I did not head right back to Soir's side. Didn't want the bird to think he was special. And did not want that feeling in my scars again. But the moment I was back in the party, everything just felt off, like there was a smell in the air, even though the air smelled exactly like I'd expect.
I took a drink off a passing tray, and drifted aimlessly through the crowd trying not to drift in the direction of my estranged consorts. I needed to do this on my own.
The Lord-Wolf watched me from a safe distance before disappearing into the crowd again, but multiple wolves moved throughout the partygoers, watching.
Waiting for... what? Why?
Had they already heard about Asund? Did they already know and hadn't told the Ravens?
Lord-Raven Soir re-appeared so suddenly I jumped and nearly spilled my drink.
He caught my hand before a drop sloshed out of it. His touch sent a strange crackling pulse through me that stabbed like two hot wires into either side of my neck. "I would say I am surprised, but I am not."
"Surprised?" I managed to ask.
He released me, scratching the back of my hands very lightly with his sculpted fingernails. Maybe I had imagined that. "Do I need to say it out loud, Lady Theia? You do have exotic taste. And I enjoy competition."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
He leaned forward and somehow his quiet voice reached me over the din, a wicked smile on his lips, like we were sharing some conspiracy. "You are a very bad liar. At least three servants came to tell me where you had slipped off to. Not that I am judging. Normally Lord-Dragon Ethat eschews being in human-form at all, and when he does choose to partake, he is so discrete not even Ravens can catch him, and I only hear murmurs of it later dropped from the lips of his playmates. He must be quite enchanted with you to permit himself to be caught."
So the servants in Soir's house were the highest order of tattletale that scampered off immediately to deliver gossip to their master. "Perhaps he is keeping you guessing, Lord-Raven."
Soir chuckled. "Are you suggesting that the Lord-Ambassador is using his brother as a pawn in diplomatic games?"
I shrugged. "All I know is that Korr loves a good game."
Soir glanced over my shoulder to where Korr and Itek loitered off to the side, draped over each other while discussing something with a cluster of other partygoers. Then he chuckled. "Almost as much as a Raven loves a good puzzle."
His voice sent wires through my throat again, and stabbed into my spine. "Do Ravens enjoy puzzles?"
"We love puzzles," he said with a wicked smile. "We even enjoy lies, if they're well-told and part of the puzzle. Have you ever been in a hedge-maze, Lady Theia?"
"A hedge-maze?" I asked blankly. A maze made of hedges? How would anyone ever build something like that? "Wouldn't a Raven just fly over it?"
He burst out laughing.
I blushed.
Ormiss suddenly appeared out of the crowds, crackling with purple lightening. He snarled, "Lord-Raven. If you are making a mockery of her--"
Soir waved a manicured hand again. "A mockery? Of course not. On your way, Lord-Regent. She does not need a chaperone. Unless you don't believe that she's capable of saying something clever enough to make a Raven laugh?"
"I have been keeping an eye on you, you--" Ormiss snarled.
"So you don't think she's clever enough to make a Raven laugh." Soir tapped his etched nails on his cup. "Lord-Regent. Either you are very rude, very honest, or very uninformed. As usual."
"I am certain that she's fully capable of calling for help if she needs it," Korr's voice slid through the crowd like half-thawed iced cream. He glided up to Ormiss' other side and slid his arm through Ormiss', causing Ormiss' lightening to crackle over him and throw all of Korr's magic into a frigid, crackling frost veneer that resulted in a poof of ice crystals and snow.
The crowd murmured and a few clapped at the display.
"Land-dwellers are not so much for gallantry, Lord-Regent," Korr patted Ormiss' hand while Ormiss snarled at him like a Wolf, "and what Hippocamp Lady needs a chaperone?"
Itek, gold and beautiful, drifted in front of Ormiss, but remained on Korr's side of things, holding two drinks in one hand and a third in the other. "Land-dwellers are very much for gallantry, Korr."
"Has it been so long I've forgotten?" Korr practically fluttered at Itek.
Itek rolled his eyes at Korr. "More like you've forgotten how grumpy Hippocamp are when their scales dry out."
Ormiss snarled at Itek. "Says the gryphon I pulled out of the sea."
"I never said I was not grumpy when my feathers got wet," Itek said airly. He held out the third drink for Ormiss, who snapped at it with a lick of lightening that Korr blocked with a quick sheet of ice.
Korr bent around Ormiss to face me, Ormiss' magic snapping and snarling against his causing little poofs of snowflakes and frost.
Korr was so beautiful. And his pale eyes were tormented, longing, even though his voice was his usual practiced arrogant lilt. "I will make off with him now, Lady Theia, and throw some water on him. Unless you happen to want to keep him around."
Ormiss tried to snap his arm free of Korr, but Korr yanked back with strength that surprised all of us, given Korr wasn't recovered. The flash of pain that went through Korr's face seemed to flash through my body.
