Page 11

Story: Vow Forever Night

I regretted it immediately, but the good breeding instilled in me since birth demanded a proper introduction.

When she reached hers out to me, I looked at it like it might bite.

All right, I could handle looking at her. Her vague proximity was fine, and so were her damn cupcakes. But touch? That was another story.

A dangerous one.

My energy wasn’t drained currently. I avoided physical contact with people unless I knew I was completely under control.

But this is only a quick greeting. You’ve done it a thousand times, even at full power.

Touching people for an extended amount of time could hurt them, but a few seconds was never a problem. Unless I wanted to cause harm.

Ah, damn it to all the hells and back.

I lifted the small, delicate hand, my fingers featherlight against her skin, and brought my lips to the back of her palm like the goddamn elder blood, well-socialized gentleman I was supposed to be.

I half expected discomfort, but nothing could have prepared me from the sudden, electrifying jolt running all over my skin.

What are you?

I looked up from her hand, confused it was still in mine. Her fingers smelled of cupcakes.

Kleos looked as shocked as I was. Hopefully, I didn’t ask out loud.

Get a hold of yourself, Regis.“I’ll exchange a vial of faebloom essence for another cupcake, Valesco.”

There. I sounded like myself, finally.

“Deal!” Without hesitation, she handed me my prize and returned to the safe side of the office.

Before sitting on her cousin’s guest chair, she tossed out, “Oh, if you’re Lucian, I’m Kleos.”

Gideon slid her tea across his desk, and levitated a third cup to me.I ignored it and ate my second cupcake, pretending to pay attention to my paperwork again.

There. We had a full conversation and I survived. Perhaps she’d be less of a mystery to me now. More like a person.

Except those eyes, that smell, that aura, the feel of her skin, those damncupcakes.

Ugh. I added so many items to an already-long list of questions in minutes.

Half an hour later, she was finally gone, taking the light with her, and I could focus on the report.

“Soooo, drinks?” Gideon asked again, putting his feet up on his desk. “Or shall I call her back?”

“I hate you.”

5

KLEOS

Gods, may Apollo shoot me before I embarrass myself further.

I didn’t know what the hell possessed me to humiliate myself like that. I opted to blame the horrible sleep full of burning dreams, the terrifying, excruciating way I woke up, and my exhaustion. Why else would I have submitted myself to this kind of rejection?

Lucian Regis, the formerly elusive high sorcerer of the underside, who only ever showed up at formal festivals—and remained far, far away from we new-blood plebe, sticking to his fancy founding family peers—had spent five months, four weeks, and four days as my cousin’s partner. Deadly, formidable, he walked into the Guard each morning wearing dark sunglasses and a suit so well cut over his broad shoulders and muscular frame, it should be considered lewd. Downright pornographic. I was fairly certain I couldn’t be the only one instantly imagining dirty, dirty things whenever he appeared.

But if I learned one thing during the course of his employment, it was that the guyloathedme.