Page 40 of Dragon Fires Everywhere
It’s creepy.
Creepier still, Carol is the only one who looks the same, if a little more shiny and resplendent than usual.
“I don’t like it,” Ellowyn says, and it’s what we’re all thinking.
Emerson catches up to me and looks at them while pretending not to, like all of us are doing right now. She leans in close.“I think their power is dwindling,” she says in my ear. “Their influence isn’t as strong. They’ve lost, and it’s showing.”
I want to believe she’s right, but I don’t like howpleasedthey seem, despite all the dishevelment.
They smell smug, Azrael says in my head. Unhelpfully.
“Stop staring,” Zander orders us all in a low tone while grinning at a group of humans as we pass. “They live for that.”
“Besides,” Frost says in his icy way, “it’s unseemly for the winners to appear togloat.”
He’s not wrong, so we move as a group toward a table where we can set down our things and maybe grab a plate of the appetizers being passed around on trays. Emerson stops and talks to all the different people who flock to her, looking every inch the leader people respect and lean on—just as she always has. Even before we beat the Joywood.
Even when she thought she was human.
Before we can make another move, the Joywood descend upon us. Except they seem to be missing Felix.
“Another Cold Moon Ball packed to the gills,” Carol says cheerfully. I can’t stop staring at how happy and bright she looks,especially when she beams at Emerson. “Another festival triumph for you.”
“You look like a big, ripe peach,” Maeve coos at Ellowyn and her big belly. “Aren’t you darling.”
Ellowyn freezes with an expression on her face that would have anyone normal running for cover, but this is the Joywood. Iwatch her visibly control herself, and somehow not punch Maeve in the face.
Instead, she gets that familiar, faraway look of hers. “Did you know that during the 1600s, men were the ones who startedwearing high heels? Women only started wearing them to seem more masculine.”
Felicia turns to me as Festus frowns at Ellowyn. “You’re the big star of the show tonight, dearest Georgie, anddon’t youlook pretty.”
Dearest Georgie?I stare at her for a full moment before I manage to squeak out a “Thank you.”
The Joywood complimenting us and attempting endearments when they’ve been actively trying to murder us all year is too weird.I don’t like it. I can tell that everyone else is equally unnerved. Zander puts himselfbetweenthe ripeness of Ellowyn and the other coven. Frost looks cold and dangerous. Azrael is wearing a frown that a wise man would take as the warning itis. Jacob, Rebekah, and I hold ourselves like we’re ready for an attack.
Emerson, on the other hand, nods as if these are really compliments and are exactly our due. She always has been better atpolitics.
“Enjoy yourselves tonight, gang,” Gil says merrily.
Having never called usgangbefore. Ever.
Carol lifts a glass of champagne as if in a toast. “I’m sure everything will go swimmingly.”
They all laugh gaily—it’s blood-chilling, frankly—and then they turn and leave just the way they came. In shuffling half-disarray.
“Something weird is going on. I don’t think I’ve heard them say anything overtly menacing since Georgie got back,” Ellowynsays, glaring at Maeve’s back. “That’s not like them.”
“Not even the usual dirty looks,” Rebekah adds, watching with great suspicion as Felicia leans over to whisper something toFestus.
“Maybe it’s just an act so everyone thinks they’re fine with the transfer of power after their temper tantrum on Samhain,”Emerson says, but her nose is wrinkled like she doesn’t quite believe it.
You need your fabulae for the spell, Azrael says in our coven channel. I don’t recall anyone inviting him to it, but here he is.And they know it. They’re expecting you to fail the spell tonight.
He sounds bored, likely because he’s busy plucking three pigs in a blanket from a tray that moves by us. He tosses all threeinto his mouth at the same time and chews with obvious satisfaction.
We all turn and stare at Azrael. He hasn’t talked to us like this before, and he isn’tofficiallya member of the Riverwood, as far as I know, so he shouldn’t be able to.
But his ability to appear in all our heads says otherwise. And I suppose we don’t really knowhowone goes about becomingan official memberwhen a coven has already won the ascension trials.
