Page 101 of Wolf of Ashes
“Well, this is cozy,” Lucian says, finally focusing on me, then Diavolo, then Elijah. “But wait.” He points from Diavolo to Jonah with a laugh, leaning slightly out of his chair to single them out. “Get yourselves some fucking sunglasses, would you?”
Jonah doesn’t appear amused and neither does the keeper. He may be making an effort to appear non-threatening, but his brown-eyed persona is in danger of slipping, a hint of blue clouding his eyes. With a shock, I make out a thread of black light, as thin as the finest wire, winding around the fingers of his left hand, where he’s concealing it at his side.
Dark magic.
I’m uncertain where he’s drawing the power from, but it’s most likely the environment we’re passing by. We’ve left the coastline and have entered a forested area.
But it’s the fact that he feels the need to draw on his darkest power that unsettles me. He didn’t even use dark magic when we first fought Jonah and Vanguard.
Exhaling my tension, I smile across at Lucian, giving him my softest, most welcoming smile.
His focus was passing across me, dismissive of my existence, but now he pauses. I imagine he isn’t accustomed to garnering smiles from potential opponents.
“You know you’re being very impolite,” I say, tipping my head a little and causing my long, black braid to swish across the tattoos down my right arm. “You haven’t introduced yourself.”
His lips purse, as if he’s now studying me with interest.
“You first,” he says.
Risking the worst of the light, I slowly reach up and pull off my sunglasses. I’m not afraid to show him my full fake face, especially since I look too sweet to squash a fly. Even the fire mage thought I was a pixie.
“I’m Veda,” I say, and then I gesture at the keeper. “This is Diavolo.”
Lucian doesn’t deign to glance in the keeper’s direction, fixated on me, his gaze passing down my seated body.
I’d like to think he’s sizing me up out of respect for my possible strength, but his growing smile tells me otherwise.
I lean forward a little, resting my elbows on my knees and giving him a full view of my cleavage.
Come on now. Come closer…
“And you are?” I ask, gesturing to his sunglasses. “Unless you wish to continue being impolite.”
Lucian chews the inside of his lip for a moment before a smile breaks across his face.
His teeth are perfect.
A perfect smile for an overly perfect mouth in a starlit face.
He slowly reaches up and removes his glasses, his focus cast down for a moment so it takes another beat before he looks up.
Golden eyes gleam at me.
The unnatural eyes of a predator. The same color as mine.
So much the same that it’s like looking in a mirror.
My smile doesn’t falter. My expression doesn’t change.
I am neither confused nor disturbed because the fact that this man has eyes like mine can only mean he’s related to my uncle, my father’s brother. The man Mom never trusted.
It would certainly explain his strange aura—the eerie shadow of a dark angel. It could also be why Anarchy seems confused. If I’m related to Lucian, then she will likely smell the blood connection.
What I need to confirm is whether Lucian is my uncle’ssonor—dark saints forbid—another brother Mom didn’t know about, and where both he and my uncle sit in the current empire. If not at the top, then high up, given the way Lucian ordered Jonah about.
Lucian continues to survey me with the kind of calm that belongs to someone who always has the upper hand. Without taking his eyes off me, he crooks his fingers at Jonah.
The fire jotunn doesn’t seem to be in any doubt about what’s required of him. He clears his throat.
