Silver Skin

28

Elegance in vengeance
~
Cadence
~

He gripped her hand too tightly in his.

Even though the unyielding and vice grip irked her muscles and joints, designed to keep her in place, she found comfort in it.

It reminded Cadence that Rexton was here.

"I don't know how to dance," Cadence grunted to him.

She was too stiff in the body, to wired in the muscles to move in a flowing, graceful way. Everyone around them, the bodies that embraced the tides of song and flowed with their partner like an effortless union were as off-putting as Cadence's awkwardness.

They, Cadence and the others, were free to move, to glide to the music, but what would happen once the song ended? Their freedom only stretched so far in their place of confinement.

Rexton's hand on her side seared through her dress, onto her skin like burnt metal.

He gave a loose, elegant shrug. "Nor do I, but we can make our own moves, right?"

They were both awful at dancing, or maybe it was just Cadence making their dance unbearable. Rexton was superb in whatever he did, but as they danced, their body language clanged together unnaturally, like two things that weren't supposed to be.

Music played distantly in the background, a violinist fiddling with the strings, igniting an impulsing collision of transcendence and stagnancy. They were deadlocked as the pianist played, dabbling his fingers across the keys in a waving motion.

Adriana drew quite a crowd with the hymns of music.

Cadence couldn't help but to roll her eyes. "We're not in control Rexton, they make the moves and it looks like we're expected to follow."

Dancing bodies swam around them and Cadence kept her steel gaze on those familiar to her. Erisa was between Tala and Alexene, the trio sticking to the dinner table where wolves and vampires gawked at them. She was safe, at least, guarded by the werewolf and vampire.

Accalia and Tristan were sharing a dance, forcefully interlocking their hands as they swirled around. Accalia kept peering over Tristan's shoulder to look at the cage across from them. From here, Cadence thought her cousin was trying to dance closer, swindling her way to the cage that contained her mate.

They were given no choice but to go to the dancefloor. Adriana made her threat clear by saying nothing at all.

How Cadence wished to willed that kind of power.

"Precisely, which is why you need to keep your anger in check," Rexton said to her and tried to twirl her around.

Cadence was going nowhere as she keep her solid eyes on her cousins and she clicked her high heels against the marble flooring. She was six feet in these menacing heels, but Rexton still managed to tower over her like a pillar.

Stiff in the legs and arms, Cadence flickered her harrowing eyes over to the huge cage that was planted next to a refined, red diamond throne.

Lycus had finally awoken, but he seemed to be in a state of limbo. He wasn't moving and his eyes swivelled around aimlessly, too much for him to take in.

"Your brother is right over there, Rexton, aren't you angry?" Cadence asked angrily, twirling her clammy fingers through Rexton's.

Aren't you vengeful? Cadence brooded. She couldn't understand his unusual calm, how he could master a unassuming, boyish face that granted pleasant smiles to people that walked by. No one in this place deserved to see Rexton smile. They would want to rot him, steal that smile of his and turn it into something menacing.