Celadine eyed my friend with delight, that purple gaze raking over every inch of her. “Only for a moment, and only because her mother is one of our largest benefactors. But after meeting with Avery,” she gave me a wink, “I knew what the right choice was. I mean, just look.” Celadine waved her palm around at the gallery. “It was a genius idea to use the local talent hiding in the schools. I never would have thought of it. This might just be one of the best showcases the gallery has ever hosted, and at a fraction of the usual cost.”
My cheeks flushed at my boss’s kind words.
“Av’s the best,” Julie piped in as if it were a matter of fact.
“Oh, Celadine,” I said, motioning to my best friend. “This is Julie, my friend I told you about.” When I showed up unannounced at your house.
A look of realization washed over her, and she offered a hand. Julie shook it happily. “So nice to finally meet you. Avery’s told me so much about you.”
“Same,” Julie replied. “Avery talks about you all the time. I’m going to see if Tomas needs help,” she said to me and waved to both of us as she left.
I nodded. “Let me know if you guys need anything.”
Celadine observed Julie as she wove through the crowd in search of Tomas. Someone called out to my boss before I got the chance to thank her for the kind words.
“Ah, another one of our wonderful benefactors,” Celadine whispered to me with a hint of sarcasm. “I’ll find you later. Go, mingle.” She handed me a flute of champagne. “Have fun. Enjoy the showing. This is your night just as much as it is the artist’s, Avery. Don’t be afraid to tell them who you are.”
“Thanks, Celadine.” I smiled and tipped the glass to my lips as she disappeared.
I took a moment alone to fill my lungs and will my heart to settle. Not from nerves but from excitement. Everything was running without a hitch, my vision laid out smoothly. Sounds of awe and praise floated around the room. Falling on my ears as I swayed in and out and around the guests.
I spent some time meeting and greeting, explaining details about specific pieces, ushering guests to washrooms, refreshments, handing out drinks. I was everywhere all at once, and the nonstop rush elated me. I practically floated across the floors of the gallery. I couldn’t wait to tell Tess about tonight. She’d be here if it weren’t for trade show season. But she was off showing the province all about her stellar gardening and landscape skills.
Suddenly, the lights went out with a clang that resounded through the building, casting the entire gallery in complete darkness. Gasps and loud whispers of confusion filled the air, but only for a moment as new lights–spotlights set on the sculptures, bringing them to life–popped into place.
Rope lighting dimly lit the traffic flow on the floor so guests wouldn’t trample over one another and offered a guide around the show. The musicians changed the tempo of their delicate melodies to deep notes of epic music fit for the gods as the layer of sound effects Tomas created thundered. Lightning, wind, the clash of titans and beasts. It wasn’t just a show. It was an experience. I kept to the outskirts of it all, rounding each space and room, watching my work come to life in a whole new way.
It filled me to the brim with joy, but something tugged at a tiny part of my mind. Darkness more profound than the shadows I stood in. A sinister feeling that beckoned me to turn and search for it. I strained my eyes as I failed to see in the room’s darkness, but I felt the tug, and I followed it. Past the tables heaped with fruit bowls, in and out of the preoccupied guests. With every step I took, the tug grew deeper, harder, practically dragging me along.
Then, just as quickly as it appeared, the tug was gone. I stopped and spun around, searching for its source. The lights seemed to change, altering, lighting a path right across the gallery as the crowd even seemed to mindlessly part, leading me right to the back exit… where a figure stood. Shrouded in the darkness that seemed to emanate from her, two sinister eyes stared at me. Beckoning, calling, luring me to come closer. And I knew… I stared into the face of evil.
The woman–creature–from Umbra.
My feet were not my own as they carried me toward the eerie woman, her features sharpening with every step. Wide eyes that seemed to bleed blackness, matted oily hair that hung in knots and heaps around her shoulders. Shoulders that shrugged with the weight of wings–a pair of leathery, bat-like wings–their tips pooling on the floor around her.
While humanoid in form, her body was out of proportion to be anything from my world. Ironworld. Limbs just slightly too long, fingers with an extra joint… one of them now curling over and over as she drew me closer.
