by Eric Vall
I nodded. “Something very old and important looking,” I tried. “We might just have to mad dash this and hope we get lucky. The elf up there is pretty spry for his age.”
Deya cleared her throat once more, and I looked over to find her smiling politely.
“Aurora could lead him out of the room,” Shoshanne pointed out. “If she does something outrageous, he might chase her off.”
“That could work,” I agreed, “but I’m not a big fan of putting Aurora in a position where--”
Deya cleared her throat even louder, and we all turned to look at her. Then she sighed, rolled her eyes, and vanished.
“What the fuck?” I gasped instinctively.
“I could get the book for you,” Deya said, and I looked all over the room while her voice echoed softly from every direction.
Aurora sat up and clutched the sheet to her chest with a broad grin. “I have to know how you do that,” she told the empty room.
Deya flickered back into sight, and she had a mischievous grin on her face. She was still perched at the edge of the seat, but she giggled at the expressions on our faces as she stood up and came over.
Then she crawled onto the bed, and I ripped my eyes away from the feline curve of her back while she settled on her knees in front of us. Aurora smirked at me, but I did my best to appear completely unphased as I realized that, whether the elf noticed or not, she had put herself right between my legs. Suddenly, my hangover took a backseat, and I barely noticed the ache in my head.
Deya sent us another mischievous glance. “Don’t tell anyone, okay?” she warned in a soft voice.
I swallowed hard and nodded.
The beautiful elf slid her hand down her chest to catch the thin silver chain of her necklace, and when she tugged on it, a small pendent slid out from the cleft between her breasts. She held the pendant out toward us, and we all leaned in eagerly to get a better look.
The small pendant was no bigger than a thumbnail, but it had several delicate etchings all over it, and as Deya turned the piece of silver over, I saw nearly every bit of it was covered in symbols so tiny they looked like everyday scratches from a distance. As I leaned closer, I could make out distinct shapes, and then I recognized one symbol amongst them all.
My hand shot out, and I caught up the pendant to look closer.
“This one,” I said and pointed to the small etching for the women to see. “That’s one of the runes I saw on the head of House Syru.”
“Which one?” Deya asked.
I looked up to find her lips an inch from me, and just beyond my hand, I could see straight down her dress.
I dropped the pendant. “Umm … ” I tried. “The one with the line and the swoop at the end.”
Deya’s lips curled into a smile as she lifted the pendant and held it out once more. “Many of them look like that.”
“Yeah,” Cayla said pointedly. “Show us which one, Mason.”
I knew the princess was only forcing me to get closer to Deya, so I gritted my teeth and quickly pointed out the rune.
“That one,” I muttered.
Deya looked down. “Oh,” she said, “I don’t know what that one means.”
“Do you know what any of them mean?” Shoshanne asked curiously.
“Dragir does,” the elf said with a shrug. “He told me this little one on the corner influences the pull of the earth.”
Cayla raised her brows. “What does that do?”
Deya smiled and stood up on the bed, and I eyed her slim thighs beneath the gauzy dress. Then the elf pointed down and wriggled her toes.
“I don’t get it,” Aurora admitted.
Deya let out a silvery giggle. “Look closely.” Then she took a few small steps back and forth, and the mattress and sheets didn’t even crinkle.
“What!” I blurted out. “That’s impossible.”
Deya dropped back to her knees, and the bed didn’t seem to notice.
“How … ” Cayla mused as she gaped. “How is that possible? You’re … weightless?”
“I suppose,” Deya said. “Dragir says it’s so I don’t leave tracks behind me. I think that makes sense. It’s not much use being invisible if you can still be followed.”
I furrowed my brow. “Did Dragir make you that necklace?” I asked
Deya shook her head, and her long pink hair swept across her thighs. “My mother made it for me, before she disappeared.”
Shoshanne let out a slight gasp. “She’s … just gone?”
Deya’s violet eyes pinched sadly as she nodded. “I was very young, I do not know what happened,” she told the healer. “Father said they must have taken her because she wasn’t meant to stay with one House.”
