David Melech, as we'd hoped, had gone from wary to bored with our dumb questions. He looked at his phone and told Daniel and his wife to show us the museum wing, then left. I squeezed Stellan's hand as Mrs. Melech gave us the fastest tour she could manage. We were about to leave, disappointed, when my eye caught on something. "What's that?"
"Oh, that's a replica of a sarcophagus. It's one of the Circle's oldest artifacts," she said, a note of pride creeping into her voice. I squinted at the thing. It was a small box, the size of a jewelry box. "It's used in rituals," she finished, and I squeezed Stellan's hand. "Can I show you the way back to the party?"
She led the way out the door. Stellan and I followed as slowly as we could, trying to communicate silently.
When Daniel looked back at us, I could see the suspicion in his eyes. His parents might have bought our act, but he thought we were up to something. He had all night.
I giggled again, pretending not to notice. Then I reached down very obviously and grabbed Stellan's backside.
Stellan turned a surprised widening of his eyes into a saucy eyebrow raise so quickly, I was impressed. Daniel, as I'd hoped, had been watching every move, and averted his eyes in disgust. Stellan caught on to my plan, and when the Melechs turned around to see what was taking us so long, we'd slowed, my hands on his chest, him pulling me close to whisper in my ear as I blushed.
"We'll find our own way back," Stellan said dismissively, hardly looking up at them, like all we'd really wanted from this tour was a place to make out.
Mrs. Melech looked at Daniel, at her Keeper, and at Jack and Elodie. "I don't know if-"
Stellan leaned down and kissed me.
I stood on my tiptoes and forced my lips to follow his, in another kind of dance that he could lead and I could follow all too easily. We were lucky that was true, because we couldn't give away the fact that, far from this being a sign that Stellan and I just couldn't keep our hands off each other, this was the first time the Circle's new golden couple had kissed since our actual first kiss.
As numb as I'd been for so long, all my senses came suddenly, painfully alive. I heard Mrs. Melech clear her throat uncomfortably. I sensed every eye in the room on us. I noticed the spread of Stellan's hands on my waist and the stiffness of his collar under my wrists as my arms looped around his neck. I felt his lips parting mine. He tasted like-
The memories came in a rush. How his mouth had tasted like vodka and lime that night in Cannes, and the air was scented with the sea. His hands in my hair, mine undoing the buttons on his shirt, my head dizzy with drink and wanting. And then, different memories. A few days later. The smell of blood permeating that room in Paris, hot and coppery. My hands slick with it, crimson spatter all over my mother's clothes, her slim hand grasping at my wrist as I knelt beside her. Confusion. Screams. Death.
I pulled away with a gasp. The first thing I saw was Mrs. Melech's scowl, and I tried as fast as I could to put back on something nearing a smile. Tried to cover up how that kiss had, for some reason, just caused the most visceral flashback I'd had yet to the day my mom died.
Stellan's brows crooked down for a second at how rigid I'd gone, but I gave a tiny shake of my head. He looked back up, like he was annoyed to find everyone still standing there. "We'd very much like to be alone for a few minutes," he repeated. "Do I need to make that an order? By blood?"
He said it teasingly, but you could almost hear the atmosphere in the room shift.
"By blood" was an order the families gave to Keepers. It wasn't an ask. It wasn't just a cute use of the Circle's motto. It was a threat.
"You can't order us around until tomorrow," said Daniel, his faux-joke and fake smile colder than Stellan's had been. I knew that we, the thirteenth family, were technically the closest thing to leaders the Circle had-according to tradition, at least. What that would actually look like, after tomorrow, remained to be seen.
I found myself holding my breath, the fear that this wouldn't work and they'd toss us out before we got to see the box edging through the panic I'd felt a moment ago.
Finally, Mrs. Melech reluctantly put her hands to her forehead in the Circle's gesture of respect. Daniel curled his lip, but followed suit.
Stellan's hand tightened on my waist in a real way, not for show. I understood. No matter how much we didn't want this, there was something heady about having the most powerful people in the world submit to us.
They wanted us-the mandate, the union , the potential power we held-enough to give up their dignity. Enough to allow us to do what we wanted, knowing it might benefit them in the future.