The crowd broke out into raucous applause and cheers that completely stunned me. I wasn’t used to receiving so much praise and attention. Raiden, on the other hand, had no problem with it—he waved at the crowd below and nudged me to do the same. Shyly, I gave them all a small wave, and the cheering grew evenlouder.
Against my better judgment, I sought out Shota in the crowd. He was standing in the middle of the room, looking up at us, and for just a moment, I caught an expression of such intense longing on his face that it stunned me. But it disappeared the moment I locked gazes with him, so quickly that I wondered if I’d imaginedit.
As I stared down at him, trying to decide what the hell to think, Raiden tucked me against him once more. I tore my gaze from Shota’s as we descended the staircasetogether.
“You’re doing great,” Raiden assured me, even as my stomach began to flip-flop. He squeezed my arm, as if he sensed my distress. “I’ll be right here with you the wholetime.”
I glanced at him, envious of his calm demeanor. “You act like you’ve done thisbefore.”
“The Takaoka family attends social functions like this all the time,” Raiden said simply. “It’s par for the course when you own a multi-million dollarcorporation.”
We reached the ballroom floor, and for a moment, I was terrified that everybody would rush toward us. But to my surprise, the guests parted, clearing a path to Ryujin. The dragon king and his wife looked expectantly toward us, and suddenly I felt like the biggestidiot.
Duh. Of course you can’t just melt into the crowd and become a wallflower. You have to pay your respectsfirst.
Raiden and I reached the dais, then sank to our knees and bowed our heads to thefloor.
“Good evening, Ryujin-sama,” Raiden said, and I was thankful he was speaking for both of us. “We are very pleased to be here as your guests of honortonight.”
“You may rise,” Ryujinsaid.
As Raiden and I got to our feet, I was painfully aware that the entire ballroom had fallen silent. Even the musicians had stopped playing. I wasn’t exactly agoraphobic, but I did hate being the center of attention. My skin prickled with anxiety, and it took everything in me to meet the dragon king’s gaze calmly and pretend there wasn’t an entire room of people watchingme.
“As you all know now,” Ryujin said, pitching his voice so the whole room could hear, “these two shamans risked their lives to bring our queen the coveted monkey king’s liver so she might partake of its healing properties and become well again. That she sits here with me tonight is entirely due to these two brave humans, and I would see them rewarded for theirefforts.”
Ryujin lifted a hand, and a servant who had been standing in the shadows came forward. He bowed to Raiden and me, then offered me a huge leather pouch. My nerves buzzed with excitement as I took it from him and carefully opened it. With bated breath, I reached in and pulled out the jewel of ebbing tide. It blazed in my hand like white fire, and my skin hummed in response to the contact. It was like a low-level electrical charge was coursing through mybody.
“As promised, the jewels of rising and ebbing tides,” Ryujin said as I pulled out the other stone. “They must be returned by the next fortnight. You may either return them in person or give them to theUmigameto ferry back to me when you are finished withthem.”
Raiden and I both swore that we would see the jewels returned. We bowed again, then straightened up, expecting Ryujin to give us the weapon he’d promised. Instead, he told the crowd to enjoy the ball, and the guests all erupted into applauseagain.
My stomach sank in disappointment at the dragon king’s obvious dismissal, and part of me wanted to protest. But Raiden caught my eye, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was—that it would be suicide to make a scene in front of so many people. Wordlessly, he offered me his arm, and we turned away, prepared to melt into the crowd and endure the endless hours of conversation awaiting us. I immediately zeroed in on Amabie and Shota standing just a few feet away. Amabie was hanging on Shota again, but he looked so damn uncomfortable that I didn’t feel jealousy at all. Taking pity on him, I headed towardhim.
“Aika! Raiden!” Shota darted forward, escaping Amabie’s clutches. “The two of you did amazing up there.” He smiled broadly at us, as though the awkwardness from earlier had neverhappened.
“Thanks.” I smiled, even though I didn’t really feel like I’d been awesome. My stomach was a pit of worry, and I felt like it was going to swallow me whole. Raiden had been right. How were we supposed to go up against Kai without any kind of advantage? We’d been counting on thatweapon.
“Don’t look so disappointed, you two,” Amabie said. She lowered her voice. “My father told me to have you meet him in his suite after the ball so he can give you the weapon. He does not want to do this in front of all these people. Any one of theyokaihere could be in league withKai.”
A shiver crawled down my spine at the serious tone in her voice. It made perfect sense, and I immediately felt bad for doubting the dragon king. “I suspected it was something like that,” Raiden said. He sounded calm, but his shoulders had tensed subtly, and I knew he was on his guard now. Why hadn’t I thought aboutthis?
Amabie nodded. “I will take you to him when the time comes.” Straightening, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and put on a sparkling smile. “I’m so glad you’re enjoying the party,” she said in a louder voice that was obviously for the benefit of everyone else. Craning her neck, she waved at anotherningyoacross the room, one who bore a striking resemblance to her. “Ooh, look, my cousin Arie arrived! Let me introduce you,Shota.”
“I—whoa!” Shota said as Amabie yanked him away. He cast Raiden a long-suffering look as she dragged him across the ballroom floor. I realized then that Shota was hanging out with Amabie for the same reason I’d let her maids dress me up earlier—the princess was too important to offend. Some of the heavy weight on my chest lifted, and even though I still didn’t love watching Amabie drape herself all over Shota, I at least didn’t feel like I wanted to murder heranymore.
“So,” Raiden said, pulling my attention back to him. I blinked when I noticed he was offering his hand to me. “May I have thisdance?”
My heart skipped a beat at the warm look in his eyes. “I’m not really familiar with ballroom dancing,” I said shyly, glancing toward the couples whirling across the dancefloor.
“Lucky for you, my mother thought it would be fun to sign me up for lessons when I was fourteen,” Raiden said, smirking a little. “I don’t think this is exactly what she had in mind when she said I would need to use the skill someday, but there’s no time like the present,right?”
I couldn’t help it—I laughed. “Your mother made you take ballroom dancing as a teenager?” I asked, finally taking his hand. “I’m having a hard time envisioning you waltzing around a room in atuxedo.”
Raiden grinned. “You’re about to see it rightnow.”
My stomach leapt as Raiden guided me to the dance floor, and I realized that everybody was going to be looking at usagain.
Get over it,I told myself sternly as Raiden and I took up our positions. He put his left hand on my waist, and my skin tingled beneath my dress as he slowly slid his hand up my side until it was curled just beneath my shoulder blade. Gently, he took my left hand and placed it on his upper bicep, then clasped our free handstogether.
