Trinket (Reverse Harem)

No Ethat Goes Unpunished

 I did not head right back to Soir's side. Didn't want the bird to think he was special. And did not want that feeling in my scars again. But the moment I was back in the party, everything just felt off, like there was a smell in the air, even though the air smelled exactly like I'd expect.

I took a drink off a passing tray, and drifted aimlessly through the crowd trying not to drift in the direction of my estranged consorts. I needed to do this on my own.

The Lord-Wolf watched me from a safe distance before disappearing into the crowd again, but multiple wolves moved throughout the partygoers, watching.

Waiting for... what? Why?

Had they already heard about Asund? Did they already know and hadn't told the Ravens?

Lord-Raven Soir re-appeared so suddenly I jumped and nearly spilled my drink.

He caught my hand before a drop sloshed out of it. His touch sent a strange crackling pulse through me that stabbed like two hot wires into either side of my neck. "I would say I am surprised, but I am not."

"Surprised?" I managed to ask.

He released me, scratching the back of my hands very lightly with his sculpted fingernails. Maybe I had imagined that. "Do I need to say it out loud, Lady Theia? You do have exotic taste. And I enjoy competition."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

He leaned forward and somehow his quiet voice reached me over the din, a wicked smile on his lips, like we were sharing some conspiracy. "You are a very bad liar. At least three servants came to tell me where you had slipped off to. Not that I am judging. Normally Lord-Dragon Ethat eschews being in human-form at all, and when he does choose to partake, he is so discrete not even Ravens can catch him, and I only hear murmurs of it later dropped from the lips of his playmates. He must be quite enchanted with you to permit himself to be caught."

So the servants in Soir's house were the highest order of tattletale that scampered off immediately to deliver gossip to their master. "Perhaps he is keeping you guessing, Lord-Raven."

Soir chuckled. "Are you suggesting that the Lord-Ambassador is using his brother as a pawn in diplomatic games?"

I shrugged. "All I know is that Korr loves a good game."

Soir glanced over my shoulder to where Korr and Itek loitered off to the side, draped over each other while discussing something with a cluster of other partygoers. Then he chuckled. "Almost as much as a Raven loves a good puzzle."

His voice sent wires through my throat again, and stabbed into my spine. "Do Ravens enjoy puzzles?"

"We love puzzles," he said with a wicked smile. "We even enjoy lies, if they're well-told and part of the puzzle. Have you ever been in a hedge-maze, Lady Theia?"

"A hedge-maze?" I asked blankly. A maze made of hedges? How would anyone ever build something like that? "Wouldn't a Raven just fly over it?"

He burst out laughing.

I blushed.

Ormiss suddenly appeared out of the crowds, crackling with purple lightening. He snarled, "Lord-Raven. If you are making a mockery of her--"

Soir waved a manicured hand again. "A mockery? Of course not. On your way, Lord-Regent. She does not need a chaperone. Unless you don't believe that she's capable of saying something clever enough to make a Raven laugh?"

"I have been keeping an eye on you, you--" Ormiss snarled.

"So you don't think she's clever enough to make a Raven laugh." Soir tapped his etched nails on his cup. "Lord-Regent. Either you are very rude, very honest, or very uninformed. As usual."