and kind to me. It was my fault I pushed him away by having feelings for him that he did not return.”
“Maybe he left because you were too young and he felt the same way?” Poppy softly asks. I laugh and shake my head.
“He has a new woman every night in his club, if not more than one. He has no feelings for anything other than himself, his cock and his daughter,” I reply and steel my back. “We should head to this ball so we can get it over and done with.”
“He has a daughter?” Poppy questions in shock. “How old is she? How old is Seth?”
“Erm, I think she is twenty-three now, and Seth is very old. Very, very old,” I mutter. “And thinks he knows everything because of that fact.”
“Don’t most men think they know everything?” Poppy questions. “My mum told me that once.”
I laugh and bump my shoulder into Poppy’s. “See, you do know something about the opposite sex.”
“Did someone say sex?” Mossy questions, jumping onto my shoulder as we walk to the lift.
“Maybe. What’re your plans for tonight, my little monkey friend?”
“After pouring green dye into Catherine’s shampoo bottle, I’m tired,” he says so normally that I don’t clock onto what he actually said until Poppy bursts into laughter.
“Oh my god. You are the best, Mossy!” Poppy says as we both laugh. I can’t wait to go to the ball now and see Catherine’s green hair.
Mossy stands up proudly on my shoulder. “I am the king of petty revenge.”
I grab Mossy and pop a kiss on the top of his head. “Yes, you are. Have fun with Sword.”
“By the way, you both look pretty,” Mossy tells us. “No sex though. We don’t need men around.”
“Great,” I mutter as I press the lift key. “A monkey is in charge of my sex life, and I literally can’t even argue with him as he is right. We don’t need anyone getting close to us right about now.”
“Unless they already know our secret like Finn or Sebastian,” Poppy comments. Or Ryker and Seth, but I haven’t mentioned that one to her yet. “Do you think the gods know our secret because Finn does?”
“I don’t know. This game was created by them, and they must know who plays in it,” I say, shrugging a shoulder as the lift opens. We both step in, and the interior starts glowing as the doors close. The whole lift goes super warm for a moment, but it doesn’t move, and then the doors bing before opening up.
Instead of our apartment, it’s a ballroom. Every wall of the room is a mirror with large silver arrows in the corners of the room that stretch all the way to the ceiling. The ceiling itself is a giant mural of angels, wolves, reapers, dragons, witches and so much more painted across it, all of them fighting a battle with a gold antler crown right in the centre of the painting. The ballroom has silver floors that are so shiny they reflect the many, many colours of the dresses the women wear inside the room. The men stand out with their black tuxes, but there are so many people in this ballroom, so many that I’m not sure where to look first.
I step out into the room with Poppy, both of us silent in shock and wonder of the magic it would have taken to make that lift work and the sheer number of guests in this room. There must be a thousand people here, easy, and not one of them is human, I suspect. Demons. This is a demon ball. I glance behind me to see a wall of lift doors that are magically appearing and disappearing as people walk out. Nifty magic, that is right there.
“This place is so dreamlike,” Poppy sighs, her eyes lapping up the room like a kid in a candy store. I look around and see the Cherished Five in the corner, nodding at anyone who comes near them, the queen nowhere to be seen. The Cherished Five, known as the Queen’s Knights to other races, are meant to protect the realm no matter what. They will die for the queen if she asks it of them, and it is unheard of to walk away. I’m almost interested why Alun walked away and why the queen allowed it.
“I’m going to the bar. Have fun,” I say, shooing her away, but it doesn’t take much. She sees someone in the distance, and