The Shadow Prince

chapter twenty-seven HADEN

To my utter astonishment, Dax’s plan to get Daphne to come to me seems to be working. Daphne moves closer and closer as the party progresses. She’s standing only a few feet away now.

Between trying to dodge the disgusting-smelling food at the buffet, warding off the attention of some short girl named Lexie, and pretending to be overly fascinated by the tree that grows near the pool, I’ve done a rather decent impression of being aloof. I don’t follow her, and I don’t look at her unless I am sure she isn’t watching. Which is an experiment in self-control, considering how she looks in that dress.

I had already been fascinated by the curves of her body, but the way that dress hugs and emphasizes them makes me wonder why everyone at this party isn’t staring at her. I am astonished that people are actually turning away from her. She reminds me of the paintings of our goddess that adorn the walls of the palace. The blue of her dress brings out the color of her eyes and complements the tanned skin on her exposed shoulders.…

I glance away quickly, realizing I’ve been caught looking.

I take a sip of the dark, bubbling liquid in my glass. It burns my throat as I swallow. When I look up, Daphne is standing right in front of me. She says something snide.

And I ruin everything when I open my big dung spout of a mouth to reply. I’m not even sure what I’ve said that annoys her so much, but she’s staring me down like she’d rather punch me in the face than speak to me again. I can’t think of what to do next. The music and smells cloud my judgment. Not to mention that dress …

Her stare intensifies. I say the first thing that comes to mind. “Will you dance with me?”

I hold out my hand. I don’t know how to dance but I hope I will pick it up as quickly as driving. That is, if she’ll accept my offer.

I don’t get to find out.

The music stops, and the woman I saw in the vice principal’s office, the mayor, I realize, calls for everyone’s attention. She starts talking and I see her son standing beside her.

Kopros. I am at the home of the boy who tried to attack me in the cafeteria.

I duck behind the tree until after the woman is done talking. I want to try to strike up another conversation with Daphne, but before I have the chance, she heads in Tobin’s direction. They speak for a moment, and then she takes his hand and they enter the house. Together.

I’m not going to follow her. That would be against Dax’s advice, and the last thing I want is to be accused of stalking her again. I’m not going to go into the house to see what they’re doing. But I don’t see the harm in watching through the windows.…

The lights are on in the house and the shutters open. I walk around the side of the mansion until I am near the gate that leads into the front yard. I see Tobin and Daphne enter an unoccupied room together. Tobin leans down and pulls something from a drawer. I am tempted to climb the trellis next to the window to see what he is showing her.

But I bristle when I hear a familiar, chipper voice speaking to the doorman out front.

“It doesn’t matter if the mayor is having a party. She will be delighted to meet with me.”

“She’ll be delighted to meet with you,” the doorman responds mechanically, and invites Simon into the house.

I climb the gate that separates the backyard from the front yard, trying to get a better view into the windows of the foyer. My attention already torn between trying to ascertain what Daphne and Tobin are up to, and trying to figure out why Simon would be meeting with the mayor in the middle of her party, when something else pulls at me. The hairs on the back of my neck bristle, and I suddenly feel as though I am being watched.

I scan the backyard, but it seems as though none of the party-goers has noticed me perched on top of the gate. I look behind me into the front yard, and then beyond to the road. The light from one of the street lamps glints off the visor of the helmet of a man sitting on an idling black motorcycle. His face is completely covered by the helmet, but I can tell by the way his head is angled that he is either watching me or has a strange fascination with cedarwood fences. A catering van pulls up to the curb, blocking him from my view—and me from his.

I tell myself that he is probably just waiting to rendezvous with a party guest and noticed a teenager sitting on the gate in the middle of the mayor’s yard, and I turn my attention back to the windows of the room Daphne had entered. Only now she and Tobin are gone, and Simon and the mayor have replaced them in the room, seemingly locked in an intense conversation.