“Very well,” he said. “You gave me a very delicious secret, so I will uphold my end of the bargain.”
His head dipped low again, his lips coming close to my ear but not touching. His warm breath stirred my hair.
“My true name,” he murmured, “is Radven.”
His name was like the song of a river dancing over rocks, with a grace note of an almost-third-syllable right in the middle.
“Radven,” I repeated, and it sounded just as beautiful on my tongue. I said it again just for good measure, and then a third time—
He drew back abruptly, his eyes instantly sharp and serious again, and his grip tightened on my arms.
“You must never utter that name to anyone else,” he told me.
“Why would you hide a name like that?” I asked. “It’s beautiful.”
“Promise me.” His fingers dug into my arms and his eyes flashed with something terrifying.
“Of course,” I sputtered. “But why—”
My voice cut off as the room fell suddenly dark around us.
6
What Lies Beneath
Ahushfelloverthe room. Even the musicians stopped playing, bows screeching across strings before falling quiet.
Everything was perfectly, terrifyingly silent for one breath, two. In my mind I could hear Octavian’s words to me:It’s your silence that I fear.
And then someone screamed.
That broke the spell. The room erupted into chaos, with people shouting and goblets clattering and frenzied steps moving across the floor.
George—Radven—was still gripping my arms, and while he released one he squeezed the other even tighter. Before I could even register what was happening, he was dragging me away from the crowd and along the wall. He was remarkably strong and fast, and I couldn’t have freed myself even if I’d wanted to.
“What’s going on?” I asked, but my words were lost in the confusion. Radven offered no explanations, and his steps never faltered as he pulled me down the length of the room. More than once I thought I saw him push people away from us, but it was too dark for me to be sure.
His grip was starting to hurt, his fingers digging into my skin, and I was about to demand he release me when the lights flickered, then came on again.
Most of the guests were just as shocked by the return of the light as they’d been by its sudden disappearance, and once again the room fell quiet and still. A number of the revelers had clearly been rushing for the exit, as evidenced by the tangle of bodies near the door, while others were scattered around the room and surrounded by the evidence of the recent chaos—torn dresses, broken goblets, elaborate wigs askew.
Only Radven never stopped, and he continued to drag me behind him as I watched the party come back to life. Guests relaxed again, even laughing as if this whole scene had been some sort of elaborate performance. I heard more than one relieved boast of, “Iknewit was nothing! Just a brief power outage!” Even the musicians were already picking up their instruments again, and a waltz began just as Radven and I reached a nondescript door at the end of the room.
“What are you doing?” I tried to tug myself free, but his grip remained firm. “It was just a minor blackout. Look, the party’s starting up again.”
But either he didn’t hear me or he chose to ignore me. He pushed through the door and dragged me along behind him, into a quiet hallway on the other side.
At this point, I could feel both anger and panic welling up inside me, so I reached into my purse with my free hand and grabbed the little canister at the bottom.
“Let me go or I swear I will pepper spray the shit out of you.”
He released me immediately, but when he spun around to face me, there was something terrifying in his eyes. He was no longer a predator toying with his prey, but instead one who’d sensed a threat.
And despite the can of pepper spray in my hand, I got the distinct impression that the threatwasn’tme.
“Do you have any idea what’s happening right now?” he practically growled at me.
“No,” I snapped back. “That’s exactly what I’ve been telling you this entire time.”