My anger flared as I recalled the image in my dream, of a baby being pulled from Deya’s arms, and the beautiful elf being carted off.
“Your mother was supposed to … ” Aurora tried, but she trailed off without being able to finish the sentence.
Deya offered her a smile. “She had a duty to Nalnora,” she said quietly, “but she loved my father. She loved me and Dragir.”
“Of course she did,” Cayla told her, and she took Deya’s hand in her own. “Do you know where they took her?”
The beautiful elf shook her head. “I’ve never known,” she admitted. “I think she ran away and hid in the mountains to the north. Dragir used to tell me she could sing to dragons and make them cry for her.”
Her words sounded childish as her lip quivered, but in a blink her usual smile reappeared, and she shrugged once more. “Perhaps not,” she admitted. “Father thinks she was murdered.”
I stared. “I thought … you said she had an important bloodline,” I pointed out. “Surely they wouldn’t …”
“I say the same thing,” Deya told me, “but my father is hopeless without her. He’s certain they killed her to spite him for keeping her.”
At her words, I remembered Qiran’s cowardice when Deya was taken by House Kylen. He’d insisted his daughter would be killed out of spite if he fought for her, and for the first time, I felt bad for the elf. He certainly had his own reasons to fear they might. Then my mind caught on a notion, and I furrowed my brow.
“Are there other children?” I asked her. “If they’d taken her, there would be others like you amongst the Houses, wouldn’t there?”
When I looked at Deya, her face was blank, and I immediately regretted speaking my mind.
“I suppose,” she muttered. “I have not seen others like me.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Cayla cut in. “She could have escaped. She could be in the mountains and happy.”
Deya nodded and looked toward her lap. “I think she ran away,” she told us quietly. “I think she didn’t want to do as she was told, so she disappeared. I can disappear, why couldn’t she?”
We all sat quietly for a moment, and I tried to think of anything I could say to shift the subject away from something that made the beautiful elf look so sad.
“Is that why she gave you the necklace?” Aurora finally asked. “So you could disappear if you wanted?”
The elf looked up, and she had a thoughtful crinkle on her brow. “I’ve always wondered that,” she told the half-elf. “I don’t understand the runes, and Dragir says many of them are altered, so we may never know them. I know the necklace is meant to protect me, but I don’t understand it all the time. When I was little, I could only vanish, but now I can … I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Try,” I said, and I noticed a light blush on the elf’s cheeks.
“I can feel the runes now, if that makes sense,” Deya muttered. “I can press them, or push them, and when I do, they go outside of me. I can make the world shift around me, and I can hurt people who touch me.”
“Like when we first came to House Quyn?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Dragir took your arm and told you to go inside,” I told her. “Then the leaves began to shift, and he jumped back
. We thought you were a mage or something.”
Deya looked mildly embarrassed. “Oh,” she said with a giggle. “Yes, like that. I shouldn’t be so short with him, really. He only means to protect me.”
I nodded and could understand exactly where the brother was coming from.
“Does it burn people?” Aurora asked.
Deya smirked. “I don’t know, ask Dragir. Once, when we were little, he tried to keep me from jumping in the river, and when I pushed him, he screamed like I’d stabbed him right through the chest. But I swear I only pushed him a little, and he’s older than me.”
“That’s so cool,” Aurora said with a grin. “Push me.”
“Absolutely not,” Deya said, and her silvery laugh echoed through the room. “It only happens when I’m angry, and I could never be angry with you. I don’t know anything about how it all works, to be honest.”
“But you said it’s like pushing the powers outside of yourself?” I asked curiously. “So, you can sense the rune magic inside of you when you wear this necklace?”
“I suppose you could say that,” she said thoughtfully, and she stroked her hand gently along her slender arm. “I can feel them across my skin, like a veil or like soft wind. It’s always been that way for as long as I can remember. I always wear this necklace, and the runes slide along my skin when I move and breathe. They shift. As I got older, I began to feel very comfortable with them, they’re so familiar to me. When I lose my temper, I guess I shove them off on others. It sounds childish.”
