“I have that mark,” Malace whispers sadly.
He lifts his white shirt. Dozens of tattoos alight his skin, but at the center of his chest between his strong pectorals is the bond of Brotherhood.
“You still think you’re not him?” Ruiner growls.
Malace is always so aloof and distracted. He’s not in this moment. He’s tragic. Haunted by a past he can’t seem to remember.
“My memories are like tattered ribbons.” His breath comes out shallow and uneven. “Even when they’re all tied together, nothing fits right.”
My hand slips out into the cold, and my fingers slide through his. His gaze is slow to travel down to where our hands are now interlocked. I want to give him more. I want to wrap my arms around him and never let this cruel kingdom touch him again.
Leavon did this to him too. Only someone powerful can create ruins. Why would Leavon destroy Malace’s life just to give himself a spy?
“We’ll figure this out.”
“You’re leaving,” Malace says suddenly like an accusation. “You’ll leave, and I’ll remain. A man without purpose. Without care. Without life.”
“Hey!” I shout as his voice fades sorrowfully. “Don’t make me take you to the human world and force you to haunt me there too.”
When he looks down at me, a soft smile is shining in his crimson eyes.
“You’d do that?”
The ridiculousness of it all flutters through me, and I’m smiling right back at him. “Of course.”
“You want me around that much?”
My heart skips as I hold this strange man’s gaze. He’s like a puppy. No matter how much chaos he creates, I’ll never be able to be mad a day in my life at this beautiful man.
“I want you even more than that,” I confess on barely a whisper. I take a single step toward him. My heels scuff his boots, and I still have to lean into him on the toes of my shoes. I want to kiss him. But I want him to remember it too. I don’t want something like that to be tainted by Leavon’s magic.
My head dips low at the last second, and I kiss the side of his sharp jaw instead.
When I pull back, his fiery eyes are shifting all across my features. There’s a soft glow between us, and something inside feels so incredibly right when his hands meet the curves of my hips.
A look lingers there in the light of his eyes that he’s not saying. But ever so slowly, he smiles anyway.
And for a shaking, fleeting moment I think every single thing will be okay.
* * *
When I slide in through my favorite side door, I travel up to the second-floor balcony at once. I didn’t check in at the front door, and I find I’m the only one wearing a cloak or coat of any kind. A woman in a tight red dress curls her lip at my hood that’s pulled all the way up over my shadowed features.
“Someone left the door open, and now the strays are coming in,” she sneers to a woman with blue hair over her glass of wine.
I hold her gaze as I pass, her clattering diamond bracelet telling me she’s not a Chosen woman but a high-ranking noble of some kind. She’s only here to watch the bloodbath and place bets like the majority of the people in this room tonight.
When I step around her, a forked tail with several sharp points swooshes back and forth, catching my leg and sending me sprawling forward. My eyes are blazing when I swing back around. But she ignores me. Her laughter rakes through the room at something the other woman says. It would seem like an accident, but... the end of her tail lifts, and... did she flip me off?
My glare is still held on her while I slip out of the heavy cloak and hang it lazily over the closest chair. Her red lips fall open when my fine gown sways fully out.
“Love that dress,” the blue-haired woman across from her says.
My smile is nearly a sneer when I gaze at the cruel noblewoman who tripped me. “Thank you.”
“Thank you all for coming.” A voice crawls over my skin like spider legs racing down my flesh. From down below, Leavon smiles out to the crowd that’s circled around the long front table he’s standing at. “Ten of the most beautiful, powerful women will be joining us tonight in approximately,” he pauses to look up at the enormous clock face that hangs from the second-floor balcony... the one I’m standing right above.
His words trail off as his blazing golden eyes lock on me. My heart stops, and I spin away from his watchful stare, storming to the back of the room to hide as far away as I possibly can. I keep walking, jostling past the patrons until I come to a shining door at the very back. I shove it open, his words slipping away but lingering with me as the door softly closes.