Nathan shot Lizzy a look. “Lizzy seems to not understand the ‘hush-hush’ part.”
Lizzy laughed off his remark and sipped her champagne.
Raya blinked. Someone was calling her name. The sound traveled oddly, as if it were coming from the air and bouncing off the water.
Raya looked around the deck. No one else was looking in her direction. She peered into the interior of the boat, where groups of witches mixed, mingled, and danced the night away.
Nothing seemed to be amiss.
“Raya!”
Oh, no. She knew that voice.
A crosswind kicked up, accompanied by the sound of flapping wings.
Outlined in the glow of the city’s evening illumination, Phoenix hovered in the air behind the boat.
Horrified, Raya backpedaled from the railing, unable to take her gaze from the demon coming in for a landing.
Lizzy followed Raya’s gaze and her mouth fell open in shock.
Nathan’s eyes widened as he perceived the demon. He looked from Raya to Phoenix and back again.
Phoenix dove and landed on the deck, facing Raya. His hair blew in the wind as he approached her.
The noise of the party ebbed from the back to the front of the boat as the assembled witches sensed the intruder. A crowd slowly formed as witches drifted closer to the spectacle.
Raya trembled as adrenaline coursed through her. “Phoenix, you have to go.” Under normal circumstances, he knew better than to risk being seen by hundreds of witches. God only knew what other effects the magical macarons were having on him.
The demon cast a contemptuous glance over the crowd. “Are you embarrassed of me? In front of your friends?”
Throughout the crowd, clothing rustled as hands fluttered to wands. Some witches stared with frank hostility. Others eyed Phoenix like he was a free sample tray at a gourmet grocery store.
Nathan maintained his position in front of the crowd. “You didn’t tell me you had a pet demon.”
Phoenix looked Nathan up and down. “Who’s this, then? Oh—you’re the one who couldn’t get enough power on your own, so you got a couple of witches to do the hard work for you.”
Nathan’s lips quirked with dark amusement.
“He’s not my pet!” She stepped closer to Phoenix and spread her arms to shield him from the other witches, who were pressing closer by the second. “Phoenix, get out of here.”
He touched her cheek and looked into her eyes as if no one else were present. “But I’m lonely, Raya.”
Oh, God. She felt sick. He wasn’t in his right mind. She had to make him leave, now, before some enterprising witch decided to banish or bind him right there on the spot. “Phoenix, go away!”
“But—”
“Go, Phoenix!”
Her words landed like blows. He reeled back as if struck, hurt emanating from his eyes. His crimson wings snapped open like a reproof, and he shot into the air, lost to sight in the shifting shadows of the Parisian night.
PART II
PHOENIX
15
Phoenix tumbled through the dark sky, riding the downdrafts in a wild freefall only to soar upward at the last moment.
