In addition to the entrance coins, the eye-bracelet was required upon entry into the main rooms. Signs were posted along the wall threatening immediate removal—or worse—if caught without the bracelets on.
I rubbed it, wondering if it was perhaps made of some sort of stone that contained properties capable of reducing the magic of even a Chosen’s talisman. Such a thing shouldn’t have been possible.
Even with dulled senses, the room was filled with overpowering odors, smoky haze, and pulsing music. Bodies writhed and lounged in the shadows. White waseverywhere.
As I took everything in, I had a creeping sensation that I’d been here before. The dark and vulgar setting struck a chord in my memory from a time in my childhood I’d long forgotten.
I’d never been to Gemini as a child, only as a guardian for King Zephyr’s ceremonial trial and subsequent coronation. I wondered how a place like this could have possibly been familiar.
Jere cut through the crowd to a seating area tucked behind two gauzy gold curtains. A lanky man and leggy woman tangled together. Her white nails threaded through the man’s spiky white hair intimately. Upon our arrival, the woman pulled away to observe us with curious eyes beneath her mask.
The man’s swollen, pierced lips formed into a grin. “Look who it is,” he greeted us, shifting the woman off his lap. She smoothed her long, silky hair over her bare shoulders and reached for a glass on the table centered amidst the square-shaped sofa. “Back again so soon,Jerrome?” The man emphasized the name—Jere’s real name, it seemed—and nodded at me with approval.
Strange.
Jere plopped into the low cushion opposite the couple with a grunt. I joined him, albeit with a bit more tact. “You’re breaking the discretionary rules by using my name, even if we’re in like-minded company,” he said. “I could have you kicked out of here,Kolbyn.”
“You’d like to think so. But fine, you call me Kole, and I’ll call you Jere. Fair?”
The woman grinned into Kole’s shoulder. “You may be one of us, Jere, but you have no rank here.” She pressed a kiss to Kole’s neck then stood gracefully, her white skirt untangling from herinner thighs. Kole slapped her ass on her way out, earning a scoff from Jere.
“Don’t tell me you’re jealous?” Kole crooned, lifting a chalice from the ground to his mouth. “And here I thought the infamous baroness’s son could haveanywoman he desired. Particularly a pretty, dark-haired?—”
“I can. Soon enough she’ll be mine, not yours,” Jere ground out. Beside me, his shoulders vibrated with anger.
Kole’s lazy gaze shifted to me. “Who’s your friend? I wasn’t aware you had any.”
I said quickly, “His mother appointed me to his guard.”
“Guard?” Kole repeated, alarm lifting his brows.
“Can’t get rid of him,” Jere grunted. “Fucker.”
A female server with nothing but two jeweled fabrics adorning her body entered our alcove with a tray of colorful drinks. I reached for two glasses, clumsily knocking over the others to create a distraction. With their attention on the mess, I hovered over the glasses and tapped a sprinkle of the fungal concoction from Alhena.
“She’s spending too much time here,” Jere said, reaching for one of the drinks after the server cleared my spillage. I watched him carefully as he sipped the drink. “You’re corrupting her.”
Kole splayed his hands to the empty couch. “She can do as she pleases.”
“I know what you all think she is, and you’re wrong. We are going to be married soon.”
Surprise flickered in Kole’s pale eyes. His fingers ran over the rim of his glass. “You’re lying. She would have told me.”
“My mother’s planning the ceremony as we speak.”
Kole tipped his head back and laughed. “Oh, you are sopathetic, Jere. Using your mother’s position to force her into being with you? She’ll never agree to it.”
“She will if she cares about the well-being of her family and that stupid shop of theirs.”
I analyzed every tone and inflection of the tense interaction between the men. An edge of possessiveness coated each of their words.
“Set your eyes on someone else,” Kole warned. “She cannot, and will not, be wed. To you or anyone.”
“Stop bringing her here,” Jere seethed. “This is no place for a nobleman’s wife.”
“Perhaps you should have thought of that before becoming amemberyourself. Too late to change your mind. Nonrefundable fee, remember?”
My hands flexed in discomfort at their hypocrisy. I had a role to play, and these affairs had become too personal for my taste. I leaned forward. “I have heard a rumor of a dancer, one likened to a black rose. I’ve come to see her for myself.”
