Page 147 of Revels on an Angel’s Grave

A color he’d only seen twice before.

Once coating a small stone carving.

The other on his best friend’s ring.

Sticking to his word, Desmond went to the manor before returning to the apartment, the guards letting him through with a letter from Emmeline. He’d gotten away from the Quarry Lock as quickly possible, and his head still spun slightly as he crossed through the gates.

It got a whole lot worse when he pulled up at the end of the path.

Lola stood on the front lawn, the moon creeping through the clouds and cascading over her raven hair, but she wasn’t alone.

That fucking guard was with her—what was his name again? Evon?

Fates, Desmond couldn’t stand him. He was always trailing Lola. Always standing a few inches too close. Now, they weren’t even a foot apart, whispering in hushed voices. Just the merry two of them.

Fire burned through Desmond’s chest, as hot as Arenothos’s forge. At that moment, he could dive right into the blessed flames and he was certain he’d survive. That they’d cower to him.

Yet whether it was because he wanted to feel the pain or be told straight to his face Desmond called out, “What do we have here?”

Lola and Errin straightened, still standing much too close for Desmond’s liking. “Desmond?” she asked.

“Happy to see me, sweetheart?” He couldn’t keep from taunting her, the bitterness in his gut finding its way into his words.

“Calm down, Alvanti,” Arson said.

Desmond ignored him, eyes only on Lola.

We’re not people who worry about each other.

One night.

“What are you two doing out here?” The words came out much more harshly than he intended.

Sparks ignited in Lola’s eyes, that determination from when she’d pulled away from him at Smoker’s Star back. “Nothing that concerns you.”

“Sure about that, Lols?”

Everything to do with you concerns me. Has for years.

Based on her sigh, Lola heard those words. The way she always did when he ventured too close to something she didn’t want to talk about. She changed the subject. “Did you need something, Desmond?”

He didn’t miss the way her cheeks flushed when she said his name. He latched on to it, that sign that she was affected by his presence, that she remembered every moment they’d sworn meant nothing even if she pretended not to.

“This time,” he drawled, making sure those two words carried the weight of every time they’d snuck around to meet up in the dead of night, “I’m here to talk to Emmeline before I go back to Myrella, sweetheart.”

Lola’s lips pinched and though Desmond knew she was aware he and Myrella were no more than friends, he was positive that was a flare of jealousy in her stunning blue eyes. A shade he’d never been able to capture, no matter how many nights he’d tried. It was all her—Lola Blue.

“Care to tell me where Emmeline is?” he added when Lola didn’t speak. She leaned closer to her guard, fucking Arris’s arm dropping around her shoulder.

Desmond bit back a growl at the sight.

Lola said, “Inside. You can ask an attendant to get her for you. They won’t let you wander in alone.”

And then she turned away, desperate to prove whatever it was she was insisting on to him.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Emmeline