in my castle, surrounded by hundreds of people, and within sight of my family and guards, he would have.
I didn’t know what exactly I babbled as I tried to extricate myself, repeatedly, but the clawed hand that had closed on my forearm wouldn’t budge. All the while he watched me with that detached avarice of a predator.
Then those horrifying fangs were perilously close to my neck as he bent to whisper in my ear, ordering me to walk out of the ballroom with him.
To any onlooker, my handmaidens included, it would seem he was bending closer so I could hear him over the din. He was being so careful, only I knew that he was coercing me. The only way I would get anyone to intervene would be to make a scene.
But if I did, there would go any hope of approaching my other candidates tonight. If I didn’t, he wouldn’t really hurt me…would he?
Problem was, I felt it in my bones that this was a very dangerous creature. And if he had others like him around, maybe anyone who came to my rescue would be in equal danger. If not now, then later.
Then he was towing me towards the ballroom doors, and I kept telling myself I was letting my previous trauma in Cahraman blow this all out of proportion. He was probably just a creepy old man who’d misunderstood my approach, and would let me go if I explained. If all else failed, I would tell him who I was. Surely he’d let me go then? Surely Leander wouldn’t have invited him if he posed real danger?
But the bubble of disgust, fury, and terror building deep in my gut wouldn’t listen, threatening to burst any moment now, come what may…
“Camellia, darling! There you are!”
A deep male voice cut through my rising hysteria as a big man barreled between Lycaon and myself, tearing the clawed grip off my forearm.
“I’ve been looking all over for you!” the newcomer crooned, taking my hands in his.
Confused, I blinked up into the full-head mask of a red-and-white fox, my nerves in shreds.
The man’s grip tightened when I tried to move away, and he continued behaving as if he knew me. “Shame on you! You should have left a message that you changed your costume. I thought we agreed to come as fox and hound. I’ve accosted no less than four other girls tonight and almost got into duels over it.”
Mind still foggy, I couldn’t make sense of his words. Who was this? Could this be a drunken case of mistaken identity?
“Thankfully, Aunt Florence pointed you out to me before she retired to her guest quarters in the eastern tower. She needs you there urgently, so we must rush away before someone gets mad.”
But the eastern tower didn’t have guest quarters. And why did he stress these last… Oh.
Oh!
He wasn’t drunk! He was only giving me a way out of this situation!
“Oh, yes!” I tried to curb my shaking so I could play along convincingly. “We mustn’t keep Aunt Florence waiting!”
Lycaon shoved his head between us, growling menacingly, “I wasn’t finished with her.”
“You are now,” the intruder said blithely. “Keeping our godmother waiting is not an option—not if we all want to keep our heads on our shoulders.”
Before Lycaon could do anything else, the intruder spun me around and rushed me away, muttering, “Can’t take a hint, that one.”
I checked over my shoulder, found Lycaon following us, fists clenched.
“And he still can’t!” I wheezed, fright booming inside me again, making me stumble.
Powerful hands supported me at once, the man’s mask-muffled voice as light as ever as he whispered in my ear, “Don’t worry. There’s no one alive I can’t lose.”
People blurred past as he had me almost running among the crowd. I thought we’d headed to the doors, then at one point I realized he’d plunged us into the mass of people on the dance floor.
After a while, as we weaved among the dancers, I snatched another frantic look around, and I could no longer see Lycaon anywhere.
Could it be he’d really lost him?
Before I could ask my strange companion, I noticed that I was draped in a black cloak.
I blinked up at him, baffled, and a light-colored eye closed in a wink within the mask. “I took the liberty of borrowing a guest’s cloak.”
“How? Why?” I mumbled dazedly.
He bent and a deep laugh echoed close to my ear. “The how is easily. As for the why, that magenta, while very becoming on you,