on his offer since Kaeleron was dancing with another woman right this moment, and the other side of me enjoying his lightness when my world seemed so strangely dark tonight, and his warmth when all I felt was bone-chilling cold.
“I warn you, I don’t know the steps and I’ve never danced with a man before.”
His grin was wicked, and a touch predatory, as he murmured, “Honoured to be your first, dearest Saphira.”
I ignored his thinly veiled reference to how I had come to be in the lands of Lucia, my virginity sold to the highest bidder—to Kaeleron.
Oberon twirled me into his arms, placed his free hand on my waist to draw me closer still, and softly breathed, “I must make the next five minutes count in order to make the very most of this precious gift you have given me then.”
“Five minutes?” I frowned up into amused silver eyes that reminded me so much of Kaeleron as he began moving with me, and I tried to keep up with his steps that were as smooth as a feline and as graceful as a swan as we made the terrace our own personal ballroom.
It wasn’t difficult.
And I knew it was because of that tang of magic that laced the air, that reverberated in the stones against my chest and deep in my bones.
If I had known a fae could use magic to bewitch my feet and make me dance so beautifully, as if I had been instructed by the finest tutors for years and had attended countless balls, I might not have been so afraid of making a fool of myself on the dancefloor.
“You said you had ten or fifteen minutes, and now it’s five?” My lips lifted in the start of a smile that seemed to lift the weight from my heart and chase the darkness from my mind as I turned with him and he moved one of my hands to his shoulder, and clasped the other.
His smile only widened as we drifted as if we were dancing on air, our steps barely registering against the flagstones, whisper-quiet in the still night against the backdrop of the distant strings of the orchestra.
“I do have ten minutes until the guards might come, but I have a mere five minutes… or perhaps less… before my life is to end.” He palmed my waist and lifted me, leaning back at the same time so my legs came up, cutting through the air in a graceful arc before I landed again and his hand reclaimed mine.
Worry lanced me, robbing me of any joy I might have gained from that particular step in our dance. “To end? You’re dying? And all you can think about is dancing?”
He shook his head. “Not just dancing. Dancing with you, and I must say that it is well worth the cost.”
“The cost?” I frowned as he turned with me again, faster this time, so the sheer layers of my skirt swirled outwards to brush the balustrade as we whirled past the view of the city.
“I don’t like riddles, Oberon. You all speak in riddles all the time, never saying what you really feel or mean, spinning me in circles, and it’s beginning to irritate me.
Are all unseelie raised to dance around the truth? Can’t you just speak plainly to me?”
“As my lady wishes.” He dipped his dark head and twirled me away from him, so our linked arms stretched tight in a line, before pulling me back into his arms, almost bringing a giggle up from my chest as that terrible weight on it continued to lighten.
He pulled me close and murmured, “I have perhaps only a minute of my life left because this,” he glanced down at my body against his, “this dance has no doubt sealed my fate and the cost I will pay for stealing this moment with you will be my head rolling across the patio. My own grim end.”
I scoffed at how silly he was being. “Why would the guards kill you for dancing with me?”
He slowed to a halt and gently bent me backwards over his arm, his body pressed close to mine and his expression more serious than I had ever seen it.
“Who said anything about the guards?”
An unholy growl rolled across the terrace, as violent and dark as a thunderstorm, and Oberon grimaced.
He whispered, “My timing was off. I thought I had at least ten more seconds to right you before he arrived.”
Shadows exploded from the open doors of the ballroom, great wings of it that devoured the light and chilled the air for a moment before they receded to reveal him.
Wrath made flesh.
Kaeleron.