Free Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising by Felicity Heaton Page B

the two houses together and it’s happened in the past.”
    Prophecy considered it for a moment. It hardly seemed the right time for one but the more she thought about it, the more it sounded like the only alternative to Valentine’s other plan of massacre.
    Besides, dancing with Valentine tonight had taken her mind off things, and she’d welcome another chance of that happening.
    “Okay … the house of Caelestis will host a ball in honour of the house of Aurorea.” She looked at Xavier and Tiberius. “We will require all of the guards to work together on this. Do you think that is possible? If we don’t have complete cooperation we’ll be extremely vulnerable … both houses will be.”
    Xavier bowed stiffly. “You have my word that my men will work with the Caelestis guards.”
    Tiberius nodded. “It will not be a problem, my lady.”
    “Will you invite Mia and Dmitri?” she said to Valentine and studied his face while he thought about her question.
    He looked straight at her, his green eyes reflecting his tiredness and telling her the real reason he’d come here tonight. He hadn’t come to talk politics. He enjoyed this as much as she did. He’d come here to see her. The mark over her chest pulsed and her hand automatically came up to touch it. She really did wish they were on the run again, not tied down in Prague. She wanted to go back to how things had been when Mathias had still been alive, when they were still on good terms with Mia and Dmitri, and before she’d foolishly killed the old lord of Tenebrae.
    When she raised her head, Valentine was still looking at her.
    “I will invite them. We need them on our side,” he said in a gruff voice that betrayed the fact he still hadn’t wholly forgiven Dmitri for refusing to assist her.
    “Then it’s settled,” she said and looked at the other occupants of the room. “The ball will be held in two days. All that can are welcome to attend.”

 
    Chapter 6
    Valentine strode back into the room, relieved to see that Prophecy was still alone. The others had gone back to their business, Serenity leading Xavier back to his men, Tiberius heading out to patrol and Venturi slinking off to his room to apparently be alone. He was thankful for all of it, but mostly for Venturi’s departure.
    Prophecy turned while he approached. A smile flitted across her lips but quickly faltered when she looked into his eyes. It was as though she could see what was coming and hated it almost as much as he did.
    “Mia has promised that they will try to attend,” he said in a light tone, trying to alleviate the hurt he could see gathering in her dark eyes.
    “That’s good,” she said in a sullen voice and then frowned. “You have to go, don’t you?”
    He sighed and ran his fingers over his hair, hesitating and not quite knowing what to do. She wrapped her arms about him and he held her close, his fingers toying with the tips of her now dry hair.
    “Call if you need me,” he whispered.
    She drew back and nodded.
    “I know you don’t want to leave,” she said and took hold of his hand. He watched the magic joining them, its red ribbon-like threads slipping between their fingers. “I can feel it.”
    His gaze moved from their hands to the mark over her chest. The tips of his fingers grazed it, disturbing the magic that was running around it. The red streaks followed him and disappeared into his hand.
    “I need my family to see that I am the one in control.”
    “They will,” she said with a smile. “Just try not to kill them all.”
    He grinned and kissed her briefly on the lips, knowing that she wasn’t going to see him to the door. She needed time to be alone and a public goodbye was something neither of them wanted.
    She held his hand until the last moment and when they finally broke apart, he glanced back at her and smiled again before walking through the door. Heading back towards the main reception room, he thought about what she’d said. He signalled to