“Her toe?” Everest growled.

Aelric struggled against his magic’s grip. “The lady was bleeding. I was doing her a favor⁠—”

Everest growled.

Sweyn sashayed up to her throne then sat down and held one foot in the air with her toes pointed. “Bring your favors over here, Aelric. Serve your Queen.”

Aelric’s face paled. Everest dropped him to his knees. He crawled up to the throne and stopped right beside me. Those red and white eyes snapped over to me and his lip snarled. I stared back, remembering what it was like when Everest killed him right in front of me. Just you wait. I get you killed. But I couldn’t say anything of the sort, I had to just know it was coming for him. As he lifted Sweyn’s foot to his mouth I knew better than to think she was doing me a favor out of the niceness of her heart. Though, if I had truly been a new vampire here, I might not have seen the red flag waving in front of me.

I knew better.

And I knew she wanted the attention on her at all times.

And she loved a show.

I expected Aelric to take her toes into his mouth as he had done to me, yet when she hooked her leg around his head and dragged his face between her thighs, I also wasn’t surprised. I peeled my gaze off of them before she misinterpreted my reaction as wanting an invitation. I looked to the dance floor. Music started playing again yet it did nothing to drown out the sound of Sweyn’s moans right beside me. In my peripheral vision I could see her body squirming. Everest sat on the other side of me. I looked up at him and tried to scream with my eyes. He reached out to pull a strand of my hair out of my mouth. Sweyn was writhing in pleasure now.

“Is she looking at us?” I whispered as softly as possible, even though I knew she didn’t speak Spanish I still had to be careful. My trust issues were shot.

Everest glanced up over my head then subtly shook his head.

“Squeeze my leg if she looks.”

He frowned but nodded. His hand slid up my shin to rest on my knee, sending little bolts of electricity through my entire leg. Focus, Frankie. I took a breath to clear my thoughts then pulled my magic bag to the edge of the compartment door, all while I kept glancing around at the rest of the ballroom to make sure no one was watching. Once I had my bag in place, I pulled the drawstrings to get it open and ready. Then I cracked the compartment open just wide enough to slip my fingers inside. My fingertips grazed the edge of something cold and sharp. My skin burned to touch it.

Holy shit. That’s it. That has to be it.