Page 47 of The Coveted
My head felt floaty, my body relaxing. Sebastian’s thumb stroked the area just above my hip. Luckily my skirt was full enough to put some distance between us.
“You’ve never been to a witch’s ball before, have you?” Jasmine spoke up.
I shook my head. Or any ball, because I was not in fact from an eighteenth-century aristocracy, a debutante, or known for playing dress-up in a witch dictatorship. “I’m sure dances are the same in all realms,” I said. Hopefully my power would show me what to do. If I could paint, then I could dance, too, right?
“She’s going to lose herself,” Abraham said, his eyes alight with giddiness. “Oh, to experience the wonders of Aradia for the first time,” he mused.
“And I’ll be here to help you find yourself again,” Sebastian said in my ear. “Just in time for the after-party.”
I bit back a grimace. What had I gotten myself into? I glanced in Daelon’s direction and was met with the kind of raw intensity that made my toes curl. If he wanted to punish me before, I couldn’t even imagine the depraved things he was thinking right about now. Watching him with Renata drew from me the same sentiment. Our mutual jealousy and desire tangled and stretched into an imperceptible, undeniable force in the space between us, so raw and entrancing that I worried someone else would sense it.
It’s time to begin,Lucius’s voice rung loud in my mind. Everyone else stopped speaking, which meant he was somehow communicating with all of us at once.Everyone looks divine, as usual. Each and every one of you is here in the castle for a reason. You are the most powerful, most devoted, and most beautiful witches in the realm. Your King, blessed by the heavens, will share his blessings with you for all of eternity. As long as you continue to serve him.
Winter Solstice used to be a time that the false gods subjugated ignorant witches to do their bidding. Now we bow to no one. Our power is the only true, unconditional power. We belong only to ourselves. So, tonight, we dance in celebration of our freedom, our equality, our progress, and our unbounded magick. We shun tradition and embrace our own destiny!
The room erupted in clapping, and soon music rose, carrying a melody that was heard through every part of my body. String instruments weaved a tune of gathering intensity, setting the tempo for our feet to follow.
“Don’t be nervous. It’s impossible to get wrong,” Sebastian said, spinning me to face him. His dimpled smile was devilish now, and we began to move along with everyone else. It was as if the music painted a map in a language my body understood. I’d never seriously danced a day in my life, yet somehow my unconscious mind new exactly what to do.
The light from the chandeliers twinkled, and the air smelled of winter berries and snow. It felt like I had drunk elixir after all, and I couldn’t help but giggle as Sebastian spun me around.
“There you are,” he said, dipping me. “I was wondering when I’d see this side of you again.”
Our faces were so close that I feared he’d kiss me, but he didn’t. Soon we were moving again, somehow perfectly in sync with everyone else. As the melody rose and fell, I found myself in the arms of Abraham, who smiled in greeting. I couldn’t feel my legs, and my head was cloudy with the ballroom’s collective effervescence. I laughed again, and the part of me that wanted—that needed—to let go took over. Thoughts of my fights with Daelon and then the utter confusion with Taryn, Nathaniel’s suspicion, all the times I let my power slip, and even Lucius and his quest for the names of traitors… it all melted away.
I had the fleeting thought that we’d been put under some sort of trance, but soon I was dancing with Jasmine, her beautiful skin shimmering under the twinkling lights, and there was nothing else. There was just right now.
When Sebastian found me again, he smiled. “See? Magick.” This time when he dipped me, his eyes were hungry and his aura intense with longing. I could feel exactly what he felt—like he’d been waiting an eternity to give in. His lips found mine, and I was absorbed by the act, wrapped up in the way it matched the magick all around us. So, I kissed him back. I had no other choice. His lips were soft, and they moved against mine desperately. But all I could really think was that I wished he was Daelon.
I barely had time to catch my breath as he pulled me back up to stand, and in mere seconds I found myself face to face with Christine.
“Finally,” she whispered in my ear. “I was starting to wonder if you had any interest in sex at all,” she purred. Her energy matched Sebastian’s, and I noticed that the whole room’s energy had shifted decisively into something raw and erotic.
To my surprise, a human song began to rise. It was the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Minor, its rich cello melody cascading around us. As the pace sped up, I found myself suddenly in Daelon’s arms, and I nearly faltered. His touch on my waist sent electric currents along my spine, and I shivered in response.
I didn’t think I’d ever seen him so flustered. He kept his demeanor neutral even as his eyes sent an entirely different message. He spun and then caught me.
Is this your way of punishing me?His voice was loud in my mind, startling me.
Hekissedme, I enunciated, glaring up at him as we moved.
You kissed him back,he hissed.
You know I don’t have a choice. Same as you.
And at least I wasn’t completing sketchy missions for the evil Witch King. I almost shut him out, refusing to fight with him here in public. Not with Nathaniel and Lucius watching us like hawks. But, consumed by the swirl of sweet and tart, golden-hued pleasure pulsating through the music, through each dancing witch, and through his touch on my waist as he dipped me, I couldn’t help but keep the channel open. I had to listen to the tenor of his voice as it held me under his spell, as if its low rumble tethered me to the earth and kept me from floating back into the cosmos.
I know,he conceded.I hate that you feel forced to let him touch you. You have no idea what watching it does to me… how much it makes me want to get you out of that dress and into my bed. How much it makes me want to show everyone who you belong to, consequences be damned.
I knew we only had a couple more seconds together, and I was hyperconscious of everywhere he touched me. It was as if his fingers scorched my waist, branding me in a way only we were aware of.
Áine…he started but never finished. Our time was up. Something desperate flashed between us, something caught between frustration and devotion and love and rage. The music crested, and I feared the rush of magick within and around me might just pull me under. I held fast to his darkened gaze until he was forced to let me go.
He passed me back to Sebastian, who eyed him territorially. It almost looked like he made a show of grabbing me away. I forced myself to tune back into the collective effervescence, trying to push thoughts of Daelon back into the periphery before I did something dangerous.
I realized we were dancing in a system of circles, quite like planets and their moons orbiting around the sun. I caught a glimpse of Daelon dancing with Renata, and soon I was watching her grab his neck and rise up on tiptoe to whisper something in his ear. He said something back with a look I knew all too well. It was a look of command and control. Of dominance.
Sebastian and I stayed together for longer this time, and I found myself looking around the room when I could. I gulped when I realized many witches were staring right back at me. The servants, too, seemed utterly captivated.
