Page 168 of House of Lilith

He slides the ring around my finger and then tries to pull me in for a kiss, my palms snapping up to stop him.

I shake my head, averting my eyes a little. “Not just yet. I’m not ready for that yet.”

And I can see something flash through his eyes and I can tell he’s not happy, but then he just gives me a nod and a smile.

It makes me feel good, so when he moves to wrap his arm around my waist, I let him.

Then he turns me around, saying in a raised voice, “Yes. She said yes.”

And it’s only then, when the clapping and the cheering start, that I realize we have the entire household watching from the West Wing stairs.

No, I groan to myself.

“Congrats, Max,” Nikolay practically yells as he rushes down to shake my fiance’s hand. “I won’t even mind that you went and did this on my birthday.” He lets out a rough, jolly laugh. “Bloody hell, I’m happy for you.”

And he turns to me and I smile, letting him pull me into a big old hug.

Then I let my fiance start leading me to the others, the smiles I can see on all their faces, including Mother’s, making me start relaxing, thinking I must have made the right choice.

There’s only the matter of not letting people find out until the school year is over. Luckily, I can make it so I practically don’t see anyone for the following two weeks, my first major concern being the party that the Grimms are throwing before the Fifth Game.

*

Anxious, that’s what I am. We have the Game tomorrow, and the last day of school, and the Grand Ball. But as I go down the stairs and into the Common Room, where Max is already waiting for me, there’s something else I’m worried about. It makes me wish I could do this with invisibility magic on me.

Sadly, I realize as soon as I spot Max looking up at me from the bottom of the stairs, it seems that people can still see me.

“Don’t you look wonderful, cupcake?” he says as he holds his hand out for me.

It makes me frown, realizing I’d half expected him to throw some snarky comment at my choice of outfit — simple black dress, combat boots and red lipstick. “Thank you,” I tell him, with a genuine smile, as I take his hand.

“And I hear you’ve aced all your finals,” he says as he leads me across the nearly empty Common Room. “Such a clever girl you are.”

That makes me blow a laugh through my nose. “When have you become such a flatterer?” I ask, and just before we reach the staircase, I make him stop and I give him a kiss on the mouth, the first one since we got engaged again.

The kiss is nice, like cuddling up with a book you know you’ll like because you’ve read it before.

It’s with his eyebrows raised and lips curling into a smile that he looks at me when I pull away. “What did I do to deservethat?”

I just give him a smile, loop my arm through his and move to keep walking, going down the stairs and to the Elevator on the Tower Ground Floor.

But as soon as we reach it, I see someone waiting there, a grim-looking male shifter. My eyebrows pull down when I see him throw Max this funny little look.

Max stops and turns to face me. “Would you mind? It won’t take long.”

“Do what you have to,” I say with a smile, my mind lingering on the fact I’ve seen the shifter somewhere before.

And I go to wait in front of the Elevator as the two of them come to stand near the window on the opposite side of the room.

I whip out my phone, but before I can actually busy myself with it, it finally hits me where I’ve seen the guy. He’s the Pied Piper’s ‘assistant’, one of those that never has to do any admin, let’s just say.

And I don’t look up from my phone, but before I can stop myself, I’m already using my hearing to eavesdrop.

“Still no luck,” the shifter says in a low, serious voice, “but the Pied Piper’s changed her mind. We’ll still have the Game tomorrow.”

“Are you fucking with me?” Max demands, also keeping his voice down. “Why aren’t you back there, trying to get more information out of her?”

The Archon, he must be referring to the Archon.

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