Page 20 of Elemental Affections

“Wonder if Helm Naval will fund my project. I can work on boats. What’s the Helm girl’s name again?”

Dae closed her eyes. So much for a fresh start if people thought she was here representing Helm interests. Laughable, too, since she’d tried to convince her family that a Sylveren education could benefit their work. She could stand on the table and scream her denial, for all the good it would do. Brint Avenor and his damned clout. He’d been here for all of two minutes and already had the social standing to rebuff anything she said in opposition.

“Not a fan?”

Her eyes blinked open. The man with the silver and black mask was still beside her, a hardness to his gaze as he studied Dae’s face.

“No,” she said. “Can’t say that I am.”

“History there?” His voice tipped up, losing its deep quality.

Dae glanced at him. There was almost something familiar about his voice, but in so few words and with the ambient noise levels, she couldn’t place it. The mask didn’t help, but she was mostly sure that she hadn’t met anyone quite like him yet.

“Business … overlap.”

“Think he chased his bride here?” the man asked, deep voice back in place.

Dae scoffed. “Bride? It never—they never married. I, um, I heard from someone close that she canceled the betrothal. It’s permanent.”

“You sound … certain … of that.”

“I am,” Dae said. “My friend knows what she’s talking about.”

“Still, if he’s here.” The man shrugged. “Maybe it’s love.”

Dae made a disgusted noise, startling a laugh from the man. “Brint Avenor? It’s a stunt, or something.” Dae shrank behind the man as she tracked Brint’s slow but inevitable progress around the room. Close up, mask or no, her flimsy disguise wouldn’t fool him, and he seemed to be looking for someone. Her. “I don’t know why he’d be here,” she said softly.

Brint was a few people away, and she couldn’t escape without making a scene. Even more of one, for Dae suspected such a thing was Brint’s aim. Any second now.

There were a number of things Ezzyn could point to as among the best decisions he’d ever made. Deciding to use a temporary glamour from Sylveren’s eccentric mercantile currently vied for the top position. All it did was change his hair, turning it black and growing it long enough that he’d sit on it if he wasn’t careful, but that paired with a mask meant he moved through the social like a new man. The event itself was a boring affair, and he’d about given up on his fool’s errand of stumbling across Anadae in a crowd of masks when she found him.

He'd nearly bungled the whole thing, forgetting about his voice and the limits of the enchantment. But she didn’t suspect, and now her attention was thrown off by the arrival of that fucking knob, Avenor. Maybe she was lying about her ignorance of his coming. Ezzyn didn’t know her well enough to know for certain. But of her distaste for the man,thatdidn’t appear to be feigned. Not with the way she tried to hide, the tightness in her eyes, or the way she’d gone stiff.

If Ezzyn had recognized her in an instant, then surely so, too, would her ex. If he saw her face.

Ezzyn stepped closer, fingers closing lightly around her chin and lifting so that she focused on him. “Would you like my assistance? Since you’re not a fan.” He tilted his head in Avenor’s direction, eyes never leaving her.

Dae kissedhim.First. He was quick to respond but tucked the specifics of the order away for further use. She’d been the one to initiate, and he wouldn’t forget. In the present, he allowed himself to indulge. To satisfy a want and curiosity he’d held for years. He cupped her face between his hands, pushing the damned strings of beads dangling from her mask out of the way so he could taste her lips. Coaxed her mouth open so he could lick in. She tasted of sweetness, honey from the grovetenders’ specialty grapes, and a hint of magic lingering from adjusting her drink.

Ezzyn groaned into her mouth, tongue delving in again and again like a man starved. Desperate. If he’d convinced himself in his bitterness that Anadae Helm choosing a politician’s brat was no big loss, her kissing him back now set fire to every denial. He held on long after Avenor had strolled past, let his thumb stroke her cheek, did everything he could to imprint the moment into memory. It would be their last, one to which she’d agreed only because she thought him a stranger. A kiss he’d only allowed himself by banishing the realities and complexities of their “old familiarities.” He wasn’t sure if he believed that she’d truly left her old life behind, that she could, or that she even wanted to in her heart.

Yet, as he eased back, sucking lightly on her bottom lip before letting go, the small moan she made in response? In that moment, Ezzyn didn’t care about any of his previous doubts.

Eternal Flame snuff … motherfuck. He was a fool for this woman. It could only end badly.

“Should we go somewhere more private?” he heard himself say. “Before he makes the rounds again.”

She stared up at him, lips parted. Dazed, but in a much more pleasant way than the blanched look she’d had when Avenor had walked in.

“Yes,” she breathed, voice barely more than a whisper. Her fingers came up to brush the edge of his mask. It didn’t budge, the adhesion charm firmly in place. “Only, could we…”

Guilt assailed him. He’d have to take it off. She’d hate him. This was already a step too far. If she asked, he’d have to decline. Watch her walk away from him once again.

“I have a request,” Anadae said. “These stay on. No names. Nothing we—”

“Yes,” he said. “Just tonight.”

She smiled. “Just tonight.”

---