An urge overcomes me then, either from the lingering magic in my hair dye or that nagging buzzing under my skin. Or maybe from the confidence I gained over the last year. Whatever the reason, I find myself turning around.
"Sorry, but the car doesn't have enough room for your big, overly inflated heads." I whirl around before I can see their expressions and usher Effie and Anders out the door.
Two steps forward, a set of fingers wrap around my upper arm. Even through the sleeve of my velvet top, the contact is scorching and sets off the buzzing nips under my flesh like soft fangy nips.
Confused beyond imaginable, I twist around to see who grabbed me. Then my confusion and worry multiples.
Rhyland is holding my arm, with an alarmingly panicked desperation possessing his face.
"Maybe you shouldn't go out tonight," he says in a low, almost frenzied tone.
My insides quiver in panic, in fury, and in something else. Something I can't quite connect a word to. I don't know what he's doing, if he's threatening me or what, but his hand on my arm is making me wildly nervous.
I swallow hard, glancing at the doorway and willing Effie and Anders to come back inside. But they're nowhere in sight.
"Please let go of my arm," I say in the steadiest voice I can muster.
Rhyland only tightens his grip, seeming in pain. "Raven … "
The sound of my name slipping off his tongue causes a storm to thunder inside my chest. I'm not sure if Rhyland or Kingsley have ever called me by my real name. I've always been Nadine's annoying younger sister.
"Let go of me." I attempt to jerk back my arm, but his grip only constricts, not in a painful way, but in an overwhelmingly intense way.
Nadine grins at Rhyland. "And there he is." She beams happily.
Rhyland doesn't even so much as glance in her direction, his gaze boring into me as he grinds his teeth. "I can't let this happen again-"
"Rhy." Kingsley places a firm hand on his shoulder. "Let her go for tonight. We need to take care of a few other things first, anyway. You know this."
Nervous adrenaline courses through my veins. Rhyland, Kingsley, and Nadine may have teased and tormented me before, but never has Rhyland gotten in my face like this.
Maybe becoming an emperor has changed him. Maybe the extra power and ego boost really did mess with his head.
Kingsley's words replay in my head.
Let her go for tonight? We need to take care of a few other things first, anyway?
"Are you threatening me?"
"We're not threatening you." Confliction swirls in Rhyland's eyes. He still doesn't release my arm.
"Then. Let. Me. Go." I cringe at the tremble in my voice.
Rhyland's gaze travels from his hand on my arm to Kingsley, who stares him down hard. "Not yet," he mouths. "Not until it's time."
I shiver from the warning, causing Rhyland's gaze to snap back to me. He stares at me for a pummeling heartbeat or two longer, then reluctantly peels his hand off my arm, slowly lifting his fingers one by one.
An exhale rushes from my lips, and Nadine busts up in laughter.
"You look like you're about to piss your pants right now." The delight in her eyes makes my blood boil.
"Go to hell." It's such a stupid attempt to regain some of my confidence back, but I'm too shaken up to come up with a clever comeback. Too shaken up to think clearly. So shaken up I'm kind of scared. And I hate that I am.
Always afraid.
Not wanting to give them the pleasure of witnessing me freaking out, I spin around, dash out the door, and hurry down the stairs and to the front lawn where Effie and Anders are waiting for me.
"What the hell took you so long?" Effie hisses as I approach her.
I wonder how much she saw and heard. When we get in the car, I'll have to ask her.
"Let's just get the hell away from here." I stride across the dewy grass and toward the car, noting the black SUVs still parked next door.
She trades a concerned glance with Anders, and then she follows me.
The three of us hop into her car, and then she revs up the engine. I tell myself not to look back at my house, to just let it go, yet the compulsion to do so consumes every inch of me. I end up giving in and peeking through the window, and my pulse instantly quickens.
Rhyland is standing in the doorway, watching the car with his arms crossed and a calculating look on his face. In the background, Kingsley is heatedly talking to Nadine. She keeps shaking her head then her gaze drifts to Effie's car and fury flares in her eyes.
I swallow hard, unsure what's going on, but knowing it can't be a good thing.