***
I felt stupidly overdressed in the crimson dress Darma rustled up. Tight at the waist, with a push-up bodice, and a skirt that flowed around my hips and thighs, it was flattering, alluring and so not me, but I could see that Bernie liked it. His eyes had lit up like lanterns whose beams swept me up and down, lingering provocatively on my breasts. It made it that much harder to breathe, that much harder to think. I was grateful when we set off in the carriage to Brialla’s. The suit Coralee had made for me was bundled up under the seat. The night was cool enough for me to survive without it.
Bernie sat up front with Valma. It gave me a moment to breathe, to collect myself and assess my feelings. I was overwhelmed. Bernadette was alive. Bernadette was a man! An Infernan noble! Of course my emotions would be all over the place, not to mention Daemon and the fact that he was in trouble. All that coupled with the fact that I hadn’t had sex in like . . . forever, explained why I was feeling so damn horny.
Feeling a lot better about my haywire hormones I settled back to take in the scenery as it whizzed by, and ignored the tiny voice that told me I was overanalysing things. So what if I wanted Bernie? I was free to fuck who I wanted. Didn’t I deserve a little relief? The memory of Bernie’s tongue lapping at my clit had me squirming in my seat.
Shit! I needed to get it together.
I needed to get laid, but not by Bernie, I told the naughty voice. Bernie’s friendship meant too much. I couldn’t risk things getting complicated.
I focused instead on the world outside.
Reds and oranges and greens, it was dusty and lush all at the same time. The sun was setting and the world was tinged with crimson. The scent of incense, sweet and spicy, filled my nostrils, and I allowed myself a moment to revel in the beauty of this strange world. The strange creatures that pulled the carriage—half-horse, half-bear, like the beasts the riders that had taken Daemon had ridden—spewed plumes of smoke from their flared nostrils. It wafted under my window and vaporised behind us.
We passed fields and trees and a river, and then we were climbing. The scenery changed to low, neat buildings—a town. We turned onto a private road that ended in gates painted gold and white—some kind of metal twisted into flowery shapes. Several carriages were already parked beyond those gates. The large building beyond was lit up with lanterns. They hung from the trees and balanced on sticks, creating a path up to the building, a huge sprawling building, with towers.
The gates opened and we were through. Then it hit me. Daemon was in here somewhere and it was up to me to get him out.
ASH
So what’s the plan?
I don’t fucking know.
Stop swearing!
Sorry.
I shook my head. Why the hell was I apologising to my inner voice? My annoying Clay voice.
Bernie applied a little pressure to the small of my back, and I smiled to hide my nerves. The mansion was massive, elaborate, and filled with Infernan nobles: tall and regal-looking beings that, for all intents and purposes, looked human. If not for the strange colour of their eyes, or the multi-hues in their hair, they would easily pass as incredibly good-looking humans. On the periphery, were the Hellions, creatures of all shapes and sizes in shades of red, orange, and varying depths of black. They kept out of the way, appearing only to serve and then slipped in to the shadows.
Bernie stayed close, stopping here and there to speak to nobles in that strange otherworldly tongue. They eyed me with curiosity but never pried as to my purpose there. Bernie introduced me, in my language, simply as his guest. That seemed to be sufficient. Despite his ease, I sensed that his guard was up. His arm beneath my hand was taut, tense. He was on edge just as I was. We moved from group to group. Some spoke my language, others conversed in foreign tongues. Bernie explained that the nobles were multilingual, priding themselves on knowing every language and dialect spoken in all the realms. They were strict about tutoring their house Hellions, because a multilingual house Hellion meant an extra pair of ears at gatherings such as this. Information was power.
These Infernans were beginning to sound more and more cutthroat and calculating by the second.
We broke away from a small group of nobles that Bernie had been speaking to, and I exhaled then blinked in surprise. I hadn’t realised I’d been holding my breath.
“Where is she?” I asked.
