Page 80 of House of Demons and Bones

Do not react. Don’t you dare twitch even one of your eyes,Barbie warned. Now that she’d mentioned it, fighting the urge to twitch was all I could think about.

Rowan spun me away from the fallen star. He didn’t look in her direction but fixed his attention solely on me, as if I was his whole world.

I was, wasn’t I?

“Are you making me guess your identity, Prince Louis? Is this a new game you princes play?” Lilith’s voice held light amusement as she danced with him. “And who’s that girl with Rowan?”

Her power ran so deep she could spot each prince despite their matching masks. Before Louis could respond, Cade swept in and whisked her into his arms, spinning her further from Rowan and me.

Our timing in dealing with the Fury couldn’t have been better. Now curse free, the mage prince could dance with the demon queen without fear—could touch anyone he wanted.

“Party hard and dance, everyone!” Silas’s voice boomed across the floor from the musicians’ stage. “Life waits for no one. There might be no tomorrow!”

The crowd surged into motion, masks and bodies blending into a dizzying waltz of mystery and desire as the music soared.

In the chaos of shadow and light and dancing bodies, Rowan and I slipped away.

20

Barbie

“Slow down, girl,” the fae prince called after me.

He used “girl” to keep my cover intact.

“Time waits for no one, man,” I said, glancing at him over my shoulder as I zipped through the woods between buildings.

While the heirs kept Queen Lilith and her ward busy on the dance floor, Rowan and Sy had gotten away. Sy and I had swapped places in a school bathroom.

I darted past witch-lights dangling from branches. Students packed the woods too, swaying to the pulsing music. I zoomed past them, so fast I was nothing but a blur to their eyes. Back when I first landed in this realm, I’d snagged a bit of magic from a group of students to cloak myself. I no longer needed to steal magic, especially after mating with Killian.

Rowan caught up, still rocking his dragon mask.

“You can run. I’ll give you that,” he grunted.

“Sy runs faster with her longer legs,” I said.

Sy lit up.Let me take over. I want to run with my sugar.

You’re being rude, Sy! Your lust is leaking out of my pores,I said in annoyance.Try not to distract me. I’m on a job.

Just remember when you get back to the ball,she said.I’ll have a quickie with my man.

The House of Vampires, a maroon building with high, narrow windows on every floor, loomed ahead and stretched two blocks. Crimson letters perched above the twin doors.

Gunnar prowled the perimeter with a group of senior vampires, his black trench coat packed with weapons and spells. With the party in full swing on the campus, every house had cranked up security. No one took chances anymore, not when the Shriekers had come to our door.

The House of Vampires had admitted me when I first arrived in the realm, so Gunnar and I went way back. He’d never respected me and found me super annoying. He used to call me little shit or chihuahua and enjoyed intimidating me. Between patrols, he’d spend hours looking at himself in the mirror and playing with his hair, until I made him bald with my magic. I wished he’d gotten over it by now. Good looks fade anyway.

Gunnar’s sharp eyes caught me, filled with suspicion, but he didn’t rush to intercept me. First, I wasn’t on the vampires’ turf, and I had a giant escort—the fae prince with his dragon mask and longsword. Plus, my costume and mask kept him from spotting who I really was.

We zipped past the vampire house, the music fading to a distant beat.

A cathedral rose to our left, its obsidian walls eating every speck of light. The demon house sigil—a pointed star above a crown of hellfire—stretched across the crimson metal door.

“We didn’t plan how we would get into the demon house,” Rowan whispered. “I was about to bring that up, but you just took off. You’re all impulse and no discipline.”

“Keep listing my flaws, sir,” I said. “Just know that I don’t care about bad reviews—don’t even bother reading them.” At his frown, I added, “Don’t you worry about the plan. I got this.”

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