Page 164 of Taken By Shadows

“Audrie. You look beautiful.” I beamed as I pulled out of Kaed’s hand. She wore a dress that shimmered from topaz to peridot. She’d said her mother had given it to her before she left for Viverna, and a small pang of longing squeezed my heart. Would my mother have done that had she known me? I pushed the thought aside and refocused on who she was with.

Denora stood just behind Audrie, with hair slicked back and a dark-green tunic cut neatly to expose her strong shoulders and arms. It fastened with gold buckles down the front. She looked fierce, but she was smiling.

And then I smiled for a completely different reason. The fork Audrie used to pin her hair was still there, twisted into her light-brown hair.

Denora saw it the moment I did, and we pinched our laughter in.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” we said in unison.

“You look perfect,” Denora said, offering her arm and leading her into the party.

And once again, I was alone with Kaed.

I couldn’t stop fidgeting. Nothing felt right on me as the ring on my finger threw me off balance.

Kaed’s hand landed on the small of my back, and it sent sparks through me, little embers that died on their ascent to the heavens.

“What do we do now?” I asked without turning to him, my voice flat.

“Now …” His voice was silken, and it drew me in despite myself. “Now, we go on the hunt.”

Instantly, I was reminded of the last time I was here with Kaed and how he’d stalked me until I felt weak and my legs would collapse. Just from the anticipation of the chase … and getting caught. Pinned. Devoured by that mouth of his.

I blinked to clear my head. “Where do we start?” I had to focus. Distracting myself with the task at hand was the best option to get through this.

Kaed took a look around the room, but the line of sight was terrible with all the falling fronds and heavy palm leaves. I could make out Councillor Carron and, I presumed, his wife. Celeste stood close by, her nearly imperceptible nod to me lost in the crowd to everyone else. That was her mark, for when she could speak to him without looking like she was pouncing. Councillor Carron, I felt, wasn’t bad, based on the few interactions. He just didn’t have a backbone. My eyes darted around to look for Celeste’s son. Huxley was not in attendance, and I couldn’t say I was upset over that. My skin still crawled from where he’d kissed my hand. From where he’d come too close, my palm stung at the memory of his thorns there.

We would avoid Varris at all costs. While Tymon had gotten us the invitations, we knew it wasn’t wise to provoke our host. Kaed had been taken from one party already at the behest of the council.

“Good to see you behaving at one of these events, Lord Kaedian.” It was Councillor Morgana Morningstar who approached us and initiated our investigations. We were largely certain we didn’t need to worry about Celeste’s sister, but now that she’d approached us, she did us a favour.

“Councillor.” Kaed bowed lower than expected, and I followed his lead.

There was a degree of reverence afforded to Councillor Morningstar. While there was no head of the Twelve, there did seem to be a natural flocking to Morgana when council was in session. Though, Varris didn’t seem to adhere to that natural flow as others did.

“Lady Imogen.” She turned to me, her red hair, like her sister’s, tightly nested at the top of her head. “This must be your first Seeds and Starlight Celebration?”

I nodded. “Kaed tells me it is a balance of magic and nature? I’m very much looking forward to the evening.”

“It is that. And it is a gift. A blessing to the world that lives with magic but does not have it. It is a balance. And a sacrifice. Power for power’s sake is not worth anything but pain. We must learn to let it go.”

I blinked, unsure what to say.

“We’ve taken your prince from you a lot these past weeks.” Morgana looked to me, regret bright in her eyes. “While talks are moving slowly, I believe we will make progress for the better.” She looked to Kaed, who had an unreadable expression. “You might not wear the Crown yet, but you can shape this world—we can—for the betterment of everyone if we try.”

A heavy silence sat between us all as her words were clearly intended for the male at my side.

“You are doing well in the council meetings, my prince.”

There was a reverence in her tone that I had not expected from her towards Kaed.

He’d said nothing about the meetings with the council and working to broker trade routes and better terms with the Crown. Maybe I should have taken more of an interest. “Your father has made things difficult for the Corners with his recent decree to close trade. But I can see you are working and doing what you can to change that.”

Kaed gave the barest of nods to the councillor at her words.

“The council has placed you within the confines of the city, and you have bowed to our laws. That doesn’t go unnoticed. You are better at diplomacy—even if you don’t have to be—than your father. But we cannot suffer as a nation for your family’s troubles.”