Bernie glanced about, his eyes straying to the top of the wide, curved staircase that opened up onto a balcony on the first floor. “Brialla likes to make an entrance. Tonight, with her prize returned to her, she’ll make an even bigger one.”
I rolled my eyes. She sounded like a total twat. “So what do we do? We approach her and negotiate?”
“Most definitely not. If we negotiate privately she’ll turn us down for sure. Brialla is selfish, she cares only for her own pleasure and, from what I hear, Daemon gave her plenty of that. No. We call her out in front of everyone. We put her on the spot and we force her hand. She may not care about the mines, but the other nobles do. She won’t be able to turn us down without causing an uproar, or losing the possibility of a place on the council.”
“Sounds good.” And it did sound good. This new Bernie, his speech, his bearing, it was more . . . regal. I liked it, but, strangely, I missed my Bernie, the crass, sometimes coarse, woman that I’d shared a laugh with, whom I’d trusted with my life every time I went into the Cusp.
I looked up to catch him staring at me. “What?”
His expression softened. “It’s still me, Ash. You know that, right?”
I looked deep into those hazel eyes flecked with gold and amber, searching for the woman I knew. If I focused on just his eyes then I could see her. My Bernadette. She was still there, still the same person underneath.
“Ash?”
“I see you, Bernie.”
Bernie smiled and then straightened abruptly. “Here she comes.”
I turned, nonchalant, to follow his gaze, but I might as well have been obvious about it, everyone else was. The conversation dialled down until it was a low hum and all eyes were on the stunning woman gliding down the stairs. Her crimson hair was piled high on her head with tendrils left to fall loosely about her heart-shaped face. Her lips were rosy and glossy, and her cheeks still held the plumpness of youth. Compared to the other nobles, she was tiny, probably the same height as me. Coupled with her youthful face, it gave her an almost childlike impression, all except for her eyes. Her eyes ruined the illusion: dark, almost black eyes that seemed to suck at the energy in the room, devouring it. Those eyes were filled with too much knowledge, an all-encompassing void. I honestly believed I was staring into an abyss of evil.
My assessment only took a few seconds, and then Daemon came into view. He strode several steps behind Brialla. He held his head high, his eyes blazing with defiance. I almost didn’t notice the shackles that bound his wrists in front of him. The thin, silver chain connected those shackles to her, tied neatly at her wrist like a pretty decoration.
Fucking bitch.
I shifted in agitation as Daemon’s gaze swept over me. A slight frown marred his forehead.
Brialla passed right by us, and I realised she was, in fact, much smaller than I had first thought. Her head was barely at my shoulder. I stepped back to let her pass and clenched my fists to prevent myself reaching out to Daemon as he passed a moment later. His nostrils flared as he moved away. He shook his head infinitesimally and tucked in his chin.
He didn’t want me here. That was obvious. He was trying to protect me, and maybe he was right, maybe I shouldn’t be here, but I owed it to him to try. Besides, there was no way I was leaving him to that bitch’s mercy.
The hum of conversation grew, a strange excitement in the inflection and tone of the outlandish language around me. I wished I could understand what they were saying.
“They’re wondering how she got him back. Why he came back. They’re wondering if they’ll be invited to the show,” Bernie said.
“What show?”
“The show she’s bound to put on to prove her control over him. She’ll make him bleed, torture him until he breaks, until he’s back under her control. Since he left, her mastery has been under question. Brialla doesn’t like being questioned.”
A hot flush crept up my skin, and I clenched my fists, digging my nails into the palms of my hands. I didn’t know Daemon that well, but I sensed that despite his sexual issues, he was a good guy. He could have forced himself on me when I went into his lair, he could have taken what he needed, but he didn’t. He gave me the chance to run, and now, thinking on it, I couldn’t help but believe his issues were somehow directly related to his time as Brialla’s plaything. If so, he’d come too far to fall once again.
“We need to approach her now, quickly, before this . . . show,” I said.
