Seth takes my hand. “Thank you for your help, sister-in-law.”
“Be here at midnight,” Azi states to Seth, and I frown, wondering what they will be getting up to.
“Where are you going at midnight?” I ask Seth as he makes a portal right in front of us. He looks down at me and smiles. “Home. My old home.”
Back to hell, it is.
Chapter 15
“I have to admit I love Professor Nordvik’s gowns. She makes them seem flawless,” I tell Poppy, smoothing down the light yellow dress I have on. This one is insane, somehow making it look like I am inside a rose, with petals making the corset of the dress and shaping around my legs. I don’t like the colour yellow, too bright and happy for me, but this is beautiful, and there are no other words for it. Plus, it is so perfectly made and feels amazing on, which most dresses do not. Poppy is in a light green dress that mimics mine, hers has petals more like a poppy, fading from dark green to light at the top. Her hair is up in a bun with little wisps shaping her face.
Mine is curly, mad, and falling all down my back just the way I like it.
“Do you think Toth will come tonight?” she carefully asks. My lips twitch.
“What’s going on with you and the sexy Seelie healer we rescued?” I ask. She shrugs, her cheeks burning red as she walks away from the mirror and to the lift. I walk to her side and nudge her with my elbow.
“I have kissed way too many guys recently. Does that make you feel better?”
She laughs and shakes her head. “Toth hasn’t kissed me or made any kind of move. We just talk all the time, and I love that. We could talk for hours, and it would feel like seconds.”
“So you’re hoping he is at the ball so you can dance with him?”
“Maybe yes. I don’t know,” she says as the lift opens. “He wouldn’t ask me to dance, so I don’t know what I’m hoping for. I just can’t get him out of my head.”
“I know the feeling, Pops,” I reply with a sigh. I hook my arm through hers as we go into the lift, and the doors start to close as we turn around. “I’m heading to the bar right away. What about you?”
“I’m going to wander around and talk to people. The usual thing you do at social conventions,” she tells me with a little sarcasm as the doors slide open to the ballroom. Once again, it is crammed with people, and I instantly want to hide in a corner with a bottle of fae wine, but I force myself to stay next to Poppy until we get closer to the middle of the room. She says goodbye before going through the crowd while I head to the bar, only to have a familiar elven man step in front of me.
Cornaith Daegwyn bows his head full of black hair and lifts his gaze. I bow my head in respect. “Hello again.”
“I was hoping to see you once more, Daesyn,” he comments. “How have you been?”
“Better,” I reply, hating small talk and looking for a way to escape. “How are you?”
“Interested in the future that is playing out around us,” he comments, his eyes tracing my face. “Don’t you see it happening?”
“Other than tight dresses, posh suits, and dancing to old music, I don’t see much else,” I comment, wondering what planet this looney bin is on. I know elves are old as shit, so maybe he has lost his mind at some point over the years.
“I believe there is an alpha hellhound’s son looking for you, and I must retire. Do remember me, dear Daesyn, I am waiting for the third meeting we will have.”
Before I can reply, he walks away, the crowd swallowing him up in dresses and suits just like we spoke about. The elves are weird.
“Wow! Just fucking wow,” Ryker comments behind me. I turn to see him in a sexy suit, which makes him look more wow than me, if I’m being honest. He offers me his hand. “Dance with me.”
“I don’t like dancing,” I reply even as I take his hand, knowing I can’t say no to him over this. I feel an instant buzz as his hand touches mine, and he leads me into the dancers before pulling me against him, taking control of the dance.
Which is good, as I have two left feet. Soon I forget that there are people around us; it just becomes me and him, the two of us staring at each other as we dance around in circles, perfectly blending to the music. “I love dancing with you. By the way, yellow suits you.”
“I prefer purple,” I reply.
“My favourite has become purple,” he comments, stroking his hand down my back in a sensual way and dipping me in time to the music. I gasp as he pulls me back up to spin me around so my back is at his front, and he moves me to the music all the time. “I dream of purple eyes. I see you everywhere—sleep, in the day or at night—it doesn’t matter, you’re in my head, Dae.”
He spins me once more, pulling me back to him. I wrap my arms around his neck this time, our bodies pressed so close there isn’t an inch of space. “I haven’t really thanked you for coming after me in the Otherworld.”
“You didn’t need to. I know you would come after me in hell if I need you,” he replies. “But I wouldn’t want you to. Hell isn’t safe, and my father wants you dead.”
“He can get in line,” I reply.
Ryker laughs as I rest my head on his chest, looking around the dancers to see Poppy and Toth dancing with each other. I grin, a warm feeling filling my chest when I see how he looks down at her.
They might not have kissed yet, but it is going to happen. They have a connection, much like I do with more than one guy.
“Wanna grab fae wine and get the hell out of here?”
“Now you’re talking,” I reply, letting Ryker pull me out of the crowd, towards the bar. Having a connection with someone might make me weak, but there are a million reasons why living alone was never the answer.
I wish it didn’t take me this long to realise a life lesson I should have always known. Pushing everyone away only hurts me.
Chapter 16
Catherine jumps to the left, narrowly missing my blast of shadow magic I’ve thrown at her. Of all the people that had to get into the top ten of this test, I was hoping it wouldn’t be her. But of course it was. Her smug ass face smirks at me as she brushes off dirt from her white, very tight clothes. I float in the air as she rises up, shadows pouring around her body and building like an explosion. I duck for the impact, using shadows to protect myself as power explodes out of her, and it barely makes me shake an inch.
When I look back, she is breathlessly holding herself up, glaring at me with her usual amount of hate. Her daddy dearest hasn’t let us fight each other since I came back. In fact, I’ve mostly been on the sidelines, but this time, Catherine asked to battle me in training.
Poppy, Ryker and Sebastian tried to talk me out of beating the living crap out of the bitch who has caused a lot of trouble for me.
It didn’t work.
Mixing my fae powers with the shadows, thick roots shoot out of the earth and wrap themselves around Catherine, the dark shadow-covered roots radiating with black power.
“Enough!” Professor Artic shouts, but I don’t stop. The roots wrap themselves around her neck, tightening as she starts screaming and begging for help. Something hard slams into my side, breaking my attention, and I roll across the ground, looking up to see Professor Artic in the spot I was, on his knees. He picks himself up and runs to Catherine, tearing the roots away from her and pulling her unconscious body out of the plants. He looks back at me after lying her down, her chest moving up and down. “I told you to stop! You could have killed her, you insane child!”