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I took another step backward but met only air when I put my foot down. I had only a second to contemplate my mistake before I tumbled into the air.
“Nic!” Dio shouted.
I shrieked, heart racing, certain the hard stop at the end of the fall was going to break me.
My vision clouded, swirling with black smoke, and a cool, comforting blanket closed around me, slowing my fall, cushioning me until I landed gently at the bottom of a ravine I hadn’t known was there.
I blinked, staring up at the three faces of my best friends. Nic seemed to swirl into existence out of shadows or some sort of smoke.
“What happened?”
“Nothing, Ember,” Dio assured me. “Just a little slip.”
“But—”
“You’re fine. Just watch your step. Now forget this happened.” Dio touched my forehead.
I blinked a few more times before my vision cleared completely. We stood in the snowy field. Something was weird about that, but I wasn’t sure what.
The snowball in my face distracted me completely.
“Hey!”
“You’re it!” Dio shouted.
“Jerk!” I grabbed a pile of snow and sprinted after my friend. They weren’t supposed to hit me in the face.
Ember
The slinky green dress I wore showed off my legs to their max effect, covered one shoulder, but left the one with my silks harlequin clown tattoo bare. Geraint’s forest green suit paired well my sparkly attire, and I felt like a star as we wandered around the gathering with me on his arm. We both held champagne flutes to blend in, but we drank water. Even if we hadn’t been part of a questionable heist, we wouldn’t have had any alcohol until after we performed.
Nic lurked in the shadows, working on his plan to liberate Dio’s essence. We had already erected our aerial rig and heavy red cloth shrouded it and the rest of the stage. The performances would start in a few hours. Until then, a string quartet played, and people moved amongst the displays. Like every other charity benefit we’d performed at, about half the people were genuinely interested in the artifacts and almost everyone was interested in being seen.
The elite spoke with us, but some inherent sense they had told them we weren’t on their perceived level. Many of them recognized us from previous shows, or from the poster the museum had hastily put up when we’d accepted their invitation last week. We were fancy performers, but we were still the entertainment.
Little did they know I was the royalty of their dreams. Not that the title meant anything right now. The only thing I’d even remotely done to earn that title was save Nic’s life after not-Baz had tried to drain him of essence and kill him.
Regardless, I didn’t care what they thought, as long as they continued to donate their money and didn’t use their considerable influence to block my progress. Geraint and I smiled and nodded at all the right places and floated from conversation to conversation so we could be seen.
Robby, with Casey on his arm, made his way through the crowd much like we did. He somehow charmed everyone in his path. Perhaps it was his jester skills, or maybe it was an inherent aspect of what and who he was. People liked me and Geraint. They loved Robby. I supposed we were lucky to have him, and I certainly didn’t mind the effect he had on people.
“How much longer?” Geraint asked out of the corner of his mouth.
I glanced at my fancy wristwatch. “Another half an hour.”
My knight sighed. “I used to enjoy this part a lot more.”
Chuckling, I kept my stage smile plastered on my face. “Same here. At least we only do charity events a few times a year.”
Geraint raised my hand to his lips and kissed it. “I can’t decide if this is better or worse than pouring drinks.”
“Just be thankful...” I trailed off, not wanting to jinx us.
“What?”
“Uh, I was going to say be thankful none of the bad guys are here, but I guess we don’t know that. Do we?” I shuddered at my memories.
“Robby checked in with the librarian,” Geraint said.
