Page 194 of Fallen Stars
“Would you like to dance?” he asked, extending his hand.
Merissa felt a thrill as she took his hand.
“Yes,” she breathed.
The demon looked around before pulling her out of the alley and into pandemonium.
The music was deafening, the crowd pressing into her from all sides. Mythas masks of all kinds surrounded her—wraiths, skulls, naiads and dryads, lions and angels. Merissa squinted, trying to make sense of her surroundings as her head swam, the stranger pulling her along.
To her left, she saw a man swallowing fire; to her right a woman was talking to herself as she swam in a pool of wine. She heard a wailing and turned in alarm as a man in front of her bled. She gasped as she staggered back, seeing his own hand wield a blade as he carved letters into his forearm.
‘HELP,’ it read.
Merissa went to scream, but when she blinked, the man had disappeared. Her heart pounded as she turned around, relieved to see the demon still holding her hand as he pulled her through the crowd.
Memories of the man soon fell from her mind as teasing and delicious ecstasy filled her veins once more. The demon halted in the throng of the crowd, a wall of bodies surrounding them as he twirled her until her back was to his chest.
The music waswithinher. She could feel its bass pounding in her bloodstream, the energy frenzied and palpable. Before Merissa could help it, a laugh erupted from her, one burbling from deep within. She couldn’t help grinning. Why had she been soserious?Why had it taken her this long to just give in?
She raised her hands to the sky in ecstasy, letting the music and charm invade her, moving not of her own accord. The demon-masked stranger ran a finger up her arm slowly.
The gesture was so simple. So much more demure than sex. And yet it was as though a match was being struck against her skin. She felt the charm leap in her again and her own magick rise again to meet it.
Merissa had lost control. And it felt so, so good.
She continued to dance against the stranger.
“What’s your name, little nymph?” he finally murmured, and she felt his hips press into her, moving as one with the rhythm. His voice was sonice, lilting and deep.
She paused. In this moment, she was not Merissa. That woman had left the moment Sagitton’s charm had swirled around her.
If Merissa was sweetness, then she would choose a name that meant bitter.
“Amara,” she replied.
“Ah-ma-raaaa,” the stranger echoed, and the way he seemed to taste each syllable on his tongue had Merissa wishing it was her real name. “You’re a beautiful dancer, Amara,” he added.
“Us Aphrodeans do it best,” she sighed, closing her eyes as she swayed with him.
She felt his hands tighten on her hips, sinking into the flesh. He made a strained sound. Merissa didn’t care. She was havingfun. For the first time, she wasn’t worried or burdened, just…free.
She twirled so she was facing the stranger.
“Are you not going to show me you face? Or are you a monster?”
The stranger chuckled darkly. “Monster’s about right. I’m hideous underneath the mask.” His words caressed her, rumbling over her skin. “Covered in boils and scars.”
His smile widened, hungry and lupine, the kind of arrogant smile that insinuated he knew exactly how good-looking he was underneath the mask.
“Well,” Merissa said, raising a finger. “If your lips are anything to go by, I’d hardly say you are hideous at all.”
She gently laid the pad of her middle finger on his bottom lip. The stranger’s breath hitched, and she saw every part of him still. Curious and ridiculously high from the cake and charm, she took her time, tracing his whole bottom lip from one end to the other. She then did the same to the top, resting on his cupid’s bow.
“Beautiful,” she breathed.
Someone jostled past in the crowd with a tray of wine goblets. “A drink, madam?” The Kaosian grinned, his eyes a deep purple. She paused, some strange nag at the back of her mind trying to break through.
She blinked, and the man’s face contorted into a scream, wine dribbling out of his mouth as he choked.