Ethat appeared out of nowhere, arms outstretched as he pressed himself behind Ormiss and Korr. I couldn't hear what he said, but the Murder-Dragon escorted all of them away into the crowds again.
"I am not surprised." Soir watched Ormiss go. "The Lord-Regent makes no secret that he blames me for his cousin's death. He has stopped short of accusing me of murder, but only just."
Would he be wrong to do so? I wasn't drunk enough or stupid enough to ask him flat-out if he'd had something to do with her disappearance. I opted to say nothing instead. Not that Soir expected me to comment. What was I supposed to say? Oh, of course you didn't murder her, why would anyone think that? I was only Lady Theia because Ormiss said I was. He knew my loyalty was going to be to the Hippocamp. Soir knew I wasn't dumb enough to not know how my bread got buttered, even if he didn't know why.
But he'd just told me Ravens loved a puzzle and were even into lies.
Soir pivoted about, his shimmering robes dancing in a momentarily inky display not unlike a squid waving its tentacles, and gave me that wicked, charming smirk. His gaze traveled over my scars.
I handed him my cup. "Since Ravens enjoy puzzles so much, Lord-Raven--"
"We do." He practically flittered with glee.
"Your party is very lovely, and you are a charming host, but I am going to leave while telling you it is because the hour is late." I smiled at him.
He flitted between shock, then a keen, dark gaze while his lips curled. "And I will be left to wonder why you tell me this sweet, obvious lie and untangle the knot of your true reason?"
"Yes."
He tilted his head back and forth, his skin rushing with a silky, dark cast like feathers, and something about him seemed to swell with power, like he was rustling invisible wings. When he spoke, his tone was melodic, but even idiot me felt the power and sweeping intent in his words at the promise of a dark puzzle game. "You are playing with me, Lady Theia, and I very much respect that. Bold. So very bold."
"I am glad we understand each other." I was not bold, but I was apparently stupid and reckless. If I couldn't pass as cunning, I could pass as daring. Maybe.
He fluttered behind me while I headed towards the exit, practically sizzling, and singing something under his breath but making it so I could hear the sound, but not the actual melody. Was that a deranged lullaby?
His attire swept and rustled like wings as he gestured to some Ravens perched on the trellis lining the walkway to his home. "Accompany her wherever she wishes to go. Return when she is done with you."
The Ravens descended from their perches and bowed low to me in one shimmering swoop of their bound-attire.
"Lady Theia," the Lord-Raven bowed himself, then disappeared back into the party.
* * * * *
Ormiss stared blankly at the wall. Asund patiently brushed his hair. He hadn't bothered to take it down from the party and it had turned into a mess. Ormiss had used up all his mental resolve for the party. Now the Weather-Mage was back in a puddle.
Itek sighed and picked at his own breakfast. Watching Theia give the Lord-Raven the time of day had been wrenching. Korr actually looked worse, like his injury was flaring up again. He had never quite completely healed, and restraining Ormiss' magic while also putting on a show that he was in perfect health had strained him.
"She did not even glance at me," Ormiss told Asund, his voice sounded dead and far away.
"She looked right at you," Itek sighed. Ormiss was being dramatic. "She even spoke to you."
"She did not admire you," Asund interpreted. "And of course she didn't. She's not a Raven, and she wasn't there for you. You aren't going to preen for her and win her back."
"You didn't even go," Ormiss said bitterly.
"I know my limits."
"She did not even look."
"She looked," Itek assured him. She had noticed all of them, even if she'd only been polite. Soir had preened for her the entire night, which Theia had tolerated. Perhaps even enjoyed.
"She was upset," Ormiss said. "She left the party at some point. She came back, but she left."
Korr sighed. "Please tell me you were not mooning over her when I wasn't looking, you love-sick horsefish."
"Did you hear anyone gossiping that I was?" Ormiss snapped.
"She needed some air," Korr said. "We all do at some point."
"She was upset," Ormiss said. "Couldn't you see that?"
"She looked like she was fine to me," Itek muttered.
"You weren't looking closely enough," Ormiss snapped. "You did not even notice when that Raven started singing for her! When he insulted her!"
"He did not insult her, and you made a scene," Itek retorted.
"You weren't paying attention. Perhaps you enjoy playing your games with Korr too much."
Korr snapped back, "She was putting on a good show, and what could any of us do about it? Perhaps she did enjoy that Raven's company. She has made it clear she wants her space, and I, for one, intend on respecting it. No good will come of pushing her. Don't you Hippocamp know a mare can cripple a stallion with a kick? He is must vulnerable when he tries to mount her."
"Of course I know that! You simply do not care, Ice Dragon."
