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Arden gazed out onto the crowd, too, a faint smile on her lips. She hadn’t looked this relaxed and happy in a long time, and that warmed me from the inside. Her smiles were always contagious like that.
“I need to walk around a bit and make some room for more food,” she said. “Want to go play the levitation game?”
“Sure, I’ll go.” I stood and nodded toward an enforcer, who instructed the others to make a path for us. “What about you guys?”
“We’ll join you in a second. We can see you from up here,” Jagger said. I raised an eyebrow at him, then at Flint. “Go.”
I assumed they had something to discuss—hopefully the damn spell—so I left them, resting a friendly hand on Arden’s shoulder as enforcers guided us down to the main floor of the party.
The levitation game was an old mainstay. You had to use a quick levitation spell to get a ball through moving hoops. Whoever did it the fastest won. I let Arden go first, standing back. Enforcers were between us and the rest of the crowd, who were watching us with blatant curiosity.
“I’m a little rusty at levitating things like this,” Arden said over her shoulder.
“Yeah? Or are you just saying that so you don’t look as bad when I kick your ass?” I laughed. She shot me a playful, dirty look—both of us knew that my magic was stronger, but we were humoring each other—and started her turn.
She floated one ball, but it wobbled and flew into the game’s gutters. She looked over at me, her cheeks flushed.
“Don’t tease me,” she said, a barely suppressed smile on her face.
“I wasn’t going to say a word.” I tried my hardest not to smile, but I failed. She smacked me with the back of her hand. “What? I really didn’t say anything.”
Arden laughed, her smile spreading across her face.
“That’s a total loophole!” She turned back to the game. “I’ve got this.”
While she continued to play, I checked on Flint and Jagger. Their conversation was heated. As a dragon shifter, my hearing in my human form was better than most, but not as sharp as a wolf shifter like Flint. Still, I caught snippets of their conversation over the noise of the carnival. They were discussing the spell.
I let out a breath through my nose and watched Arden again. She did a decent job, giving me an adorably smug smile and letting me step up. I aced my round-up until the last two hoops, which I purposefully missed. Arden gasped and lightly swatted my shoulder.
“Did you just throw those last two hoops?” she asked.
“No, of course not.”
I noticed Jagger and Flint had joined us, tension vibrating between them. The conversation hadn’t gone well.
Arden noticed, probably through her mate bond with Jagger, but put on a smile anyway. She convinced the others to play the game for at least a round or two before she stepped back.
“I need a bathroom break,” she said, glancing at some enforcers. “Then maybe we could do something else?”
“We’ll walk you there.” Jagger put his hand on her back.
The enforcers cleared the way, guiding us to the bathroom. Arden went inside, and the rest of us lingered back. Now that she was out of sight, I let my upbeat facade fall. I quickly used my magic to put up a privacy block, so others couldn’t hear our conversation.
“So, you talked about the spell?” I asked Flint.
His mouth flattened into a line, and he looked away.
“Yeah, we fucking talked about it,” Jagger said. “Same shit, different day.”
I held in a frustrated growl. “Why, Flint? All of us know that you love her. Just end the spell.”
“It’s not that simple.” Flint dug a hand into his hair.
Before he could further explain himself, Jagger snapped to attention, looking to the bathroom. Arden screamed, but the sound was cut off, as if someone had slapped their hand over her mouth. All three of us jumped to action. We were much faster than the enforcers, so we shoved past them, with Flint shifting into his wolf form mid-stride.
The wall of the bathroom exploded open, with Arden tumbling out in a blur of her red hair and a male in dark clothing.
I didn’t think; I just acted.
