I’m surprised, and kind of thrilled, when she throws her hands up and dances with me.
We dance and we dance. I don’t think about pack shit. I don’t think about anything. I steer Winter away from any drinks offered bystrangers, and I don’t let the curious draw too near once they start to get used to the fact she’s marked by Ariel. I hope she doesn’t see some of the creepier Kind who are here too, swaying on their tentacles and such, but she doesn’t seem to notice. Or maybe she’s given them all dating advice in the coffee-stand drive-through and no longer finds them all that creepy.
We just dance. We have a few drinks made of alcohol with no magical boosters. Winter and I speculate about where Briar went and conclude that she was overwhelmed by her own invitation and likely had to go decompress somewhere, but the music is too good to chase after her. Besides, she knows where we are.
I haven’t felt this light since New York, I realize. And maybe not even then, because there was too much weight on what I was doing, what I was leaving behind while I was doing it, and what my future would hold. And much as I loved my years in New York, I was hiding there.
Not having to hide who I am, it turns out, changes everything.
We keep dancing until the sky starts to lighten in the distance.
The party starts to break up. The music stops, which feels like a small tragedy. Winter and I stagger our way through the crowd and out of the ruins.
And when we do, we come face-to-face with Ty.
He’s leaning against what was once a retaining wall, his back to the valley. This reminds me of a thousand other nights across the years. I couldn’t go anywhere without someone—usually one of my brothers—reporting my whereabouts back to Ty. He would often show up to take me home, a quiet reminder that I was his to everyone involved.
Maybe especially to me.
I look over my shoulder toward the crowd and think I see Briar’s beanie heading in the opposite direction. I can’t blame her. Ty’s neutral face—the one he’s wearing now—makes most people want to cry. And run. I figure I’ll catch up with her back at the cottages and see how her birthday went from her perspective.
When I look back, Ariel has appeared.
“Reinforcements?” I ask.
Beside me, Winter laughs, her eyes entirely for her freakishly beautiful lover, all marble slabs of muscle and that cool silver gaze.
“Like I need help hauling your ass home, babe,” Ty says, and he sounds growly, but I can hear the laughter in his voice.
“Fantastic,” says Savi, floating into view. Possibly descending from the still-bright stars. “We’re all together at last. Now maybe we can discuss what’s happening around here.”
7.
“I didn’t realize we wereallinto clubbing,” I drawl, folding my arms over my chest and smirking at Savi and Ty. And at Ariel too. This is likely foolish, but I’m betting he’s unlikely to kill me in Winter’s presence. Not to mention Ty’s. “We would have had everyone over to pregame.”
Ariel peers at me with those silver eyes of his. He doesn’t say anything.
Ty laughs. “Never more attitude than when you know you’re doing something you shouldn’t. You can’t help yourself, can you.”
Maybe I can’t. Or maybe I’ve never really subscribed to the highly selective accepted wisdom around here that I’m supposed to act as if I’ve been locked away in the den all this time whether I’vedone my dutyor not.
“Dancing is never wrong, Ty,” I chide him, in a way I would never do if we weren’t in public, and he knows that. His dark gaze gleams, and I can feel my favorite kind of retribution in the air between us.
Savi, who is the one who actually controls the air between us and everywhere else, lets out a long-suffering sigh. “I’ve been doing a lot of research into the consistent sacrifices that have been turning up all over my land, and yours.” She nods at Winter when she says that.
Winter blinks. “Sacrifices?” She considers. “Oh, you mean your little murdered animals. You didn’t mention they weresacrifices.”
My gaze is on Ty, who looks equally surprised by the use of that word. Not a big shock, since I haven’t told him.
Savi either doesn’t care about these undercurrents or doesn’t notice them. My money is on the first. “Maddox and I discussed this at length the other night when she came to see me on my mountain.”
I can feel Ty’s gaze lighting up the side of my face now, so I make sure to keep my attention on Savi instead. I wonder if she’s deliberately exposing me like this or if it doesn’t occur to her that some things can stay private.
“Combined with her experience of being specifically pursued by what felt like some kind of great darkness,” Savi is saying, sedately, which doesn’t help me any, “we came to the obvious conclusion. That either our favorite goddess isn’t quite as imprisoned as we’d like her to be—an eventuality we knew was possible, though I didn’t think it would be this soon—or someone else wants us to think that she’s fighting her way free.”
Beside me, Winter is shaking her head. “I’m still stuck onsacrifices. You saidroadkill.”
“I saidlikeroadkill,” I remind her.
