Author: Kalayna Price

“Besides your jewelry, the only spell on you is the healing spell on the brace on your wrist. You’ve been using your hand, by the way. I don’t know if you noticed.”

I glanced down at the brace. Tamara had missed the dagger and the spell. I knew I’d seen something in the Aetheric. Death had seen the spell, too. How could she miss it?

“Alex?” Holly called from outside the bathroom.

“You better get out there,” Tamara said, shooing me from the bathroom. “And lose the boots!”

“It’s these or my sneakers,” I muttered.

I wasn’t sure whether she heard, because I’d just caught sight of Falin. He was studying the pictures stuck around the mirror on my dresser and hadn’t noticed me yet, so I had a second to look him over. A second wasn’t enough. His tux was black satin, fitted in all the right places so it showed off wide shoulders that tapered down into lean hips. If he was armed, he was hiding it well, because a shoulder rig wouldn’t have fit under the tux jacket. His hair glimmered in the evening sun that streamed through the blinds, making it look as soft as a wisp of magic in the Aetheric. I had the ridiculous urge to walk over and run my fingers through the long strands.

Holly leaned close to me. “I’m so jealous,” she whispered, then slipped her arm through Tamara’s. They waved good-bye silently and nearly skipped across my small kitchenette to the door leading down to the main house. They’d be gushing about my yummy “date” before they reached the bottom step.

Falin didn’t look up as the door closed, but lifted a white-gloved hand and pulled one of the photos off my mirror.

“Hey, what do think you’re doing?”

He whirled around, the photo still between his fingers.

He spared me a momentary smile. Then his attention returned to the photo.

Wow, I didn’t even garner a second glance. I paused.

Oh, I hate how that irritates me.

Falin flipped the photo over. “She looks familiar.”

I marched over and snatched the photo from him. I’d clipped it out of the paper, and it was already yellowing with age. “Well, she should. She was all over the news for weeks.”

He smiled, looking over the collage of photos around my mirror again. He pulled down another, this one a real snapshot.“This is her again? Rianna McBride, right? She disappeared about four years ago. Directly after raising shades on the site of a bombing to help locate and identify victims, if I recall the press coverage correctly.”

I grabbed the photo from him and stuffed both it and the newspaper clipping into the top drawer of my dresser. “Can you not touch my stuff?”

Falin shrugged, finally moving away from the mirror.

His gaze moved over me again, and his lips twitched, as if undecided whether they would smile or frown. I could feel heat crawling to my cheeks. Holly had managed to tame my hair into tight ringlets piled on my head, the charm fixed the bruises, and the dress wasn’t that bad.

I’d been mostly impressed, but he did look better than me.

I looked away and tugged at the sides of my dress.

“How late do you think we’ll be out?”

Now he did smile. “You have a curfew?” When I scowled at him, he laughed and shook his head. “Whose dress are you borrowing?”

“That obvious, huh?”

He nodded, and walked a full circle around me. Then he reached out and grabbed the side of the dress.

I jerked away. “Hey, what are you—”

“Stay still.” His gloved fingers worked at the carefully concealed safety pins.

After a couple of seconds of destroying all of Tamara and Holly’s hard work, Falin stood back. He nodded once and then motioned me to turn.

With a sense of dread, I stepped up to the mirror. My jaw nearly hit the ground as I stared at my reflection and the dress that now clung to me as though it had been designed specifically for me.

“Okay, you win. You have magic hands.”

“Did you feel any magic?”

I shook my head and ran my hands over my waist and down my hips. I couldn’t even feel the seams or bunched material. Tamara had done a good job, but this …

“Impressive,” I said. I now looked the part for the party—as in I looked nothing like myself. Maybe it would be enough to help me get inside unnoticed. Just maybe. It was worth a shot, at least. I turned back to Falin. “We’re going to be late.”

———

“Stop fidgeting,” Falin whispered as we walked into the Caine mansion ballroom.

I dropped the necklace and let my hand fall to my side. I’d taken off the wrist brace in the car. Tamara was right: I was using the hand. It was still tender, but at least I didn’t stand out from the crowd any more than I had to. Not that I’d ever fit in here. Men in tuxes stood together making deals and decisions over Scotch. Women smiled at each other without any warmth as they chose their alliances based on the worth of each other’s jewels.

