my purpose. My eyes lift, and I immediately spot an open balcony stretched across the side of the ballroom. I pause, pressing my winged back against the wall as I casually try to study the scene.
More Abdicated are up there, and it’s like they have their own little private VIP area where they’re watching the partygoers below. My eyes scan the balcony crowd but snag to a stop when I spot blond wings and hair. The owner looks young, and I debate for a moment if that could really be Tazreel. He seems older than me, but he doesn’t appear to be old enough to be a father.
I note his height, matching it to the few inches over six feet that Delta described. I note the proud jut of his chin and the tone of his skin. I can’t be positive that it’s him, but as I take in the winged beings around him, ticking off things that match what I’ve been told about the Sins, I realize that I have to be staring at Pride. I’m staring at...my father.
Nerves start to flutter through my stomach, and I take a deep breath as I look up at the balcony. It makes sense for the Seven Sins to be up there, lording over the party. A part of it, but set above.
I quickly scan the ballroom again to see if I can spot my sisters, but rather than finding them, I discover someone intensely watching me. An Abdicated. One of Morax’s.
Shit!
Panic pounds through me, and I immediately force my face to go expressionless while I inwardly chastise myself. I wasn’t focused on my mind control mask I’ve been perfecting. Did I slip? Did I do anything that would give myself and possibly my sisters away?
I think through everything I’ve done since I arrived here, and all I can come up with is that I’ve tried to blend in and I’ve looked for Tazreel, but that’s what I’m supposed to be doing, so maybe I’m okay.
Worry writhes through me like a worm through an apple, but I can’t show that. So I take a breath and make sure my mindless robot mask is secure as I head in the direction of the Seven Sins’ balcony.
I feel eyes on me as I go, but I don’t dare look around. Instead, I grab hold of the darkness at my core and pull it to me like a shroud, ready to cover myself at a moment’s notice in case Morax pops up to offer a friendly word or two. At least then I’d know what he looks like, so maybe that wouldn’t be an entirely bad thing.
The feeling of being watched intensifies as I cross the room, weaving in and out of party patrons. It causes the hair on the back of my neck to rise in warning. My gaze lifts without permission, my instincts warring with alarm skittering over me, but my gaze freezes on a figure up ahead. Shock explodes in my mind, and my feet stumble to a stop. My eyes flare. My heart pounds.
He’s leaning against the wall at the foot of the balcony stairs, his position bored, but his form delectable in his crisp black matte-silk suit. Taupe skin, short horns in front of slicked-back espresso hair, and ginger wings hanging at his back. Even from my distance in the chandelier dimmed room, I note the scars down his face and the piercing glinting through his nose. I can see the harsh brows and his startling blue eyes because he’s staring right at me.
I know that face. I know his voice even better.
Ire.
Crap! I immediately look away from him, only for my traitorous eyes to swing right back. This time though, his piercing gaze is no longer trained on me, but is back to scanning the crowd.
What is he doing here?
He looks as though he could be doing some kind of security detail with how he’s standing in the way of the stairs that lead up to the balcony, but I get the impression he’s looking for someone.
A pale hand reaches out and pats his bicep, and my eyes snap from Ire to the girl next to him who I somehow didn’t notice until now. I’m not sure how I overlooked her or the sheer red dress she’s squeezed into, her dark nipples showing plain as day. Why not just go naked, I wonder. Seems like a waste of money on a dress for all it’s showing.