“Keep your head in the game.”
“Keep my head in the game?” I scoffed. “Keep your own head in the game. Better yet, butt out of my game.” I turned away, searching for Emilius. He was chatting with two lords from his council, his back turnedto me. I lifted the glass to my lips and sighed, mind churning for a way to snare his attention.
Suddenly, the glass lifted out of my grasp.
I whipped around again, fuming. Pheolix smirked. “You’re done for now. No more.”
The annoyance prickling my edges became tinder, his words the spark that sent it into flame. “I beg your moon-damned pardon?”
The drone set the glass on the silk runner. “You’re done. Focus on your job, so I can do mine.”
“And what’s your job?” I snarled. “Following me around and bothering me?”
He scanned the roving figures behind me, undaunted by the ice in my voice. “More or less.”
“Well, you’re free to go.” I snatched my glass back, drinking it just to spite him. Thevolarefizzled down my throat, toasting the already warm pool in my belly. Licking my lips, I set the glass back down harder than necessary. It clinked dully over the silk runner. “Don’t tell me what to do, gnat. Now. Dance with me.”
Through the black lace, his brows tightened, cool-steel eyes darting to mine. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Fine,” I said, reaching for a fresh glass. His hand shot out, stopping mine, and he held it firmly in the air.
“You’re a lady of the court here.”
“So?”
“So, it would raise some brows if we danced.”
I laughed humorlessly. “No one knows you. You wear that stupid hood whenever you enter the castle. Tonight, you’re nothing more than a mysterious outsider.”
“I wear that stupid hood because more than one of the palace Naiads would recognize me otherwise,” he said. “I’ve stolen too many sirens from their homes to worry about watching my back here.”
“Well, good news, your lace blindfold is just as stupid, and your identity as an evil kidnapper is just as secret.” I flipped my hand over, palm curling into his. “Come on.”
Pheolix exhaled heavily through his nose, the V of his chest deflating. His eyes shifted to the balcony above. Deimos stood above. Watching us.
“Oh.” My mouth carved out a smirk, his thoughts suddenly clear. “Worriedhe’llfind out you danced with me in front of the rest of the palace?”
He leveled me with a look of waning patience, though he didn’t say anything. My mouth parted in surprise. I’d expected him to shoot back, to brace against my accusation with something dripping in sarcasm or foul innuendos, but his silence only confirmed my wild guess. “That’s it? You’re afraid of what Thaan will do if he knows we danced? I have news, then. Thaan doesn’t care. Especially if I’m using you to catch the King’s eye. As long as I don’t crawl into your bed, Thaan’s happy to use my body as a means of strategy. If you won’t dance with me, go brood in some other corner, so I can find someone who will.”
Pheolix’s jaw tightened. His lashes beat against the lace blindfold, dark smoke across his eyes. “What’s wrong?” he asked quietly. The hold he’d taken on my hand loosened, and his thumb drifted across the inside of my wrist. “What happened? Why isn’t your sister here?”
“Nothing.” I pulled out of his grasp, wading through the sparse crowd toward the group of young lords who flocked the perimeter of the dance floor. The musicians were almost finished with a slow number, their soft tune winding into silence, a long note from the fiddle vibrating into my skin. I hadn’t made it far when someone latched onto my elbow, towing me toward the center of the room.
Pheolix halted along the nearest edge of the dance floor as the song ended. A breath of silence wafted over the ballroom, patrons waiting for the next number to begin as the musicians reset their scores. The couples around us shifted quietly, though most of them still held the intimate posethey’d ended in, chests pressed together, arms looped around each other’s necks.
Rain beat hard against the windows, streaming down the glass. The servants had flung open the doors to the cool air outside, puddles rippling as the drops pelted the walkways, blades of wet grass reflecting the shine of torches outside.
Pheolix wrapped his hands over my hip bones, turning me just slightly. He stroked his fingertips up my side and under my arm, lifting it as he dragged them across my skin, and laid my wrist behind his shoulder. My gaze met his, and the iron in his eyes shimmered under the black lace.
The ballroom waited.
The music started.
And that first note was sharp. Hot. Wild.
The song was Rivean, rich in drums and tambourines. The percussion of it beat inside my ribs. Expecting another slow number, Pheolix’s eyes widened for only a fraction of a moment.
Then he spun me so fast the room whirled.
