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“You look incredible, love.” Kalen’s hawkish eyes dipped to my gown, and a wicked smile curved his lips. “If it wouldn’t be rude to my guests, I’d take you back to my bed right now.”
I blushed.
Niamh coughed, but Alastair just laughed. The rest of the Mist Guard merely shook their heads in fond exasperation. At least Fenella was no longer scowling at me.
“Enjoy the party,” he said with a nod to me, and then to Val and Nellie. “I’m going to do the rounds, and then I’ll find you for a dance.”
I started to tell him I had no idea how to dance to any of the songs they might play here—back in Teine, we’d danced, of course, but there were no set moves, no steps to learn and memorize. We just shook our bodies and waved our hands in the air, trying to find whatever pleasure we could in our small lives. But he’d already started across the room with his Mist Guard right on his heels.
“Let’s go look at the food,” Val said, grabbing my arm and tugging me toward the overflowing table. Laughing, I fell into step beside her and linked arms with Nellie, who had chosen to wear a navy blue sleeveless gown crafted from silk and embroidered with golden birds along the shoulder. With her chestnut hair piled on top of her head, she carried an elegance about her that she’d never had the chance to demonstrate in Teine.
The three of us joined the crowd that surrounded the feast. My stomach growled at the sight of so much luxurious food. I reached for a pastry, but Val smacked my hand.
“Fion first. We need to toast to this night.” Her face sobered. “Only a week ago, the three of us were trapped inside Oberon’s dungeons. We were facing certain death, in one way or another. It’s a wonder we are alive, we are together, and we are safe.”
Nellie loosed a ragged breath. “I can toast to that.”
“So can I,” I said, clutching them both tighter.
With a somber nod, Val found a pitcher of fion and poured each of us an overflowing goblet. I lifted mine from the table and held it aloft. “To surviving.”
“To ridding ourselves of King Oberon once and for all,” Val said.
“And to finding each other again,” Nellie added.
We clinked our goblets, and the dark liquid spilled onto our hands. I took a sip of the fion, and the intoxicating flavors of berries, sugar, and spice coated my tongue. Almost instantly, my head felt lighter, and the music sounded sweeter. Val grinned and did a little dance. I couldn’t help but grin back. She was right. Wedidneed to celebrate. The odds had been stacked against us from the moment we were born. We’d suffered so much loss, so much heartache. But we were here now, and we had each other.
And that was worth everything.
Nellie beamed. “This is delicious.”
“Tastes like honey.” I took another sip.
“Honey mixed with…something I can’t put my finger on,” Val said.
“Magic,” a familiar voice murmured into my ear.
My breath caught as I twisted toward Kalen, and a sudden wave of power washed over me. He held out a hand and inclined his head toward an empty space in the middle of the floor where musicians played a sultry tune on their strings, woodwinds, and drums.
“Dance with me,” Kalen said as I slipped my fingers into his open palm.
I nodded, something in my chest tightening at the look in his eye. I felt as though he had taken a hammer to my every defensive instinct, to all that hatred and pain that had hardened me against the world—just with this one look. And even though he accepted all that—even though he saw all the worst things about me and understood—the way he looked at me somehow made it all fall away.
There was a lightness in my steps as I followed him to the center of the floor. I could feel every eye in the room on us, but I didn’t care. A few whispers drifted toward us, and I caught a handful of fae shooting me scowls—as well as some of the humans from Teine. They didn’t understand and didn’t have to. All that mattered to me were his sapphire eyes, his strong, rough hands, and the feel of his skin against mine.
When we reached the middle of the empty floor, Kalen wrapped one hand around my waist and tugged me against his chest. I tipped my head back to gaze up at him, placing my palm against his shoulder. With a heated gaze, he started leading me across the floor in a dance.
I tried to move my feet in time with his, but tripped right at the start. One of the nearby fae laughed—a dark-haired man wearing a tailored coat who I’d noticed watching me back at the table. The scowl on his face now made me stumble another step.
Kalen took my chin between his fingers and turned my face back toward him. “Just let go of everything and follow my lead. None of them matter.”
We began to dance again, and as our feet flowed from one step to the next, I didn’t think about how I might trip, or who in the crowd might be watching us. It didn’t matter if they wanted to see me fail or not. With Kalen’s hand on my waist and his eyes on mine, I could forget it all.
Our feet moved in sync. Somehow, my body took over and followed his spinning movements across the dance floor. My chest swelled as the music filled my mind and the sweet taste of fion still coated my tongue. Kalen arched his brow when I kept up with a sudden twirl back toward the center of the room.
“You’re good at this,” he said. “Better than you let on.”
I smiled up at him. “I have a good instructor.”