Bernie pressed his lips together. “She’s angling for a seat on the council, has been for a while now.” He glanced about. “All the council members are here. I have a feeling she intends to invite them, to invite me, to the show, a chance for her to demonstrate her mastery over her abomination and reinforce her position as a contender for the open seat. Unfortunately, sadism is a highly prized quality in an Infernan noble.”
My eyes found Daemon’s back, broad and solid and covered in some kind of silky material. A shirt that looked out of place on him. “We need to act before she starts hurting him.”
Bernie was silent, and I broke contact with Daemon’s back to shoot him a glance. His eyes were narrowed as he considered me.
“What?”
“Has something happened between you two?” Bernie asked.
Was that jealousy in his tone? It made me uncomfortable. I mean, what did he have to be jealous about? I could fuck whom I pleased.
But he obviously has a thing for you.
What?
Seriously, stop pretending to be dumb. Bernie always had a thing for you. You just chose not to acknowledge it.
“You know what, forget it. I don’t need to know. None of my business.” Bernie looked away, focusing on the crowd once more, but there was a tightness in his jaw that hadn’t been there before.
I wanted to deny that anything had happened. I even opened my mouth to do just that, but something stopped me, some gut instinct that told me to just leave it. Let him believe I’d had sex with Daemon. Why? I guess I didn’t want him thinking there was going to be anything between him and me. I knew I couldn’t be held on to like that. I didn’t want that. I didn’t need that kind of commitment. I’d come to save Bernie and found he’d saved himself. Instead, I was saving Daemon, who I’d put in danger and afterwards . . . afterwards I needed to find a way to save my people. I sensed that with Bernie it would never be simple. Never just sex, and yes, my Clay voice was right. On some level I’d known how he felt about me. I wouldn’t exploit that.
A gong sounded and the crowd went silent.
Brialla began to speak in the Infernan language. I didn’t have a clue what she was saying, so I focused on her voice, husky and smoky and at total contradiction to her appearance. She finished speaking, inclined her head, her lips pouting prettily and then melted into the crowd.
“What the hell?” I said.
“Wait for it.”
A Hellion in some kind of velvet uniform approached us and whispered something in Bernie’s ear. Bernie inclined his head and the Hellion slipped away.
I quirked a brow.
“Wait here. Do not move. I’ll be back for you.” Then he was gone, leaving me in the centre of a crowd of nobles, in a sea filled with a language I didn’t understand. Man, I felt awkward.
I caught them staring, curious, and yes, some looked hungry for sex or my flesh—I wasn’t sure which. I made a point to not look directly at any one of them, doing my best impression of Daemon, fixing my eyes on a point somewhere over a shoulder or just beyond an ear and then suddenly, just like that, the feeling of being watched by the hordes morphed into an intense focus, the kind that comes from the specific regard of a single entity. I sensed him before he moved into my field of vision. Tall, broad shouldered, yet not bulky like Bernie or Daemon. No, this guy was all lean muscle and smug smoulder. His inky black hair was swept across his forehead, unkempt yet sexy. It brushed the tips of his ears and curled at the nape of his neck, but it was his eyes that captivated me. Cerulean blue. A wave of déjà vu washed over me and then was gone.
By the time I got it together, he was standing right in front of me, staring down at me with this smug little smile on his face. “Well, well, fancy seeing you here.”
“Huh?”
He grinned, showcasing perfectly even, white teeth. “Oh yes, how could I forget . . .”
I waited for him to continue, but he just kept giving me that smile. Maybe he was messed up in the head or something, or maybe he thought I was someone else?
“I don’t know you,” I said.
“Not yet.” His eyes did this strange light-up-from-within thing and gave me a good sweeping over—greedy eyes, hungry eyes that made me break out in goose bumps. I shivered and rubbed my arms.
The greedy eyes immediately stopped with the devouring.
“You’re cold.”
“No, just freaked out by the way you’re looking at me.”
“And how is that?”
“Like I’m some kind of exotic dessert.”
