“Blessings of the Four on you both,” he said, taking one last long look at me before beginning a campaign through the crowd.
Like a hawk on a perch, Rhazien watched Eryx as he retreated to mingle with guests. The previously charismatic and boisterous regent shifted, as if the Solstice frosts had crept beneath his skin, chilling and stilling him.
“Are you well?” I whispered up to him, the blood pushed the question past my defenses.
Rhazien’s eyes brightened. It was the first time I’d initiated a conversation since…
“Perfectly well, my love. Better than I have been in days.” His fingertips traced my shoulders and slid down my arms until they captured my hands in his. “I’m looking forward to sunrise.”
I tilted my chin up to him, lengthening my neck and feeling the scrape of the black diamonds against my skin. “That’s a peculiar sentiment from a vampire.”
Rhazien’s hands cradled my lower back, pulling me flush with his skin. My instincts to recoil collided with the blood. Its alluring call to submit to its whims submerged my resistance.
“Will you let me worship you—” he nibbled at my earlobe, fanning the ember of a flame building in my base “—the way you deserve to be worshipped?”
My heart fluttered at his request. His need.
I had wanted this. I had wanted him.
But not anymore. Any want coursing through me was the blood’s, not my own.
More than the riches and titles and lust he could offer, I wanted freedom. And with Rhazien, anything resembling freedom now came at a steep price.
My response hung on my lips as a scream erupted from the far side of the ballroom.
And then another.
Guests sprinted for the ballroom exits.
“What’s happening?” I asked, tucking myself into Rhazien to avoid a fleeing vampire.
Shadows slithered through the opening, their dark trails searching, exploring, and blackening anything in their path.
Shades.
“Take her to safety!” Rhazien yelled to a nearby guard before barking orders to others posted around the room. “Get the wards back up!”
The frenzy swallowed Rhazien whole as he sought to control the situation.
Panicked guests fled the glittering ballroom, knocking over tables with the perfectly placed bouquets, trays of expensive wine, and tapered candles. Small fires rose throughout the ballroom, quickly clouding the room in a thin veil of smoke.
I looked ahead to the men pulling me away from the chaos. But it wasn’t the familiar garb of Southern Hive soldiers that led me through the crowd. They wore red. The color of the Northern Hive. Eryx’s color.
As if rehearsed, two more Northern Hive soldiers flanked my sides and back. The six guards surrounded me and were leading me away. A roaring built in my ears. Every instinct screamed at me to get away from them.
“Fire!” I yelled from behind their walls, waving my hands frantically.
Eyes turned to my screams and soldiers wearing Rhazien’s emerald emblems approached.
A guard in front of me assured them, “We’ll escort the prospect. The regents need help securing the wards.”
And why wouldn’t the guards take orders? It’s what they were trained to do. But one of them stayed. One of them with dark hair and storm-filled eyes.
“Release her.”
“We are moving her to safety at the command of the regent,” the same Northern Hive soldier said.
Dommik tilted his head. His gaze burrowed into the guards, dark and menacing.
