by Sadie Moss
The woman in front of me was almost unrecognizable. Her red hair was piled on her head in an elaborate up-do of curls and pins. Her eyes were lined with black, their light gray hue accentuated by the shadow brushed over her lids. Her lips glistened ruby-red.
But it was her dress that truly completed the picture. It was a full-length, dark teal evening gown with embellished floral appliqués across the fitted strapless bodice. A few of the appliqués trailed down the full skirt, making it look like beautiful vines twined around her body.
Is that woman really me?
The full-length mirror in my room was cracked and smudged, but even those defects couldn’t hide the stunning beauty of the woman standing before it. I reached out to trace a finger over the surface of the glass, almost surprised when my reflection moved with me. I’d been half convinced she really was a different person.
Jae had returned from the Capital several hours ago, driving another fancy car—how many of those did he have?—and bearing gifts for all of us. He brought me this stunning dress and gave Corin a tuxedo that should match the uniforms of all Blighted staff at the event. He’d also brought communication charms we could use to maintain contact during our operation. They were more subtle than phones and better for undercover ops.
I blew out a breath, puffing my cheeks out. I sure hoped that lady in the mirror felt confident about all of this, because I sure didn’t. But we were out of time. Christine had called again this morning to tell Corin that Peacekeepers had been spotted just outside the old factory building that housed the Resistance. The Peacekeepers hadn’t been able to see the building through the concealment spell, but they were right on top of it. In very short order, they’d break through the concealment and realize where they were. If we didn’t destroy the tracking spell soon, the Resistance would be exposed.
As a precaution, the most vulnerable inhabitants of the headquarters were being moved to alternate locations, but there were risks involved in that as well. Too much movement around the portals would draw unwanted attention to them. The Grand Ball was tonight, and I prayed we wouldn’t be too late to prevent the total exposure of the Resistance’s location.
You can do this. Lana Crow, badass mercenary, will not be brought down by a palace ball.
I took one last look at myself in the mirror. The only parts of this whole ensemble that made me feel like myself were my necklace, which I refused to take off, and the set of twin daggers strapped to my thighs. Those were another gift from Jae and were hands-down my favorite thing he’d brought back from the Capital.
Resisting the urge to fiddle with my hair any more—Ivy had coached me through both the hair and makeup application, and I wasn’t sure how sturdy the up-do actually was—I turned and exited the room.
Fen and Jae had their heads together, setting up the communication charms. Jae was dressed in a perfectly tailored dark gray suit that highlighted the lean lines of his body. Akio fussed over Corin’s tuxedo, smoothing out the lines of the jacket while Corin rolled his eyes.
They all looked up when I entered, and the room went quiet.
“What?” I shifted uncomfortably. “Does it not look okay?”
“It looks…” Corin cleared his throat, his nostrils flaring. “You look amazing, Lana.”
I scrunched up my face. “Really? I mean, it’s not the most practical outfit for a job. At least the skirt is full enough that I can move in it. And it hides my weapons.”
Hiking up my skirt, I stretched my legs to make sure I could run without restriction and double-checked that I could reach my blades easily. A choked sound caught my attention, and I glanced up to see all the men staring at my exposed legs.
I flushed, dropping the skirt. “Well, I won’t do that during the ball, obviously.”
Fen laughed. “Good. I already don’t like the Gifted, but if you give them a show like that, I’ll hate them all. You’re ours, killer. And you’re stunning.”
The others looked about as uncomfortable with the pronouncement of “ours” as I was. I’d come to truly care for all of them, and I knew with certainty they’d be a part of my life forever. But I still wasn’t quite sure what that meant, and Fenris seemed bound and determined to call out this bond between us at every turn.
Noticing the awkwardness that prickled through the room, Fen shot a look around, shrugging. “What? She is.”
My face heated, and I scoffed to cover my embarrassment. “Ugh. Shifters! You think all you have to do is slap a sticker that says ‘mine’ on a woman, and her panties will magically melt off her body.”
