For so long, Luc had been that person. Even though he wasn’t now, as she looked up at him, it was easy to imagine that he could be again.
He took a step closer, his pout turning into a crooked smile so familiar it made her ache. Nothing had been familiar lately. She’d spent so much time alone in Chaos’s library, being close to Luc now, even in the dark forest, made her feel surprisingly warm.
“You know,” he said softly, “biting is really like kissing but better, if you do it right.” Luc angled his head and leaned in toward her neck.
“No!” Evangeline placed both her hands firmly against his chest and tore her gaze away from him, focusing on the night and the stars and the tops of the trees as she attempted to shake off his allure. “You still can’t bite me, Luc. I’m not a snack.”
“What about just a nibble?”
Evangeline glared.
He sighed. “Are you completely over us, Eva?”
For a second, Evangeline didn’t know how to respond. She’d thought this was just about the biting. But looking at Luc now, she found something like loneliness in his immortal face. Being a vampire was undoubtedly not what he’d expected.
He looked up at the darkened night. The only sky he’d ever see now that he was a vampire. There were a handful of stars, scattered like gems from a broken necklace, but it was mostly just the waxing crescent moon, taunting with a bladed smile that would never give sun-warm light. Evangeline couldn’t imagine being banished from the sunshine, never being allowed to venture into the bright light of day. She wondered if that’s what he was really looking for. Not her but a piece of sunlight. A piece of something from his past to cling to.
She would have thought becoming a prince would have made him happy—at least for a while. But it was probably too much work and not enough play. Although she couldn’t imagine Luc’s council actually trusting him to do anything important.
“What are you doing out here, Luc?”
“I heard some guards say they saw you around the Tower, so I slipped away as soon as it was dusk. I wanted to find you, to see if you wanted to go to a party with me.”
“I can’t.”
“You don’t even know what kind of party it is.” Luc reached into his back pocket and pulled out a gold invitation with gleaming white ink, so bright she could read it in the moonlight.
The words Mirth, Merriment, and Marriage were printed at the top.
“It’s a costume party.” Luc waggled his brows. “All the Great Houses are going to be there, if you’re into that sort of thing—”
Luc kept speaking, but Evangeline’s attention was on the invitation, which was for LaLa’s engagement party.
This morning, when she had found the article about the party, the first word in the title had been smudged, but now as she reread the invite, she realized that word had been mirth.
The word alone wouldn’t have convinced her that the mirth stone might be there, but then she replayed what Luc had said about all the Great Houses attending, and a wild idea bubbled up.
Given how much the Great Houses had gained after the fall of the Valors, she’d suspected that they’d hidden the missing Valory Arch stones, and now she wondered if they would be bringing them to this party. She remembered Tiberius’s words: These stones have powers that call to one another. They long to be reunited.
Perhaps at LaLa’s party, the remaining stones would come together again. Something light and sparkling rose inside her at the thought. And Evangeline knew she needed to go to this party.
“Thank you!” She kissed him on the cheek.
He flashed a crooked grin. “Is that a yes?”
For a second, it was tempting—mostly because if Jacks found out, she was certain he’d be annoyed. But in the end, she told Luc, “No—but thank you for the invitation.”
Before he could argue, or ask for another bite, Evangeline scurried off, hoping the forest would finally let her escape.
20
Chaos was gone when Evangeline returned to his underground castle. She feared that he was out searching for her, although there was no one around to confirm her suspicions.
She suspected that Chaos had warned his vampires there would be consequences if anything happened to her. After her first day or so there, she never saw any vampires aside from Chaos. Of course, Evangeline didn’t make it a habit to tromp about in search of any. She only searched for Chaos now because she would need to ask him for transportation to attend LaLa’s party. But she supposed this could wait until tomorrow.