Just as I came within a few feet of the creature, she spun around and slipped out the back door. I followed. My mind was trapped behind mental bars, unable to control my legs. My chest was tight with fear. Sweat tickled the surface of my skin. But I disappeared through the same door like a damn fool.
I was halfway down the back lawn of the gallery, gobbling up every cool, fresh breath of air I could, hoping it would clear my mind from the trance the woman had me held in. But it was a firm grip around my arm that finally stopped me. The fog cleared as my mind snapped into place, and my chest suddenly heaved with anxious breaths.
“Avery,” Cillian said, concerned. “What are you doing out here? Where are you going?”
My trembling mouth gaped open as I fought to find the words to describe what had happened to me. But I couldn’t. I felt cold, empty… unfinished. A shiver chattered over me, and I hugged my bare arms tight to my body.
Cillian slipped out of his black blazer and slung it over me. “You’re freezing out here.”
As the last of the fog melted away, I blinked and stared up at his beautiful face, those almost navy eyes glistening down at me. Then I remembered the guttering feeling of rejection. I slinked out of his embrace. One sleeve of his jacket slouched to my elbow.
“What do you care, anyway?”
At his sides, I saw his hands clench and wring out. “I care a great deal more than you know.”
I guffawed and stole a quick glance toward the gallery before letting my gaze fall to the dark grass beneath us. “Then why didn’t you kiss me the other night?”
His stare bore into me, pleading. “I’m many things, Avery, but someone who takes advantage of a drunk woman is certainly not one of them.”
Something in my belly warmed at the way he said woman, and I swear, he almost seemed to sense it.
Cillian stepped closer, his cool breath trickling down across my face. With a sly grin, his fingertip whisked the exposed skin of my arm. He leaned in, pushing my hair aside with his face as his mouth almost touched my ear.
“Because, when I do kiss you,” he whispered deeply, igniting a flame up my spine, “And, believe me, I will kiss you. I want you to remember every second of it.” He pulled away, only enough to face me, and the look of desire in his eyes nearly took my breath away. His dark brows waggled. “I know I will.”
I didn’t have the sense to hold in the slight laugh that came from somewhere inside me, and I playfully shoved at him. Cillian smiled and adjusted the sleeve that slouched down over my arm.
“So, I’m forgiven?” he asked.
I feigned a troubled sigh and tipped my head back to look at him as he leaned closer. “I suppose.”
“You look like a vision tonight,” Cillian’s deep, raspy tone practically purred. “I couldn’t keep my eyes off you.”
His hypnotizing mouth was dangerously close to mine, and a hot gasp filled my throat as I parted my lips. But then a thought blazed across my mind, and I put a hand on his chest as I shook my head.
“Wait, how did you get in?” I asked. Cillian immediately stepped back, his expression seemingly laced with regret. Like he’d been caught in a lie. “It was invite-only. You have to be on the guest list. A list I curated myself and checked a thousand times this week.” He wouldn’t look at me. “You were not on it.”
Cillian opened his mouth, ready to exp
lain, but a panicked voice rang across the lawn, stealing his attention. I spun around, following his line of sight, and Celadine stormed across the grass, her black silk dress billowing behind her.
“Cillian! What are you doing?” she yelled.
He immediately tensed and stalked toward her, leaving me frozen in place. Why was she so angry?
“Cellie, don’t start–”
“No!” she said and shoved at his chest as they came together. Her violet eyes were wide with anger. “I told you not to do this to me. I begged you, Cillian. Not after everything…” Celadine’s eyes found mine, and she took a deep breath. “I told you to stay away from her.”
I gasped as she pointed at me, and a different kind of fog filled my mind as I dipped into a new panic. Was Cillian Celadine’s boyfriend? I swallowed nervously. Husband? Mortified, I slowly backed away. I couldn’t go back to the gallery; I’d have to pass right between them. My only option was the dense thicket of trees that filled the space between the gallery and the next street over. Home, I’d go home where I could die of embarrassment in solitude.