I grinned as the elf rolled her eyes at herself. “It sounds badass,” I pointed out.
“What?” she asked blankly.
“He means amazing,” Aurora cut in. “Does Dragir have one too, then? Mason said he saw your brother vanish once.”
Deya nodded. “Yes, but it isn’t the same as mine. Some of our runes match, and he can vanish and leave no trace, but he can’t influence his runes like I do. Plus, there aren’t so many on his pendant.”
“Your mother must have wanted the two of you to be safe,” Cayla offered. “It’s a beautiful gift, to have necklaces like that.”
Deya’s cheeks glowed proudly. “She was an amazing woman,” she assured us. “No one has ever understood the runes she placed around us, and no one knows how to alter or wield them. Even my father doesn’t understand her knowledge, and he’s a very smart man.”
I was staring at the pendant where it nestled against the crest of Deya’s breasts, but I couldn’t make out many of the runes from where I was. Then I noticed my eyes had drifted downward, and I cleared my throat as I looked away.
“Well,” I tried, “I guess that makes you the most qualified to sneak into the library.”
Deya smiled. “Yes, that’s what I was trying to say,” she told me.
“I don’t know if you should, though,” I pointed out. “You probably don’t want to upset Aeris, and if he found out you were working with us behind his back, I doubt he’d--”
“I don’t care what Aeris thinks,” Deya said soberly. “He’s a conniving and arrogant old man with boorishly dumb sons and too much wealth for his own good.”
The three women burst out laughing, and I stared.
“Oh,” I said with a nod. “Well, if we’re all on the same page then I guess never mind.”
“We are,” the beautiful elf said, and her violet eyes sparkled mischievously.
I cocked a brow. “I don’t suppose you … ” I couldn’t finish the question. The last thing Deya needed was to get into trouble for me, especially with an Elite House, but her lips curled into a smile, and she leaned forward.
“You don’t suppose what?” she whispered.
Cayla giggled and nudged me. “Go on, I wanna know too.”
I grinned and scruffed my beard as the women egged me on. “I was just wondering if … you cared a lot about stealing things or if you were open to a few requests, that’s all.”
Aurora snorted. “You’re gonna make her our little thief aren’t you?”
“No,” I scoffed. “I wouldn’t make her do anything. I was only curious if she might want to--”
“Yes,” Deya cut in with a curt nod. “I would love to be your little thief.”
I raised my brows as her tone sliced through me and caused my focus to snap straight to the pout of her lips. Then a smile appeared there, and I yanked my eyes back to hers.
“Cool,” I replied blankly. “That’d be cool, I guess.”
The women fell into giggles again, and for once, I wished we weren’t all piled in a bed together because I was beginning to feel very warm all over and had Deya perched between my legs. There was something ridiculously sexy about the mischief that gleamed in her serpentine eyes, and I wondered how I’d missed her trouble making tendencies until now. She’d been all sweetness at every turn, but I could see how a woman like her might enjoy a good trick here and there. She did have an incredibly awesome ability to vanish into thin air.
I cleared my throat. “Well, we should probably get on with the day, isn’t there a party somewhere we’re supposed to--”
“No way,” Shoshanne giggled. “What do you want so bad that you need Deya to steal it?”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said with a wink. “I’ve got a project I’m working on, and it’s a surprise so that’s all there is to say.”
Cayla slid her arm around mine. “Is it for us?” she purred.
I grinned as the princess flicked her tongue on my ear. “Of course it is,” I assured her. “Although it’s sort of for Ruela, too.”
Cayla leaned back. “The dog?”
I shrugged. “What? She’s part of the group, okay? Don’t dismiss her just because Aeris kicked her out, she’s not too happy about it.”
