Page 102 of Shade of Ruin

Someone I thought I’d never see again is standing in front of me. “Vesta,” I whisper.

“It’s been a very long time, Maeve,” she says before bowing to me. She looks nothing like she did when she was my tutor, but there’s no way that I could mistake her. The slightly too large eyes and way her body seems to glide rather than walk are burned into my mind.

The look on her face, even though she’s now almost entirely translucent, is the same as when I’d done something that shewas proud of. When I’d read my first passage in that enormous book of history. The time I’d killed my first deer.

It was always the same. Her lips didn’t move. She didn’t smile. I don’t think she knew how, to be perfectly honest. Her eyes had smiled, though. There was a sparkle to them that was impossible to miss. It was almost how Cole’s eyes had burned last night.

“You two know each other?” Cole whispers.

I nod, but Vesta doesn’t let me speak. “During the Shattering, I left the House of Shadows in grief for several years, and in an effort to pull myself out of that grief, I spent time with humans in the village that Maeve is from. Ihelpedher.”

Cole nods. “The tutor.”

The warning isn’t spoken, but everyone is completely aware of how important it is to choose our words carefully. There are too many Immortals in this ballroom for us to be secretive about anything, especially right here amid everyone.

“That was before I knew I was a Wyrdling. Vesta helped me understand things my father wouldn’t have understood.”

Vesta nods, just as solemnly as ever. “Maeve was an excellent pupil for a Wyrdling. She mastered many things faster than I’d expected.” She pauses for a moment, as if she were just now realizing that I was standing with Cole. “I apologize, Prince Cole,” she says as she goes into a deep bow. “Let me leave you and your betrothed to enjoy the ball. I would like to speak at another time, though. Sooner rather than later, Prince.”

“Certainly, Vesta. Tomorrow before sunrise?”

She doesn’t respond, simply bowing again, and when she leaves, she passes by me, her barely visible hand brushing against my arm, and sending memories of my childhood through me. Powerful memories. The times I sat beside her on an old bench. She read to me out of the only book she possessed.

I had remembered so much about my childhood, and somehow, I’d completely forgotten that book and the hours andhours that she’d read to me. “I’ve missed our story time, Maeve. Try to remember the stories I told you about the world before the High Fae ruled. When the dragons reigned.”

I did remember them, but there were so many. What’s she trying to tell me? Before I have a chance to say anything, she disappears. It’s like the very air around us has come alive for a moment, and then she’s gone.

“Sylphs are strange creatures,” Lee says.

“As salamanders like Nevan are the caretakers of the House of Flame, sylphs are the caretakers of the House of Shadow.” Darian’s voice. One of awe. He’s standing next to Lee, and I guess he showed up while I was enraptured with Vesta.

“But wasn’t the House of Shadows shattered?” I ask.

Darian nods. “The High Fae of the House of Shadows were shattered, but the actual House and its many Lesser Fae were not. They are as intrinsic to Draenyth and Nyth as the building in which the House of Shadows High Fae ruled from, and trying to shatter them would be a feat that would take dragons. Not just another House.”

“And no one treats the sylphs badly because the High Fae they worked for are considered enemies?”

Cole steps in. “This is not the time to talk about this, but no one holds the sylphs accountable for the House of Shadow’s actions.” The look on his face is cold and more than a little terrifying. For a moment, I’d forgotten that we’re in a viper’s nest, and one wrong move will have us all dead.

“Now would be a good time to do a bit of dancing,” he says with a soft smile on his lips. Lee and Darian nod and take the hint. It’s not time for a friendly reunion. It’s time to play the game we’ve been preparing for.

When Cole offers me his outstretched hand, I take it with a smile, and he pulls me toward the dance floor. And, surprisingly, the sound of the small orchestra isn’t terrifying. Unlike so manyof my experiences in Draenyth over the past couple of weeks, this is something I’ve practiced. I may not be the best dancer on the floor, but I know what I’m doing, and that’s a glorious feeling.

People see Cole leading me, and they step out of the way. Unlike anywhere else in the world, in this room, everyone knows the man that’s spent so much time with me. Now that I see how people look at him here, I realize they see him the same way that I’ve seen Casimir and Gethin.

Incredibly powerful and more than willing to hurt the people around him. They all give Cole a wide berth, which makes it much easier to dance with him. He grins, and then he hooks his right hand under my arm and catches my right hand in his left. Just like we’d practiced.

I look around me, noticing the people staring at us, and I swallow hard. Cole laughs, though. It’s jarring in this space. After all the tension and fear that’s surrounded this moment, my entire body is on pins and needles, but that laughter drains all that tension away. I’ve only seen him look like this a handful of times.

“Don’t worry,” he says with a grin. “This is purposeful.” I don’t know exactly what he means by that until the world explodes in flames. He covers us in a dome of flickering orange and red that is completely controlled and impossible to see through. The roar of the flames is thunderous in my ear, and yet none of the heat flows by me.

It’s just like the flames on his skin. Decoration. “You’re an ass, Cole. I’d thought you’d lost control for a second.”

“Me? Lose control? No, that would take something very serious, and tonight’s still feeling like fun and games.”

“What about with you and Gethin?”

He huffs and spins me. Somehow, the music breaks through the sound of the flames just as easily as my hand would, andwhile I don’t think Cole can see through the flames, I doubt many people will miss us. They’ll get out of our way if they’re smart.

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