It gave me comfort knowing that Dahes didn’t take everything from me. I still looked like me, even if I didn’t feel like me, and that had to count for something.
The Sunsand Moons were working in my favor tonight. I spent the first hour of the ball keeping a low profile, while making sure my presence was still noticed.
I couldn’t risk going into MonClem when all the drakins came crawling back to their cabins—drunk. And I couldn’t afford not to go. If there was a possibility that this was my last night here, I had to find Hael. I just needed some kind of alibi first. I had to make sure I was seen at the party.
We were in another throne room toward the back of the castle. I had tried breaking into it when I found the opulent double doors earlier in the week, but it’d been locked. Now, the massive doors were wide open, and the room was twice as large as the one from this morning.
I had a drink in my hand, and for once I wasn’t pretending to nurse it—I was actually drinking. But I nearly dropped the glass when I saw Hael standing to the right of King Elion. They were both on a raised dais overlooking the room, only the first time I spotted the king, he was on the platform by himself.
I honestly didn’t think he’d even be able to function after this morning, nonetheless, be standing at the ball.
His gaze met mine from across the room, and my stomach flipped as he slowly took me in.
He wasn’t in his drakin leathers, but the suit he wore was just as fitted. All black save for the white woven shirt beneath the tailored jacket. A single button was left undone, exposing a glimpse of his dark skin, contrasting against the pale brown of his eyes.
Suns, he was so striking even when he looked intimidating.
He wasn’t smiling—which meant the dimple on the right side of his cheek wasn’t out—but I kept envisioning it, kept imagining his grin before my own gaze drifted down to his lips. The small chunk of skin missing kept drawing my attention, and I wondered if I’d feel it if he kissed me.
I shook my head.He is your hunt, Magnolia. Stop ogling him and instead figure out what you’re going to use against him. You’re running out of time.
I hated it, hated what I needed to do. I pulled my gaze away from him. I couldn’t talk to him while he stood with Elion. I’d have to find a way to get him alone tonight, but at least him being here meant I didn’t have to sneak into MonClem.
I walked a single lap around the room before another initiate approached me—well, I guess technically he was no longer considered an initiate and was a drakin rider now. Despite no one being in uniform, it was obvious who all the new riders were. They all donned an ebony pin across their chest.
I half listened to his speech before my glass felt heavy in my hands and I took another sip, forcing it down my throat.
The alcohol burned.
I coughed, trying not to spit it back up, but the next second I felt fuzzy and warm, which was exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want to be fully coherent for what I had to do tonight.
The rider next to me held out his hand. I backed up as his fingers nearly grazed my skin. I met his gaze, finally turning to look at him for the first time since he came over. He was only a couple inches taller than me, his auburn hair gelled back to reveal a large forehead and even wider eyes.
“What?” I breathed once I realized he had asked me something.
He wasn’t ugly. Maybe I would have found him attractive before—but all I kept thinking about was Hael. I couldn’t get him out of my head—the way he smelled, the deep register of his voice, even the way he walked was haunting me.
Suns, I was in trouble.
I had no idea when I stopped hating him, but whatever this was—it was worse.
“I asked if you wanted to dance?”
“Oh—no thank you.” I forced a smile and walked away before he could ask me anything else.
I could immediately pinpoint the ones that were sterilized—not thatthey looked any different, technically there wasn’t anything identifying them from the breeding group, but theyacteddifferently. Half the riders were going from one female to the next, offering drinks and engaging in forced gossip. They had no self preservation for privacy and acted without a care in the world. But the other half, they kept to the sides of the room, talked to no one, drank quietly—those were the ones I guessed were selected for breeding.
The throne room was shaped into five points, all circling a large onyx speckled dance floor, making it the focal point in the room. The lively music filled the space as couple after couple danced across the tiled mosaic floor. Most were actually dancing, but there were some that were only using it as an excuse to touch each other.
Two of the five walls were lined with tables at opposite ends of the room, each filled with food and drinks. There were obsidian dining chairs placed around them for anyone who wanted to sit down and rest between dancing, and I couldn’t stop staring. Groups of people were sitting around the tables, talking, laughing, eating. It all seemed so lighthearted. It made me wonder what that was like—to have friends and be able to live so carefree. No ulterior motives. No devil waiting to drag you back to hell.
There were two walls in between the food tables, coming to a point behind me. One held the musical group, their melody playing loudly, carrying across the space. And the other held the double-doored entrance into the room, exposing an archway trimmed in an inky molding of dragon scales. The arch itself was framed into a statue of the creature’s wings, having you walk below them to get in and out of the room. It was a replica of all six dragons combined into one. The elemental scales forming a perfect gradient into the others with the lower tips of the wings dipped in gray then ebony for the manipulation scales. And besides knowing a dragon could only have a single colored scale, it looked so real—like it might move at any moment and take flight across the dance floor. The material a perfect leather, almost translucent toward the tips of the wings.
The fifth side held Elion’s dais. It was raised above everything else. Eight steps spanned the length of the front, eachengraved with the names of the Gods and Goddesses on Hilithia. The first step started withAter, the Moon God of psychic manipulation; thenFerro, metal manipulation; then all four elemental Moon Gods were listed in order—Caerulus,Viridis,Ignis,andCrepito—with the last two steps left for the Sun Goddesses,NessiumandCupio.
The name of each God and Goddess was written in an elegant swirling script with an etched drawing of either a sun or a moon hugging the words.
I stared at the last step, atNessium, and wondered if the Goddesses picked us for our Tokens or if we picked them. Our actions supposedly sparked the desire or necessity that our Tokens were stemmed from, but did we have a choice? Was it all planned out before we were born into Hilithia? I couldn’t stop thinking about it, wondering if my fate had always been tied to Dahes.
