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“Vanora is a beautiful city at night. You’ll love it! Let’s get you changed. Alora gave me access to her closet, and she hardly wears pants as it is. She may as well give all her clothes to me.” She links elbows with me and wanders down the hallway, taking the stairs up to the wardrobe Alora presented to us earlier.
“Is it safe going out there at night?” I ask.
Juniper chokes on a laugh as she opens the closet. “Much safer than Blackwater, I assure you.” She reaches for clothes, taking down black pants that match hers, and a silky blue shirt with gold moon and star designs. “This should work.” She brings it to me. “Get dressed. And hurry. I don’t want Caz to see us leaving.”
“Why not?” I ask, changing out of my clothes. I’m not opposed to this. From what I’ve seen, Vanoraisbeautiful, and I’m curious about the city, what it’s like, and if it’s anything like Blackwater. Hopefully it’s better.
“Because he’ll send Killian with us, and Killian ruins all the fun.”
I slide into the trousers as Juniper taps her chin while looking at the accessories. She plucks a gold belt from a rack, and then a set of gold, dangly earrings. After she places them on a velvet stool, she moves to the necklaces, taking down way too many.
“There are two sides to Vanora,” she goes on, studying the jewelry she’s selected. “There’s Gold Class, which is where all the richer Vanorians live. They’re the classy type, very boring, really, with their fancy parties and silk gloves.” She picks up two necklaces and carries them to me as I slide into the shirt. “Then there’s Iron Class. They still have riches, but they don’t really live by the rules. They know how to have fun, make a good drink, and party.”
“And let me guess…Iron Class is where we’re going?” I watch as she walks around me to clasp the necklace on.
“Damn right.”
“Is it not dangerous?”
“Sure, it is…well, it can be. But I have a gun.”
“I thought you had to give your guns to Alora’s guards?”
“Yeah, but I have one in the SUV they don’t know about.” She walks around me, takes a thorough look at my clothes, and, satisfied with what she’s put together, she smiles and looks me in the eyes. “You’re so beautiful. No wonder Caz can’t stop looking at you.” Her words fly right through me. I’m not sure how to digest them, and I’m glad when she leads the way out of the room, shuts the lights off, and says, “Let’s go get your boots,” over my shoulder.
When I slip into my boots, we walk down the stairs and through the spacious corridors of the palace to get to the front door. I almost think we’re in the clear as the door opens and we step into the coolness of the night, but as Juniper opens the back door of the SUV and reaches under the seat, someone clears their throat.
I turn and look back, and Caz moves out of the shadows by the pillars, a bloom pinched between his lips, the tip lit in fiery embers. He pulls it away with a gloved hand, releases a cloud of smoke, and says, “Where the hell are you two going?”
Juniper slams the car door and groans, tucking something into the back of her belt. Her gun, I think. “We’re going out.”
“Where?”
“To the city.”
“Take Killian with you,” he says, pulling from the bloom again. Smoke trickles out of his nostrils, and his icy eyes cut to me.
Juniper frowns. “No. We’ll be fine.”
“You’re trying to go to Iron Class, and you’re not going without protection,” he counters.
“I can protect myself. Besides, I have a friend in town. Remember Hannie? She’ll show us the good places.”
“Willow is not from here. They’ll sense it a mile away, Juniper. You must be forgetting the Rippies spend a lot of their time in Iron Class too.”
She sighs. “Oh, buzz off and let her have a little fun, Caz! Love of Vakeeli! It’s bad enough she has to suffer listening to your thoughts all day.”
That annoys him, clearly, because he drops his bloom on the ground and steps on the lit end, squashing it. “Killian goes with you, or you don’t go at all.” They’re the last words he says before switching his eyes to me again, looking me up and down, and then turning away.
He makes his way around the palace, and I have no idea where he’s going, but even with his disappearance, he can’t escape what I saw his eyes do, or the thoughts of his that whispered through my mind. His eyes lingered, not on my face, but the split of my shirt at my breasts, and as they did, he said,No way in hell she’s going out dressed like that without one of us.
Twenty-One
CAZ
“DidI say you could put your bloomy hands on my books?” Alora’s voice rings through the library, and I glance over my shoulder as she enters.
I ignore her, putting my focus on the book again. “Do you have any books on Tethers?”
