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Everywhere I looked, there was nothing but fairy debauchery. The room had grown slightly fuller in the time we’d been there, and the band in the corner kicked up, playing some lively tinkling tune. I thanked the gods it wasn’t the hypnotic music that sometimes played in the capital, as I was already having a hard enough time focusing with Scion’s fingers curled so high on my thigh and the sounds of pleasure rising all around us.
The woman who’d been on the table when we arrived had since finished her show and now danced on the bar with two other members of the pleasure guild—a man and a woman—each of them in various states of undress. In the shadows by the stairs, bodies writhed together, just barely out of sight, and at a table to our left, a male knelt on the floor, keenly servicing the diners.
“Is she coming down?” I asked breathlessly.
“Most certainly,” Scion muttered. “This is likely an attempt to establish dominance.”
I glanced sideways at him. “Over you or me?”
“Both.” He smiled, showing all his teeth in a way that sent a shiver down my spine. “A pointless attempt, obviously.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, at least for me. I would not have called myself dominant. Willful, perhaps, inflexible, but not naturally authoritative. “As long as she gets here soon. I’m sure Siobhan and the others are growing anxious.”
That, and the atmosphere of this room, was beginning to get to me.
Scion straightened up from where he’d been leaning against the wall by the stairs. He turned his head to mutter something to the enormous bird on his shoulder, who took flight, fluttering over everyone’s heads and down some dark back hallway.
“Where did he go?”
“Out,” Scion said shortly. “He’ll go sit on the roof. This room is too confined for him as it is, and we’re about to go somewhere far smaller.”
My mouth fell open. Scion grabbed my hand and began to tug me through the crowd again. My anxiety spiked higher as I practically jogged to keep up with his long strides. “Where are you going?”
He glanced back at me, and my chest squeezed, my breath catching at the shocking grin he wore. Mischievous and excited rather than the usual rage—it sent a flush over my entire body.
“Fuck this. I don’t wait. If Phillipa Blacktongue wants to find us, we’ll be in her office.”
31
LONNIE
THE CUTTHROAT DISTRICT, INBETWIXT
I’d seen enough public sex as of late that I’d undoubtedly learned a thing or two.
I wobbled in my boots, chasing Scion down a dark hallway toward what I assumed was Phillipa Blacktongue’s office.
The hall was full of couples gyrating to the slightly muffled music. Their dancing looked like sex, and in some cases, it absolutely was. Some groups were of three or four, their hands and mouths everywhere, making it hard to tell where one partner ended and another began. The scent and sound of pleasure were overpowering, making it impossible to focus on anything else, but I had to think about where I stepped, or else I would trip and break my neck on my new boots.
I snorted. If I slipped in this hallway, there was a good chance my hand might land somewhere—or on something—it shouldn’t.
My breath heaving, I was more than relieved when we came to a halt at the end of the long hall in front of an innocuous wooden door on the right-hand side. I tested the knob, only to find that it was locked.
“I can’t say I’m surprised,” I called over the sounds of the hall.
Scion sighed. “I’d hoped to avoid this.”
He didn’t explain further before grabbing my waist and stepping purposefully forward, as if he intended to walk directly into the closed door.
I let out a yelp of surprise, which was lost in the shadows.
This time, the darkness only lasted a moment. My head swam, as if I’d plunged underwater for slightly too long, and I sucked in a gasping breath, my eyes opening again on a small, warmly lit room office with a chaise lounge on one end and a mahogany desk on the other. The walls were painted a dark burgundy, and there were shelves of books all around the walls.
My stomach churned, but thankfully, not nearly as bad as the last time. Perhaps because I was growing used to the travel, or perhaps because we’d only gone a few feet, but this did not seem nearly so bad. In fact, the only thing that I found disorienting was that rather than coming out directly on the other side of the door as if we’d walked through it, we now stood on the other side of the room facing the door.How did that work…
“What if she can’t find us now?” I asked.
Scion crossed the room and threw himself down on the green-and-copper-patterned chaise, spreading his arms over the back. His smile was smug. “She will.”
