He still carried the sea with him, but now it felt tainted with metal. It sliced through my senses, lodging in my throat.
Leaving an oily slickness over my skin.
No words were spoken. His grip never wandered, never faltered. But his eyes, those never left me.
Did he know?
The chorus faded, slipping into a low, mournful melody, pain knifing my temples as his fingers dug deep into the bare flesh of my side. I staggered, stiff against the pull, panic searing as the pain turned to agony.
The dark pulse writhed awake at the base of my spine before curling back into itself. The floor tilted, then rushed up as sound thinned, the ballroom narrowing into a tunnel of sight.
I had just enough time to think,gods no, before a fog closed in, drifting between us, lifting from our feet, an intrusive ash brushing my nose.
Not fog. Smoke.
It glided past my hips, warming the air until it landed right where Reve’s hand rested. He hissed, recoiling as if he had been scorched. His arm flew back, eyes narrowing at the reddened skin now stark against his flesh.
I pressed a palm to the small of my back where his hand had retreated, gravity finding its way back to me. I felt no burn, no mark. All that remained was the lingering heat against my spine.
A wraith of something, someone, left behind.
That smoke, that curious, deadly coax…I knew it.
When I turned, Reve was already gone, slipping through the crowd, still clutching the back of his hand. Elbows jabbed into me, wine splashing from crystal as I stood stranded in the middle of the dance floor.
The music thundered on, strings bright, drums heavy as the pounding in my skull surged from my temples to the top of my spine. It remained unbearable still.
My vision splintered when my knees buckled, silk pooling useless against tile as the stone floor kissed my palms.
Vibrations roared through me, clawing under my skin until it rattled my bones. Tension shot from my spine to my jaw when my teeth clenched together, hands shooting to massage my scalp in hopes of relieving even a touch of pressure.
I exhaled when it didn’t work, drops speckling the floor beneath me. Beads of red, drip, drip, drip, from where my fangs had pierced my lip.
I tried to rise, but the demand, the vicious pull, dragged me deeper. Until my body nearly collapsed from the strain.
A hand wrapped my arm, large, calloused, lifting with an unforgiving steadiness.
The smoke rolled in first, then his breath, his mouth skimming the shell of my ear. “You better hide behind that mask of yours quickly.”
Ronan.
Power slid through me, unfurling in every space I couldn’t hold steady.
“Sooner would be better, Viper.”
I didn’t move; I couldn’t. Not with the way his fingers found the back of my head, pressing until my cheek collided with his shoulder. His body caged mine, shielding me from the dozens of eyes around us.
“I can’t. It’s my head,” I managed, forcing myself upright. “Let me go so I can mend it.”
It felt like it was going to explode at any given second. The pain shot from my skull to my spine to even the soles of my feet.
“Just breathe,” he said. Not gentle, nor commanding.
And before I could let the words settle, or take a damn breath, his smoke got there first, slipping beneath my skin, chasing away the pain, the ache. Forcing the other magic out, the agony vanishing with it.
Stunned, I blinked, staring up at him where his grin curved, insufferable. “What are you, you overgrown lizard, part witch?”
Yet for the first time in hours, my mind was perfectly clear.
