“Blue!” Kai said. He approached me from the crowd, his eye twitching at the stench.
“Can you do something?” I asked, my voice frantic. “I think she’s unwell.”
What I hadn’t noticed while I was speaking to him was that she wasn’t just shaking. A shroud of something laced with darkness had blossomed around her. Kai yanked me away as the hunched figure of the woman shook with amusement.
Magic snapped and cracked. It bulged and warped until it engulfed her completely.
“What’s happening?” I asked, trying to reach out for her. Kai held me steady, his green eyes locked on the swarming mass of magic.
The guards all stepped back.
“Good grief,” I heard Yolanda say. The ball of darkness exploded into a supernova of light. I turned my head to stop my corneas from being damaged. When the light faded, I heard the sound of female laughter. The old woman had disappeared. In her place were two red-headed women in long black dresses.
“That was not amusing,” Chanelle’s mother snapped. “You’re not invited to this gathering.”
“Oh, put a sock in it,” the redhead on the left said. “Can you even reach whatever is stuck up your behind anymore, Meryl?”
A raven landed on her shoulder. “She has a sense of humour,” the redhead said to Kai. “We approve.” She winked at him and flounced into the room with her partner in crime.
Meryl chased them inside. I could hear her snapping at them to get out of the party. Sophie and Max approached us. I still wasn’t quite sure what the hell had happened. I looked at my hands as though they might hold the answer.
“What?” I said to the general vicinity.
“Sorceresses,” Kai said. He laced his fingers through mine. Even though his angelfire never flared, I felt my inside warming. It helped to settle the jitters.
“Not a good sign,” Max said.
“You mother is a sorceress,” Sophie reminded him.
“My mother isn’t from Ravenhall.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but I thought it meant they were nuts. Inside the ballroom they appeared to be walking around trying to get themselves in trouble. “Isn’t anyone going to do something about it?” Sophie asked.
Jonah looked like he was attempting to do just that. And failing miserably judging by the obscene gesture they threw his way.
“What can they do?” Kai said. “Outside of the Council, Ravenhall is one the strongest faction. We should have thought to invite them in the first place.”
“You can see why they didn’t, though, right?” Max said. He shuddered. I didn’t know what I was seeing.
“You’re not scared of them, are you?”
He bared his teeth at me in a vicious snarl. Kai pulled me into his chest. “Don’t show her your teeth just because she’s right,” Kai said. “Too many scary bedtime stories.”
Max shoved him in the shoulder. “Don’t tell me they don’t creep you out! Who knows what the hell goes on in the fens.” He made a face like it was the most disgusting thing in the world. “Did you even smell that stench?”
“I like them,” I said. They were drawing quite a lot of attention which meant they were taking the heat off me.
“You would,” Max said. Sophie shushed him.
“We better go and see if Mama needs help,” Sophie said. She looked between Kai and me. “You’d better come with us and meet Declan, Lex. Try not to mention anything about Angelical.”
“Oh,” I said. “You heard that, huh?”
“Yes, we did,” Kai said. “As did most of the room.”
I pinched my lips together and played the docile guest. It wasn’t fooling anyone. Sophie and Max walked me over to where the two men of the Human League stood beside Nora. Basil and Nanna were making polite conversation with the other man, but my attention fixed on Declan Summers. I recognised him from the video message he sent. There was something shrewd behind his dark eyes. It had me suddenly alert.
“Ah,” Nora said. “Here she is now.”
Her smile was tight-lipped. “Lex,” she said, “I’d like to you meet Declan. The leader of the Human League.”
Declan held out his hand. I wanted to stow mine away behind me, but I plastered a smile to my lips and forced myself to return the shake. Max towered over Declan, but for some reason, my mind kept telling me to run.
“So you’re the girl who holds our fate in her hands,” he said. He still hadn’t let go of mine. Turning it over, he peered at it like he’d never seen hands before. “For some reason I pictured you bigger.”
The snappy comeback on my tongue died at the look of sheer disapproval on Nora’s face. I stowed the snark for another occasion. The muscles in my jaw twitched.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said. “If I had a dollar for everyone who thinks I should be bigger, I’d be the richest person here.”
He smiled at me. It seemed genuine enough. “This is my colleague Sam Rothchild.”
The other man disengaged from Nanna and Basil to offer me his hand also. I shook it with barely perceptible distaste. Why didn’t they keep hand sanitiser at these things? Oh, right. Supernaturals didn’t get germs.
“Tell me something,” Sam said. “The rumour amongst the League is that you’re Lucifer’s creation. We heard Gaia suggested suicide rather than fulfilling the apocalyptic prophecy. Is there any truth to that?”
And people said I didn’t have any tact. Behind me, the air began to vibrate with Max’s disapproval. I made a gesture behind my back for Sophie to take him away. If he was the top of the Dimension Integration class, the supernaturals were in serious trouble.
They slipped away easily. She’d been right. Declan and Sam ignored everyone else.
I looked to Nora for some kind of instruction. She was stumped. I mean, what kind of answer would be acceptable when someone asked you why you didn’t commit suicide for the good of humanity? In the end, I decided lying probably wasn’t the best way to start this relationship.
“Yes, it
