The Shadow's Star

Chapter 5

Clara and I shoved our way through the dancing fae and to the bar. I found myself scanning the room for him; I just needed to confirm that he was real, that I didn't imagine the whole thing.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Clara's voice snapped me out of my searching.

"Oh, yeah" I waved a hand "I'm fine," I replied.

"So Zia has brought some guys back to our booth," Clara said as I looked over her shoulder and spotted him, lounging in a booth with a group of males and females. Two women sat on either side of him were running a hand over his chest and along his arms but his expression seemed disinterested by the attention they were giving him. His face or what I could see of it looked stone cold, no trace of that playful smirk he had only moments ago.

"Did you hear me?" Clara moved her head obscuring my view of him.

"What?" I blinked shaking my head.

"Oh, please don't bring one of them home with you tonight." She tilted her head to one side.

"I won't," I assured her. Usually, I would pick the hottest guy Zia would scout out of the crowd back to the palace for meaningless sex, but tonight I wasn't interested. Not when the hottest guy here is a dark fae who is completely off-limits to someone like me.

"Let's join the others" Clara motioned for me to follow her and I did, forcing myself not to look in his direction.

I was weaving in and out of fae who were jumping and swaying along to the music when I felt a hard tug on my arm. I spun around and my mouth dropped to the floor when I saw Callahan standing before me with disapproval written all over his face.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" I frowned at him, pulling my arm free from his grasp.

"I could ask you the same thing" He replied. He was dressed in the royal guard uniform which was attracting the attention of the fae close by.

"There's been an attack, you need to come home" He added.

"Xander, is he okay?" I suddenly recalled Xander saying he had to leave the palace to deal with something.

"Xander's fine, but you need to come with me." He grabbed my arm again but I shrugged him off.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," I said.

"Aurora," Callahan said over my shoulder as I turned to leave.

"Go home Cal" I felt his hand grip my arm once again and he spun me around and started half dragging me to the exit.

"Let go!" I shouted and people threw us annoyed looks as Callahan pushed past them.

"Let me go!" I repeated and he ignored me. Blood rushed to my cheeks, each step he forced me to take made me angrier and angrier.

"Let go of me!" I slipped free from his grasp; my breathing was heavy as I stepped back from his reach. And so I did the one thing I knew would piss him off, I turned and headed not towards my friends but towards him, the dark fae. I glanced at Clara and the others who were staring at me in disbelief. I approached his booth, only to be met by a wall of dark magic, a shield to keep any unwelcome fae out of their area.

"Got room for one more?" I locked eyes with him awaiting his answer. He said nothing and I started to worry I would have to walk away rejected and embarrassed but then that dark shield came down only briefly for me to step into the booth before it snapped back up. I turned around to see Callahan close behind, he had noticed the shield, had felt the dark power radiating off the fae I was currently trapped inside this booth with. Concern grew on his face.