He licked his lips, cocked his head, and then a knowing smile unfurled on his perfect mouth. I had to look away, that smile was too intimate, so I did the whole “I’m waiting for someone” act by glancing about the room, anywhere but at him. His deep chuckle tickled my senses.
“You don’t belong here, among these creatures.” He spat the final word as if it were too disgusting to hold on his tongue.
“Aren’t you one of these . . . creatures?” I met his eyes and folded my arms across my chest.
He simply smiled an enigmatic smile which immediately got my back up because I hated not knowing. Enigma sucked unless I was the one doling it out, but then I reminded myself that I didn’t have to stand here talking to him. I made to turn away, but he stopped me with a gentle touch to the elbow, just above the long gloves that covered my hands and forearms. It sent a shiver up my spine and had the desired effect of halting me in my tracks.
“I apologise. Please, don’t leave. You have no idea how refreshing it is to meet someone with a little depth at one of these events.”
“You just met me, how do you know I have depth?”
“I’m a good judge of character.” His gaze swept the air around me. “You’re human, far from home. Too far it seems. So, what are you doing here?”
Okay, I hadn’t thought up a cover story. I didn’t think I’d need one.
“My business is none of yours.”
The damned smile again. He raised his hands and wiggled his fingers in the air. “Secrets? Oooo, do tell.”
“Er . . . no.” Where the hell was Bernie? I craned my neck to search in the direction he’d gone, but my view was blocked by nobles—large, drunk nobles who were laughing raucously: two males and two females. They had a female Hellion trapped in a circle and were taking turns prodding and pinching her. The female spun this way and that, trying to avoid being poked. I couldn’t see her face, it was obscured by her dark hair, but I heard her sharp inhalation of pain and then a short sob. The nobles laughed harder, and I took a step toward the group, intent on stopping their sadistic game, but an arm shot out, blocking my route.
I glared into those startling blue eyes. “Move.”
“Bad idea.”
“Maybe, but it’s my idea.”
His eyes narrowed as if contemplating something, and then he lowered his arm. “Goodbye, feisty little human.”
One of the men reached out and ripped off the front of the Hellion’s dress, exposing her breasts. She cried out as the other pinned her arms to her sides, preventing her from covering herself. I could see her face now. Young, frightened, tearstained.
Fuck this. I wasn’t going to just stand here and let this happen. In fact, why was I still just standing there? My head felt fuzzy. Had I been talking to someone?
The Hellion screamed again, galvanising me into action.
I strode right up to the group. “Hey, come on, leave her alone.” I pushed into the circle and stood in front of the Hellion.
The nobles stared at me with such horror you’d think I’d pulled down my trousers and taken a shit on the floor. The Hellion behind me gasped in shock, and I thought, crap, maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. What had Bernie said about etiquette? Maybe this was what they did at these things. Was I showing my ignorance? But in the next moment, my doubts were dispelled as the male reached around me to grab at the Hellion’s hair. Didn’t matter what the etiquette was, this was just plain wrong.
The Hellion screamed, and I thwacked the noble’s hand, short and sharp. He let go of her hair and glared at me in horror.
“You have no right!” he said tightly.
“Unless she wishes to take Zara’s place,” the female noble to my left said.
The Hellion behind me brushed closer. “Please, go, please. You must not interfere.”
Yeah, not happening. “No one’s taking anyone’s place.”
The male noble looked this way and that. “Who is this female? What is she doing here?”
“Unclaimed?” the other male asked.
“Pretty skin,” the female said.
Their regal faces began to twist and morph into something all too eager and all too ravenous.
“Um, maybe we should all calm down,” I said.
The female inhaled deeply, her eyelids fluttering in ecstasy. “Do you smell that? Such a delicious aroma.”
They began to close in on us.
Where the hell was Bernie?
Dammit, looked like I’d have to scrap my way out of this one. I curled my hands into fists. “Touch me and lose your arm.”
The male laughed. “A fighter. I do love it when they fight back.”
He made a grab for me and I punched him in the throat. He didn’t even flinch.
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