Twisting a fallen lock of hair between my fingers, I turned to escape back into the bedroom to re-pin it.
But as soon I crossed the threshold, firm hands closed around my shoulders, spinning me around. Fenris shut the door behind us in a flash and pressed me up against it, his large, warm body boxing me in. His usually laughing brown eyes sparked with a mixture of heat and intensity.
“First of all,” he said, his voice low, “I can melt a pair of panties just fine without any stickers, all right? And second of all, I’ve never told a woman she was mine before. Because no woman ever was... until you.”
I sucked in a deep breath, my heart thudding at both his words and the look in his eyes. Shit. He was done joking around about this. My legs wobbled, and I leaned back against the door for stability. Fen’s hands were on my upper arms, his body angling toward mine.
“But, fine. If you’re not ready to hear that, I can wait. Someday, you will be. In the meantime, know this.” He slid one large hand down my arm to grasp my smaller one. I had half a mind to pull it back so he wouldn’t realize I was trembling, but it was probably way too late for that.
Fen pressed my hand to his chest, where the rapid beat of his heart slammed against my palm. His eyes were full of nothing but truth as he said one word.
“Yours.”
The declaration hovered in the air between us, stealing my breath.
Then, like a dam breaking, I fisted his shirt and pulled him toward me, meeting his hungry lips with my own. His mouth crashed into mine, teeth and tongues colliding in a mad dance. Our joined hands were still sandwiched between us, trapped there by the force of our bodies pressing together, trying to get impossibly closer. Fen’s other hand roamed over my skin restlessly, as if hoping to memorize every inch of me he could reach.
Fire ignited in my belly, and I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck, exploring his mouth with my tongue. The sharp, clean scent of pine enveloped me, and the overload of sensations pulled a moan from my throat.
Fen made an answering noise in his chest, the sound rough and deep, as if it came from the most primal part of him. Desperate for more, I managed to work our trapped hands free and wrap my arms around him, relishing the feel of his muscles contracting under my touch. I could barely breathe, but I didn’t want to pull my mouth from his long enough to fill my lungs. My fingers skimmed up his neck into the back of his hair, running through the soft, thick strands as I deepened our kiss. I gave a little tug on his hair, and his answering growl sent a shiver of promise through me.
Finally, Fen broke away, leaving us both gasping. He pressed his hands to the door on either side of my head and rested his forehead against mine, his body still leaning into me.
I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of our heavy breaths mingling in the small space between us. My entire body buzzed like a live wire at the same time an incredible feeling of relief spread through me. It was as if a piece of me I didn’t even know was missing had suddenly been reclaimed.
As our breathing returned to normal, Fen drew back, his chocolate eyes warm.
“Good gods, killer. I’ve been wanting to do that since… well, pretty much since I first met you.”
I chuckled, smoothing his mussed hair. “I can relate.”
Why the hell did I fight this for so long?
Fen’s happy smile was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.
Then his brow furrowed,
and his gaze shifted up to my hair. I could feel several new escaped tendrils snaking down the nape of my neck.
“Uh, you might need a few more pins.”
Chapter 23
The drive to the Grand Ball was quiet. Jae and I took his car, and the other three followed in mine. As soon as we arrived at the People’s Palace, Jae and I would have to keep up appearances as two of the wealthy Gifted elite. I hated splitting our team up, but it made the most tactical sense.
Corin would slip into the palace posing as one of the staff, aided by a Resistance member who worked in the kitchens. Akio and Fenris would wait near the palace grounds, staying in contact via communication charms. If all went well, we wouldn’t need their help, but they insisted on coming as backup. They’d also be the ones to alert Christine if—when—our mission was successful, so she’d know the Resistance was safe. I knew she was preparing for the worst-case scenario, readying her soldiers for battle and evacuating others as quickly as possible, and even though that vote of no confidence hurt my ego a little, I couldn’t blame her. She needed to protect her people first and foremost, and even I wasn’t fully certain this plan would work.
