Page 15 of Dark Night Golden Dawn
Pasiphae’s speech was ending and she lifted her hands and shouted, “ab ordine libertas.”
The crowd echoed her and the effigies burst into flame with the heat of Pasiphae’s power. In the moment of combustion, time slowed, and dark shadows clouded Harlow’s vision. She didn’t know why exactly, but she turned to look back at Finn—he was still backing away, but he too was suspended in time, while the rest of the crowd moved normally.
Nausea flooded Harlow’s body, bile burning her throat. She felt unnaturally bound and helpless. Her movements slowed as she turned, as some unknown force restricted her movement. Finn’s eyes met hers before he turned away, and they glowed with intense light. As time sped up again he looked back over his shoulder and nodded once.
Whatever just happened, he saw it too—or rather, he sensed the same thing she did. The wrongness of it. Whatever was happening here was more than it seemed. Harlow had always hated the idea of the season, and now she feared it.
ChapterEight
Hot drinks were served and people mingled, but Harlow stuck close to Enzo and Thea. Meline and Indigo disappeared into the crowd with their massive group of friends, but Harlow noticed that Larkin stayed with Selene, her eyes betraying the panic she was feeling. Harlow watched as Selene had a brief, quiet conversation with her youngest sister. When Larkin nodded, Selene smiled and motioned to her and Thea.
“I’ll go see what’s up,” Harlow said.
Thea and Enzo were busy talking to a small group of sorcière that Harlow knew by sight, but hadn’t gone to school with. They were some of the few sorcière that moved to Nuva Troi from elsewhere; all were musicians and artists of some kind or other, and one was a celebrated model. Thea nodded as she broke away from their little group. No one had asked her even one question, so enamored as they were with Thea and Enzo.
That was fine with her, but she’d hated the way their eyes skimmed over her, as if they were trying not to look at her. She knew everyone read Section Seven religiously. They’d all seen her humiliated several times now since she and Mark broke up; the most recent posts just happened to be the worst since Mark was clearly flourishing and she wasn’t.
“I’m not feeling very well,” Selene said. “Larkin is taking me home to watch movies in bed.”
“Scary movies,” Larkin said, a mischievous glimmer in her green eyes.
“We will settle on a psychological thriller,” Selene said definitively, the same mischievousness in her countenance. “Tell Li-li that we’re leaving, all right darling?”
Harlow nodded, smiling at Selene’s nickname for Aurelia. “Of course, Mama.” She squeezed Larkin’s hand. “See you tomorrow, pal?”
Larkin smiled bravely. “Yes, I’m going to be at the Statuary party. Definitely.”
She sounded like she was trying hard to convince herself of the idea and Harlow’s worries about Larkin being too young to be at a season renewed, but it would be decidedly unfair to keep her from the festivities, if that’s what she wanted. Harlow knew all too well that sometimes you just had to try things to find out what was right for you and what wasn’t.
Aurelia was chatting with a few members of her book club when Harlow found her. She patted Harlow’s arm and smiled at the news that Selene and Larkin had gone home, barely pausing her conversation. Harlow’s heart ached at the way the sorcière her mother spoke to simply ignored her, as though she did not exist. She’d known these witches her entire life, and now their gazes drifted over her like she was a ghost, something best ignored. When Harlow returned to the group surrounding Thea and Enzo, they were waiting for her. “We’re going to the Velarius party now. You ready?”
Harlow nodded and she took Thea and Enzo’s outstretched hands. None of their magic was mature enough to portal significant distances on their own, but as their powers had already manifested some time ago both Thea and Enzo could manage a trip across town and had just enough magic to bring her along. The others in the group blinked out of sight and Harlow drew a sharp breath in, closing her eyes and focusing her tiny bit of power so that it added to Thea and Enzo’s. They would direct their travel, all she had to do was lend them her energy and wait.
When she opened her eyes, she felt fine. Nothing like she had when she entered the Grove. The realization struck her again that something had been wrong with magic at the opening ceremony, but she tried to brush it off. She looked around, taking in her surroundings to distract herself. They were standing behind a blossoming cherry tree in a rooftop garden in fashionable Midtown from the look of things below. This wasn’t the Velarius estate in Uptown. “Where are we?”
Thea smiled a bit too sweetly. “This is Alaric’s place.”
Harlow narrowed her eyes at the familiarity with which her sister referred to Alaric Velarius. “You’ve been here before?” she asked, suspicion edging her voice sharply.
Thea laughed. “No, silly. But he did invite me and Enzo both. In an email.”
Enzo nodded. “He did. He writes lovely emails.”
Harlow shook her head. It was true that Alaric Velarius was a nice person, but he was heir to the Velarius fortune, and more importantly to his mother Pasiphae’s seat as arch-chancellor of the Immortal Orders. One day, he would very literally rule not just Nytra, but all of Okairos.
She supposed it didn’t really matter what she thought, so she kept her mouth shut and let them draw her into the party. Both of them shed their pallyra quickly and she handed hers to Thea, smiling sheepishly. Thea pulled at threads of magic and all three of their ceremonial robes disappeared.
“Back home where they belong,” Thea said with a soft clap of her hands.
She was elegant in a long-sleeve black bodysuit and skinny jeans tucked into thigh-high black boots. Medallions of Akatei and Aphora both hung around her neck and her fingers were adorned with half a dozen gold rings. Enzo was dressed in an understated black button-down and peacock-blue jeans, with loafers. They both looked incredible.
Enzo shook his head, wrestling Harlow out of her fuzzy vest. “No to this. Send it home, Thea.”
Her sister did as ordered, grinning as Enzo flicked another button of her shirt open. The lace of her bra was showing now. Harlow sighed as Thea’s fingers wove magic rapidly, fixing her hair and makeup, she assumed.
It was the kind of profligate use of magic that made humans wary of them: needless, ridiculous, extravagant. It wasn’t that humans couldn’t learn to use magic; in theory they could. It wouldn’t be as easy for them as it was for the sorcière, but anyone could do magic if they learned how. But it was as illegal to teach humans magic as it was for them to learn, and they rightfully resented the sorcière more than the other Orders as a result, despite the fact that the law was made by the Illuminated. She’d empathized with that resentment since she was a child, and it had been one of the things Mark said he’d loved about her most.
As though reading her mind, Enzo shook his head. The practical boots she’d chosen disappeared before she could protest. He yanked a pair of stack-heeled boots out of the aether and had them on her, while Thea sent the others home.
