And as devastated as I am over what he did, no one deserves to suffer the way I have.
But all of that is in the past. Tonight…tonight is for the future.
A future that doesn’t feel as bleak as it did a few hours ago.
Our bodies swing and sway in time with everyone else’s until we become one living organism, an anemone beneath the sea, undulating with the tide of sensual song. I lift my hands, rolling and rocking my hips while Braith spins around in circles, a wide grin on her upturned face. My lashes grow heavy, and I close my eyes, letting the music take me away from this terrible world.
Calloused fingers trace mine; a solid body presses to my back. I don’t look to see who it is. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but the music as one song bleeds into another and another. The man’s hands fall to my waist, holding me as we move in time. I press back into him, feeling heated breath tickling my ear. The sharp bite of stubble.
It feels good to be held. To be touched. To dance. To be free.
As I peer through my lashes, the world slowly comes back into focus. Jeston has his arms around Braith, holding her the way the man at my back holds me. The smile on her face brings one to my own. I’ve never seen my friend look as happy.
My partner slides his hand to cup my hip bone. “Is this all right?” he whispers breathlessly against the shell of my ear.
It’s more than all right. Stars, it feels like I’ll die if he lets go. I reach behind me, clasping his neck with one hand, urging his lips down until he kisses my exposed throat, his hands scalding a path from my hips to my ribs and back again. The music swells. With each rapid beat of my heart, my legs grow weaker, my breaths more ragged.
Suddenly, the man’s hands still.
His lips lift from my skin.
I fight the urge to drag him back. To turn and find their soft wantonness with mine.
Then a voice so close I can feel its deep, rich tones vibrating across my skin says… “Allette?”
Thirty-One
SENAN
The woman’seyes snap open. Until the moment I saw her golden irises, I couldn’t be sure. But now I know. Iknowthisis the same woman I lost all those years ago.
Tonight, I came to lose myself in the handful of women cloistered behind the curtains. But something about the music called to me. It’s been years since I wanted to dance without being forced at some event or another, and I’d been powerless to resist the song’s call.
The last thing I expected was to find myself dancing with a ghost.
Only she isn’t a ghost.
My Allette, my love,my girl, is standing here, blinking up at me through wide eyes. Only her hair…it’s no longer blue. It’s black.
I must be hallucinating. That is the only explanation. I guzzled a few drinks back at the castle, but not enough to make me see the face in front of me as clearly as the sun at noon.
She isalive.
I curl my arms around her form, praying she doesn’t vanish. The unending ache deep within me subsides, and I can finallybreathe without hurting. “Gods. Allette. You’re here. You’re really here.” How is this possible?
Her palms flatten against my chest, and she pushes. “Let me go.”
Her smoky voice cuts through the noise around us, more beautiful than the most perfect melody. I can’t let her go. Not when I finally found her after all this time.
The last thing I expect is for Allette to shove me again. My hold loosens, and she slips away. I shout for her to stop, but she doesn’t. She shoves through the crowd on her way to the door.
I knock people aside, step on toes, and dodge elbows, my focus on her and her alone.
A man with silver hair catches Allette’s hand. From the pale, grayish tone of his face, I assume he’s Tuath. When his gaze locks with mine, his expression hardens.
“Are you all right, Goldie?” I hear him ask Allette.
Why is she letting him hold her hand? That fucking bastard. If he doesn’t let her go this instant, I’m going to tear out his throat.