“Night isn’t.”
They both eyed the Veles who appeared relaxed, sprawled outside the closed doors to the ballroom where the evening’s event would take place.
At the mention of his name, Night blinked lazily at them and rolled onto his side. He stretched his back and front paws as far as they would go, exposing his incredibly tempting belly that just screamed to be petted.
Even knowing it was a trap, Tate’s fingers burned with the urge to touch. Just one stroke. Maybe two.
Only, if she acted on the urge, there’d be blood. Everywhere. All over her jacket. Strewn across this beautiful hall. To say nothing of how much she’d track through the ballroom when it came time for the announcement.
At that point, it would be safe to say her first appearance at court would be a disaster.
It wasn’t that Night didn’t have any accessories to make it clear he was part of their group. Ashwin had been rather insistent in the beginning that Night wear the bow tie she’d created out of the scraps from Tate and Dewdrop’s outfits.
One look at Night’s obstinate expression and Tate had decided to let the seamstress fight that battle. She’d told Ashwin she was welcome to try to put the bow tie on him herself if she wanted him to wear it. He’d only needed to lift his lip to show a fang for her to back off.
Sometimes Tate wished all it took was flashing her teeth for people to reconsider their plans. Unfortunately, her teeth lacked oomph. She’d have to be in Ilith’s form for that to work. Not something she could pull out anytime she wanted to.
“I think you look handsome,” Daisy told Dewdrop.
A faint red stained Dewdrop’s cheeks. Tate didn’t think it was her imagination when he rolled his shoulders back and stood a little taller in the process.
Dewdrop wasn’t the only one who cleaned up nice. Daisy was always pretty but tonight she resembled her namesake. Sweet and innocent but with an unassuming charm.
Far from her dress being some simple thing thrown together at a moment’s notice, it was apparent that care and thought had gone into its construction.
It was the color of sunlight. The bodice waist and sleeves were a cheery white yellow before gathering into a full skirt that fell to her feet. The same color as the rest of the dress, the skirt also had a transparent fabric overlay that made it look like hundreds of tiny white flower petals had gotten caught in its depths.
Thora was even more calculating than Tate had given him credit for to prepare something like that for Daisy in advance.
Either he knew this was coming, or at least suspected it. Tate wouldn’t put it outside the realm of possibility if Thora had commissioned outfits for all the dragonlettes in case of emergency.
She had to hand it to him. There was a reason he was the dragon commander instead of someone else.
Roslyn’s nervous fidgeting distracted Tate.
“It’s going to be fine,” Roslyn said, looking like she thought it would be anything but. “Totally fine. Nothing will happen.”
Dewdrop eyed her. “How is she more nervous than us?”
“Maybe she knows something we don’t.”
Neither of Tate’s companions seemed overly worried about what was to come. To them, this was just another day and just another event to get through.
Night was always like that, though. It must be the feline in him. Nothing ever really worried him. He took things as they came.
As a former member of a Night Court, Dewdrop was experienced in such matters. If anything, the emperor’s court was probably less bloodthirsty than what he was used to. Not to say the Night Court didn’t have its own set of rules but they were a little looser down there.
It was understandable everyone was antsy. It was approaching an hour since they’d been instructed to wait for their announcement. Much longer and her companions wouldn’t be the only ones she had to worry about. Tate, herself, was getting bored.
Bad things happened when she was bored.
The gold-plated doors blocked most of the hum of the crowd beyond but not all. Two guards in full armor stood on either side, waiting. They paid no attention to Tate and the rest, staring straight forward with expressionless faces.
“How much longer?” Dewdrop asked.
Tate shook her head. They were on new ground. She had no way of guessing.
“We shouldn’t have to wait much more,” Roslyn said.
