Page 20 of A Blade of Blood and Shadow (The Ravaged Kingdom #1)

Chapter

Thirteen

D espite his velvet finery, Kaden still smelled faintly of leather and the cool night scent that pervaded his home. It clung to him just as insistently as the dark whisper of magic that he wore like a second skin.

With my soft slippers and Kaden’s eerily silent footsteps, the only sound was my slightly ragged breathing and the frantic thundering of my heart. I’d expected Kaden to lead us back down the opulent staircase, but instead, he turned me toward a large half-moon balcony that I hadn’t noticed before.

The hunter in me cursed at overlooking another exit point. These were the sort of details that had kept me alive in the Quarter.

It wasn’t that I felt unsafe with Kaden. Alarmingly, I felt the opposite. But Kaden was still dark fae, and faeries couldn’t be trusted.

“Are you armed?” he asked.

I stiffened. “Always. ”

“I would have been disappointed if you weren’t hiding something sharp and pointy under there, but do not make the mistake of thinking that you will be any match for our host or any of his guests should things” — he grimaced — “go sideways.”

I bristled. “I think I’ll be the judge of that,” I snapped, insulted that he thought I couldn’t take a faerie.

Kaden tilted his head to the side, his expression part warning, part amusement. “I have no doubt in your ability to dispatch even the most formidable vampire, but you, little huntress, are no match for the oldest of my kind.”

I scoffed in annoyance, but the sound had barely whooshed out of me when I felt a rush of cool air against my thighs. The layers of my dress billowed around me, and half a heartbeat later, I found my back pressed against Kaden’s chest and his arm locked around my waist.

I sucked in a gasp but froze when I felt the kiss of cold steel at my throat. Kaden held me in an iron grip, the warmth of his body seeping through our clothes, and the edge of a blade — my blade — was pressed to my throat.

“As I said,” he murmured, his warm breath stirring my hair, “you are no match for my kind.”

Fury and terror streaked through me, igniting my blood and heating my skin. At least, I told myself that was the reason I suddenly felt too hot all over. It certainly had nothing to do with the crackle of Kaden’s dark magic humming over my skin or the feel of his hard body pressed against my back.

“The fae do not possess the sort of power that we wield in our own realm,” he continued, his voice rumbling up my spine. “But you must still be on your guard at all times. ”

I tried not to roll my eyes. Who did he think he was talking to?

“The most powerful among us could disarm you without so much as lifting a finger.” He removed the dagger from my throat, and my breath hitched as the humming tendrils of his magic parted the slit in my dress and slid my weapon back into its sheath at my thigh.

“Don’t eat the food. Don’t drink the wine.

It won’t be true faerie wine, but it could still be enchanted. I wouldn’t put anything past Caladwyn.”

Caladwyn . That must be the name of our host — the faerie we’d be stealing from.

Kaden released his grip on my waist, encircling my wrist with those long fingers and spinning me so that I faced him. “Don’t reveal any more than you have to, but try not to lie. Many older fae can smell deception, and we don’t want to raise suspicions.”

I glared back at him, still enraged that he’d disarmed me just to prove that he could. Did he really expect me to waltz into a room full of fae and not lie about why I was there?

“And what am I supposed to say when they ask how we met?”

“The truth.” Kaden’s silver-gray eyes twinkled. “That I heroically saved you from a horde of demons.”

This time, I couldn’t resist rolling my eyes. “Like that’s not going to attract attention.”

Kaden chuckled. The sound made my toes curl in my slippers, but the light winked out of his eyes. “Trust me. Most of us are hundreds of years old. Very little surprises us anymore.”

Us .

I was still marveling at how young he seemed despite his years as he unlatched one of the huge French doors. A cool breeze danced over my skin as Kaden turned and extended a hand.

With the moonlight gleaming off his hair and his arm outstretched in invitation, he stole my breath away.

He’s dangerous , I chided. His little display with my dagger had proven as much.

And yet every inch of Kaden was glamoured to allure. Seduce. Entrap.

My very bones hummed with the instinct that I shouldn’t trust him — even more after he’d just shown me how dangerous he was.

He was poison in a pretty bottle, and yet the part of me that was soft and foolish and liked wearing pretty dresses gravitated toward Kaden like a vampire drawn to a warm mortal body.

I took his proffered hand, and warm fingers closed around mine. He led me out into the cool star-flecked night — into the little slice of enchantment that hovered above the blood and filth.

I took one step and then another. The balcony was hewn from smooth black stone and had no railing. It simply dropped into the open air.

As we cleared the overhang, those incredible wings sprouted from his back — magicked into existence with only a thought. I sucked in a breath as they fanned out behind him, catching gently on the breeze as if they yearned for the sky.

Up close, his wings hardly looked black at all. Every shade of oil-slick color seemed to glow in the moonlight. Deep emerald. Midnight cobalt. Stunning amethyst with burgundy swirls .

“Like what you see, little huntress?” he purred, his grip tightening on my hand and making my insides warm.

I realized I’d reached out with my free hand — my fingers inches from his membranous wings. “I’ve just never seen them up close before.”

“Most fae would think I’m mad to allow a huntress so close to my wings.”

“And you’re not?” I asked, a little breathlessly.

I knew how the fae guarded their wings. To touch them without invitation — even accidentally — was beyond dangerous.

“I never said that,” Kaden murmured, drawing me toward him with a wicked smile.

