The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(38)

SIXTEEN

DANCING WITH KELLAN was surprisingly fun. He escorted Blue back into the pub, waved at his friends, and then whirled her onto the dance floor without breaking stride. Before she knew it, she was laughing as they dipped and spun their way through the melody. He wore his charming smirk, the one that usually made her wish he’d trip and fall into a slop bucket, but somehow tonight, she didn’t mind.

“You’re a good dancer,” she said as the musicians changed the tune, and the dancers glided into another rhythm.

“No need to sound surprised.” He raised a brow at her. “I happen to have excelled at pub dancing while at school up north.”

“There’s a class for pub dancing?”

He laughed. “If there had been, I would’ve aced it.”

“How did you do in your classes?” she asked because it suddenly occurred to her that all she really knew of his life away from Balavata were the few things Nessa had told her.

“I did well enough. Not as well as my roommate, Javan, but that’s what happens when you choose adventures over constant studying. You remind me of Javan, actually. You’re both sticklers for rules and refuse to have fun unless all your other options are gone. Both champions of always doing the right thing. I guess the stars must think I need rule followers in my life to keep me in line.” He winked.

“Every time you wink, I want to poke you in the eye.”

“And every time you scowl at me, I want to dunk you in the rain barrel. Again.” He spun her out and then in, his smirk back in place. “That was a memorable afternoon. What were you . . . eight? Nine?”

She rolled her eyes, but warmth was bubbling up inside her, comforting and safe. “Ten, and Grand-mère nearly flayed you alive for that.”

He grinned, adjusting his grip on her waist. “How was I supposed to know your fancy curls would get ruined in the water?”

“She’d spent hours on those.”

“Oh, I know. She told me in great detail.” He turned them to the right as the violins chased another melody. “I don’t know if I ever thanked you for intervening before she made good on her threat to throw me into the sea. I believe I might owe you my life.”

“Please. You owe me your life a hundred times over.” She gripped his hand and decided to ignore the fizzy feeling that was spreading through her veins. It was the dancing. The laughter. The way her complicated life suddenly felt as simple as following Kellan’s lead across the floor.

“How do you figure?”

“The only reason you’re still alive today is because I spent our childhood thinking two or three steps ahead of you so that I could save you from yourself.”

He gave her a cocky grin. “Or maybe I just let you think those were my real plans so that you and my parents would be so busy putting a stop to one thing, you’d never think to look at what I was really doing.”

“Or maybe those backup plans were safe enough that I decided not to tell on you because your chances of survival were acceptable.” She returned his smirk with one of her own.

“Or maybe . . . wait. Is that true?” He pulled her near as another couple whirled past, the heat of his body a mere whisper from hers. The couple continued on, but Kellan kept her close, his big hands enfolding hers while he stared at her like she was a puzzle he was delighted to discover.

One tiny step forward, and the sliver of space between them would disappear. One tiny step, and she could lean against him, letting the thunder of his heartbeat drown out the violins.

Her breath caught, and her pulse quickened. She tilted her face up to see if he’d noticed, and found his dark eyes pinned to hers, a strange expression on his face. Her heart gave an odd little flutter, and she took a hasty step back to resume dancing.

What was wrong with her? This was Kellan. She didn’t get heart flutters over Kellan. She especially didn’t get heart flutters over Kellan when he was about to be betrothed to someone else. It was time to recover both her equilibrium and the thread of their conversation.

“You were a full-time job when I was younger,” she said and cursed her voice for sounding breathless. Clearing her throat, she continued, “I take all the credit for the fact that you made it this far in life without breaking your neck.”

He blinked. “What about the time I was planning on lighting a bonfire in the ballroom so my friends and I could roast sugar puffs?”

“A cover for the sorry excuse for a lean-to you and your friends built in the woods outside the castle grounds. You just wanted to be handed a supply of sugar puffs and told to stay well clear of the castle for the rest of the day.”

His brows rose. “We were going to light a fire in the lean-to instead but—”

“The wood was all wet. Such a shame.” She grinned at the memory. It had taken her five trips to and from the little creek that ran through the castle’s forested groves to soak that wood, but it had been worth it to hear the inventive stream of profanity that came from Kellan’s mouth when he discovered there would be no lighting anything on fire that day.

And of course it was also worth it to make sure the foolish prince didn’t burn down the grounds and kill himself in the process.

He gave her an appraising look. “How about the time I was planning to steal my mother’s newest stallion when I was twelve?”