Page 44 of An Honored Vow

Dynara set down her own drink. “Kilmor is nothing compared to the lords I had to entertain before I freed myself.” A sigh slid between her clenched teeth as she smiled across the room. “And none of them were as bad as the mistresses,” she said without moving her lips.

Kairn took another drink from a nearby tray, turning toward us. “The pendant he wears on his chest. I’ve never seen one like it before.”

“You think it has some kind of special meaning?” Dynara’s eyes tightened over her fan.

I tapped the edge of my glass. “Does Kairn present himself as the type of man interested in flaunting his jewels?”

Dynara’s scoff caught in her throat. She raised a dainty wrist to hide her lips. “He barely presents himself as a man who bathes.” Her mouth tightened as she came to the same thought I had. “The pendant is from Damien.”

“Yes.” I chewed my lip. “But gift or tool?” Something flared underneath my skin; it wasn’t warm like magic, but cool. The same eerie breeze that blows on one’s neck when someone is watching.

I didn’t have time to ponder that question. That would have to wait until after—if I managed to get Kairn out without causing a scene.

I grabbed Dynara’s wrist, letting our pretense drop with my fan. “This dance needs to happen now.” I nodded in the direction of Kairn and Kilmor.

Dynara looked up at the giant bronzed gemstone in the middle of the roof over the dance floor. The last rays of sun were casting beautiful rings of amber and gold onto the patrons below, but soon it would be completely dark.

Then the hall would be alight with something else.

“We can’t delay, Keera. And we can’t do anything to draw the lords’ attention now.” Dynara’s neck flexed. “I want Kairn as much as you do, but too many lives are depending on us tostick to the plan.”

I cocked my jaw to the side. The plan had gone up in flames the moment Kairn had stayed conscious from Riven’s dart. “I need him alive, D.”

She lifted her wrist. The bead was almost red. “You’re out of time.” She turned to Riven at the landing of the entrance. “He was supposed to be gone five minutes ago,” she whispered.

I glanced up at Riven. His face was hard as he paced the landing. There was nothing he could do; he didn’t have any magic to subdue Kairn and there was no time left to test who would win on brawn alone. My stomach twisted into knots. I wanted to shout at him. Tell him to leave—to take the carriage without Kairn and make sure the rest of the Halflings got out safe—but that would send a panic through the room.

Instead, I lifted my hand and made three quick, precise movements.

Go. Now. Alone.

My signed Elvish was terrible on the best of days, but from the way Riven froze against the banister I knew he understood.

I wouldn’t be going with him to ferry the Halflings to safety. The plan had failed. I was our only chance left.

The old Blade had to dance with the new.

Riven walked backward, never taking his eyes off me until the doors of the landing had shut. No one but Dynara and I heard the soft thud of the locking post being pushed into place behind the wooden doors.

Everyone in the hall was sealed in.

Except for those of us who knew where the servants’ entrance was hidden.

Dynara put down her fan. “It’s done. We can’t change the plan now, Keera.”

“This is our only chance to find Nikolai,” I pleaded. “I will wait as long as I can, but we need to startnow.”

Dynara didn’t need to hear another word. She marched over to Crison and whispered something in her ear.

Crison clanked her ornate silver cane against a glass. “Before the real show begins, I think it best for the lords to get to know my girls with a dance or two.” She turned to Kilmor. “Lord Kilmor, if you would be so obliged.” She lifted Dynara’s hand for him to take.

“It would be my pleasure,” he said, stepping forward.

The only hint that he had stepped on her toes was the brief flinch in Dynara’s smile.

Crison then nodded her head at the Blade. “My newest attraction is free, sire. Do her the honor of being her first?” Crison’s tone made it obvious that she was implying much more than my first dance was up for grabs.

I swallowed down the bile coating my tongue and curtsied.

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