His grip was gentle but strong enough that I didn’t think I could have broken it. Not that I tried. My skin tingled at his sudden proximity —at the heat emanating from his body.

My whole body tightened as Kaden drew me closer, twirling me around as though we were dancing and tugging me flush against his chest.

“W-what are you doing?” I stammered, unnerved by the arm that was now locked around my waist and the feeling of his warm breath on my neck.

Kaden’s low chuckle rumbled through me, sending a surge of heat flaring from the base of my spine all the way to my toes. “What? Can you fly us?”

“ Fly ?” I choked.

But the word had barely left my lips as Kaden’s arm shifted, coming around to support my back as he scooped my legs out from under me.

His joyful laugh covered my shrieks as he hauled me into his arms and tumbled off the edge of the balcony .

My own scream chased us in a free fall just before the wind caught his wings. My stomach jolted, and I gasped as the force of the updraft whipped us back, sending my hair flying in every direction.

I couldn’t see. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t do anything but shriek at the sky.

I didn’t stop screaming until Kaden started to beat his wings — each flap a deep, unhurried whoosh. I shivered as cool air billowed under my dress, caressing my bare thighs and making me clench my legs together.

“Relax, will you?” Kaden chuckled, his arms tightening around me. “Flying with you is like carrying a pillowcase full of feral cats.”

I opened my mouth to say something nasty, but the knowledge that Kaden’s wings were all that prevented me from plummeting to my death made me clamp it shut. I shivered again, and he adjusted his grip to hug me tighter against his warm, hard chest.

It was awkward being carried like this, but after a moment, I felt my body relax and nestled deeper into his embrace. For safety reasons, of course.

Once my heart found a normal rhythm, I chanced a glimpse toward the ground. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe for an entirely different reason.

The city stretched beneath us like a living canvas — a glittering constellation of golden light, flashing red, and neon streaks of pink and blue. This high up, the Quarter glimmered with a beauty I’d never seen before.

I felt . . . lighter. Silas couldn’t hurt me up here. Nothing could.

“It’s . . .”

“Beautiful,” Kaden finished, his low voice rumbling through me and adding to that sense of euphoria swelling in my chest. It was a foreign feeling, but familiar all the same — like a long-forgotten dream.

I breathed in deeply, letting that cool leather scent of Kaden fill my lungs. With the warmth of his body to guard against the chill, I was perfectly content, and I had to resist the urge to rest my head against his broad shoulder.

Part of me wondered if he’d used some fae magic to calm me down, but in that moment, I couldn’t bring myself to care.

The lights of the city were growing brighter — the outline of buildings more defined.

We swooped over them with a speed that stole the air from my lungs, and I had to turn my head into Kaden’s chest just to catch my breath.

Once I was confident I wasn’t going to pass out, I dared a glance over my shoulder. Kaden angled his wings to bank around a copse of trees, and we drifted down, down, down.

Fisting the fine velvet of his jacket, I braced for the impact, but I hardly even noticed as his feet touched down on the ground. Kaden took a few smooth, gliding steps to absorb the landing, bringing us to a halt in a quiet garden.

My heart was hammering as he set me on my feet, keeping one hand on my back to steady me.

I was standing on cool, lush grass surrounded by weeping willows.

Flowering shrubs of every shape and size sagged with fresh blooms. There wasn’t a withered blossom in sight, and yet I couldn’t find the garden beautiful.

A varnish of unnatural perfection seemed to ensconce the place — perfection and stillness.

Not a single cricket chirped. No birds rustled in the trees.

Even the wind seemed to be holding its breath, avoiding the temptation to brandish the long fingerlike leaves of the willows standing sentry along the wrought-iron fence .

In the distance, a silver mist gathered around a line of flowering crepe myrtles. The curled edges of their fuchsia blooms seemed to beckon us down the crushed gravel path toward the most fae-looking house I’d ever seen.

The two-story manor was painted shell pink with intricate gilded molding snaking around the overhangs. Long white pillars spanned the front of the house, and little art deco accents gave the place an eclectic, slightly unhinged look.

Kaden led me across the lawn, and I followed, my eyes darting this way and that.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched, and that put me on edge.

I reached for my daggers, but my fingers brushed only chiffon.

I swore. I should have come dressed for battle rather than sheathed in this flimsy gown.

As we drew closer, my skin started to tingle with a strange pulling sensation — like the air was being stretched too tightly over my face. It pulled and pulled until I felt something give, and it was as though I’d broken some invisible membrane that separated this world from the next.

Suddenly, I could see them — the fae cavorting on the second-floor balcony. Sounds of drunken revelry drifted over the garden, and I immediately understood why Kaden had felt the need to dress me.

The faeries drifting along the ornate golden railing looked . . . not of this realm. Like the circus faeries, the partygoers seemed to flaunt their fae-ness. Scales, horns, and feathers were on full display, as was an ethereal beauty that made my hair stand on end.

The other guests were bedecked in an astounding array of fabrics and colors — jewel-toned dinner jackets, sheer misty scraps of cloth that clung to pale, lithe bodies, and huge, billowing gowns in neon silk that seemed to glow in the faelights floating above the crowd.

The faeries laughed and shrieked as champagne sloshed out of elegant flutes that looked as though they’d been spun from the finest glass.

I turned slowly to Kaden and found him watching me. There was something off about the look in his eyes — a mixture of curiosity, sadness, and cold, hard steel.

The expression vanished as soon as I met his gaze, and he extended an arm in invitation. “Shall we?”