Page 151 of Children of Fallen Gods

We passed one such whisper in the crowd, just loud enough to hear, and despite myself I stopped short, giving the couple a glare so sharp it almost brought flames to my fingertips.

“Excuse us,” I said, “we didn’t quite catch that. Care to repeat yourself?”

The couple stared at us, wide eyed. I wasn’t feeling particularly inclined to let it go until I felt Tisaanah give my arm a gentle tug.

“Max,” she murmured, a gentle warning in her voice. I gave the couple a withering stare and turned away.

“You’re the reason they get to be at this ridiculous party,” I muttered. “They should be thanking you.”

“There have always been people who saw me as less. And there always will be.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“When does right matter?”

“You deserve better.”

That was always the thing, those three words.You deserve better.Tisaanah had always deserved better, because she was better than all of them. Better than the people at this party, better than Zeryth Aldris, better than the bastard who had nearly killed her. Better than every last one of them.

Something flickered in Tisaanah’s face, a wince that she hid so well that most wouldn’t have noticed it. But over the last six months I had learned to read the invisible movements in Tisaanah’s expressions, no matter how good her performances were.

She leaned back against the wall, and I stepped closer. Again. And then her scent of citrus surrounded me, and my face was inches from hers, my arms against the wall behind her.

“You deserve everything,” I murmured. I bowed my head, breathing in the scent of her hair, her skin, and swept my lips over her cheek, right where tan skin met white.

She gave a weak laugh. “Everything?”

“Everything.” My lips traveled to her jaw, and I felt her let out a little breath.

“Such big promises,” she murmured.

My mouth moved to her throat… her earlobe…

Her exhale became a little less silent, and with one barely-audible sound, the rest of the world fell away.

“Well, aren’t you two just so…cute.”

Notallthe world, apparently.

Tisaanah and I abruptly pulled away from each other. Nura stood at the corner of the hall, arms crossed, looking unamused. She wore a body-hugging white gown with long sleeves and a high neck, sleek and unadorned.

“Zeryth wants to see us,” she said. “Though no time to wait for you to take a cold bath, I’m afraid.”

None needed, after that sentence. Nothing killed a mood like Zeryth’s beckoning hand.

Tisaanah’s brow furrowed.

“Why?” she asked.

“I don’t know. He’s in his personal wing, apparently.”

I paused. “He’s in his rooms and not swanning around his own victory party?”

Nura’s lips thinned in a way that told me she, too, found this odd.

“He is indeed.”

I did not have a good feeling about this.

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