Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

OTF Chapter 17 - Fire and Water

Chapter 17

BACK AT the party, Vivienne thought she saw Blake standing by the stairs as he had promised he would be when she returned. She walked up to him and placed her hand gently on his shoulder. The man who turned around had a beard and a slack-jaw.

Vivienne wanted to die of embarrassment. She profusely apologized and ducked away. She searched for Blake everywhere. She went back to the nook behind the bar where the businessmen were smoking cigars and lounging about on suede couches. A waiter handed her another glass of white wine before she was able to refuse. It was too crowded. The Orlins were descending from the stairway, and the room was filled with onlookers. Camera lights flashed in her face. As a Vivienne backed away, she knocked her glass straight into the canvas of a priceless painting that hung on the palace walls.

Vivienne winched as immediately started wiping the beverage away with the hem of her dress. As her hands made contact with the walls of the palace, Vivienne saw glowing veins of light spread from her fingertips. She immediately drew her hands back and hid them behind her back. These walls - they were made of Segais. Vivienne watched in horror as the iridescent wood veins shone through the acrylic painting.

The painting was of a giant black scaly serpent with wings breathing fire out of its fanged mouth. Vivienne had the bad luck to dump her wine on the tuft of smokey blue fire that was pictured coming out of the dragon's mouth. Now, it looked like the dragon was chewing on a melting ice-cream cone.

"Don't worry about it," a voice came from behind Vivienne. Nearly jumping out of her skin in shock, Vivienne turned around and recognized the girl with the black lace mask who had spoken to Blake earlier. "This dragon painting belongs to my family, and my father has always hated it."

"W-who are you?" Vivienne asked, trying to keep her knees from buckling from embarrassment. The masked girl sipped on her fluted glass continued to stare into the distance as though Vivienne weren't worth acknowledging.

"Veev - eeenne, is it?" The girl asked with a rueful chuckle. With a bat of her long-lashed eyes, the girl turned to leave. As she did, she leaned into Vivienne's neck and breathed a mouthful of warm, wine-laced air at her throat. "Just remember, if you let them, their water will extinguish your fire."

And then she was gone. Vivienne was left staring at the painting, where the painter's idea of fire had dissolved with the splash of wine and was dripping down into the frame of the canvas.

As Vivienne wandered the lobby, a servant approached her to tell her a car was waiting for her. Vivienne wasn't sure what to make of that. Her mind scrambled for possible explanations. Maybe Blake needed to take a call, and he did it in the privacy of the backseat of his car. Vivienne prayed that was the case as she allowed the servant to lead her into the car.

As soon as Vivienne got in, she realized that was not the case at all. It was Maglania in the car. She motioned for the driver to pull away from the curb as soon as Vivienne entered.

"I thought we would hold the trial tonight, just to avoid the temptation to prepare," Maglania said. She was wearing sunglasses even though it was night.

Vivienne didn't see the point of protesting. She weakly nodded and stared out the window. The car ominously pulled into Aemon's Gorge about a half an hour later. Vivienne followed Maglania out of the vehicle to meet two of her demons standing by the entrance to the canyon. It was Lucius and one of the twins. Lucius walked up to Vivienne and held out his hand for her clutch. Vivienne shook her head. She had to think fast.

"Can I have a moment to use the restroom?" Vivienne asked. "You can't send me down there when I need to pee."

Lucius looked as though he was about to say no, but the youngish looking twin boy nodded and motioned for Vivienne to follow him. He took her to a side entrance and motioned to the door to the left.