A hard, polished wood floor reflected light like water across the vast chamber. Along the walls were white columns accentuated with gold filigree that stretched up along the ceiling where elaborate chandeliers bathed the room in an amber light. A tall fireplace was lit on the left-hand wall and cast animated flickers across the room.
Toward the back were two sets of stairs leading to a terrace that framed the ballroom and led out to numerous balconies from which cool air sifted in from outdoors. There were already people along the second level areas, mingling with their gold wine glasses. Immediately I noticed that, for the most part, interspecies conversation wasn’t popular at the night’s event.
Men and women stood in small groups, spaced out and divided, but all enjoying the drinks and hors d'oeuvres set out on a few long, narrow tables along the walls and passed by unobtrusive attendants. The rebels in not-so-fancy garb seemed to keep to themselves, standing off to the side and staring cautiously at the gathering from afar. I subtly maneuvered Everly closer to me, eyeballing each and every individual in the room. In an instant, I found myself willing to wash the place in flames if anything went sour.
“You didn’t strike me as the type of guy to get tense in this kind of situation,” Everly said, sensing my unease.
“Yeah, well,” I sighed, spotting Ares on the terrace in an extravagant white, embroidered tailcoat. “The place reeks of human filth.” I wrinkled my nose, withholding the real reason I felt on edge. That reason was Everly. The woman I couldn’t bear seeing injured again.
We made our way up the stairs to Ares with Lukan, looking for an update. When he spotted us, his eyes darted to Everly and our conjoined hands and then to our eyes in search of clues.
“So?” Lukan said.
“So you’re late.” Ares raised his brows like the posh host he was.
“I’m assuming there hasn’t been trouble yet,” I said, taking another scan of the room.
“None yet. Mr. Selik has been quite polite, actually. A bit too polite if you ask me.”
He gestured toward the wall where a mid-height, older man with defined lines on his face and a hard, thick build stood talking to a couple other well-dressed rebel men. Rikard’s hair was a close cut of white spikes. The rugged, white scruff on his face seemed out of place against the black of his formal suit. I could smell the chaos of the outer territories on him from across the room. A mix of gunpowder, dust, and homemade oils to cover it all up.
Rikard looked different than the first time we’d dealt with him nearly three decades prior, but his character hadn’t changed. No matter how he practiced hiding it, it was there. He had secrets I wanted and I was willing to beat them out of him. Quite honestly, I was willing to tear them right out of his head if it came down to it. His age wasn’t fooling me. The man had a conniving look on his face that shouted dishonesty and deception. I clenched my jaw, enraged at the mere possibility that he knew something about Valerio and then had the audacity to stand in the same room as me.
“I’ve already had a private conversation with him about what I’m prepared to offer for any kind of peace to happen,” Ares said. “All I need to do now is to announce it later tonight and make it official.”
“What did you offer?” Everly asked, catching Ares slightly off guard.
“Miss Ghlass,” he smiled. “You clean up quite nicely. Getting comfortable with your new arrangements, are we?”
“What did you offer?” I asked more sharply.
“A large estate up north,” he answered, his smile fading. “Seven million credits and a pardon for a dozen of his men who are in prison for minor crimes against the Draak and the city. In exchange, he’ll cease trading weapons with rebel groups and abide by the laws of the sector as long as he’s within our borders.”
“That easy, huh?” Lukan asked, narrowing his eyes. “That simple to invite a criminal into our territory?”
“Money solves everything with these creatures,” Ares jeered, taking a sip of his honey-colored wine, his eyes shifting to Everly. “Except with you, obviously.”
“Give an animal food for bad behavior and they’ll just keep misbehaving for more,” Everly said, staring Ares in the eyes.
Ares looked almost irritated, his top lip curling ever so slightly.
“I hardly think this is your area of expertise,” he said.
Something wasn’t sitting right with me, and judging by the look on Everly’s face and the suspicion splashed across Lukan’s, they weren’t buying the exchange either.
