Spider's Game ((Book One) #Wattys2016 Winner!)

Chapter 5- The Party

The lights of the house beckoned from a great distance, lining the drive like fairy lights. Marim looked at Darith through the silk lashes glued atop hers. If they were fairy lights, he was the untouchable fairy prince. His ice blue eyes were fastened on the road, nose slightly curled.

Look at me. I can make you happy, I swear it. Just look at me.

Darith's eyes flicked over to her, prompted by her attention. For a brief moment, a smile twitched on his mouth. Marim glowed inside her skin. Even when his glower returned, warmth suffused her. She leaned across the seat and brushed her lips across his cheek.

"Thank you for coming. I didn't want your mother to escort me."

"Were those your only options? You're old enough for suitors," he said. His sneer looked charming on him.

I know you, Darith Cortanis. Glare all you like. You're the only suitor I want.

"Yes. Old enough, perhaps, but I've no need to sample the nobility's eligible men," Marim said, as the car pulled broadside in front of the wide double doors into the mansion.

The driver emerged and opened their door. The dark outside seethed, and an all too familiar clutching contracted in her chest.

Anything could be out there, in the dark. Waiting for me. The police car trailing them did nothing to assuage her fears. Why did her father have men following her everywhere? The officer's hopped out of the car in the drive, and then one leaned against the hood, as the other crossed to the gardens.

Darith took Marim's hand and helped her out of the town car. She could walk safely through any night if he guided her. Her fingers tingled at his touch, and she left her hand in his before she stepped down. Her green and gold dress fluttered around her legs, clinging briefly to her thighs. Maybe even Darith would see her as more than a child tonight.

He met her hazel eyes.

She hoped he noted what a dashing couple they could make, the red-haired girl and the black-haired boy. Both slender and graceful, he made of the colors of the night and she of sunshine bound in flesh.

If he observed anything of the sort, he gave no indication. He took her arm and led her inside; she clung a little closer than necessary, relishing the heat of his body. This warmth slipped through her skin to cradle around her heart and flutter like a sigh in her mind.

Inside, a servant took their coats and another led them through a tiled hallway into a ballroom. Marim took in a breath at the splendor of the room. Girls in ball gowns spun on the floor. Men both young and old escorted them. Crystals drooped from the chandeliers and their phantasmal reflections sashayed over the room. There were punch fountains and layered cakes. From the corner of her eye, Marim saw Darith's thinly veiled boredom. The curl of his nostril.

He ushered Marim in through the velvet-draped doorway into the maze of perfumes and colors. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Will you dance with me please, Darith?" she asked. If she could get him away before the other girls crowded in, perhaps tonight would be the night he remembered she was there, the night he realized she wasn't a child that needed protecting. Tonight the rogue was hers.

Darith nodded to her and led her onto the dance floor. Marim closed her eyes as the dance started. She tried to trap the sounds and the smells inside her head. She wanted to keep the throb of music safe inside. When her eyes opened, Darith was looking down at her. He was more than a head taller than she was, so she had to tilt her head to meet his eyes. Her feet knew the steps even if she had forgotten them. The weight of his fingers and the warmth of his body intruded to her core. He was so close to her.