“Is this…a hotel?”The shock in my voice was easy to hear. But Bo didn’t answer straight away, his gaze scanning the space with a familiarity that made it clear none of this surprised him in the slightest.
“This is the Vault,” he said finally, like that alone should explain everything.
It didn’t.
If anything, it made it worse.
Because nothing about this felt remotely like the kind of place someone would go for protection. No, what it did feel like was stepping from the supernatural frying pan into the fire. Into a world that had been left to run wild, where rules didn’t exist unless someone strong enough decided they did.
And yet no one here looked afraid.
No, in fact…they looked free.
Some of the people even looked human dressed in everything from sharp suits to barely-there scraps of fabric that clung more for effect than modesty. Their bodies moved freely, uninhibited and tangled together in ways that made heat rise to my face before I could stop it. But as for the others…oh, these people were something else entirely.
A demon swept past us on roller skates, laughing as he weaved effortlessly through the crowd. His eyes glowed faintly beneath sharply cut dark hair, and his grin was far too wide to be anything close to human. Across the room, a creature with elongated limbs lounged lazily on a velvet chaise. Its skin shimmered faintly, as though it couldn’t quite decide what color it wanted to be. Above it, something winged perched on a stone arch, watching everything with quiet, predatory interest, most of its features shadowed in darkness.
And that was just what I could process in a single glance.
Because everywhere I looked, there was more.
More bodies. More movement. More things that didn’t belong in any world I had ever known.
“Come on,” Bo added, already moving again, slipping easily into the current of bodies as though he belonged here. But of course, he did, as now he was among his own kind and no longer had to hide himself.
I hesitated for only a second before following, my steps slower, more cautious as I tried not to stare and failed completely, regardless. My gaze caught on everything all at once. A flash of fire to my left made me jump slightly as a demon exhaled a plume of flame into the air. The heat brushed briefly against my skin before vanishing just as quickly.
“Careful,” Bo muttered, glancing back at me with the faintest hint of amusement.
“You’re not exactly fireproof.”
“Jeez, well, that’s reassuring,”I replied dryly, though my attention was already being dragged somewhere else. My gaze shifted across the strange room, pulled toward a raised area I hadn’t noticed at first. Although, how I missed it, I didn’t know.
Not when it looked as though it had been assembled from pieces that had no business belonging together. Dark polished wood sat against panels of glass, veins of gold twisting throughit in intricate patterns. Flashes of multicolored jewels were embedded throughout, catching the light in sharp, shifting bursts. Some of them glowed faintly, while others refracted the ever-changing light around the room. The colors scattered across its surface in a way that felt almost aware, as if it were responding to movement rather than simply reflecting it. There were even sections that looked suspiciously like bone worked into the frame. And yet somehow it all came together into something bold, something extravagant, something impossible to ignore.
And behind it stood someone even more impossible to ignore. As even at a distance, there was no missing him. Tall, poised, and entirely out of place in a way that somehow made him fit perfectly within it. His presence cut through the room, despite how eclectic it was. Every movement was so self-assured, every line of him composed, like he wasn’t simply part of this world, but performing within it.
The contrast was dizzying.
As we moved closer, weaving through the crowd toward him, I leaned slightly toward Bo, my voice dropping into a quiet hiss meant only for him.
“Seriously, Bo, where have you brought me?”I asked, the question heavier now, edged with something far less certain than before.
Bo didn’t answer.
Because someone else did.
“Oh, my dear…” a voice cut in smoothly, rich with amusement and threaded with something unmistakably theatrical, as he told me…
“Why… the only place worth being alive for.”
19
LORD WALDER
“Welcome, welcome,” the man said, rising smoothly to his feet in a single, fluid motion that felt more like a performance than something as simple as standing. His hands spreading slightly as though presenting the space around him.
“And what a delightful surprise you are,” he added with a grin that was somewhere between friendly and sinister. My brows lifted slightly before I could stop them, because I didn’t quite know where to look first. So, in the end, I started from the bottom, taking in his outfit.
