“I honestly wouldn’t know how to lead,” Zack replied.
“I doubt that’s true.” They danced another few moments before Dryden continued. “We have the same saying that mortals do. Look out for the quiet ones.”
“I was raised a hunter, and we have a saying about your kind,” Zack said. “The more you sparkle, the more dangerous you are.”
“Moi? Dangerous?” Dryden faked a gasp and then laughed.
The motion of their dance caused a light blurring of their surroundings. The music kept a brighter tempo alongside the click of heels and the swish of fabric. Voices murmured, dancers talking to one another the way that Dryden was carrying on a conversation with Zack.
Zack kept his chin up, his poise as naturally perfect as he could. “Anyone in the coven or adjacent to it could be dangerous. Hell, everyone in this room is.”
“Except one of the flutists. She is an absolute doll.” Dryden snickered at that.
Zack glanced up at the orchestra, scanning the various musicians. Among them was a doll, sitting on a chair with a flute to her lips. “Is that …” But then he realized that dolls wouldn’t be able to make a flute work correctly and that his hip, where his tattoo was, grew warm. Between one blink and the next, the “doll” was revealed to be a young woman.
“An illusion,” Zack drawled. “How original.”
“I don’t see you casting any,” Dryden replied.
“Fair. I guess.”
“How did you see through it so quickly?”
“It wasn’t logical. Should have had her playing the drums.”
“Oh! That would be better.” Dryden spun Zack. “You know, I think I’m beginning to like you. And this has been a wonderful dance.”
“Yeah. This has been … weird but fun,” Zack said cautiously.
“I don’t mind that,” Dryden said with another grin. When the song came to an end, he bowed to Zack.
Zack returned the bow. As he straightened, Ezra Gladwell approached him and offered his hand the same way that Dryden had. Zack swallowed. Looking at Ezra was like staring at a multiverse version of himself, only with fiery red hair. He took Ezra’s hand and started another spin around the dance floor with him.
Ezra took the lead. “If anybody notices us, they’re going to talk about this little pairing. Sorry.”
My look-alike has a British accent. Or his has an American one. At least we’re not completely identical in appearance.Zack kept his steely, calm expression. “Because they’d think the last person I’d ever touch would be the infamous Ezra Gladwell?”
“That, and we could be brothers. It’s a bit odd,” Ezra said. “Has Roger been honest with you?”
“About what?” Zack asked.
“You must know by now that he’s my sire, not Seamus,” Ezra replied.
“That came up, yeah. How did the family get it wrong?”
Ezra glanced off to the mid-distance. Zack followed his eyeline and spotted that Roger had stepped onto the dance floor with Candide, while Takashi was dancing with one of the mages. In a voice that made him sound more ancient than anyone else Zack knew, Ezra said, “I found Mary a few years after our family died. My twin. I’d shared everything with her until Roger. He was my first real secret. My vampire. My immortality. It all sounded so romantic. And because of that, she didn’t know about him. I tried to beg forgiveness, but all she wanted was the name of the vampire who had ‘corrupted’ me, as she put it. So I said Seamus. Because as wicked and sinful as Roger can be, he isn’t evil.”
And so began the rumor and a legacy. Zack turned his head back toward Ezra, but the question forming in his mind slipped into shadow. Intensity could come in many forms, and Zack recognized the spark in Ezra’s eyes. He’d seen that same quality in pictures of himself. Joy could be as fiercely felt as anger. Looking at Candide and Roger dancing, Ezra had that utter happiness in his gaze.
“You still love him,” Zack whispered.
“I’ve always loved him, but not the way I love her now,” Ezra replied as he brought his attention back to Zack. “You must have noticed. People fall for him easily, but he never lets them in.”
He’s let me in. And Takashi. Zack kept that thought for himself, and they finished out the dance.
The next song was livelier, and Zack was about to make his way off the dance floor when a fey woman stepped forward. She had a long gown of deep greens and purples. Her skin was a pale blue, her hair ice white, her eyes a solid black, and she had a pairof long ebony antlers. She was taller than him by at least a foot. With a smile that was a bit too wide, she said, “I would adore a partner for this next song.”
“I’ll admit I don’t know how to lead, my lady,” Zack said.
