Dangerous Creatures(56)

Nox watched her face as the elevator door opened. He held it. “I’m starting to think that something in you brings out the very worst in me.” The words were painfully familiar. He shook his head. “Or maybe it’s all for the best. It’s hard to tell lately.”

Ridley took a step from the elevator to the hallway beyond the doors. “You don’t exactly make me want to be a good girl, if that’s what you’re saying.”

She didn’t mean it as a compliment, and she hoped he knew it.

“Fire,” he said as she moved past him.

“I’m sorry?” She paused.

He sounded strained. “When I kissed you, I tasted fire. I don’t know what it means. I thought you should know.” He was rattled.

Curiously rattled, she thought.

“I’m sorry, that probably sounds insane.” He looked away.

“Not at all.” Ridley shrugged. “That’s what all the boys say.”

Then she moved down the hallway without a word, and the elevator door slid shut between them.



The black lacquered door waited for her at the far end of the hall. The moment Ridley waved the key card over the lock, she suspected that what lay behind the door would not be anything like apartment 2D.

She was right. Lennox Gates and his sister apparently lived like Prince and Princess Charming.

Or Charmless, she thought.

At least, when they were staying at Les Avenues.

The entry door swung open into a wide foyer. Just as in the lobby, there was a black and white inlaid marble floor, which extended into a living room with a panoramic view of the city. The floor-to-ceiling windows were dizzying. Every surface in the room was reflective—from the polished bamboo cabinets and the massive globe chandeliers suspended from the ceiling to the silver edging on the slab of white marble that served as the coffee table. Low black leather couches surrounded the table, where there was a massive display of white orchids. The remaining surface was occupied by dish after dish of candied fruits and chocolates.

She kicked her shoes off and leaned back on a couch, picking a candied sea horse from a dish. Candied sea horses were her childhood favorite.

Strange.

How could he possibly have known? How could he have been expecting me? Even I didn’t know where I was going.

She reached for a cream-colored card, folded in the middle of the dish of candy. “If you need anything, R, ring the bell. The bath should be almost full by now. Clothes are in the closet.”

Cocky little son of a witch.

The note confirmed what she had already suspected. Lennox Gates had known she was coming, which meant he had some kind of foresight, more even than just a Seer. Reading the future was a rare and limited gift. Reece could only read faces, and she had become completely insufferable. Nox had teased Ridley about her future before, but only in the way that anyone with half a brain could.

If Nox had foresight as well as his other abilities, Ridley had to admit he was one of the most powerful Dark Casters she’d ever encountered. She had known that he could manipulate material objects, that he had some kind of control over the material world. Aside from an Illusionist like Larkin or Floyd—who could only appear to have that sort of gift—the only person Ridley knew who could really do something like that was Lena. Or Sarafine, but she was truly out of the picture now.

At least, that’s what Ethan had insisted, ever since he had returned from the Otherworld.

She stared at the card in her hand. The note left Ridley no choice. She had to accept that there was more to Lennox Gates than a love of gambling and nightclubs. There was too much—his powers of Persuasion, Manifestation, and Temporal Distortion—it was too much for one Caster, and she didn’t know how or why he had come to be so powerful.

But it was something.

Something that made him either potentially dangerous or potentially useful.

It was an interesting thought.

Ridley leaned back against the couch. She felt awful about Link and worried about Necro.

No wonder they had kicked her out.

She heard the water running in the other room. The bath. She stood up, feeling the soft pile of the thick white rug beneath her feet. Maybe a bath would help her calm down. Think more clearly. Figure out what to do now.

A few bubbles couldn’t hurt.

She tried not to look at the enormous bed as she wandered through the bedroom. All she noticed was the circular skylight cut into the ceiling and roof above it. She imagined lying there, studying the stars.

Princess Charming had one hell of a view.

Ridley found the door to the bathroom and shut herself safely inside, where the massive tub was filling itself with rose-and lavender-scented water. Exactly as Lennox Gates had promised it would.

Only then did she let herself cry.

She told herself it was the soap burning her eyes.



Three thick white towels later, Ridley felt like a new person. Wrapped in a plush robe, she toweled dry her long wet hair.

She lectured herself as she stared in the mirror, brushing out her tangled curls.

Pick yourself back up. Get it together, Siren. This is what you do. Stop acting like you care about them. Stop acting like Uncle Macon.

Like you can’t accept who you are, how Dark you are. Like you have a choice. Like you have a home.

Like every other door wasn’t slammed in your face on the night of your own Claiming.