Page 52 of Kingdom of the Two Moons
Riven
Riven shoves away the girl who has started to open his pants, getting up when the scent of Melody’s blood drifts over to him, cutting through all the other smells, as distinct as a beacon of light in a starless night.
He follows the scent back to the kitchen, and then, spotting servants sweeping up a mess of glass shards, trails it back outside into the corridor. Vanella, the dark-haired elf, comes sauntering through the darkness. A red gown made of translucent chiffon slides over her body, the front cut so deep it reveals her belly button, that piece of fabric only held into place by golden fibulas. Her face is schooled in a mask of pure triumph. Not a day has gone by, and she’s already replaced Sarynx. Riven would almost believe the act if it weren’t for the hard lines around her fluorescent-colored lips.
“Where’s Caryan?” he asks her.
“Don’t worry, your king is safe, as is your little slave girl. Or as safe as she can be, I guess. I just saw him sucking her blood on the patio. It looked really… intense.” She curls a strand of her silken hair around her finger as she rolls the last word, batting her long, green lashes up at him. She laughs bright as a bell when she notices Riven’s clenched jaw.
He tries to pass her, but she blocks his way.
“I wouldn’t go and watch that if I were you. ”
“And why would that be?” he growls down at her.
She cuts him a slashing grin that doesn’t suit her. It’s a little bit too desperate, just like her dress. “Do you think no one else notices how you two are looking at her? It gets kind of boring, though, to watch the display of your depraved tastes.”
Riven scrutinizes his nails, but his voice is cold with a warning as he drawls, “You better not forget who you’re talking to, and all the more, who you’re talking about .”
Flames flare up on her skin, enough to bite and hurt, but not to burn. Yet.
For a moment, Vanella looks truly afraid as she stares at the flames licking at her. Flames that could eat everything, even stone. She falls to her knees, pressing her forehead against the ground. “Forgive me, I forgot myself for a moment, my lord.”
“Indeed you did.”
Riven pulls his magic back with a snip of his fingers. “I’d be careful if I were you, Vanella,” he says, straightening the sleeves of his shirt. “I know you feel triumphant now Sarynx is finally gone. But you do not seem to realize that he’s already as bored with you as he was with her. And it’s a dangerous thing—to lose Caryan’s interest.”
He steps past her and walks toward that patio where Melody’s and Caryan’s scents linger, although they are already gone. Only drops of her blood shimmer on the ground, silvery in the moonlight, the scent heavy in the air. And yes—Vanella wasn’t lying—there are other scents too.
He takes a moment there, in the quiet, watching bats cutting through the night catching prey, before he slowly walks back to the party, to the girl with the silver imprints on her lavender skin who’s still waiting.