"The shit ton of alchemical symbols? Yeah. They can't seem to help themselves."
"No, little brother. Look up."
Apollo did, and bile crept up his throat. "Val, is this going to hurt us?"
"What? What is it?" Lachlan asked, staring up.
"It's a sigil. A big, twisting, intricate sigil," Valentine said, studying the lines and dashes in red, black, and gold above them.
"It looks like some kind of sacred geometry design to me. Are you sure it's a sigil?" Lachlan replied.
Apollo's hand tightened on his arm. He shouldn't have bought Lachlan within a mile of this fucking place.
"Oh, it's definitely a sigil. It's not designed to harm by the looks of it. It's acting like a big dream catcher, but instead of collecting dreams, it's catching energy from the dancers. I think it's influencing people to dance as well." Valentine had an almost admiring look on his face. "It's neatly done. If we were average humans, I'd say it would have more strength."
Apollo stared about him, and sure enough, within moments of people entering the ballroom, they would set down their glasses and make for the dancefloor. The musicians were mostly on stringed instruments and were playing mesmerizing waltzes.
"Do you think it's feeding a larger spell?" Apollo asked Valentine.
"Could be, but a better use of it would be to store energy like a big battery or silo to use whenever they wanted. Ritual dance energy for whenever you need it. Bloody clever."
Lachlan made a disapproving sound. "Stop acting like it's a good idea, Valentine. These people are fucking monsters."
"At least they are smart ones. I can't help admiring skill wherever I see it. You two should start dancing, or they will notice something is wrong. I will go look at the auction items and find the security doors Layla mentioned," Valentine replied before gliding off through the crowd.
Apollo didn't need to look under Lachlan's mask to know he was frowning.
"Don't judge him too harshly. Val loves magic more than anything in the world," he said, patting Lachlan's hand.
"I suppose we should do as he says and dance," Lachlan replied, and his mouth lifted into a grin. "But I get to lead."
"And why is that?" Apollo huffed.
"Because you are a terrible dancer, Apollo. And I was forced to take lessons growing up." Lachlan toyed with one of Apollo's curls and let it spring up again. "I promise I will let you lead later."
Apollo rolled his eyes. "You're pretty confident anything will happen later at all."
"I always keep my promises," Lachlan said. He lifted Apollo's hand to his mouth and kissed his knuckles, his blue eyes locking onto his. "Dance with me."
Apollo was a sucker for a hand kiss, so he could only nod and let Lachlan lead him easily out onto the dance floor.
20
Nothing had felt so right to Lachlan as leading Apollo into a waltz. The other man's body seemed to fit neatly up against his, and even though he wasn't the best of dancers, Apollo knew how to follow Lachlan's lead and move along gracefully.
"This isn't so bad, is it?" he asked because Apollo still had a stiffness to his spine.
"I feel like everyone is watching me," Apollo replied, his eyes darting around him.
Lachlan couldn't help but smile. "They can't help it, Apollo. You are the most handsome man here. The mask doesn't do much to hide that."
"That's not what I meant." Apollo gave him an irritated look. "And you're only saying that because you want to get in my pants."
"And your shirt. And your cute rainbow toe socks," Lachlan replied, trying to get a smile out of him.
Apollo sighed in despair. "I'm never going to live that night down, am I?"
"I liked how they matched your underwear. Really, it's quite irritating how you're always so adorable."
