The Mwansas were over by the buffet tables with human males. Nanna and Basil were with them. Durin called out to Kai as soon as we walked in the door.
“I’ll catch up with you later,” he said before he disappeared through the crowd.
Sophie took my arm. “Human League,” she said, indicating the men chatting to her parents. Her spine straightened. Max placed his hand on the small of her back.
“You guys are the liaisons,” I said. “Have at it.”
Sophie clamped her hand down on my forearm. “You wish you’re getting out of this,” she said. “They don’t give a rat’s behind about us. They want to speak to you.”
I had the sudden urge to pee. “I’m going to the bathroom. Be right back.”
“I can come with you,” Sophie said. I made a not-so-subtle head gesture in Max’s direction.
“I’m fine. I can pee without getting in trouble.”
That turned out to be the biggest lie ever. The bathrooms here were fancier than some hotel penthouses. I pushed open the door and walked in on Chanelle and Brigid having an all-out bitch glaring contest. An aura of contained magic clung to the air. It crackled across my skin. Both of them turned towards me. If looks could cut you, I’d be sushi. No thanks.
I promptly exited the building. The bathroom block – yes, a whole block – was connected to the main ballroom through a rectangular courtyard landscaped to look like a Japanese garden. The click of heels on the winding stone path told me somebody was following. It was bad that I hope it was Brigid. Never in a million years would I have guessed that she would be the lesser of two evils.
“Alessia,” Chanelle said.
I kept going without a word.
The flutter of magic whipped around me. A portal opened just three feet shy of the pathway directly in front of me. I almost twisted my ankle coming to a dead stop. A flock of ravens were perched on the railing of the walkway. Their black eyes appeared to be scanning me. Harbingers of bad omens indeed. Was there a worse omen than this?
I gritted my teeth as my own magic swirled inside of me. “Close the damn portal,” I hissed. I still hadn’t forgotten that my disastrous portal experience had been partly her doing.
She raised her palms and the portal snapped shut. A wall of pale green angelfire cut me off from the exit. “I’m not going to even ask you what your problem is,” I said. “But I’m giving you one chance to drop the magic before I drop you.”
Her cheek puckered like she was biting the inside of it. “Please just listen,” she said.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Can you even hear yourself through your own self-importance?
“I am important,” she said. My eyes couldn’t physically roll back far enough in my head. “I know you don’t care about our customs, but this isn’t about that. It’s about continuing Raphael’s bloodline. I can’t reason with Kai, but if you care about him, then you’ll give me a second and listen!”
I turned to her fully and did a lopsided curtsey. Yeah, I had bitch tendencies too. “Oh well since you’ve been so nice to me since the moment we met, why wouldn’t I want to do you a favour?”
She studied me with feigned concern in her eyes. Like she knew something I didn’t. I was so over all these supernaturals right now. “I understand why you would be drawn to him,” she said. A sad smile tugged at her lips. “And why he thinks he loves you. You’re the same, the both of you. That’s why you’ll end up breaking.”
I wanted to laugh, but I was too busy trying to keep a lid on the chaotic churning of the magic inside of me. Something about the lick of green fire behind me seemed unnatural. I wasn’t reacting well to it. When that happened, I tended to go haywire.
“When Lucifer comes for you, will you go to him?”
“You’re delusional,” I spat.
“No,” she said, taking a step closer. “I’m the only one thinking dispassionately. Kai might not care about me the way he does about you, but that will be his downfall. Because based on what I’ve seen, if Lucifer comes, you would willingly join him.”
I opened my mouth to contradict her, but she raised her hand to cut me off. “Perhaps not because you want to, but because he’ll make you. He’ll threaten everything you care about. And when he does, Kai will lose you the same way he lost his family. Do you think he can survive that a second time? Maybe it won’t happen today. Maybe it won’t happen at all. Perhaps the prophecy isn’t true. But you know yourself well enough to know that when there is danger, you can’t sit still. And he’ll never know peace as long as you’re out there in danger. He might want you, Alessia. But he needs me. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
I blinked at her as I scrambled to discredit everything she said. “I’m sure you’ll do your best to convince him,” I said. “You might convince yourself that you’re doing this out of the goodness of your heart, but if you really believe what you’re saying then you’d release him from the blood vow and let this so-called inevitability take its course.”
“You know we cannot. He’s too stubborn to back down. Even if he realises his mistake a decade from now, he’ll remain loyal out of a sense of obligation. Is that what you want? For him to be with you because he refuses to admit he was wrong?”
“I don’t see how it’s any different to him being with you because he’s compelled to by a contract.”
“Please, Alessia.”
I’d heard enough and gave her my back.
“You will never win,” she snapped as she let go of the wall of fire. The ice was back in her voice. She couldn’t convince me with her warped logic so
