Page 21 of Leviathan's Song
“You look phenomenal in that outfit, Elara,” she said as I snapped the collar of the heavy necklace shut. The necklace with the skinny chains and the gauzy, gathered pants were definitely reminiscent of ancient elvish royalty. The light-colored fabric served to highlight the dark skin most royal elves had back then, but it still looked nice against my more medium-colored complexion.
She eyed me as she said, “We should go to a real ball someday. Couldn’t your dad get us an invitation to one?”
“Prime Minister Pertoris is only my fourth cousin,” I hedged. “We’re not that close.” In reality, my parents got invitations to all kinds of government functions, but the thought of attending something of that magnitude shifted my nerves into high gear. “Do you want me to do your makeup?”
“Does this outfit say makeup to you? It does not. It says wear war paint.” She grabbed a pot of white, iridescent, cream-based eyeshadow and drew two slashes under each eye and a streak starting in the center of her bottom lip and disappearing under her chin.
On the middle of her forehead, she placed three white dots in a vertical line, the middle one smaller than the other two. She’d told me before that it was the same style the Magpie Clan of Shifters, the Warbirds, had used in ancient times. We were quite the mashup of ancient clothing styles and mythology tonight.
“Will you know anyone else at the rave?” I asked, feeling my nerves start to climb a bit.
“Not that I know of. Other than your merman.” She replaced the lid on the pot of eyeshadow and took a swig of her drink.
I knew she was teasing me, but I couldn’t help grumbling my retort. “He’s not mine, and he’s said he’s not a mer. At least I’ll know you guys.” I clipped a wasp on the gathered fabric of my wrap top where it crossed each shoulder and clipped two onto the center chain hanging down my back.
“I guess it’s possible he might bring his roommates,” I muttered. “How can that reaper cross the Gates and live in the Void, anyway? He didn’t feel like he had a single drop of human blood in him.” I’d filled her in on my meeting with Levi’s housemates when we’d gone through the box of Levi’s items. She’d never met a reaper either, hadn’t even known of anyone who had met one.
Sidney shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t matter if you go somewhere that should normally kill you if you’re immortal to start with.” I hadn’t thought of that. I supposed that would also explain why the vampire wasn’t concerned about living outside of the Boundlands.
I felt her brothers at the edge of my periphery and took a deep pull of my drink to steel myself. Their magic was mischief, soaring flight, and raucous laughter. “Your brothers are here.”
“More drinks!” Sidney declared as she made her way back to the kitchen.
I listened to their boisterous banter as I gave up on my extra wasps and packed away the rest of my supplies. When I entered the kitchen, Sidney had set out drinks for her brothers and plates of sausage, smoked fish, and dilled cheeses. Josh dug out a roll of crusty bread.
All the boys were taller than Sidney and heavily muscled. Josh looked like he still hadn’t filled out completely, whereas the older two could easily be described as hulking or burly. Sam and Josh, the eldest and youngest, both had Sidney’s blond hair, cropped short. Aaron, the middle brother, was the only one with dark hair and was the largest of all of them. They all shared the same cornflower blue eyes and brash, jovial nature, and of course the ability to shift into birds.
They were all donning the loose headscarves in earthen or ashy colors we’d found for them. Ragged or pieced clothing reminiscent of the style of clothing tribal shifters had worn back when they were nomadic warrior clans made up the rest of their costumes. Josh was asking Sidney to paint his face like hers, and Aaron was horsing around with Sam when they noticed me standing by the door jamb.
Aaron gave a piercing wolf howl before taking two giant steps toward me and dropping to his knees on the dingy kitchen tile with a flirty grin. “A queen beautiful enough to start wars! Sidney, why didn’t you tell me we were in the presence of royalty?” I laughed at his dramatics as he clutched his chest and mocked a bow of fealty.
He flinched when Sidney cracked him on the head with a slotted spoon. “Elara’s off limits. Eat some food. I don’t want you goons eating or drinking anything at the rave tonight. Last thing I need is your drunk ass thinking you can fly to the moon again.”
Sam groused as Josh put Aaron in a headlock and jostled his drink. As an only child I felt entirely out of my element in the midst of their roughhousing, but Sidney barely seemed to notice as they grunted and rattled the cabinets. Sam tipped his glass up and grabbed a hunk of bread. “Time’s up ladies! Let’s move this party out of here.”
Sidney shrieked as he hauled her up under his arm like a newspaper. “Put me down, you giant oaf! I still need my boots and my headpiece.” I grinned at them when she squealed like a little girl as he swung her around and set her on her feet. He gave us to the count of ten before they tossed us over their shoulders and physically hauled us out, with Sidney accusing them of acting like wildlings and Josh trying to chug the last of his drink as we left.
I had a feeling we were actually bringing the wild to the party.
Chapter 8
This party didn’t needany help getting wild.
I’d had a moment of false security while we were in line to get into the warehouse. I could feel that the building was cloaked in some kind of auditory dampening barrier, but I hadn’t realized the full extent of it until we’d stepped into the dimly lit, body-rumbling interior.
The heavy, rhythmic bass felt trance-inducing, even without the effect of the mind-altering drugs some of the occupants were obviously partaking of, if their thousand-yard stares and awkward swaying were anything to go by. Sam walked in front of us as we weaved through the crush of bodies, with Sidney in front of me and Josh and Aaron behind us.
We’d made it maybe twenty steps from the door when Sidney jerked an arm back and decked a guy. He dropped like a sack of rocks, and she leaned over him. “Just because you can see it doesn’t mean you can touch it!” I barely heard her yell over the thumping of the music, and I hadn’t even seen what had happened to start it.
She was pushing through the crowd again before I could piece together the interaction, and Josh and Aaron pressed in a little closer to my back. Flickering lights pulsed over the crowd, and the sheer number of magic users operating around me made it impossible for me to follow all the threads of energy and magical intent roaring through the revelers.
We passed a djinn breathing fire, arcing it high up into the rafters where spark fairies darted in and out of the flames. A man on stilts had glowing neon-turquoise tattoos. I noticed most of the girls in the crowd were more naked than not, and face-obscuring masks were popular among the guys.
I felt a prickle of fear when I considered the sea of masks and the fact that any of them could be hiding a Phantom. I pressed still closer to Aaron, wishing I could turn into a little barnacle on his side.
When we stopped in a small opening in the crowd, I could see a DJ in a crow’s nest high up near the rafters, but his skin looked too dark to be Levi. It was hard to make out any distinct features from this distance, with all the flashing lights and smoke in the air. Sidney leaned in close to my ear, but she still had to yell to be heard. “Josh says there are still a few more sets in the line-up before it’s Levi’s turn!”
I was a little unsure what to do with myself other than simply following the rhythm of the music with my body, like everyone around me seemed to be doing. Sam had already ingratiated himself with a group of girls in iridescent body suits and pigtail-buns, but he kept darting a watchful eye back over to me and Sidney.