As we passed through the gate into the Capital, I tried to focus, running through our plan in my head. But the deep brown of Fenris’s eyes kept intruding on my thoughts. The sounds he made. The way his hands felt on my body.
I reached up unconsciously, brushing a finger over my lips.
Jae glanced over at me. “Are you all right?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” I shifted in my seat.
“We can do this, Lana. You can do this.”
“I know.”
Smoothing my skirt for the hundredth time, I shot a glance at Jae. He looked as calm and composed as ever. I was certain everyone in the apartment knew what had happened between me and Fen, but when we’d emerged from the bedroom, slightly flushed and disheveled, no one had commented on it.
Thank the gods.
I wasn’t sorry about what I’d done with Fen, but I was still a bit of an emotional mess. There wasn’t time to sort all of that out now, though. We had a job to do.
“Can I ask you something?” Jae asked suddenly, and butterflies took off in my stomach.
Oh fuck. How did I explain to him that the way I felt about Fen was a mirror image of the way I felt about all of them? The connection was different with each of them, but the pull was just as strong.
I cleared my throat. “Um, sure.”
“When we came to your apartment the other night, and you attacked Akio, why did you use a dagger instead of magic?”
I blinked. That was not the question I’d been expecting. “Oh. I don’t know. Habit, I guess. I didn’t even think about it.”
He took a right turn, and the palace loomed ahead of us. “I thought that might be the case. I noticed you threatened Rat with a blade first before switching to magic at the bar too. It’s part of why I’ve been taking your magical training slow. You need to adjust to having a new kind of weapon at your disposal and start using it instinctually in fights. A danger when you’re first learning a new skill is that it can cause paralysis in high-pressure situations. If you have too many options, you’ll spend a half second too long trying to decide which one to use, and that half second can be the difference between winning and losing. That’s why I brought you those daggers. I want you to have the option of using the weapon you’re most comfortable with if you need to defend yourself.”
I turned to face him, deeply touched. In profile, his long nose and fine features looked almost ethereal. “Thank you, Jae.”
The corner of his lip lifted. “You’re welcome. They’re enchanted to return to you, by the way, so you won’t lose them if you throw them. They’ll just materialize a few moments later back in their sheaths.”
My jaw dropped open. “Holy fuck! That’s amazing!”
Jae’s smile widened, and he shifted his eyes from the road to glance at my beaming face. “I thought you might like that.”
“I love it!” I brushed a hand over his knee. “Thank you. For everything. Including this dress, though I feel like a bit of a fraud wearing it.”
“You’re not a fraud, Lana. Plenty of people at the ball tonight will be dripping with gold and diamonds, but all they’re doing is covering up the ugliness in their hearts. You’re beautiful, inside and out.”
For some reason, his words made tears sting my eyes. Maybe it was the way he spoke so simply and calmly, as if completely certain his pronouncement was true.
“Thank you, Jae,” I whispered again.
He reached over the center console and took my hand, lacing our fingers together. I squeezed his back, and we stayed that way until we reached the People’s Palace.
I’d always thought its name sounded like a bad joke. Nothing about this palace was for “the people.” It had been built a few years after the Great Death, when Denver became the new capital of the country. The Gifted government officials who survived had stepped forward to take control in the aftermath of the plague, which seemed like a good thing at first. They’d managed to rein in the most brutal acts of violence against the Blighted and bring some order to the chaos. I hardly remembered those years, but the old-timers at the Blighted settlement had talked bitterly about how they’d trusted the Representatives at first—until it became clear they were only interested in improving life for their own kind.
