Page 84 of Queen of the Crimson Throne

“Nope, not unless you’re going to your room, which happens to be in the opposite direction.” I finally let myself turn around, keeping my gaze on the ground instead of thevampire before me in an attempt to keep everything he had said to me at the ball out of my mind. I was trying to get out of here to distract myself from those thoughts in the first place. And now here he was.

“I was going out to explore Cel Nox this evening. I haven’t had a chance to explore the city much.” The lie rolled off my tongue easily. It was a partial truth after all.

“I’m sure you won’t mind if I join you, I can be your tour guide.”

I gave him a fake smile. “I would love that,” I bit out.

He sighed. “Don’t lie to me, Lennox. If you’re going to get yourself into trouble, I’d like to be there to help you if I can.” His tone turned serious.

“You sure you can handle me all by yourself?” I knocked my elbow against his.

He put his hand to his heart dramatically. “You wound me, Lennox. You know perfectly well how well I can handle you alone. Or do you need a reminder?”

“No.” I stammered.Fuck.One of his infuriating smirks pulled at the corners of his mouth. I needed to get out of here. Away fromhim.

“But I like what you’re thinking, Sweetheart, let’s see what Nico and Declan are up to. Maybe they want to come along.” Well, there goes my plans. There’s no way I’d accomplish my goals with those two in tow. “And Luce and Kara are still here for another couple of days, aren’t they? Maybe they’d want to join us, too.”

“The more the merrier,” I said with as much fake enthusiasm as I could muster.

A while later the entire gang was gathered at the front door, cloaks slung over our shoulders as we exited the palace. It hadn’ttaken long to convince everyone to join us according to Luka. It looked like we were truly going to have a night out.

“Where are we headed?” Nico’s arms were slung over mine and Luce’s shoulders as we walked.

“I was thinking of going to Yalla. They have decent ale and there’s sure to be some kind of entertainment,” Luka offered.

“To Yalla, we go!” Nico bellowed, earning a laugh from the group.

My leathers kept the chill away on the long walk to the tavern, but I welcomed the heat of Nico’s arm on my shoulder, the wolf was practically a living furnace.

When we finally arrived at Yalla, the tavern was packed. There didn’t appear to be an empty table in sight, the tavern was bustling with people talking, dancing, drinking, and indulging in whatever they desired.

Nico and Luce volunteered to grab us all a round of drinks while the rest of us searched for a table, finally settling for a rounded booth in the far corner.

We all squished in around the horseshoe-shaped table. Somehow I ended up between Nico and Luka.

I tried my best to ignore the feeling of Luka’s thigh pressed up against mine as we passed the ale around the table.

I wished it was something far stronger.

“So, Lennox, what made you want to come out tonight?” There was a mischievous twinkle in Luce’s eye.

“I wanted to explore the city, that's all.” I took a sip of my drink.

“C'mon, L,” Nico elbowed me in the side, “we all know that’s a lie.” I was not about to reveal my intention to spend the evening hunting Vanir in a crowded Cel Nox bar crawling with vampires.

“You’re right, I wanted some piss-poor ale,” I said instead.

Nico barked out a laugh but held up his glass to mine. “Cheers to that.”

We all laughed, but it waslined with tension.

“I know what she was up to.” Kara sipped innocently from her drink.

I kicked her under the table. “Ow!” My sister threw me a dirty look.

All eyes turned in my direction. “How does she know what you were planning?” Luce demanded.

I threw Kara a pleading look, begging her not to give me away… I knew not including her initially would come back to bite me in the ass.

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