"I do care," Korr growled. He cared--he cared down into his frozen core, but sobbing about it wasn't going to get her back, especially since Ormiss and his Unicorn-forged heart was crushed under the anguish. Absolute care had to be taken right now to fix this before the entire thing fell apart in spectacular public fashion. This could fall apart at any moment, with the arrival of any messenger from Asund's home enclave. The threat from the usual Haven gossip mechanisms were an additional pressure, and if they were not all extremely careful, it could result in any number of tragic outcomes. The shifters could not descend into war and bickering while the world eroded under them.
And if Theia was revealed to be a unicorn, it would be war, as every side sought to control her magic, no matter how weak and damaged and warped it might have been.
"She returned to the party disshelved and smelling of pleasure," Itek said. "Or were you not listening to the wolves whisper?"
Ormiss moaned like a dying thing. "What did she do... What did she think she had to do..."
"Not what, but who," Asund corrected.
"Don't torture him," Korr said as Ormiss crumbled. Good gods, the horse-fish was an absolute disaster in private. Itek preened himself into bald patches, Ethat was withering, even he was thawing out as the agony drained his magic, but Ormiss' magic burned hotter than ever, fueled by his anguish, while he spiraled into intense despair. Unless he had the eye of the cruel public to prop him up, Ormiss was a useless puddle.
"I am not torturing him, I'm pointing out the obvious," Asund said with bite in his tone.
"You know Theia did not... consort... with anyone," Itek said. "She was just tolerating the attention she was getting. She was playing the court game."
"We should be able to protect her from that," Ormiss said.
Itek shifted his weight, twitching all over like bugs were biting under his feathers.
Ethat nibbled on a claw.
Korr glanced at him. Ethat knew something. "Brother, do not torment us."
Ethat cocked his head.
"Brother, what do you know? Did she take solace in you?" The unfamiliar twinge of jealousy curdled under his breast. He and Ethat had shared many lovers. Perhaps even most lovers. He'd never felt jealous of his brother playing alone, or securing a conquest he had failed to obtain for himself. They had different charms, different appeals, and while many were intrigued with the prospect of both of them, sometimes they were not.
He and Itek had sent Ethat to check on Theia. Ethat had been gone for a while, but Korr had been distracted by the time his brother had resurfaced at the party, and presumed since he had been gone a while, Theia had returned to the party, and there had been no violence, that things had gone at least passingly well. Of all of them, Ethat seemed to have offended Theia the least, so it seemed wise to let him be the ambassador for them.
Ethat an Ambassador... the world really was coming to an end.
Later, he had heard whispers from the wolves that Theia and Ethat smelled of sex, and the gossip had begun, although some of the wolves present denied that this was true (or that they were the only ones at the party that had smelled of a little fun), but Korr suspected that that was for discretion's sake. Ethat being discrete and smelling of sex (or death) was nothing new to anyone at Haven. Theia was a novelty.
Ethat had had the sensation to his magic that he had been with someone. Ethat had always been exceedingly discrete. Korr himself prided himself on being discrete when it was necessary, but Ethat was beyond discrete as a matter of preference. Perhaps because his tastes in games was a little... exotic. And did not mesh with his threatening exterior and fearsome reputation.
He had been too exhausted to pry further, and taken his brother at his word that Theia had only needed some air and space from the attentions of the party-goers.
Ethat shifted into human form. "She was upset about the attentions of the Lord-Raven. Very upset."
Asund asked, "Did something happen?"
"No, and if it had, I would have taken care of it."
"In the manner in which you take care of many things that last time resulted in me being publicly flogged?" Asund inquired.
Ethat growled and barred his teeth. "I regret nothing."
"Of course you don't."
"Focus, murder-dragon," Itek said.
Ethat tossed his hair. "I don't know how to explain it. But I understood her need."
Korr lifted both brows. "Need? Brother, did you take her in a dark corner?"
"No, I pleasured her and took nothing for myself. In a corner, but well-lit."
"...that is what he meant," Itek muttered.
"It is not appropriate to discuss this," Ethat said seriously.
It was painful to discuss this. Ormiss stared at the floor. Itek clicked his teeth. Korr tried to sort out his knot of feelings. It was too tangled. "Tell us, brother. She... accepted you?"
"She needed me."
"Needed you?"
"In a way I cannot explain. She took only my hand, refused anything else. I did not satisfy her wholly." Ethat hung his head, and not in his playful way, but in genuine regret. "I finished just from touching her, but it was not sufficient. I am..."
"We don't need details," Korr said, understanding immediately what his brother meant. He'd done the same thing when they'd left. It hadn't felt like he had achieved any sort of release at all. It had just been exhausting and depressing. Itek had likely done it as well. Ormiss had just crawled off somewhere to sob and die.
