Page 159 of Rite of Unity

I reached up, my fingers tracing a slow circle around the bruise on my neck that hadn’t completely healed yet.

“They must have fallen off.”I dropped my hand.

He held my gaze for a beat, then straightened, understanding what I didn’t say in front of the cameras.“I’ll get you new ones.”

Elias waved a hand.In moments, a man appeared with two glasses.He set them down, backing away.We lifted them, clinking them together.

“For better or worse,” Elias said, winking at me.

I laughed.“For better or worse.”

We pressed our glasses to our lips, taking a full drink.

***

After our public date, I managed to sleep more than I had in weeks.The weekend passed.Monday came and went.Calden didn’t.Tuesday, I exercised.By myself.I missed Ruth.And Nami.

Even with nothing to do, I had no desire to leave my room.

When Friday arrived, I shook myself out of my haze.Focus, Maryn.

Everything before this moment had been practice.I tore my nail from the skin, wincing as fresh blood welled along the tear.Tonight, I would prove myself to my father.There was no room for failure.

Vera poked and prodded and shouted insults at my nails.I let her.My mind was elsewhere.

The car arrived, and I slid inside.Rakel said something, but I ignored it, patting the bulge in my pocket.

We pulled to a stop outside the Hale Mansion, and I slid out after her.I had imagined this moment so many times.The reality of it pressed down on me like a physical weight.

Elias’s mother greeted us at the door, a vacant expression in her eyes that reminded me of my father’s when he’d had too many drinks.Frail hands wrapped around mine, welcoming me to her home.

“Thank you, Mrs.Hale.I’m honored to be here.”

She stared through me, already prepared to shake the next guest’s hand.

I moved beyond the foyer, eyes tracking each hall.At the end of the second, a man stood at attention, staring straight ahead.I looked away before he could feel my gaze.

We continued through the house, stepping into a grand space that had been converted for the evening into Elias Hale’s ninth Rite ball.

He stood at the center, easily one of the tallest men in the room, his tailored black suit as much a statement as the set of his shoulders or his wide stance.Partygoers buzzed around him, eager to soak up his energy, to leech a moment of his aura.There was something different about him here, in his own home.He held himself more like his father than I’d ever let myself notice before.

Ice blue eyes found mine, freezing me in place.

They were remarkably similar to Elias's, the same eyes that had filled my living room a hundred times over the years.In person, they were far more frightening.

August Hale cut through the crowd, headed straight toward me.

Where his mother had been a soft, quiet thing, his father was a fireball, streaking through the room and burning anything that got in its way.

My feet sank into the floor as he approached.Finally, after all this time, he was right in front of me.

Elias cut across his path, and I exhaled a shaky breath.They exchanged words too low for me to make out; I didn’t waste time trying, turning and rushing to find a place out of his line of sight.

My hand found the bulge in my pocket.Still there.

I watched the pair continue to speak, both sets of shoulders growing stiffer by the moment.

“At least when you fail, you’ll never have that man as a father-in-law.”