It seemed as if two civilisations had collided and combined, blending East and West with paper lanterns dangling fromwrought-iron chandeliers, and potted bamboo growing against baroque wallpapered walls.
By the time I reached the threshold of the ballroom, my head spun with too much beauty.
The group of women huddled together in the heart of the cavernous room, the lights turned down to mimic a false gloaming—thanks to the black velvet draping most of the huge windows. The carved panels on the walls glittered with mother-of-pearl and tarnished mirrors, reflecting the flicker of low-burning lamps and thirty pairs of worried eyes.
Coming to a stop, I glanced around, peering into the shadows for signs of the panther.
I’d begun to think I’d lost my sanity on the bus here and everything that’d happened since was a strange kind of dream.
“What’s everyone doing?” I whispered to the girl standing close by. “Why are they waiting here?”
She glanced at me, her features fighting courage and panic. “We’re waiting for him to grace us with his presence, of course.”
“Lucien Ashfall?” I watched her carefully. Was she one of the women who’d come here, knowing the free spa weekend was a lie, or was she like me and cursing herself for being so dumb?
“Yes.” She pursed her lips, glancing at the rest of the women. “He’s in here somewhere...hunting us.” Glancing at the pinprick on her fingertip, from where they’d drawn her blood, she frowned. “My trainer never mentioned admittance would be based on DNA.” Her eyes met mine. “Why do you think they—”
“It’s to see if your body is compatible with his, you idiot,” a girl beside her replied. “And that you’re not on birth control.”
“Eww.” She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t need to be compatible with him. I have no intention of sleeping with him. I merely want to—”
“Kill him?” Another girl, who I thought was called Serena, muttered under her breath. “Your side won’t win. They say he’s unkillable. Might as well join our side instead.”
Wait...what?
There are sides now?
“Yes, well, he’s still human, isn’t he?” the brown-haired girl who’d spoken first said quietly. “And he’s only one man. There’s at least sixteen of us who got in who want him dead.”
“You’re so short-sighted.” Serena huffed, fluffing out her blonde hair. “It’s better to seduce him and get pregnant. Then you’ll carry his bloodline and want for nothing.”
“If you think they’d worship you for having his bastard you’re more delusional than us.”
I looked to the front of the ballroom, trying to hear past the whispers of the women as they divided themselves into seducers and assassins. Tension gathered the longer time ticked, pulling tight as corset strings, making it hard to breathe.
The lamps scattered around the ballroom suddenly dimmed as if something sucked the meagre light from the room. Shadows lengthened across the jade-inlaid floor as the midnight-pelted panther stalked past.
The crowd cracked down the middle, women reeling back and gasping as the giant predator nonchalantly prowled to the dais at the top of the room. Its huge paws padded up the three stone steps before it turned around, glowered at all of us, and threw itself down in a lazy sprawl.
No one moved or spoke.
My eyes danced around the space, trying to see—
There.
A tall figure peeled free from the gloom on the left, moving like pure shadow.
A ripple of awareness flickered through the women as a man slowly came into view, striding slowly toward the platformwhere a huge throne waited. The panther lay at the foot of it, its glowing eyes locked on the man as he stepped up the stairs and joined the giant cat.
Bare feet—pale and silent, flashed beneath black trousers that moved like water. A matching black shirt draped his lean, tall shape like liquid night, while a long black overcoat, undone and clinging to his shoulders, trailed behind him, sweeping the floor with darkness.
I couldn’t catch my breath as I drank him in.
He didn’t hurry to take his place on the throne. Didn’t speak to the women all congregating at the bottom of the dais. He merely slowed to a stop, turned to face us, and arched his chin.
The very air in the ballroom seemed to retreat, increasing the erratic pulse of my heart.
My vision turned hazy as my headache made me groan with pain.
