Page 84 of Onyx Cage: Volume II

The younger twins didn’t outlast them by long, and Taisiya left soon after, with the largest group yet.

Finally, I spotted her. She was one of the last dancers left, alongside Gwyn, Avani, and four other women. Once my eyes were on her, it was impossible to look away.

Her cheeks were bright and rosy, her head thrown back with laughter that carried even over the increasingly loud music. She moved on light, quick steps, twirling with a speed that was rivaled only by Gwyn’s, landing each move with a sharp accuracy.

The music ended and her gaze snapped to mine as though on instinct, finding me easily in the crowd, even though I had moved several paces from where I had been standing when she left.

She made her way over to me, still beaming with a genuine smile, devoid of mischief for a rare change. I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Impressive,” I told her honestly.

Not that I had doubted she would keep up. It was just as I thought earlier: there were few competitions we couldn’t have won together.

Her smile morphed into something closer to her usual teasing expression; though, her eyes glowed with satisfaction from the praise.

She leaned closer to me to be heard over the hum of the crowd. “And here you doubtedmystamina.”

I let out a low laugh. It was strange how easy it had been to fall back into our old patterns once Korhonan was gone. Whether it was the sober reminder brought on by her stabbing, or the conversation from the night before she agreed to marryme, her bitterness seemed to have dissipated into something almost…playful.

Or perhaps she was only as tired of the contention as I was, unwilling to walk down an aisle filled with mutual hatred.

Though a small part of me hoped she was doing more than making the best of the limited time here, she had given no real indication that she was preparing for a life in Socair.

And I still hadn’t forgotten her earlier taunts.

The music started again, the beginnings of a lively take on a familiar tune, one that accompanied a common court dance here.

I raised an eyebrow at her, holding out my hand in an invitation to dance. It was hard to believe that it had been less than a year since the first time I had done so, at a gathering held for far darker reasons. When she was just the spoiled princess accusing me of wanting to get my hands on her, then getting offended when I assured her I didn’t.

Perhaps things hadn’t changed much, for that matter.

Though this time, she took my hand without reluctance. The dance began, and she followed me with the same ease she always had, like her body was intrinsically aligned with mine, tied together by a thousand strands of the same invisible string that always led me straight to her.

Tonight, every single one of them seemed to crackle with their own streak of lightning, zapping with an intensity that was almost painful on the moves that placed her out of my reach.

I spun her in the air as the dance required, setting her down several inches closer to me. The tension only intensified with her proximity, but I couldn’t bring myself to want it any other way.

I had endured plenty of torture before, but I had never willingly thrown myself into the furnace of my own self destruction the way I always seemed to do when she was around.

The music slowed for a calmer dance, and I pulled her against me, my world narrowing to the embers of desire glowing in her pale-green eyes. Her breath hitched with the contact, and my fingers tightened around her waist at the sound.

It was almost too easy here to feed on the energy of the crowd. I understood better, now, why the king and queen hadn’t cared about their subjects watching. There was freedom in the forthright, open nature of thesese people. I didn’t care that we were standing in the middle of a dance floor or that my own people would have died at the impropriety when I tugged her close enough to feel the warmth of her body solidly against mine.

“A kiss from the happy couple!” The shout was closer than I expected, louder than it should have been.

I realized with a jolt that the music had stopped. The dance had ended. And the entirety of the crowd was focused on us.

The man used his ale to gesture toward Rowan and me, a few droplets sloshing out onto the ground.

Rowan’s hand tensed on my chest, but a glance at her rosy cheeks told me it was less from nerves than anticipation. Her earlier taunts sounded in my ear.

I’d be discreet, of course.

The hell you will, Lemmikki.

Driven by a single-minded need to be closer to her, to taste the confections on her lips and feel her chest rise against mine with her inhaled breath, to chase the barest thought of every other man from her chaotic mind, I leaned down toward her. I couldn’t find it in me to give a single damn that thiswas not donein Socair.

We weren’t in Socair right now.