Page 262 of House Ignis

“The pleasure’s all mine,” he said, his voice low and velvet-soft.

“My name is Khaidan, but you can call me Khai.”

His gaze roamed my face as if memorizing it, as if he already knew exactly what he would find.

“Dance?” His hand lifted slowly, deliberately reaching for mine.

And gods help me… I was about to take it.

“Khai.”

Ezra’s voice cut through the moment like a blade. I glanced past Khai to find him standing a few feet away, Ember beside him.

“Ezra.”

The male in front of me—Khai—smiled wider.

“Hm,” he mused lightly, his eyes shifting to Ezra. “Always the second.”

Ezra’s jaw tightened, shadows flickering faintly at his shoulders in a way that signaled a very real threat.

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Princess,” Khai murmured, his voice laced with that infuriatingly cocky charm.

He took my hand anyway, and as his lips finally touched my skin,

electricity shot through me, sharp and terrifying. It wasn't a spark. It was a physical shock that made my heart stutter.

At that exact moment, the air didn't just crackle—it screamed.

A blur of obsidian feathers cut through the chandelier light, a streak of living shadow diving straight for Khai’s head.

The raven—the same one that had been perched with such eerie stillness on Queen Sailene’s shoulder—slammed into his collar with a harsh, guttural caw. It pecked viciously at his neck, wings beating against his jaw in a flurry of sharp motion.

Khai didn't flinch. He didn't even look surprised.

He simply tilted his head, a knowing smirk playing on his lips as if he and the bird shared some private joke.

With a final, sharp cry that echoed against the vaulted ceiling, the raven launched itself back into the air, circling once before gliding across the ballroom to settle back onto the Queen’s shoulder. She didn't look over. She didn't acknowledge the bird at all, but her violet eyes remained fixed on the middle distance, cold and calculating.

Strange. Beyond strange. The electric heat of his touch still tingled beneath my skin.

But I was a Pyreson, and I did not fucking react.

“Get away from him, Ava,” Ezra muttered, his voice dropping an octave, thick with a warning that made the hair on my arms stand up.

I merely watched as Khai turned, offering me one last slow, devastating wink before disappearing into the shifting sea of silks and masks.

He moved with a grace that felt predatory, his shadows moving in a dark, familiar dance I knew far too well.

“Who is he, Ezra?” I whispered, my knuckles still tingling.

Ezra didn’t answer immediately.

He stepped closer, his presence a wall of shadow between me and the spot where Khai had stood. His jaw was set so tight I thought it might shatter.

“Trouble,” Ezra said shortly. “The kind that doesn’t just burn, Ava. The kind that unmakes you.”

I looked back toward the royal dais, catching the Queen's gaze for a fleeting second.