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Chapter 1
Jace
Sometime in the night, I woke, drenched in sweat. The bedsheets under me were as hot as the conquest who had left my bed a few hours earlier. I was glad she wasn’t around to witness my nightmare—whatever it had been. Not that I let the multitude of females spend the night, anyway. Whoever it was that graced my presence for a few hours of playtime in the evenings was always gone before either of us could succumb to the sweetness of slumber. I could usually placate her with a kiss and a promise of a call or text before having one of the Royal Guards escort her off the grounds in a magically armored vehicle—at least until the next party.
Empty champagne bottles lay on the side of the nightstand, half-obstructing the neon numbers of the time, but I wasn’t interested in the hour. It was late—or early, depending on who you asked. It was all the same to me. My cell phone continued to charge, just out of my reach, but I had no interest in looking online at social media postings or reading a plethora of needy messages now.
I just wanted to shake off the dream.
Running a hand through my thick waves, I shoved aside the mass of blankets, the weight not helping my cause in the least.Night still reigned outside the windows, the moon sinking lower against the cityscape well beyond the palace walls. Sometimes, I would find the view peaceful, the calm good enough to lull me back to sleep. The illumination of skyscrapers and apartments still visible, with a spattering of streetlamps in the far, far distance something of a lullaby. But not tonight.
As much as I appreciated the silence of this hour, it felt distinctively alien, alone. The sensation was oddly foreign. Whatever had woken me still lingered and troubled me, like a warning, and I wanted to shake it off entirely.
I padded across the top floor of my suite, toward the stairs, and slipped down to the main floor, pausing at the bar for a bottle of water. Without looking at the time, I sensed it was close to dawn, despite the darkness. It was always pitch black before dawn, like some stupid cliché.
No sense in going back to bed now. I’ll have to be back up in a bit, anyway.
No, that wasn’t true. I didn’thaveto be up. But I would be up with first light, sleep an elusive mistress even in the dark. The light wouldn’t permit it at all.
I didn’t admit to myself that I wasn’t going back to bed, even if I had the desire to do it. Instead, I downed half the bottle in a swig before making coffee and then threw open one of the double doors to look outside, using my hidden stealth to ensure my guard didn’t sense me coming.
It was one of my many talents that set me apart from the rest of the faeries, my ability to hide my own comings and goings. It also came in handy in other ways—like sneaking out of apartments in the middle of Geldon unseen in the middle of the night after trysts with nameless females.
Feyor jumped at my unexpected arrival. “Alpha!” he gulped. “Is everything all right?”
I shrugged indifferently. “You tell me. Isn’t it your job to watch the palace?”
He appeared baffled at my enigmatic response. “Is something wrong?”
“You tell me. Is something wrong?”
Again, he blinked. “No, Alpha. Everything is fine.”
“Then I guess everything’s all right,” I replied. “Any chance you’ve seen Cirilla wandering about tonight?”
He relaxed, almost imperceivably, as if he had passed some unwritten test, and shook his shaggy head.
“No, Alpha,” he said slowly. Hesitating, he added, “I’m not sure she’s here this evening.”
“That damned enchantress and her lineup of suitors,” I grumbled, rolling my eyes. “She’s worse than me.”
A smile twitched at the corners of Feyor’s mouth, and I eyed him, waiting for him to comment, but he wisely said nothing.
“Have one of the maids send up some breakfast,” I instructed him, retreating to my room, flicking on the lights along the way without touching the switches. My hands extended to shoot friction out through the bridge of my fingers. It was time to fully wake up.
Almost on cue to my fingertips, lightning flashed outside, and I cocked my head, the memory of a face I hadn’t seen in a long while popping into my mind. It was strange to think of him so randomly and out of the blue, but I knew it meant something. Instinctively, I sensed him, our brotherhood imbedded in me from childhood, even though we didn’t share any of the same blood.
Saint!
Somehow, I felt him there with me, and I whirled around like I expected to see my old best friend in the suite with me, but of course he wouldn’t be. Yet he was around. I could almost smell him, and the idea put me in a much better mood. It hadbeen months since he had last been around the palace, and while the door was always open to him, he rarely made use of the advantage.
A smirk touched the edges of my mouth, and I sauntered toward the bathroom, wondering what had brought him out of his endless rut of all work and no play, but whatever it was, I was eager to party with him. He was a working fae, after all. Not everyone had the luxury of taking time off at their leisure like I did.
In fact, I had a party planned for the following day, so his timing was perfect, but a pang of guilt twinged at me.
Or has he finally come to his senses and come to ask for a position working for me?
Even though I could give him money and power, he always insisted on doing things on his own and not taking advantage of our friendship. Still, whatever the reason for his visit, it was good to know the day was starting off better than my rude awakening.