I slunk away into the darkness and let the thick cover of the trees take me. But that was a mistake. I wasn’t alone in here; I could feel a presence. An eerie voice cooed in the air, trickling into my ear, muddling all other sounds. A slight stench of rot filled my nostrils.
And she was there. One moment… nothing. The next, I was mere inches from the terrifying woman that had tried to lure me from the gallery. A lump formed in my throat. And in the nightclub.
“Finally,” her voice, like claws on my mind, seeped into the air. “You’re a difficult one to obtain.”
She seemed to be everywhere, all at the same time, and I spun in place to try and catch a solid glimpse of her.
“Obtain me?” I replied shakily. “Why? Who are you? Why have you been following me?” And, as I spoke the words, I knew… this creature was the shadows I’d been seeing everywhere.
A sneer caressed my skin as she continued to circle slowly. “He’ll be so pleased I’ve found you.”
“Who?” I choked. “What are you talking about?”
She appeared in front of me and shoved her face to mine. Inhaling the air around me like some kind of animal. This close, I nearly gagged on the stench of charred flesh and decay. The stench of… death. Her clawed fingers tipped black–as if she had driven them into thick ash–twirled a curl of my hair as she dragged it across her long, pointed nose.
A low groan purred in her throat. “Perhaps I’m mistaken.” She gripped my arm and shoved the sleeve of Cillian’s jacket up to expose my wrist. I froze in place, unable to take in a full breath. The tip of a claw traced a line across my flesh, and she cackled madly. “Of course, I could just bleed you and make sure.” She mumbled to herself in thought. “But he would be displeased at that.”
“Avery!” Cillian’s voice speared through the trees like a siren’s rescue, and my heart thumped to life, begging me to go to him.
Move, you idiot!
The clawed hand in the dark abruptly released me, and the creature was gone, leaving me in the stark, cold darkness of the trees. The slight note of a deep cackle slowly disappeared with her. I couldn’t wait around for her to come back. I had to go. My feet clumsily led me out of the trees and back toward the gallery, where Cillian came running across the lawn, Celadine close behind.
He skittered to a stop, grasping my arms, scanning me over with a frantic examination. “Christ! What were you doing in the woods?” he asked, his steady hands holding my face. My jaw trembled as I stared blankly. I saw him look over my shoulder at the edge of my vision. Into the trees… as if he knew something had been in there with me. His hands firmly gripped my upper arms, yanking me from the trance, and I looked up at his worried face.
“Avery,” he said calmly now, brows raised. “Are you alright?”
Before I could answer, Celadine stepped up to his side, slightly less angry than she’d been mere moments ago but still upset, nonetheless. Calm, but her jaw tight. “Cillian, we’re not done here.”
Those blue eyes closed tightly as he gritted his teeth. “Oh, I think we’re quite done.”
Tears brimmed, and I shook my head as I stepped out of Cillian’s embrace, and I looked at my boss–my mentor. My friend. “Celadine.” I shook my head, trying to find words. “I’m so sorry. I’d no idea… nothing happened… we’re not….” I could only manage a deep look of pleading as I gripped myself. I was coming apart at the seams. I couldn’t deal with whatever this was, plus the fear still inhabited my body. Residual from the grave encounter I’d just had in the thick of the woods. All I could do was tell myself to breathe. “Please don’t fire me.”
Celadine blinked, all traces of anger now gone. “Fire you? Why on Earth would I fire you?”
I shrugged tensely, looking between the two of them. “I’m not with him. I mean, I’m not… we’re not… if you guys are together–”
Celadine let out a laugh of surprise that pierced my ears, a single noise that hung with disgust, and her violet eyes blinked at Cillian. I dared a look at him. I wanted to shrivel with mortification. He stifled a laugh.
I could feel my face blanking.
Celadine tipped her head to the side and leaned toward me. “Avery, Cillian is my twin brother.”
“Brother?” I said, my throat dry.
