A Fall of Secrets (A Shade of Vampire #15)(12)

Still holding my hand tightly, Caleb motioned for us to follow my parents, who were backing away now. We reached the front door with Jeriad and were about to close it behind us when Theon spoke again. He was looking directly at Jeriad. “You may leave now, Jeriad. Get some rest. I will let our hosts know about tomorrow.”

Jeriad nodded and backed away, strolling down the corridor to find his own quarters. We all turned to look back at the prince curiously.

“We don’t want to waste any time in making acquaintance with the maidens on this island.” Theon’s amber eyes roamed toward me once again, making my skin tingle. “So if it’s agreeable, we would like to arrange the introduction for tomorrow. Noon would be a convenient time for a ball. I trust you’ll be able to manage this.”

With that, he bowed slightly once again and closed the door, leaving us all standing and staring at each other in bemusement.

A ball?

I could tell from my parents’ faces that they had no more clue what Theon meant by it than Caleb or I did.

“A ball,” my father murmured.

“A ball,” my mother repeated, frowning. “Rose, do you know what he means by this?”

“Oh, sure,” I said. “I throw balls for dragon shifters every Friday.”

Chapter 9: Rose

“A ball.” I repeated the word again as we left the mountains. Since Theon had closed the door on us, my mother thought it best that we didn’t knock for clarification. We looked around for the dragons who might still be strolling the corridors, but they had all retreated into their rooms and we didn’t want to disturb them in case they were sleeping already.

So we were left to our own devices in figuring out what exactly Theon had meant.

“Come on,” my mother said, a look of amusement on her face. “How hard can this be? They just want us to arrange for a formal introduction to all the interested ladies.”

My father already looked fed up with the whole affair as he ran a hand through his hair. He looked at my mother, then at me. “Can I leave this ball business to the two of you?”

My mother chuckled, and nodded. “I think that would be best.”

My father heaved a sigh. “Good. I have other, more pressing matters to see to now. I’ll catch you around.”

He left us and began making his way across the clearing toward the forest, leaving me, my mother and Caleb. I looked at my boyfriend. “Honestly, you’re not going to find this interesting either,” I said.

“Agreed,” Caleb said, rolling his eyes.

My mother looked at Caleb, then back at my father who’d almost disappeared in the distance. “Hey, Derek!” she shouted across the lawn. My father spun around. “Take Caleb with you. He can help with whatever it is you need to do.”

Caleb looked relieved to be let off the hook, and as he walked over to join him, the two men disappeared into the woods.

My mother turned back to me and held my hand. “I think it will be good for Caleb and your father to have some time alone, man to man.”

“Great idea.” I leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “And I’m happy to have some alone time with you, Mom.”

She smiled and kissed me back. Then she let out a sigh. “So, the ball. Firstly, where do you suggest we hold it?”

I frowned, rubbing my face in my hands. “Well, when I think of balls, I think of Cinderella. The classic fairytales. They are all normally held in some kind of grand hall. I guess the closest we have to that is one of the chambers within the Black Heights themselves?”

“Hmm,” she said. “Or we could ask Corrine to help us set up on the beach. We held a wedding there today, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be fit for a ball.”

“Yeah,” I said, “but it wouldn’t really feel like a ball. It would feel more like a party, or something. I think we should hold it in the largest chamber we have in the mountains.”

My mother smiled. “Okay. I trust your judgment more than mine, dragon girl.”

We re-entered the mountains and took a sharp left turn. Eventually, after passing along several tunnels, we reached the chamber we’d had in mind. It was the largest that we were aware of. It was currently filled with sacks of grain and emergency supplies.

We stepped inside and looked around. “We’ll need some help from the witches in making this place more… fairytale-ish,” I said.

“Okay,” my mother said. “Now we’ve decided on the venue, we need to think about music.”

I began thinking over my music sheets and which pieces would be most suitable. But really, I wasn’t worried about this. I wasn’t lacking in knowledge of classical music, thanks to my father, and I was sure that this would be pleasing to the dragons. “Don’t worry about music,” I said. “I’ll sort that out. What about food?”

“The dragons said that they would be satisfied with whatever the humans eat. So that shouldn’t be difficult. We’ll set out a buffet, something similar to what we had today at the wedding.”

“Okay.”

There was a pause as my mother and I looked at each other. It dawned on me—and I was sure on her too—that we’d both been avoiding the most important element of our ball.

The damsels themselves.

They still had no idea that I’d hooked them all up with these dragons.