Page 74 of Prisoner of Steel and Shadow

Because you are a fool, Shadow. No better than a silly girl with her first crush.

She didn’t bother to deny it. She’d never been one for lying. Not even to herself. And the simple truth was, his words from last night had been replaying through her mind on a constant loop. She could recall, with perfect clarity, the velvety rasp of his voice when he called her kitten. The way his ice-blue eyes had darkened with desire. How he’d sat close enough that she drew in the very air he’d exhaled—as if in doing so she could draw the man himself inside her. As ifhewas the nourishment her body required.

So even though every instinct warned her against it, Shadow moved through the ballroom, ignoring the lavish decorations and beautiful strains of music as she scanned the crowd for a certain chiseled face.

The masks did little to hide the identities of most of the guests—not that they were actively trying to conceal the truth. For them, the masks were a suggestion, unlike the contestants. Either way, Shadow knew she’d have no trouble finding Ronan in the crowd. The man lured her like a siren. Ending up at his side was inevitable.

Even if it was the height of lunacy.

It wasn’t long before she spotted a few of the other contestants. Loren was the first to catch her eye, his wide grin all too recognizable even with most of his face concealed behind his wolf mask. The next was Dichen, who’d been assigned a cat. Shadow had never seen the woman unveiled, but there was no mistaking the absolute grace of her movements. She flowed between dancing bodies like water, her slight form slipping in and out of view as she maneuvered through the crowd. And the owl could only be Cedric, the blood mage. His burgundy eyes were a dead giveaway.

But no Ronan.

With a little growl of frustration, she narrowed her eyes and started her search again. They landed on Dovina almost instantly, the dark feathers and pointed beak of her raven mask not exactly subtle. She was talking to someone, her lips curving into a frown at whatever they were relaying.

A slight movement to Dovina’s left pulled Shadow’s focus. Out of habit, her eyes darted over to the cause of the disturbance, then up to inspect the stranger’s face. As soon as she started to look away in disappointment, her eyes snapped back up.

Ronan.

“What in the darkness are you wearing?” she whispered.

It wasn’t the clothes she referred to—he was impeccably dressed. His shirt was form-fitting black silk, its buttons a series of twinkling onyx gems running down the length of his torso. She wasn’t sure there was a man alive who could make silk appear so utterly masculine. It was the same for his pants, the dark fabric hugging his muscled thighs and disappearing into a set of knee-high boots in a way that made her mouth water. No, she wasn’t referring to his sinfully sexy—albeit unexpected—outfit.

It was the skull cap with its long, pointed ears and the scrunched and flattened nose that had her fighting a laugh.

No wonder she hadn’t spotted him straight away. He’d hidden his flame-colored hair beneath the leather of his... helmet? She wasn’t sure what word to assign to the mask that not only concealed the better part of his face but also wrapped around the rest of his head.

If she hadn’t been studying him at that precise moment, she would have missed the gentle flick of his fingers and the way his jaw tensed with concentration.

“What are you—”

She didn’t need to finish the question—not that he was near enough to answer it anyway. As she watched, a small bauble floated over to him and straight into his waiting palm, causing his lips to curl up in satisfaction.

There was no explanation for what she’d just seen, except that fire must not be the only element Ronan had access to. That... and her assumption they’d been given the same task was wrong. For whatever trinket he’d just stolen was surely part of tonight’s trial.

Before she could wrap her head around these new discoveries, Ronan pocketed the item and spun around, heading for a set of double doors that would lead him to a walkway filled with darkened alcoves.

The perfect place for couples to slip away if they were feeling particularly amorous.

“Now what are you up to?” she whispered, her curiosity well and truly piqued.

Sparing only a quick glance in either direction to ensure no one was paying attention to her, Shadow followed.

Ronan

He wasn’tsure what was more embarrassing, this fucking mask or losing a flirting match to Bast. The answer came to him immediately.

The latter.Definitelythe latter.

That said, the mask was undeniably heinous. When Sebastian first handed it to him, Ronan took one look at it and laughed. “Ha ha, very funny. Where’s my real mask?”

“Thatisyour real mask.”

Even now, hours later, he still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t a prank. Not that there was anything he could do about it. It was wear the damn mask or lose on a technicality. And he was not losing anything else this week, thank you very much.

With the first half of his task completed, it was time to seal the deal. Calix had wandered off this way nearly twenty minutes ago and had yet to return to the ballroom. Now was the perfect opportunity for Ronan to sabotage the man’s task without the watchful eyes of the other guests tracking his every move.

The light was dim enough in the corridor he felt fairly confident that he could move about undetected. Keeping his ears trained for any slight sound, he prowled down the walkway, eyes scanning the dark recesses lining either side for any hint of a person. It wasn’t until the hall started to turn to the right that he realized it was U shaped and likely came back around to connect to the ballroom on the other end.

---