Page 38 of A Dance of Water

It was simple yet elegant. A silken material that flowed in a deep pool of pure white to the floor. Like snow.

She reached out a hand to touch it. "It’s pretty."

"Do you need help?" Graves mumbled from behind her, skimming his fingers over the hem of her towel.

She blushed and snatched the dress from Bastian, who smirked.

Silently, Luella stepped behind the changing partition in the corner of her room and let the towel drop from her body, slipping the dress over her head. It pooled to the floor, and she had to hold it up to walk without tripping. The cool silk tickled her skin, and she only just realized she was without undergarments.

"Um." She cleared her throat. "I think you forgot to give me something."

Graves’s chuckle carried to her through the thin shadows of the partition between them. "I don’t think so. Do you, Bastian?"

"No, definitely not. The dress was all you’re allowed, pet."

An annoyed breath puffed from her lips, and she smoothed her palms over the material, stepping back out from the partition. Cool air whispered over her body, and with the gown being long and flowing with thin straps that bared her collarbones and shoulders, she felt utterly exposed.

"You are breathtaking," Bastian breathed.

Graves’s eyes scoured her, stopping at the way the silk clung to her hips and bunched at her waist, the neckline scooping elegantly and baring her pale chest and the soft swell of her breasts. He did not speak, but that was even more tantalizing than the vampire’s compliments.

Bastian held out a palm for her. "Ready?"

Without their skin touching hers, her head cleared slightly so she had the forethought to blurt, "What is going to happen during the Solstice? Why do I feel like… like you’re not telling me something?"

The scar on the raven shifter’s lips tugged with a smile at her barrage of questions. "You’ll find out soon enough." He placed a gloved palm on her back, and she distantly wondered when he had put the discarded glove back on. He nudged her to the vampire, who took her hand from where it rested limply by her side.

"Trust us," Bastian implored. Her lip curled, but before she could snarl and pull away, his cold hand brushed over the skin of her heart—the red mark of the vow still etched into her flesh and revealed by the low cut of her simple gown. "Let’s go. The King is waiting."

13

THE WINTER SOLSTICE

LUELLA

The throne room was a mass of icy blue and writhing bodies.

Luella’s steps faltered, and her back bumped into Graves, who was behind her, urging her forward with a hot, gloved palm against her waist. His fingers curled into the silk that was bunched over her hips like he didn’t want to let her go, but then he released her, stepping away with only the softest of sighs.

A blush warmed her cheeks at the sights in the room. The embers of the chandelier overhead no longer dusted the room in a glow of gilded softness, but an icy sheen fell about the revelers and mingled with the Solstice decorations sprinkled around—sculptures made of ice, the image of entwined bodies cut into the glassiness. Rippling swaths of blue silk drifted from the ceiling, and the very floor had been turned to an icy shade, the walls enchanted to match. It felt like walking inside a crystal.

The room held a nippy chill, but against her flushed skin, it was welcoming. Soothing.

Lovers mingled in the frost-tipped alcoves, little icicles hanging down and slightly obscuring what was going on within. Bodies swirled on the floor, dancing and reveling with passion. She wondered how they did not fall with the way slippery ice coated everything.

"Go on," Bastian urged from beside her. Strangely, he did nottouch her, and neither did Graves—as soon as they stepped into the room, they had given her space.

That niggling feeling of unease welled within her, growing larger.

The gilded throne remained as such, the only speck of bright color in an otherwise icy tundra of lustful frost, but the King was nowhere to be found.

She took a step forward.

And another.

Another.

Whispers fell about the room, eyes boring holes into her skin. But they did not reach out and touch. Bodies swept back, giving her a wide berth as she walked into the room.

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