The third is a slender blond girl, with gorgeous hazel-green eyes and a dagger-sharp smile. She’s annoyingly pretty, her smile lingering and broad. She’s the only other one without bat wings, hers like a downy barn owl’s.
Draven finally notices my approach, and his hand moves against the flat of my back, keeping me close to his side. I slinkinto him. My mental shields lower enough to brush his, but there’s no flex there. Just unyielding steel. Even with friends.
The one talking bumbles to a stop. “But … yeah, anyway. We can discuss the best course when we get there.”
“Right.” Draven then nods to me. “I believe you all know Rune, but you haven’t properly met yet.”
Their eyes swivel to me as one.
“Rune, the talkative one is Malik, he’s our Devil Arcana.”
“I specialize in illusions.” His grin is dazzling, and as he takes a bow his hand hovers over the tarot deck at his side. Draven’s clothes are replaced with blinding pink garments, but the prince barely reacts beyond rolling his eyes.
“Joke’s on you. I look amazing in every color.” Draven side-eyes him, though the girls giggle and Malik winks at me, dispelling the illusion until my princeling is once again in his usual black on black.
“Zara is my master of secrets, a Hermit Arcana.”
So, the gift of invisibility. I wait but the bat-winged girl only stares at us.
“I don’t use my Arcana just to show off.” Her eyes are like wells, dark and soul enveloping. I can’t hold them long. Malik though, all charm and unseriousness, is lured and leans close to her.
“You should, it’s fun.” His voice is nearly singsong.
“And the blonde who can’t get her eyes off your chest is Fable, our Hanged Man Arcana—”
“Hanged Woman.” Her correction feels flirtatious, as does the way she bats her hair back, every movement as graceful as a self-satisfied cat’s.
“Time control?” I ask. It’s not an Arcana I’ve gotten remotely good at, still focusing primarily on Draven’s list, and she nods, a grin lilting her lips as she looks me over.
I straighten under her scrutiny.
Draven clears his throat. “Fable and her brother Scorpius have been with me longest, and usually if there’s trouble, it’s because one of them started it.”
“Firstly, Rune is far too pretty for you,” Fable starts, and my face heats at her compliment. “Secondly, I’ve saved Draven’s ass more times than I can count, but he always seems to forget that part.” She slides him a sarcastic grin and loops her arm around mine. “If you ever get bored of him and his whole broody prince routine, you just let me know—”
“Okay.” Draven scoots her aside with zero apology, his arm pulling me tightly against his side, palm spread over my hip.
I bite back a smirk as Fable chuckles, ribbing him with her elbow. I lean toward him so I can whisper in his ear. “Jealous little thing, aren’t you, Draven?”
His gaze ignites, burning magenta, and I grin. There he is.
Malik blatantly points at him, turning to Zara with a look of glee illuminating his entire face. “I told you! I’ve only seen his eyes do that twice since I’ve known him, both times because he was pissed, but around Rune they’re a damn mood ring—”
“Gods Below,” Draven curses, pinching the bridge of his nose.
As Zara and Fable giggle together, another male druid with bat-like wings walks over to us. He’s just as tall as Draven, with features as gold as Draven’s are dark. He’s beautiful, too, as if Draven makes it a mission to collect a powerful and gorgeous entourage, all of them enigmatic in some way or another that makes me feel a bit overshadowed and small.
Draven’s tone has a hint of apathy as he hisses at the newcomer, “You’re late, Scorpius. Where have you been?”
“Cleaning up your mess,” the blond, Scorpius, growls back, tucking back his long hair into a warrior’s bun. He’s the onlyone with three pendants on his collar, so he’s the oldest of the cohort. “There were a lot of questions in Moon’s Hearth.” His hazel eyes finally meet mine. “The hells is she doing here?”
“Watch your tongue. And next time when I tell you to be somewhere, be here on time or I’ll leave you behind.” Draven clenches his jaw, turning his back on the moody blond, but I track Scorpius uncertainly as he shuffles into a different opening in our little circle. The petulant look he gives Draven chafes something in me.
I spent my formative years with him tattling on my every move to my father.Draven’s voice spools into my mind.I sincerely doubt anything’s changed.
Why haven’t you left him in stitches?My gaze lifts.
Who says I haven’t?Draven’s shoulders lift.But I can’t put him in a coffin. Unfortunately, his sister is one of few people I trust.Draven straightens his formfitting jacket.He’s also a Moon Arcana, capable of shapeshifting into my body double. I don’t wholly trust him, but we need him if we’re going to search for your family over the border.
