Page 52 of Golden Queen
"Your other name?" I asked, perplexed. "So, Io is not a false name?"
"It's part of my middle name, Iomhar."
I wasn't sure why it meant so much to me that he hadn't given me a false name, but it did.
"Well then perhaps we should use a truly false one in case someone recognizes it," I suggested.
He smiled, almost ruefully. "They won't."
I had not been watching the scenery out the window, so I was surprised when the carriage stopped, and Io reached into his jacket to hand me something.
It was an elaborately detailed domino mask with long, sweeping feathers that would cascade back from the sides of my head in truly garish fashion.
"You're joking," I said, eyeing him. Though it did answer the next question I had been poised to ask: How did he possibly imagine he would not be recognized?
"I'm afraid not," he said, placing his own ridiculous looking domino mask over his face and tying it in the back.
I expected to laugh as I looked at him. His mask didn't have feathers. It was covered in tiny black crystals that glittered in the faint lamp light filtering in from outside the carriage.
Instead of humor, I felt heat sink low in my belly. Nerve endings all over my body came alive as though little sparks danced just beneath my skin.
He looked somehow much more dangerous in this glittering mask than he had without it. His lips, just below the edge, took all my focus. Until I met his eyes, at least.
I fumbled with my own mask, trying to cover the discomfort that came from looking at him for perhaps a heartbeat too long. He leaned forward and took it from me.
He was so close as he tied it that I could feel the faint whisper of his breath against my cheek. His arms on either side of my face and the feeling of his fingers behind my head made me visibly shudder.
And then he leaned back and surveyed me, letting the tip of one finger linger under my chin. "You look beautiful, Aelia."
I made no attempt to hide my smile as the compliment raced through me. I swallowed hard. "Sera. That is also my middle name—Seraphem."
"So it is," he said softly as the door was opened and a servant reached in to help me down.
I was surprised to find that we were not in front of a manor house. The carriage had stopped before a wrought iron gate at the base of a long, sweeping drive.
Io handed a guard at the gate something that looked like a black ribbon tied around a silver handle. The man nodded to another who turned to swing the gate open just enough for us to pass.
The metal of the gate clanking shut behind us was very loud in the silence of the night.
"Ominous," I said, turning to glance behind. I saw no other carriages, and the other side of the road was nothing but a tall, impenetrable looking hedge.
"Don't worry. Even if I could not take down the gate with ease, I happen to have wings in the sky, Sera. You are not trapped."
Wings in the sky, I thought, unable to stop the glance skyward. How easy it was to forget that the man at my side commanded dragons.
Though glancing at him, the tall, dark shape that took up so much space at my side, the memory of the power that had crackled through the godsgrass, and the certainty that I could not even fathom the true extent ofthe magic that lay under the surface, I found it rather easy to believe he could command anything. And hard to believe I felt so safe with him.
Perhaps it was that ghost of a hand that lay at my back that gave me such a sense of security as we mounted the hill and saw the large, expansive manor house before us.
There were people milling about on the wide lawn. Another pair seemed to be just approaching the entrance as we came to the edge of a large fountain. A square of reddish light ran across the statue, illuminating it as the doors were opened to allow the couple to pass.
I immediately averted my eyes to what the square of light revealed.
The statue was of a woman, hyper realistic in startling detail. She was on her knees at the feet of a man. Her mouth was open, her face set in harsh lines of ecstasy. A thin stream of fountain water shot across in an arch to land in her mouth...directly from the huge erect phallus jutting out from the marble man's forward thrust hips. Urine..or otherwise, I could not have said. I felt my face flame with embarrassment.
The chuckle that radiated from the man at my side did not help. "Are you sure about this?" he asked, without looking away from the wide stone steps we were approaching. "It's not too late to call it off."
"Of course," I said, affronted. I knew my behavior was giving away the lie of the air of experience I was trying to cultivate. I held my head high and hurried my steps, mounting the stairs until he had to catch up.