“I’d say relax,” Ares continued, regaining composure. “But I wanted you here to keep an eye on things, so pretend to relax and stay vigilant. I’ve forbidden the press in case something goes wrong, but even so, I’d like nothing to go wrong.” He shooed us, walking toward the stairway and heading down to fetch himself another glass of wine.
There was a moment between the three of us as we silently agreed not to let our guard down. Knowing anything could happen did make the muscles in my body twitch with suspicion every now and then.
“There’s Valentyne,” Lukan gestured below toward a Draak in the center of the room, dressed in a deep, blue-black suit. He spotted Lukan and inclined his head in greeting as he made his way up the stairs.
“Lukan, my dear friend,” he said in a smooth English tenor.
His face was cut into defined edges that he held proudly. Coal-black hair was shaved short along the sides of his head, the middle portion swept from his face in a refined style that translated how free spirited he was behind his wealthy, suave image. He shook Lukan’s hand and then mine with a respectful bow of his head.
“Draven. What a sight to see you at an event like this. So tigers can mingle with house pets.”
“Boredom gets to even the oldest of us,” I said flatly.
Valentyne’s silvery eyes shifted down toward Everly. “And you are?” he said with a smirk that was known to charm the dress off any woman and the pants off most men.
“This is Everly Ghlass,” Lukan introduced.
“Yes, I knew that,” Valentyne exhaled with another bow of his head. “I was just anxious to hear her voice. The latest champion. Claimed, I see, by none other than Draven Tempest. Quite a match. I would never have expected Draven to let any woman get close to him,” he chuckled. “But I suppose the winner of the Red Race would have the best chance at taming the beast. You disappeared from the public eye so suddenly after your win that I thought you’d fled the sector, but now I see what’s really been happening.”
“Everly, this is Killian Valentyne,” Lukan explained. “He’s a former member of the Draakir from the East Coast. Now he owns several high-end clubs around the country. He’s a good friend to have. He knows a lot about everyone.”
“Politician to club owner?” Everly said. “Interesting change in careers.”
“Council duties were a bore. It’s all business and no fun. Besides, when you know everyone’s secrets, they become quite uninteresting to be around. I much prefer mingling in the company of varying individuals without the responsibilities looming over me. In fact, I was having a fascinating conversation downstairs with a lady who has seven children. Can you imagine that? It’s hard enough for us Draak to make just one.”
“I’m assuming Ares brought you here as a consultant?” Lukan asked.
“Strangely, no. I’m here on my own invite. Ares isn’t fond of me.” He leaned in, speaking quietly to Everly as if to gossip. “I know quite a lot of dirt on the young Draak.”
“But you do have information on Selik, right?” I asked him.
“Of course. Come to me when the party has died down a bit. I’ll tell you everything I know,” he winked.
Lukan let out a light chuckle as Valentyne gracefully moved to return to the guests on the lower level. Before following him, Lukan turned to us.
“Careful, you two,” he said quietly, making fleeting eye contact with Everly and then me. “There’s a reason I didn’t bring Keera.”
As Lukan st
alked off to speak with Valentyne further, I absorbed the situation a bit more, taking in every scent, every rhythm of pulse, every stare, and every expression with one gradual sweep of the room.
“If you keep glaring, people will know you’re not really here to have a good time,” Everly muttered.
I blinked, my mouth quirking with mild amusement.
“You’re right,” I sighed. “But I’m not here to have a good time. I’d very much like to get Rikard alone and have a different kind of conversation.”
“If you can get in his head, why not just do it?” she asked. “At least see what’s on the surface like you did with Taurus.”
“If what happened with Taurus has taught me anything about this situation, it’s that the surface won’t have the answers I need. I’d have to go deeper, and that’s complicated,” I said. “Like I said, delving deep into people’s thoughts can have a devastating effect on both parties. Even at my age, peering into a head that’s not my own can turn my world upside down for days. We don’t just see the memories. We feel the emotions and it skews our own. I know only one Draak whose mental abilities outweigh the rest of ours, but he’s isolated himself from society, and for good reason.”
