Page 133 of The Blade in the Ashes
“Now, thatisexciting.” I let my eyes light up with a gleeful smile as I twisted my arm out of his. “You go on ahead, though. I’d like to freshen up first.”
His brows lowered unhappily. “Nonsense. You are my guest. You will stay with me.”
I didn’t need to glance at Nikolai to know the way he would have bristled against those words. So, I kept my eyes locked on Lorence as I rested myhands on each of his biceps and lifted to my toes to whisper into his ear, “Don’t you want me to look good for you later?”
He hummed, hands slinking around my waist. “What happens later?”
Sliding my hands up his arms, I pulled back just an inch to peer up at him through the overly wide doe-eyes I’d adopted in this form. “Be a good boy and go sit down, and maybe you’ll get to find out.”
“Oh,” he laughed deeply, tongue sliding hungrily over his lower lip as he tilted my chin up to meet his gaze. “This is the kind of game you would like to play?”
“One of them.” I winked, keeping a playful smile on my lips. “The rest come later.”
He looked as if he wanted to protest further, but I kept my chest pushed onto his, allowing him to peer openly down the neckline of my gown. Eventually, he nodded, sent a quick glare at Nikolai, and instructed me to find him in the leftmost box seat when I was ready.
He also whispered some particularly disgusting promises in my ear that weren’t even worth thinking twice about.
We watched him go, waiting until he was fully through the doors before we ducked into the restroom together.
“I think I might vomit after watching that,” Nikolai complained, unbuttoning his jacket and pulling out the jewelry I’d stolen last night from his pockets. He passed them to me with a barely suppressed shudder.
Rushing, I clasped the necklace around my throat and set about securing the bracelets on my wrists. After securing the clips, I gathered the skirt of my gown in my hand and pulled it over my head, twisting it out so that the blue fabric I’d had sewn on the inside was now on display.
“This is not how I imagined getting you out of your clothes when I found you again, bird.”
I glared at him through narrowed eyes as I pulled the gown back over my head, and he helped me tug it down into place. Just like that, I had a whole new ensemble.
Clever, if I did say so myself.
“This may tingle a little,” I warned him, pushing my magic towards him and concentrating on the new vision I wanted to see.
Shorter. With darker hair that had fewer sun-kissed streaks than his own. Brown eyes and a nose with a narrower bridge. When it was done, he looked down at his noticeably paler complexion and frowned.
“I do not like this.”
“You don’t like much,” I said as I mutated my own form into that of an ivory-skinned woman with pale hair and a freckled nose.
“I like you,” he mused, offering me his arm.
Taking his elbow, I pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before ripping him out of the bathroom. “That is an accomplishment far too few people can boast of.”
He grumbled something I couldn’t quite make out as I dragged him back into the main foyer of the house, where men and women alike were still shuffling through the main doors that led to the theatre. Not far behind the throngs were several men in the finest black tunics, each carrying a stringed instrument of varying size. I turned to Nikolai, brows raised.
“A band?”
He nodded, eyes scanning over the room with calculation. “I’ve come to things like this before. It’s not uncommon for there to be a performance of some sort before the auction begins. It gives people time to drink a little and loosen up.”
I took in the space’s setup as discreetly as possible. To the left of the theatre doors was a bright hallway, where two women were hurrying to meet the men who waited for them by the center table. They giggled, armslocked together. Another bathroom must be that way. Or at least a place for the ladies to freshen up.
On the opposite end lingered a dim hallway, no torches or lamps to provide light. If I had to guess, I’d say this collector, whoever he was, stored all his auction items in one room near the stage so they could be easily carried back and forth. Nikolai followed my line of sight and nodded.
“Think you can cause a distraction?” I whispered through a smile.
He snorted. “Must you always doubt me?”
Within moments, the glass of water in a tall man’s hand suddenly bubbled over. The man glanced down at it in confusion. Not even a moment later, the glass shattered in his hands. Guests stepped over the mess, scoffing as they entered the theatre, while the attendants at the doors immediately bent to pick up the glass shards.
It only took them a few minutes to collect everything and wipe away the water, and that was all we needed to slip behind their turned backs and hurry into the single door at the end of the hall.
