Page 9 of Bound By the Sleeper’s Harp

The second hour passed in a blur of bright lights and heightened breaths.

As my cage settled to the floor, I didn’t allow myself to look at the balcony boxes, to see if the goblin was still there. Instead, I slipped away, moving through the mass of bodies to the other side of the club. I keyed in the code and slipped into the quiet of the locker room. My shoulders sagged and I collapsed on the bench beside my locker. Every muscle was strung tight and aching, especially after my training earlier. Catching my breath, I ditched my stilettos, then pulled on my black slacks and black boots. I reached for the hem of my metallic gold top⁠—

My phone began buzzing. I fished it out and frowned. Very few people had my number. The one I saw on the screen was one I didn’t recognize, with an area code I was unfamiliar with.

I slid the answer button.

“Vivi? Did you forget your charger? Is everything okay?” She should have landed by now.

A muffled female voice answered, too garbled to understand. It did kind of sound like her, but the signal was too choppy. I stood and moved around the room.

“Vivi? Can you hear me?”

“Rose?” I managed to make out the sound of my name. Shit. Had something happened to her? My heart began to race.

“Hello? Vivi? Is that you?”

The voice responded again, but it was too indistinct.

“You’re breaking up. Sorry, hold on.”

Heading for the back door, I pushed it open and kicked the doorstop into place. Darkness and cool spring air greeted my flushed skin as I emerged into the alley behind Vortex.

“Can you hear me?” I asked, staring at the opposite wall. “Vivi?”

The line went dead.

“Damn it!” I pulled my phone from my ear and looked down at the number again. What the hell?

A shoe scuffed beside me. I spun, but a hand clamped over my mouth before I could scream. Arms locked around me like a cage. "Hello, Elle," a voice whispered against my ear. My blood turned to ice as a million horrible memories crashed over me. "Love what you did with your hair by the way. But I still prefer the blonde.”

A whimper sounded in the back of my throat, because I’d been completely wrong. It had been Luke in the VIP balcony box. He’d finally found me. And I’d walked right into his waiting arms.

4

Bastian watched from the shadows, keeping his arms crossed. Few of the patrons on the balcony noticed him, and when they did, they gave him a wide-eyed look and scurried away. He’d managed to stay out of sight of Eaden’s people—thank fuck for that. His eyes tracked the head of cotton candy pink hair, the color of spun sugar, as it bobbed through the crowd, her gold top glinting in the mass of darkness. In the crowd of bodies, her pert little ass was no longer visible, but he’d certainly gotten a distracting eyeful while she was dancing.

He didn’t mix work and play, but fuck, he was starting to rethink that rule, already considering the exceptions that might be made.

She reached the far end of the club, disappearing through a security door. He held his position a few minutes longer, waiting for her to reemerge. Her shift was meant to last another two hours. He hadn’t expected to see her in the cage dancing. That had been an unforeseen surprise. An inconvenient one, since he’d hoped to intercept her while she was serving drinks on the floor.

He inhaled, letting his chest rise and fall, remaining alert. Eleanor Rose Kennedy. She’d been a complete wild card on his list of suspects. He hadn’t expected a bombshell of a female with intelligent eyes and pink hair. Pink, fucking cotton candy hair. And yet, the longer he’d watched her dance, the more it grew on him.

He’d had a hell of a time tracking her down. It didn’t help that she’d been going by her middle name. A red flag, that. Because she didn’t want to be found?

If that was the case, what was she hiding from? Or rather…who?

All the more reason to dig deeper into her. If there was one thing he was certain of, she had the answers he needed.

He shifted uncomfortably, running a hand over the shaved side of his scalp, angling his body to better see the club. The minutes ticked by. No head of pink hair emerged.

Closing his eyes, he burrowed into his magic, letting his sense of metals take over. He’d already attuned himself to hers earlier. It was simply a matter of locating the gold around her neck, which had been a lucky find. A flare of recognition reached him. She was still in the room behind the security door, moving around almost erratically. Her direction changed, then she was moving toward the back of the club.

He frowned.

There’d been a moment earlier, just a brief flash before she’d seen him, when she’d spotted someone in the VIP box near his. Whoever it was had made her falter. He’d looked over, but hadn’t picked out anyone specific.

His senses tingled. The glint of gold around her neck had stopped moving. Tunneling deeper, becoming one with the metal, he focused on its surroundings. He felt the brush of skin—her skin. He ignored the warmth of it, the distracting softness of her chest where the pendants rested. Then he felt something else, something kissing the other side of the necklace. Cool, night air.