Okay, maybe I was being a little cynical, but these were the movers and shakers of Nekros City: the politicians, the CEOs of major conglomerates, and the slothishly unemployed.

I hadn’t expected to get this far. I’d fully anticipated to be turned away by the guard at the gate, tickets or no. But he’d let us pass. As had the man at the door—who, I noticed, wasn’t Rodger. Now here we were, in the ballroom.

“I thought this was supposed to be a dinner?” I whispered, leaning close to Falin’s shoulder.

“We mingle first. Then dinner.”

Great. Mingling.

Falin took my arm and led me farther into the room. I pasted on my smile. Who exactly am I supposed to mingle with? Anyone I know at this party, I’m related to, and they may just kick me out. Not that I thought anyone outside my family would realize who I was. Even with my face in the papers recently, only someone who knew me well would recognize me under all the makeup, with my hair up, and somewhat out of context at a Humans First dinner party. Hell, even my father probably wouldn’t recognize me dressed like this. I certainly didn’t feel like myself.

It turned out I didn’t need to worry about finding someone to mingle with. Falin moved us around the room, stopping occasionally to speak to one person or another, taking me with him like arm candy.

“Detective Andrews,” someone called out, and Falin steered me toward the voice.

“Chief Reynolds, how are you?” he asked, dropping my arm so he could clasp hands with the police chief.

The chief introduced him around the small cluster of men, mostly other big movers in the city. My face had been all over the papers, and the chief had mentioned me in a press conference earlier in the day, but after he finished his introductions, he looked at Falin expectantly.

Yup, makeup and a dress is a foolproof disguise.

Falin didn’t disappoint him.“This is Alexis Caine,” he said, taking my arm again.

I blinked but managed to keep my smile from falling off my face. What is he trying to pull?

A woman with something dead wrapped around her throat leaned forward. “Any relation to our illustrious host?”

I turned my smile on full force. “Yes, on my father’s side.”

That caused a low murmur around the group, and I tugged Falin closer so I could whisper, “I need to talk to you.”

He only smiled but didn’t move. After a moment, the sensation of my last name was forgotten and conversation moved on.

Chief Reynolds clapped Falin on the back.“Falin here just transferred into the department, and we’re glad to have him. I’ve put him on the Coleman case. He has a very promising career in …”

I zoned out the conversation, smiling and mimicking body language without listening to what was being said.

Instead, I focused on my other senses, scanning the crowd for magic. For a group consisting largely of Humans First Party supporters, there were a lot of vanity charms.

Complexion spells, antibalding charms, even a couple of breast enhancements were active in the crowd.

“Sense anything?” Falin asked as he moved us on to mingle with another group.

I shook my head, gritting my teeth behind my smile.

I wasn’t a divining rod. I didn’t even know what I was looking for.

A prickling sensation crawled between my shoulder blades, the kind of feeling that lets you know someone is staring. Then a wave of malevolent energy washed over my mind. I shuddered, my knees buckling. Pain cut into my shoulder as the soul-sucking spell reacted with an icy pulse. I gripped Falin’s arm tighter. I did not want to fall out in the middle of this party. I swayed, and Falin’s arm moved to my waist, kept me standing.

“Who is it?” he whispered.

As quickly as the feeling hit, it retreated, like a tide pulling back into the ocean. I braced for another assault, but it didn’t come. I turned. Directly behind me was a large group of people, and in the center, surrounded by his aides, was my father.

His eyes met mine, then moved back to the person he was talking to, his expression never changing. He clasped the hand of the woman shaking his, the handshake lasting long enough to become personal and leave her with the impression she’d connected with him. Then he turned away. He touched the arm of one of the men beside him, leading him outside the group. My father said something, and the tall man’s eyes moved to me.

Great. Security would no doubt find me soon. Looks like I’ll be missing dinner.

My father smiled as he stepped back into the crowd, and already there were people vying for his attention.A rotund man who had the look of a businessman stepped in front of him, blocking him from my view.The man was middle-aged with brownish hair, though it was fading to gray. Guess that makes him a suspect—Roy couldn’t have paid at least a smidge more attention, could he? I sighed.

“Who is it?” Falin asked again.

I shook my head. I couldn’t be certain. I had fears, but until I confirmed it was my father, I wasn’t saying a word. I scanned the crowd. I hadn’t felt the darkness again when my father’s eyes met mine, but I wasn’t sensing it from anyone else, either. So Coleman can hide.