A Dance of Shadows and Light

Eleven

Eleven

The engagement ball was filled with courtiers. The grisha were there too, but it was clear who the ball was really for. The King and Queen. The Royal family took front and center, sitting on their thrones, with Prince Vasily and Nikolai on either side of them respectively. Vasily on his fathers side, and Nikolai on his mothers.

Alina and Kirigan entered to much fanfare. Her arm was looped through his, and she was aware of everyone looking at her. Two grisha girls that she had befriended on her trips to the palace, Nadia and Marie, came over to squeal and congratulate her.

"Alina!" they exclaimed together.

Alina smiled. "Nadia! Marie!" she glanced at her fiancé. "Do you mind if----"

He smiled. "Go, catch up. But we're doing our presentation at midnight, and we'll be expected to dance at least twice together. I'll come and get you when it is time." He kissed her hand, and watched her go off to excitedly talk with her friends.

"Sweet, isn't it?" a voice said from next to him.

He glanced over and saw Nikolai standing by his side. "What do you want, your highness?"

"I just want to remind you that Alina has options," he said, "I am second in line for the throne. I have just as much, if not more power than you, and alliance between us would be equally beneficial."

"Are you suggesting that you're going to challenge me for her hand? Your father wants an army of sun summoners and shadow summoners. Unless there's something I don't know about, your highness, you hardly fit the bill."

Prince Nikolai bristled. "You don't deserve her."

"You think because you have a title that you do?" he said. "I understand her. I know what it is like to be her. Can you say much the same, Fox Prince? We are both grisha of immense power, with a duty to our country, something you will never know or understand. Let the girl perform her duty and leave her be."

"You're a fool," said Nikolai, "she doesn't even know you. Once she sees who you really are, General, who do you think she'll come running to?"

"My deadly arms," he replied with a smirk, "because I offer her the protection and the power that she needs. You are nothing more than a boy with a title."

"We should kill you," Nikolai threatened, "we know it was your ancestors magic that created The Fold. You and that mother of yours should be punished for your crimes."

He laughed. "And are you going to kill volcra, boy?"

Nikolai bristled. "I have."

He laughed. "Of course. Shooting demonstrations on hunting trips, I'd forgotten. All very pretty and elegant displays. Real war isn't pretty or elegant. Real war is gun powder and blood. Now, if you excuse me, I don't have time for your feeble attempts at mind games. I'm going to go dance with my fiancé."

He walked over to where Alina was. She was chatting merrily with Nadia on Marie off in a corner. "My dear," he said, "I hate to interrupt but I believe it is time for you and me to dance."

Alina smiled at him. "But of course."

He led her to the floor, where the dancing had already begun. The orchestra was playing a waltz. He was holding her close, and he thought of her, cuming on his fingers. The way that she had glowed as he had made her do it. He wanted to make her do it right now, on the ballroom floor, in front of everyone so that they could see that Alina was his.

"Alina," he murmured into her ear, "do you know what I want to do with you when we're alone?"

"What?" she said, breathless.

"I want to slip my tongue in between your folds my darling, and I want to lick you, until you cum on it, screaming my name so that it echoes through the halls of The Little Palace," he whispered.

Alina coughed, and locked eyes with him. "Aleksander.... what about propriety?"

"Hang propriety," he said.

She licked her lips, looking ravenous. He loved her lips, and he thought of a hundred different things he wanted her to do with them.

She let out a nervous laugh. "Aleksander," she murmured, kissing him there, on the ballroom floor. He kissed her back. He could feel his shadows gathering, dancing, and he felt warmth radiating from her. Her light. Her fingers tangled in his hair, and he gripped her tightly to his chest wanting her body to be as tightly pressed as it could be against his.

There was a gasp that rippled through the crowd then. The room stilled, and everyone looked up at the ceiling overhead.

"Aleks," Alina whispered, "look."

She pointed up overhead, and he looked up. His shadows and her light were dancing around each other as if in a waltz of their own. "Sankta Alina," the whispers murmured through the crowd. The courtiers looked on at them in awe. The only ones that didn't were the royal family, who sat on their thrones, looking on at them as if they had seen The Fold itself rise in the ballroom and saw their end within it.

A chill went down his spine. He gripped her hand tightly. "Love!" he said. "True love-----the thing between me and my fiancé-----that is what you see, and that is what will save Ravka. That is what will make it so our King and our nation can rise to such great heights!"

The Royal family was still glaring at them coldly, but he clapped for them, and Alina clapped for them, and the other courtiers clapped for them. And he watched as the Kings satisfied smile returned, and the glittering evening continued without incident.

No one knew in the dead of night that Genya was sneaking out with her lover. No one knew the blood it would bring. Or the gun powder that would reign. Because who could think of such nightmarish things on a night filled with such sparkle?