Time to focus on the positive, and ignore the murderous jealous brewing in his chest. It was absurd. The important thing was Theia had been with one of them. There was still hope. She'd had a little fun with one of her consorts at a party. Good. Definite hope, the more he thought about it.
Diplomacy was a battle of shreds and inches. As long as you had your claw in the cliff, you hadn't fallen into the abyss below.
Ormiss looked like optimistic death. It must have been hellish being a Hippocamp, where custom stated a male had absolutely no right to dictate who a female fucked, even if that female was his Churn-ordained mate. It wasn't much better for dragons, who mated faithfully and for life, but at least they didn't have to reconcile their feelings with a a cultural norm that stated they had no right to feel upset if their lover went somewhere else. No, dragon culture said they had every right to feel despairing over their mate not being with them, and lost at the prospect anyone else was pleasing her.
Hippocamp culture said if you don't like it, that's your problem and your fault. Go fix it or shut up.
Theia's fears were that she was warped, and that her love was toxic, and the Churn had chosen wrong for all of them.
He had never minded sharing partners with his brother, or losing partners to his brother... perhaps it was no more complicated than he had always preferred to share partners with Ethat, and this partner was the one he wanted more than anything... and he was not getting anything he wanted through some failing he had yet to figure out.
But at least she had permitted Ethat to give her whatever it was she had wanted or needed.
So that was a good sign.
Yes. It was a good sign. She hadn't completely shut the door on them, so there was still strained relations, but relations all the same. "This is good."
Itek nodded. "Agreed. If she had been with the Lord-Raven, I would say we are truly lost. But she took Ethat."
"She would never be with that bird!" Ormiss snapped, magic crackling.
"Never say never," Itek said.
Korr cringed inwardly while Ormiss surged to his feet with a sudden burst of energy. "She wouldn't! Not him!"
Korr stepped between them, flicking a thin wall of ice between the two. "Stop. Nothing good will come of us chewing on each other."
"She still loves us," Asund stated.
"That's not the problem. The problem is she's not happy with us," Itek said. He picked at some of his hair.
"Did you make her happy?" Korr asked his brother while batting Itek's hand away from his hair. Even having to ask made the mostly-healed injury in his side throb with pain.
"I believe so," Ethat said, eyes averted.
"If you know something, spit it out," Asund growled.
"Ethat never discusses his partners," Korr said before Asund could get angrier. They wouldn't get anywhere if they were at each other's throats all the time. They needed to figure out how to fix this... together... before it all fell apart.
Ethat cocked his head to the side and looked at his brother. "She was well-pleased. I don't believe she regretted it after it was over."
Bless his brother for knowing exactly what was being asked. There was hope for all of them yet. She still loved them. She still wanted them. Or at least she still wanted Ethat.
Ethat was watching him.
"Don't worry," Korr said. "You don't need to respond to the gossip. Just play it as you always do. I'm sure that there will be chatter since you don't have a reputation, and it of course is going to be a little scandalous, but Ormiss can just continue defending her prerogative and discussing it as being rude."
"But what do we do?" Itek asked. "The Lord-Raven is circling, and if we let this farce go on too long, it could start a war. Or at least a feud. Our species will not be happy with us for fucking the world up further than it is. The entire reason we are here has nothing to do with squabbling over power in Haven, but why the world is rotting."
Korr raised a brow. "And she wants to find out about her past and true nature. We're the ones who pushed her to ask those questions, we can't stop her now. We can only help her. And those marks on her back are from Ravens. And the Ravens are interested in her. Follow the train of logic, Itek."
"I am, and I don't like where it leads."
/*********
PEEPS:
Sorry again for the delay, it's been a bit of a thing. I got buried last week with edits of my super duper smutty monster romance and lost track of time, and I also have this thing called thoratic outlet syndrome which HURTS LIKE A FUCKER SOMETIMES and it was in a MOOD last week while I slammed stacks of NSAIDs and slathered myself with tigerbalm. I still smell like tigerbalm.
So the SUPER smutty monster romance is called "Spared By The Monster" (HAHAHAHA) and I'm so thrilled with the cover. I should post a before and after somewhere so folks can see how amazing the cover artist (Ana Spies) is. I bought the original cover as a premade 2 years ago, and then asked her a few weeks ago "hey, can you... you know... turn this buff dude into a monster? Like how monstrous can I get it on short notice?"
And she's like "I've got you, fam"
But I'm totally embarrassed by this book. I already told my mom she can't read it. She's like FUCK YOU, I'M READING IT. And I'm like NO, MOM, NO, IT'S SMUTTY. And she's like I'LL SKIP PAST THOSE PARTS and I'm like NO, MOM, YOU'LL PROBABLY JUST SKIP TO MORE SMUT and she's like THEN I'M JUST GONNA DRINK UNTIL I DON'T CARE BUT IMMA GONNA READ IT.
._.
~ Merry
(mortified pantster)
*******/