AllFreeNovel
Share Us
At least she’d lost the ridiculous hoop earrings. She was wearing tiny studs today, sparkly but also practical.
“Hey.” Her voice cut into my thoughts. “I’m going to go get a drink.”
“Nothing alcoholic. I don’t own this place, and you can’t underage drink here.”
She rolled her eyes. “No one knows how old I am besides you. And it’s not like I have a birth certificate to prove it.”
“You have a passport,” I pointed out.
“A fake one. You could have put any birthday on it.”
“True, but the date on it says you’re twenty.” Why was I even humoring her? This whole conversation was pointless.
“Fine. I’m going to go get anonalcoholicdrink.” She slipped her arm from mine and disappeared into the crowd.
I scanned the room for Nacio, but everyone looked the same. The swirl of dark-colored dresses and black jackets was all I could see.
I moved through the throng of people, and they parted to let me pass. I doubted any of them even knew they were doing it. It was human instinct to get out of the path of certain kinds of angels. Something in their blood told them they didn’t want to be in the way of Heaven’s guards, princes, or warriors.
After taking a champagne flute from a passing server, I leaned back against the wall and watched the people dancing and others milling around the edges of the dance floor. This kind of event had always seemed like a waste of time. Women spent a fortune on fancy dresses and then hours doing their hair and makeup just so they could look perfect instead of human. Then again, humans were obsessed with outward appearance, like that was what made a person attractive.
In the end, the charity could have raised twice as much money if everyone just donated what they spent on their looks. But what would be the point if they couldn’t all stand around, showing off and patting each other’s backs over their generosity?
A figure moving in the opposite direction from everyone else caught my eye, like a red fish swimming against the tide.
I watched the woman slip through a glass door that led out of the ballroom. I wasn’t sure what propelled me to follow her, but I wasn’t in the habit of ignoring my instincts. Hesitating got you killed in my world. Instincts were the only reason I was still breathing right now.
Beyond the glass doors, the woman was alone on the terrace. There was a sophistication about the way she stood, her back to me, looking up at the sky. Coffee-brown hair was twisted into a knot at the back of her head with shorter strands at the sides blowing in the wind. She wore a sleeveless dark red velvet dress, tight at the waist and over the curve of her ass, then falling into folds where it brushed the ground. It was completely backless, offering an unobstructed view of her tanned skin and a tattoo of a long-stemmed rose along her spine. A black lace glove covered one of her arms up past her elbow, but the other arm was bare.
I frowned at her. It was an odd fashion choice. Odd enough to make me suspicious.
“Sick of the party already?” I asked, staying by the doors leading back into the ballroom.
The woman inhaled sharply and turned.
Time stopped. It was her.
She’d grown up in the past eight years. She was taller, curvier. There was no denying she was a woman now, not the teenaged girl who’d run into me in the back hallways of Youngblood.
My eyes dipped without my permission, settling on where her soul glowed in the center of her chest. It was every bit as radiant as it had been all those years ago. It glowed with countless tiny lights, all connecting and shining with pure white. Time and life hadn’t tarnished her soul, hadn’t caused it to dim even a little bit. Her story was still bright and full.
With effort, I dragged my gaze up from her chest to her face. Turquoise eyes met mine.
“Samuel,” she breathed.
She looked as if she were staring at a ghost, like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. I had a feeling my expression was similar, except I’d known there was a chance she was going to be here.
“You’re… What…?” Her fingers gripped the railing behind her until the knuckles of her bare hand turned white.
“You were more talkative last time we met,” I drawled.
“I was a child last time we met,” she said, still not relinquishing her death grip on the railing.
My lips twitched. She’d been so adamant that she wasn’t a child at the time.
“How are you here?” she asked.
I raised a brow at her. “How? I walked through the door just like everyone else.”