Deya’s smile glittered, and I tried not to stare. “You’re sweet to think of Ruela,” she told me. “She’s such an angel, but she never likes anyone.”
“Ever?” I clarified.
“She likes Dragir if I’m not irritated with him,” Deya giggled, “but she hates my father, and everyone else is on her list.”
Aurora chuckled. “What list?”
The same irresistible glint came to the elf’s violet eyes. “Ruela’s ruthless,” she told us with a sly grin. “That’s how she got her name. Anyone on Ruela’s list could be ripped to shreds at any moment.”
“I believe it,” I said with a nod. “I watched that dog rip a Wendigo to shreds. She’s a maniac.”
“Isn’t she?” Deya purred affectionately.
I cleared my throat once more as the elf’s tone sent a shiver down my spine. “So, let’s get going,” I blurted and nudged Shoshanne toward the edge of the bed.
The healer snorted and pushed back, so I slid my hand beneath the sheet and pinched the meat of her ass just enough to send her tumbling to the floor.
Shoshanne threw her head back and laughed to the ceiling, and I peered down at her.
“Sorry,” I said with a wink.
The women crawled out from beneath the sheets and got dressed as they chatted with Deya about Lyralus and House Pree, and once I’d pulled my shirt on, I posted myself against the desk to consider the scene.
Just like at House Kylen, Deya looked oddly at ease with my women, and the four of them seemed like old friends who didn’t notice they were only half dressed with me standing by to admire the view. Deya helped Cayla with the hooks at the back of her leather bodysuit, and then she sighed while she watched Shoshanne slide her thigh strap on.
“It must be nice not to wear a dress,” she pointed out, and Cayla gave a decided nod.
“My father was certainly shocked when I traded my dresses for this, but he’s grown to accept my … style,” the princess said, and she sent me a wink.
Deya’s eyes flicked to me for the briefest moment. “Your father wasn’t very fond of your choice?” she asked Cayla.
“Oh, he loves Mason,” she assured the elf, “and Aurora impressed him early on. That’s never been a problem. He just w
ishes I wore a dress like a proper princess.”
I chuckled and shrugged. “Can’t win ‘em all.”
Once the women were all redressed and armed, we headed through the deep blue halls and made our way to the front of House Aelin. Aeris was nowhere to be found, and I imagined him pouting somewhere in his castle. We strolled through the arched entrance and out onto the stone steps, and as the morning light streamed down on us, Aurora turned to me.
“Where’s Bobbie?” she asked, and my gut did a backflip.
So many drunken scenes flitted through my mind at once that I could hardly sort through them all, but I knew what I’d done, without a single doubt.
I shifted my weight and shrugged as casually as I could. “I parked her, let’s uh … let’s take a carriage.”
Cayla smirked. “Seriously?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Deya’s never been to the elven capital, we should travel in style.”
The pink-haired elf smiled up at me. “I’ve never been in a carriage,” she laughed.
“Well, there you go,” I said. “Carriage it is.” I turned to the guards behind us and asked them to bring a carriage out for Miss Deya, and two of them nearly tripped over their boots as they hurried down the steps and toward the edge of the House.
When I turned back, Aurora was staring at Deya with a strange smile.
Deya giggled. “What is it?”
“You don’t have a shadow,” Aurora blurted out, and we all looked down.
I snorted. “Holy shit.”
The stones were entirely bleached with sunlight all around the elf’s bare feet, and as she swished her dress side to side, nothing changed.
I looked up, and Deya’s lip curled at me.
“Watch this,” she whispered.
Then the elf vanished.
We all grinned and waited while the last guard stared off toward the treetops along the gate, and it was a long moment before Deya flickered back into sight. She had a devilish glint in her serpentine eyes, but she quickly shifted back to her sweet smile as the carriage rattled across the stonework from the side of the house.
Two white horses trotted ahead of the gilded carriage, and I rolled my eyes at the ridiculous design. It couldn’t have been more garish, and I realized the only part not made out of pure gold was the velvet blue interior.