“Who is it?”
“His name is Saxon Kane. A Red, like me, but we suspect he’s older. After so many centuries, we tend to lose track.”
“If this Sak’zen guy was there when you had confronted Taurus, do you think things would have gone differently?”
I felt her bitterness when she brought up the subject, but the anger she harbored days before had subsided at least.
I nodded. “At the time, I thought that seeing Taurus’s immediate thoughts was all I needed to confirm his guilt. I regret being so rash.”
“We don’t know anything yet,” Everly said softly. “Not really.”
I turned to her, watching her eyes sift through the array of multicolored attendees. Once she felt my eyes on her, her gaze dropped a bit, hesitant to look at me. Casually, she slipped her hand from mine and stepped toward the stone railing, putting her fingers up on the surface to peer over at the crowd of people below.
Seeing the slender curves of Everly’s partially bare back didn’t help much in keeping my attention on business. The scars were covered beneath the side of her dress that bore the sleeve, but small traces of the tattoos still gave her an edge. I stepped up beside her, slipping my hands in my pockets to watch the attendees in their cautious mingling. Few people were comfortable judging by all the sidelong looks and tight cliques, but if Ares’ plan had a chance of working, keeping the peace long enough to finish the night was a priority.
“Gods, it’s easy to tell who’s who when they’re all squished together like this,” Everly raised a brow, scanning the ballroom floor.
“What do you mean?”
“You Draak all hold yourselves like kings, even if you’re not,” she explained. “While half the humans down there are hunched over like scared dogs. They’re supposed to be rebels. You know, when I was young I used to look up to them. Now that they’re in the same room as all of you, they don’t look so brave. I guess it’s different when you really have to confront your enemies.”
“Rebels don’t always fight for the people,” I said, leaning forward, elbows rested on the railing. “They fight for themselves. Especially the Falcons. They have a goal and they don’t care what species you are. If you fall in their way, they’ll just go through you.”
“Yeah,” Everly said. “I kind of got that when…” she stopped, the small traces of a smile fading from her lips.
She glanced my way and for a moment I was half-expecting a “thank you” to pass her lips. I saved her life, after all, and ripped her from the talons of her own kind. Still, she withheld any verbal appreciation and simply dropped the matter.
“You know,” she said, “it’s not easy when everything you believe in starts to fall apart.”
“Beliefs fall apart all the time. Veils get old. They deteriorate and they fall from our eyes.”
“That’s...poetic.”
I cocked my head. “But why bring it up?”
“We’re here to find the truth. There’s a chance Taurus was lying to me. A chance that he’s innocent when it comes to your brother. There’s a possibility that Valerio was keeping something from you. It all might have had something to do with the Falcons. There’s a tiny sliver of a chance,” she motioned, measuring a tiny space between her thumb and index finger to illustrate just how small the chance was. “That you’re not as evil as you tried to scare me into thinking.”
“Do I scare you?”
“Yes—no!” she caught herself.
“I’m sorry?” I smirked, standing up straight to face her. “Can you repeat that?”
“No,” she repeated, turning, one hand on her cocked hip. “I won’t, because I already regret even saying anything. We’re here for a reason and talking to each other isn’t one of them.”
When the music changed from a boring piano melody to a more interesting, graceful violin and piano duet, I glanced at the ballroom floor where a few couples had taken to slow dancing.
“Then dance with me,” I said, taking her hand.
Leading her down the stairs, I brought her to the floor beneath one of the many crystal chandeliers. Turning, I stepped in close, testing her. She was strong, I gave her that. She kept her reactions minimal, but it was her heartbeat she couldn’t hide from me and it certainly wasn’t slow and steady.
“I don’t dance,” Everly muttered. “And I would doubt that you do except that you’re a thousand years old, so of course you know how.”
“Tonight, you do as I say,” I said.