I glanced back and forth between them, looking for similarities. And, suddenly, it slipped into place. The dark hair, while Celadine styled hers much differently, it was there. The inky tone. And then the sharp jaws, soft and pale pink lips that melted away into high cheekbones. Wide cat-like eyes framed with dark lashes and perfectly thick brows. From what I could tell, most of Celadine’s pale skin was covered in tattoos of all kinds. But Cillian’s skin was flawless by the little I’d seen. Pale and creamy and gleamed in the moonlight.
I shook my head. “Then why are you so upset?”
Cillian cleared his throat. “Cellie likes to think she’s the boss of me and….” He exchanged a look with his sister. “And she didn’t want me fraternizing with her beloved apprentice.”
She seemed to sigh in relief. “I didn’t want him scaring you off, is more like it,” she said to me but narrowed her eyes at him.
“But Avery is an adult and can decide for herself,” he countered, arms crossed casually. “As can I.” When Celadine refused to reply, Cillian grinned in delight. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, I think Avery would like to go home.”
I straightened, my stomach rolling. “Yes, but the showing–”
“Was a hit.” Celadine touched my arm. “There’s nothing else for you to do. I can take care of the gallery tonight. You go home and get cleaned up, rest. You deserve it.” Her brows pinched in the middle. “Avery, you’re white as a ghost. Are you okay?”
I most certainly was not okay.
But I managed a nod. My arms inside Cillian’s jacket were nearly frozen in the late-night air. “I’m fine. I just… I think I need some sleep.”
He buttoned up the coat right to my neck, and I found him smiling down at me as I tipped my chin up. “Come on, I’ll get you home.”
I clung to the back of him as he drove us to my apartment, just a few quick minutes from the gallery. But he was careful, took his time. Didn’t weave in and out of traffic. By the time we got to my place, I had found myself wishing for his crazy driving just to take my mind off of what had happened earlier, even for a moment.
I swung myself off the bike after we stopped and looked at him with a ghost of a smile. “No parlor tricks tonight?”
He smirked and balanced himself on the bike, one leg on each side. “I thought you didn’t like my maniac driving?”
I shrugged and walked up the first couple of steps. “Do you want to come up for a bit?”
For a second, there was hesitation in his dark blue eyes. But he nodded slowly and moved off the bike. His leather jacket hanging open. “Do you want me to?”
The image of those cre
epy black eyes flashed across my mind. Followed by the stench of death. A shiver rushed over me. “I don’t want to be alone.”
For a moment, it seemed like he wanted to ask me more, but he just followed me up the stairs and into my dark apartment. I flicked on the kitchen light and a floor lamp in the living room. The bottom of my dress was heavier now as it dragged across the tile floor, and I realized the bottom hem was soaked in mud from the woods. I groaned.
“I’m just going to change,” I said over my shoulder and motioned to the living room. “Make yourself comfortable. I’ll just be a minute.”
I shed the dress and the sandals. Tossed all the chunky gold jewelry on the dresser and slipped into my favorite pair of jeans. My options for shirts were between three half-clean band t-shirts and a plain black tank top. I cursed my lack of clean laundry, as well as my juvenile taste in clothing, and threw on the tank top before heading out to the apartment.
Cillian waited on the couch. Stretched out like a cat with an ankle across one knee and both arms over the back of the cushions. He immediately sat forward and cupped his hands over his knees. The corner of his mouth tugged upward. “I never really got the chance to finish telling you how absolutely stunning you looked tonight. Like a fistful of gems. I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”
Something stirred in my gut at the thought of Cillian watching me at the gallery.
“Geez.” The sofa sank with my added weight as I tucked my hair behind my ears and sat beside him. “Maybe I should have stayed in the dress.”
He grinned wickedly. “You look just as tempting now.” He failed to not look me up and down and guffawed to himself. “Trust me,” he added in almost a whisper.
This close, face to face, all I could do was stare into those hypnotizing blue eyes. So deep, like the depths of the sea on a sunny day. But here, in the dimly lit living room we sat in, they almost looked black. It was so eerily quiet in the apartment, and I suddenly wished I’d turned on some music or something, anything to take away from the rampant sound of my beating heart flailing around in my chest.
A Kingdom of Iron & Wine : New Adult Fantasy Romance (The Ironworld Series Book 1) Page 19
