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We got our first drinks from one of the bartenders—Lavee had some kind of mixed cocktail, but told me to start with the wine since I was a newbie. I trusted her, and sipped at the drink she got me. It was somehow both sweet and bitter at the same time, but she grinned and told me I’d get used to it when she saw me make a face at the taste.
Ander picked some strange moonshine, and Lavee told me I’d better not touch that shit or Namir was going to kill her.
Of course, that nearly made me curious enough to get a glass of it myself. But, I figured I’d better wait and see how the wine affected me first.
A few people I didn’t recognize came over to chat with Lavee and Ander, making an effort to include me in the conversation too. I didn’t say much, though, not knowing most of what they were talking about. But it was still nice to be out, among other people. And I loved watching the other fae dance. I wasn’t good at it—not in the slightest—but I’d enjoyed dancing when I did it. The way my body moved across the floor, the way the music seemed to make my shadows sway and spin with me… there was something beautiful about it.
I was going to learn how to fight—there didn’t seem to be a way around that. But, I decided, if I was going to learn how to fight, I needed to learn something beautiful too. Something creative, and useful, and free. I didn’t want my life to be empty again when the fighting with Namir’s brothers was over. I still wanted tolive.
I wasn’t a prisoner anymore; I was free, and safe.
And happy.
Outrageously, ridiculously happy.
My eyes followed the fae on the dance floor while I continued sipping at my drink. Lavee was right; it got easier to drink the longer I worked on it.
Time passed, and my body warmed and relaxed.
I was starting to understand why people liked drinking.
The urge to hit the dance floor flooded me, and I nudged Lavee with an arm. “Let’s go dance.”
She lifted an eyebrow at me. “You think I can dance?”
“I know you can fight, so yes, I think you can dance.” My voice sounded a bit funny, but I slid off my stool and tugged her toward the floor. She laughed, cutting off her conversation with the random people she’d been talking to. Her hand caught on Ander’s arm, and she tugged him out with us. There were a few other guys with him, and they all watched Lavee move, paying little attention to me.
Maybe some women would’ve hated that, but I loved it. Knowing that she was the one they were staring at gave me freedom to be a shitty dancer, freedom to spin and shake my ass and do whatever the hell I wanted.
Maybe it wasn’t just Lavee who freed me from their attention though—maybe it was the marking on my neck that connected me to Namir, designating me as taken.
Lavee ignored the men watching her, stepping up close to me as we shimmied and shook, moving with the music and shaking our hips with the rhythm. It was fast and upbeat, dragging grins onto our faces as we danced our asses off.
More time passed, and Lavee was lured into the group of men while I grinned from the other side of the group, dancing on my own with flushed cheeks and a heady, blissed-out feeling relaxing me.
I hoped Lavee and Jesh would figure things out, but if they didn’t… well, I wanted her to be happy anyway. She had wanted love since they met, and he had turned her down. So I wanted that for her—I wanted her to have the relationship she wanted, the future she wanted.
There was no guarantee that Jesh would be waiting outside her door to claim her and snarl at her when we got back that night.
There was no guarantee that he would ever even admit that he wanted her.
But she still deserved her happiness, so I was glad to see her grinning and laughing as she danced up against a couple of the other fae warriors she seemed to know well.
A few minutes later, a set of arms wrapped around my waist, a chiseled chest meeting my back. Had our shadows not wrapped around me a moment before his arms did, I would’ve panicked. But the feel of our connected magic had calmed me and warned me, so I wasn’t surprised or uncomfortable in the slightest.
“Keep moving, Love. Dance with me,” Namir murmured into my ear, his hands on my hips. My ass was pressed to his erection, our bodies swaying as one. It was comfortable but thrilling at the same time, somehow.
“Jesh followed me here. I might have to let go of you to grab him if a fight breaks out,” he warned, his lips still against my ear and his voice soft and light. “I’ve never seen him like that. He was losing his damned mind. He and Lav agreed not to fuck anyone else when they found out what they were to each other—I guess maybe this was the only trigger he’s needed since the beginning.”
“We can protect everyone else here if we need to,” I murmured back.
“Mmhm.” He dragged his teeth over my earlobe. “Stars, you smell good. How drunk are you?”
I snorted. “Hard to say.”
He chuckled, but before he could speak a response, a snarl tore through the room.
Moonlight brightened the space off to my side, and my head tilted as I turned to see the source.