As she stepped back, I reached out and gently grasped her waist with my other hand, pulling her back toward me until our bodies were pressed together. Everly took a nervous glance toward the other couples on the dance floor as if afraid people would take notice of us. She instinctively laid a hand on my shoulder as I raised her other one up beside us and slowly swayed to the music. She was tense at first, but as the seconds ticked by, her muscles began to relax against my palm, which was pressed lightly against the small of her back.
“Rough as you are, you clean up nicely,” Everly said, though the words were sharp on her tongue.
She stretched her neck as if it was stiff, and then rolled her shoulders. She was clearly uncomfortable. I wanted to slip past her walls and read what she was thinking, but I refrained, trying to get the hang of reading her gestures and quirks rather than her thoughts.
“So do you,” I said.
“I’m just pretending.”
“We’re trying not to be suspicious, remember?” I murmured, leaning in close to Everly’s ear.
“We’re also not supposed to look comfortable with each other,” she said.
“You certainly don’t look comfortable,” I chuckled quietly.
“How can I?” she said, a bit under her breath. There was something in her voice that sounded sorrowful. As if trying to keep my attention off of it, she cleared her throat and changed her tone. “Any one of these rebels could know what really happened with Taurus and Valerio.”
“And none of them are going to tell us simply by being asked and certainly not in the middle of a crowded ballroom.”
“So what’s the plan again?”
“To listen, observe, and possibly threaten...politely.”
She drew back to look at me, her face soft and pensive, like she was trying to decipher the intricate words of a Shakespearean monologue. For a long while she didn’t speak, and her silence somehow drove me insane with longing. Under the raining light of the chandelier, she was radiant with a warm glow that brought out the green of her eyes like rich moss on grey stone. Finally, she blinked, lowering her gaze like she was diverting her eyes from the sun.
“What is it?” I asked, concern creeping through my words.
Everly dropped her head, her breath trembling in her lungs. Bringing her hand to rest on
my chest, I slipped my knuckle under her chin and lifted her gaze to meet mine. There was a redness in her eyes and the glisten of tears. As soon as she blinked, one fell down her smooth cheek, catching on the corner of her lips. I felt a heavy stone roll over my heart. She freed her chin from my fingers and turned away again.Taken aback by the impact her emotions had on me, I bit back a reaction by clenching my jaw, trying to dismiss the feelings. Everly lifted her hand from my chest and concealed a quick swipe of her fingers to dry her cheek.
“Is this part of your attempt to make people see that we hate each other?” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
“I don’t,” Everly muttered, almost inaudibly.
I looked down at her, waiting for her to elaborate. She raised her eyes again and though they were now dry, there was a rawness that left her looking so fragile.
“You don’t what?” I asked, though the meaning of her words hadn’t escaped me. I just wanted to hear her say it.
“I don’t hate you,” she said, defeated. “I’m trying, but I can’t. I remember what you did to Taurus every day, what you did to me, but...” she choked on her words. “But I’m…” She stopped again as if the phrase was too heavy to lift off her tongue. “I think I’m—”
“You’re leaving,” I interrupted, my heart thumping.
“What?” Everly frowned.
“The car should still be out front. The driver will take you back to the Estate, but I don’t want you here.”
“We just got here. I thought the plan was to—”
“Fuck the plan,” I shook my head, lifting my hand to cup Everly’s cheek. “If Rikard knows anything about Valerio and Taurus, I’ll find my own way to get it out of him, even if I have to kill him in front of all these people.”
Looking deep into the pools of her stormy gaze, I felt the one thing I couldn’t imagine I’d ever feel for anyone again. Utter yearning. The feeling that if she disappeared from the world, she’d take half of me with her. The half of me that was still breathing. The half of me that could still experience emotion. It was a part of me that I thought had gone ages ago, but somehow this human woman had beaten it into submission and dragged it out of hibernation. Literally, I might add. I stroked Everly’s cheekbone with my thumb and took in a deep breath of her lavender sweetness.
Ash Bringer (A Storm of Fire: Paranormal Dragonshifter Romance Book 1) Page 26