Twelve stories high at its tallest point and massively wide, the white marble palace loomed on a slight rise over the whole city, even more imposing than the mountains in the distance. The sprawling north and south wings were four stories high at the ends, with staggered levels building up toward the middle like a huge, elaborate layer cake. There was a massive curated lawn with an enchanted fountain in the front, and two angled roads led up to the entrance. I’d seen the palace from a distance plenty of times—it was impossible to spend time in the Capital and not see it—but I’d never been this close.
When we pulled up to the front, a blue-haired fairy greeted us, meeting Jae as he stepped smoothly from the car and accepting the mage’s keys. I was about to open my door and step out, but Jae reached it first, holding it open and offering me his hand.
Oh, right. Manners. Act like you have some, Lana.
I felt less ridiculous about accepting help climbing out of a car—I was a grown-ass fucking woman, wasn’t I?—when I realized it was actually a lot more difficult in a full-length, billowy evening gown. As I negotiated the yards of fabric wrapped around my body and the godsdamned heels I had to wear, I was grateful for Jae’s steadying grip.
He tucked my hand into the crook of his elbow and escorted me up the red-carpeted stairs to the palace entrance. Nerves twisted my stomach, more intense than they’d ever been on a job before. The stakes were higher tonight, and I was much further out of my element.
Palace staff ushered us up a set of wide stairs and into a grand ballroom. I tried not to gape, but it was difficult. The entire palace was made of white marble, with gold accents on the molding. The soaring ceilings were even more ornately decorated, and chandeliers made of hundreds of threads of magical light hung from them, casting a warm glow over the people gathered in the ballroom.
Everyone was dressed in decadent evening wear like us, though some of the ladies were weighed down by considerably more jewelry than I wore. All I had on besides my necklace were simple teardrop earrings, one of which was enchanted with a communication charm. I pressed the dangling gem to activate it as we made our way through the crowd.
“Akio? Fenris?”
“Here.” Fenris’s voice sounded in my ear. “You guys inside?”
“Yes,” I murmured.
“Good. Go get ’em, killer.”
“And be safe,” Akio added.
“We will.” I started to nod before catching myself. They were over a mile away, hidden outside the perimeter of the palace grounds.
I left the charm activated so they could hear what was going on and accepted the del
icate crystal flute Jae handed me. Champagne popped and fizzed inside it, and I forced myself to take a dainty sip instead of tossing it back in one gulp. I hated the taste of champagne, but I could use a drink to steady my nerves.
Jae and I continued to work our way around the perimeter of the gigantic space. Every so often, someone would stop him to say hello. He’d introduce me, I’d promptly forget the person’s name, they’d kiss my hand, and then we’d move on. I couldn’t see the point of these encounters, but apparently they were the main appeal of events like this. Schmoozing.
Well, maybe not for everyone, I corrected myself, as we passed by a couple standing apart from the others, talking to each other in low voices and shooting furtive glances at the crowd around them. Everyone who passed by seemed to give them a wide berth, and I wondered why until I felt the magic radiating from them.
My eyebrows shot up. “Are those—?”
“Blighted?” Jae dipped his head in a subtle nod, steering me away from the couple. “Yes. Though a better name for them would be ‘enhanced.’ They’re Blighted people who are rich enough and connected enough to essentially buy their way into Gifted society. They’ve likely had magical blood transfusions, undergone multiple DNA altering spells, and are decked out in a vast array of charmed objects and accessories.”
I craned my neck to look at them again, trying not to gawk. “Well, it doesn’t look like anybody here is falling for it. No one will even talk to them.”
“No. They’re looked down upon by most Gifted. You can feel their magic, can’t you? It’s like a patchwork.”
“So they betray their own kind to join the Gifted, and the Gifted don’t even want them?” I grimaced. “That’s all kinds of fucked up.”
Jae’s hand tightened on my arm. “Power corrupts, Lana. Some people will do anything to have more of it, no matter what they have to give up.”
He was right. It was why the Gifted, despite having so many luxuries and advantages, were constantly plotting and scheming against each other, like they were all racing to the top of a mountain and there could only be one winner.