“Bastet, going with Kaida,” Skylar explains. She watches the two little animals, the Dreki at their backs, as everyone stops to stare. “You know, I better just see they stick with the guards. Remind them to go straight to the room.”
“I didn’t have that on my betting card,” Jessa says, as Skylar chases after the dragon and the cat, but she’s looking beyond Astrid, distracted; and when Astrid looks over her shoulder, she sees why. There’s astriking brunette woman dressed in a peony-pink dress, her mask unable to hide the fact that her eyes keep straying to Jessa.
“You should go say hi.” Astrid nudges her.
“Her name is Lucia. She’s a lord’s daughter from Makesh. She may have been the one to say hi to me first a few days ago.” Jessa’s smirking. “And she gave me the intel on the barons.”
“You sly dog, you.” Astrid bumps her shoulder. “Well, go on, then—go over to her.”
“You not going to join me?”
“Oh no, I’m not going to third wheel.”
Jessa studies Astrid. “Fine, but I’ll be back to hang out with you. And remember the plan: we switch later.” Astrid rolls her eyes but nods. Astrid’s security comes first and foremost for Jessa. “I’m getting Fionn over here while I’m gone. Quincy, track them down for us.”
IHAVE TRACKEDFIONN.THEY ARE RIGHT THERE.He lifts his long snout to point out the witch and their beaver next to the ice archway.
“That’s the water domain,” Jessa says, for some reason glancing at Zryan. The yellow-eyed Shifter Astrid sees now and then with Skylar is beside him, greeting some of the Vatran soldiers like old friends as they move through the party. Zryan glances at Astrid again and pivots toward her, but she doesn’t know if she can face him. They haven’t spoken since Skylar, well, almost killed him, and she’s not sure he knows what happened. That Astrid stepped between him and Skylar. And now, being at this party, seeing him looking like that, it’s making her feel all kinds of things she doesn’t want to feel. She wants to touch him so badly, and after drinking the moonflower, she might actually do it.
“The water domain is exactly where I want to be,” she says, kissing Jessa on the cheek. “Go, I’ll see you later.”
She rushes off toward the path of snow that disappears through the icicled doorway, calling for Fionn to join her, before looking back briefly. Zryan is standing with his hands in his pockets, his wings casting long shadows on the ground in front of him. He tilts his head, and she can see even at this distance his lips curving into a smirk. There’s a tumbling sensation in her stomach and she swallows.
Goddess, she’s in so much trouble.
34Skylar
After checking that Kaida got safely back with Bastet, Skylar heads for the welcome area once again. In ordinary circumstances she’d have a third moonflower drink, but she can feel it spiking her system in a way that probably can’t be good. She takes a sparkling wine instead as she moves through the crowd freely. With Kaida gone, there is nothing to identify her—it’s not like she is known widely. Sure, people are gossiping about the long-lost heir, but most will only have heard rumors as to what she looks like.
She passes a man selling dragon figures and can’t help slowing. He clocks her instantly. “We have one to represent every dynasty, if I can tempt you? Perhaps one of the Lunar Celestials, to match your dress, or we have carved some of the legendary Mjolnir?” He raises a little Mjolnir for her to inspect—it’s pretty good, though it could never capture the pure power that radiates from him.
“No thanks. I have a little dragon all of my own.” She winks and turns away, scanning the crowd. She doesn’t know who, exactly, to target. The barons are notably absent but still, she can’t just march on up to each and every noble and courtier here and ask what they know about the camps, can she? Although, maybe after another wine, that’s exactly what she’ll end up doing.
She spots Axel, standing by the doorway of bark and ivy, representing the fabled Earth dragon. He is in a gold mask, and his tunic is cut close to the lines of his hard, toned body.
Like he can sense her watching, his gaze finds hers, before dropping down the length of her black dress to her bare legs. When his eyesmeet hers again, a shiver passes over her skin. A shiver she knows she shouldn’t feel, given who he is and what he’s done.
The step he takes toward her is stilted, and she wonders if he can sense it, this conflict within her.
“Axel.” The queen’s usually lyrical voice is harsh, and both Axel and Skylar turn to look at her. Skylar wonders if he, too, hadn’t noticed her arrival. Her dress is forest green, tight along the length of her torso, then swooping down in elegant skirts that swish as she walks. Below her mate mark, her mask is green to match, complementing her black hair, which is pinned up—with a small jeweled crown sitting on top. Clearly, she didn’t get the note about anonymity. “I wonder if I could borrow you for a moment. I have need of your expertise.”
Axel sketches a bow. “Of course, My Queen.” Skylar wonders what “expertise” she needs—is there a rebel here, at the ball?
Axel walks to the queen’s side, glancing at Skylar one more time, before he turns his back on her. Probably for the best. She’s not sure that moonflower and Axel would be the best combination right now—and besides, she doesn’t want to be distracted.
It’s only then that she notices the soldier—a red band on his arm marking him out as part of the Blooded segment of the army. Her heart stutters. Thearmyis here?
He’s talking to Zryan, so all she can see is the back of his head, hair cropped to his scalp. But this is it. This is who she needs to talk to. She starts toward them. She’ll distract Zryan—tell him Astrid is looking for him or something—and—
But her path is blocked by Simone.
She’s wearing a feline mask, true to her Shifter form, and a bodysuit that clings to her curves. Skylar does her best impression of a casual smirk. “Not now, kitty cat. I’ve got people I want to chat to.”
Simone places her hand over her heart. “People you want to chat to more than me? I’ll be crying for the rest of the night.”
Skylar snorts, looking over Simone’s head. The soldier is still there. “Well, we can catch up when you’re standing outside my room later, can’t we?”
“Nah—didn’t you hear? I’ve been relieved of guard duty. Apparently they think you can look after yourself.”
