Page 29 of Kingdom of Chaos
The heat of his touch begins to chase the chill from my skin.
I swallow and wet my lips as I nod. Talon’s gaze follows my tongue as it slides over my top lip, then my bottom. Heat sparksin his blue-gray eyes, and I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t make my stomach dip.
A throat clears, snapping us both out of it and reminding us we’re not alone. I glance over at Ensley and Titus, and startle when I spot a small group of unfamiliar creatures standing with them.
Ensley’s eyes are wide as her gaze bounces between Talon and me. Titus eyes the newcomers warily, and slowly shifts until he’s standing between them and Ensley.
For a moment, we all just stare at each other in silence until an attractive middle-aged woman with thick dark hair and tanned skin steps forward. She approaches Talon and pulls him in for a quick hug. “It’s so good to finally have you home.”
The woman is almost as tall as Talon, and there are too many similarities in their features not to recognize that they’re related somehow. His mother, perhaps? Jade.
“I didn’t realize we have guests,” she says as she pulls back, her gaze sweeping over me. Her eyes aren’t hostile, but they aren’t warm either. They’re assessing.
“They showed up unannounced, Aunt Jade,” Imogen cuts in, and Jade glances at her. “You can thank your brother-in-law for that.”
Jade’s lips press together in unveiled annoyance. “Drake,” she mutters under her breath, forcing a smile as she turns to Ensley and Titus, though she keeps me in her peripheral view. “You all must be my son’s friends from Everton.”
“Something like that,” Titus says, side-eyeing the two males who still haven’t spoken or identified themselves.
Jade looks back at Talon and a charged silence stretches between them, thick with meaning.
“Well,” Jade finally says, “I wish I’d known we were having guests. I would’ve had a few of the guest rooms prepared, but as it is, we don’t have any ready right now.”
Lies. We know they have available guest rooms. We’ve stayed in them.
Jade doesn’t want us poking around the compound. And I can understand why. I was here for less than two hours before I stumbled across where they kept Shadow Striker. Not to mention the library-slash-museum packed with rare books and likely magical relics.
“Talon,” she says, turning to her son, “why don’t you take your friends down to town and get them settled into the Starlight Inn? I’m sure they’ll be much more comfortable there than in this drafty old place. Maybe you can show them around. I’ll bet they’d find the local museum fascinating.”
“With all due respect,” Ensley says, stepping forward, her spine straightening like a steel rod, “we don’t need a room in town. We just need to get to that gate. We’ve wasted enough time as it is. My brother’s life is at stake, so if the family reunion is over I’d like to leave now.”
Jade’s eyes widen and fill with dread. Her gaze snaps to her son. “You told them?”
Talon lifts his chin, his expression hard. “I did.”
“How much do they know?”
Talon pauses, a muscle in his jaw jumping before he says, “Everything.”
The room is silent for a few beats. Jade’s chest rises and falls three times before she responds. “You understand what this means. Even as the Society magistra, I can’t make an exception for you.”
He nods. “I do.”
What’s going on?
I glance at Ensley, but she just shrugs, looking as clueless as I feel. Imogen, however, has slunk toward the back wall. Short of slipping from the room entirely, she seems to be doing whatever she can to make herself small and unnoticeable.
A muscle in Talon’s jaw twitches as he faces off with his mother. His body is rigid, braced for confrontation.
A change comes over Jade. The sadness in her eyes melts away, replaced by cold steel, her face as hard and unreadable as her son’s. Her shoulders square, as if she’s readying for a battle, and even though she’s at least several inches shorter than Talon, she somehow seems to be looking down on him.
“Talon Theron Wintryn. I hereby declare that you are stripped of your membership in the Arcane Society. As such, you will no longer be privy to Society matters, granted access to Society artifacts or relics, or permitted to live within the Society compound. You will also forfeit the name Wintryn, and be magically gagged from speaking of the Arcane Society to anyone who does not already know of its existence.”
I gasp, and my eyes swing from his mother to Talon. He hasn’t moved an inch or so much as flinched, but though he’s holding his façade well, he can’t hide the sorrow in his gaze.
“Do you understand that from this day forward you will no longer be a member of the Arcane Society, nor a part of our family?” Jade’s face remains stony, but her voice catches on the wordfamily, betraying the depth of her true emotions.
Talon nods rather than speaks.
