The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(106)
The cool evening breeze flowed in, and Kellan closed his eyes against the pang in his heart. He missed his father more tonight than ever. Missed the advice he’d never hear, the hugs he’d never receive, and the look of pride he hoped would’ve been in his father’s eyes as he saw his son successfully manage the tricky betrothal process while still keeping Nessa and his mother alive despite those who wanted the throne at any cost.
The musicians struck up a soft, lilting melody for the first dance. It was time for Kellan to set the tone of the evening. Choose a girl from a head family for the first dance, spread his favor to a few others in between dances with commoners, and then make his official announcement. It was infuriating that nowhere in that list of tasks was there an expectation for him to ask the girl if being betrothed to him was what she really wanted. Another law he would change once he was king.
His eyes opened, and he froze.
Blue was entering the ballroom, her delicate golden-yellow gown flowing gracefully around her small body, her brown skin glowing luminously under the candlelit chandeliers.
“Kellan,” his mother warned, but he wasn’t listening.
One dance. That’s all he would take. Just one before the rest of his life settled into stone.
He stepped down from the dais, moved through the crowd, and bowed in front of her. When he rose, he held out his hand and said, “Miss de la Cour, may I have this dance?”
“Yes.” She smiled at him, her eyes sparkling with something bold and reckless. Something that felt like diving off a cliff in the dead of night with no idea what lay below.
She placed her hand in his, and he swept her onto the dance floor amid gasps and the occasional glare from members of the head families.
Kellan looked at Blue and drank in her beauty. Her dark brown eyes, dreamy and wild when she looked at him. Her hair rising in a nimbus of gorgeous black curls to frame her face. Her skin . . . cold.
He frowned and pulled her closer as they swept into the next measure of the dance. “Are you well?”
She smiled, the reckless light in her eyes daring him to do things he knew he’d soon have no right to do. “I’m well enough.”
“You said you weren’t coming.”
“I changed my mind.”
He sucked in a breath as she brushed against him before twirling out and back in. The pulse at the side of her neck was beating fast, a tiny bird fluttering beneath her skin. He wanted to press his lips to it. Wanted to feel the silk of her dress as he pulled her to him. Wanted to be so tangled up with her that he forgot the rest of the world.
For a few glorious moments, there was nothing but the feel of her hand in his, the movement of their bodies as they swayed to the dance, and the look in her eyes as she held his gaze. Then she said quietly, “I don’t want to have any regrets.”
His chest ached. “I don’t either. I wish things were different. That the laws allowed—”
“I love you,” she said, bold and clear, as if daring those around them to eavesdrop. “I love you, and I wish I’d said it sooner. I want you to remember me like this.”
If she’d punched him in the gut, she couldn’t have taken the air out of him faster. “Blue—”
“When you think of me, think of me like this,” she said. Her lips parted as she looked up at him, and he had to fight the urge to lean in and kiss her. “Remember me dancing with you in a beautiful dress. Think of the way I kissed you and the way I looked when I said I love you.”
His grip on her cold fingers tightened as they entered the last few moments of the dance. “It’s not like I’m never going to see you again, Blue,” he said softly. “It will be hard, but I’ll still come to the shop. I’ll still stop by the farmhouse with Nessa. Unless you don’t want me to.” The possibility sank into him, cutting deep. “Wait. Is this good-bye?”
She had every right to say yes. Every right to walk out of the ballroom and out of his life altogether. He had nothing more to offer her than his friendship, and they both knew that wasn’t enough.
“It’s me asking you to remember the truth,” she said as she moved closer to him than the dance movements allowed.
He didn’t care. Let them stop moving while the world twirled and spun around them. Let his mother and the head families glare at him, while the commoners wondered what he was doing.
This was his last chance to tell Blue what she meant to him. He wasn’t going to waste it.
“Blue, I love you. You’re my best friend. I don’t want to lose any of that.”
Her smile lit up the ballroom, reckless and wild, and he leaned closer.
“You’ll never lose me,” she said softly. “Not really. I’ll always be the girl in the golden dress who loved you first. And whatever happens, I want you to promise that you won’t swim out in the sea for me. You won’t jump off a cliff into shallow water over me. You’ll remember that I love you, and that everything I did was my choice, not yours. Promise me.”
He met her gaze as time seemed to slow and then stop. “Why are you talking like you’re going to die?”
She let go of his hand and pressed her palm to his cheek. Her other hand stayed firmly against his shoulder. “Dinah knows the spell. By this time, I’m sure she’s released the wraith. She plans to kill you and your family.”