“You two look cosier by the minute.” Regar eyed my hand still on Isay’s back.

I pulled away, instantly missing her warmth under my fingers. “Shut it, or I’ll tell everyone—”

“You fucker!” Regar made a show to shove me, but stopped because Isay stood between us.

“I thought that was you. I haven’t seen any action since…” I looked to Isay, then back at Regar. “... Ah, never mind.”

I wasn’t going to tell Isay I’d been with Sela on the night I found her in the kitchen. Nah, not happening. I wish I could take it back, take it all back. Looking at her flushed face, I wanted to know only the taste of her in my mouth, only her skin against mine, only her moans overpowering mine. For death’s sake, I wanted her so bad, and my past with Sela felt like a big red flag hovering over my head.

“So death fae do dance?” Isay mused, looking around the room while we waited on our drinks. “If you could call it that.”

“Oh, we do call it that,” Hiko hummed.

“It gets him all turned on,” Regar pointed out, eyes gleaming with mischief. “So many ways it could go wrong if he were to get hungry.”

“I don’t see you complaining.”

Holy shit. How had I not noticed this before? It was so obvious now.

“How about that dance I declined earlier?” Isay asked, taking all of my focus away from Hiko and Regar. Ferro had disappeared to do whatever the hell he wanted, and Sinister was chatting up a brunette by the bar.

“Don’t drink my beer,” I warned Regar, before I led my girl onto the dance floor.

Just a dance. It’s just a dance. No funny business, I reminded myself.

I breathed in sweat and alcohol and the sweetness of Isay as she pressed herself closer to me, mimicking the couple next to us. My mouth went dry as her body tried to catch a beat she was clearly unfamiliar with while rubbing against me in all the right ways.

“Tell me when the ring starts burning again,” was all the sense I could manage out of my desire-clouded brain before I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her even closer.

Isay let out a surprised gasp and bit her lip but didn’t move away, following my movements and the guidance of my hands on her hips instead. Good gracious, she could move. Once she got the hang of the beat, her body took the lead, and I was falling under her influence. Forget the beer, I was drunk on Isay.

“The ring?” I reminded myself as much as her.

She shook her head dismissively, and I checked her hands. The thin silver band was still on her finger.

“Nothing at all?” I asked, shaking off some of the desire as something short of dread replaced it.

“Maybe the first time was a coincidence?” she suggested. “I was rather emotional.”

I didn’t want to worry, and I wanted to keep her in my embrace, but my gut was telling me this was not it.

“What about in the throne room? With the king?” I pressed. “Did the ring react?”

She stopped dancing then, and I hated myself for the look of hesitation that crossed her face. “I… I’m not sure.”

Shit. I was right. What in the world had the delthers done to her?

Chapter 20

ISAY

I DIDN’T FEEL LIKE DANCING ANY LONGER. THE HEAT OF KARMUTH’S body against mine burned more than the ring ever did. The ring was silent. Not cold, not warm, it was just a ring and that concerned him.

I wanted him to stop worrying for a moment, sweep me away and forget about the rest. Our problems would catch up with us regardless.

“Do you think it stopped working?” I asked, not really wanting to deal with it right there and then, but he seemed hyper-focussed on it.

“It hasn’t stopped working,” Karmuth replied.

I raised an eyebrow. “Why do you look like you bit into a sour apple then?”

He shook his head, dismissing the topic but not relaxing into the noisy sound like he had before. He’d pulled away from me and kept a distance between us that felt like a gaping void after having his arms around me. It confused me, because back in the car he’d clearly stated he was waiting for my approval and here I was offering it to him. No, he didn’t want my consent, he was only interested in keeping me at arm’s length. Or was he really worried about the king’s warning? He was worried about hurting me?

I…ah… didn’t know. I couldn’t read him. The distance he’d so effortlessly created between us ripped at my heart. Stupid. So stupid, I shouldn’t have fallen for whatever the conversation in the car had meant to unhinge in me. It wasn’t serious to him. He’d called dibs on me? Boohoo, so what?

Men played those kinds of games shamelessly. It didn’t have to mean he had anything more than just a little fun in mind.

Playing with fire was exciting, right? Now he also knew how inexperienced I was in this type of situation. He could take his sweet time pushing all the buttons to see what made me tick.

I took a deep breath, shaking my head too. I wouldn’t let him win in this game he’d started. He wouldn’t see me squirm under his attention that he kept giving and taking away as he wished. Why I’d thought dancing with him was a good idea in the first place, I had no clue.

“I’m thirsty,” I blurted and escaped toward the bar where we’d left Hiko and Regar.

Karmuth followed right behind. “Isay, are you mad at me?”

“Mad? Why should I be?” I was not mad at him. He was a man and couldn’t do any better than his biological programming set for him.

He was also a death fae, which I kept forgetting. Chasing a prey was instinctual for him. It was the hunt not the victory that thrilled him. Being mad at him would be like being mad at a cat chasing after a bird, then later discarding it out of disinterest.

No, I was mad at myself for thinking there was more to us.

I didn’t reach the bar before two neatly dressed men blocked my way. Karmuth’s growl was barely audible through the music, but his possessive hand snaking around my stomach was hard to miss.

I stepped out of his reach, not falling for it. Not falling, not falling… for him.

“Can I help you?” I asked when the two men did not move out of my way. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Regar tapping Hiko’s shoulder at the bar and gesture in our direction. Both of them stood to attention.

My eyes fell back to the two men in front of me. Both of them dark-haired with dark eyes—dark, dark, dark eyes. I knew then that they were fae. Wishing I hadn’t stepped out of Karmuth’s hold, I gave them my best ‘don’t mess with me’ look. I don’t think I did a good job at it.

“Our lord would like a word with you,” one of them spoke up flatly, gesturing towards a balcony overlooking the dance floor. The staircase leading up was flanked by two sturdier dark fae, cutting off any unwanted visitors.

“He should be the one down here then, shouldn’t he? You can tell your lord that.” Too far? I think that went a bit too far, but I’d never done well under pressure.

There were several dark fae courts I knew of, but only one that shared a hunting territory with Vindica. Those fae were Felrothian. They also had a decades old dispute between each other, if not longer. Their lord taking an interest in me while I was clearly in the company of Karmuth was a bad sign.

“I’m afraid he won’t take no for an answer,” the same fae responded dryly as if he’d gone through this dialogue several times before and it always ended the same way. “I suggest you follow us without causing a scene.”

Karmuth pulled me behind him, sneering at the Felrothians. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”