⛩️
The champagne tasted flat despite the bottle costing more than $5,000. Amelia tilted the crystal flute, watching golden bubbles race to the surface, her mind elsewhere. Specifically, back in New Pacifica, on a doorstep beneath a silvery moon, with lips that tasted of vanilla ice cream.
Amelia touched her fingertips to her mouth, a ghost of a smile forming on her face. Isaiah's kiss had been... unexpected. Not his response—she'd known he would kiss her back with that delicious mix of hesitation and hunger that made her stomach flutter—but her own reaction. The strange warmth that had spread through her chest when he'd looked at her afterward, those hazel eyes holding a million questions she wasn't ready to answer.
"Ridiculous," she murmured.
The Beleth Clan's private jet hummed quietly as it cruised at thirty thousand feet. Morning sunlight streamed through the windows, bathing the opulent interior in warm gold. Amelia stretched like a cat in her plush leather seat, abandoning the disappointing champagne.
A deck of cards materialized in her hand—smooth black rectangles with intricate silver patterns on their backs. The Arcane Deck responded to her idle thoughts, shuffling themselves with invisible force between her fingers. Amelia fanned them out, her Eyes of Saba activating with a lazy pulse of violet energy. The twelve-petaled lotus pattern rotated slowly as she examined the probabilistic threads connecting to each card.
"What would suit you, I wonder?" she asked the empty air, thinking of Isaiah's face. The way his eyes had flashed electric blue when his hunger rose. The untapped potential thrumming beneath his skin like a bass line.
The Jack of Clubs? No, that position was filled—Brittany needed the structure, the certainty of having a defined role. The Queen of Hearts? Too limiting for what he might become. Her fingers hesitated over one particular card, feeling its energy pulse in response.
The Joker.
Amelia closed the fan with a snap, banishing the deck back into nothingness.
"Too soon to tell," she said aloud, shaking her head. "Though it would be a terrible waste if he turns out to be ordinary. I'm growing quite fond of that face."
The thought carried more genuine affection than she'd intended, and Amelia frowned, pushing it away. Isaiah was an asset. A potential card in her Covenant. A half-incubus with extraordinary abilities.
Nothing more.
Across the aisle, a sharp exhale drew Amelia's attention. She hadn't bothered acknowledging her travel companion for the past hour, but now she turned, a mischievous smile curving her lips.
Noel Phenex sat ramrod straight in her seat, her spine never touching the backrest as if relaxing might somehow tarnish her perfect image. Her waist-length crimson hair was pulled into an elaborate updo that looked painful, secured with ornate golden pins bearing the Phenex Clan crest. Between her manicured fingers, she held an ancient, leather-bound text, her sapphire eyes scanning the yellowed pages.
It was adorable, really, how hard she tried.
"Still pretending you can read that without moving your lips, Noel?" Amelia asked, her voice dripping with honey-sweet condescension. "It's cute. Like watching a child play dress-up in mommy's clothes."
Noel's jaw tightened, a muscle jumping beneath the perfect porcelain of her skin. She turned a page with deliberate slowness before responding.
"Some of us take our responsibilities seriously, Beleth." Her voice was clipped, each syllable precisely articulated as if speaking to someone particularly slow. "This text contains advanced binding techniques that could prove invaluable in the coming Dominion Bouts."
"Mmm, fascinating," Amelia replied, twirling a lock of pink hair around her finger. "And does it explain how to remove that stick from your ass, or is that covered in volume two?"
Noel snapped the book shut with enough force to make dust particles dance in the sunlight. Her sapphire eyes flashed with barely contained irritation.
"Mock me all you wish, I've been securing my position." A rare, triumphant smirk crossed Noel's face. "I've just acquired my fifth Covenant member. My new Jack of Spades. A prodigy from the Palmer branch family."
She emphasized the word "fifth" like it was a knife she was twisting into Amelia's side.
"How is your little collection of... strays... coming along?" Noel continued, smoothing imaginary wrinkles from her immaculate white skirt. "Still just the one? How quaint."
Amelia took her time responding. She stretched again, knowing how her casual movements infuriated her. She picked up her champagne, swirled it once, and then set it down without drinking.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about me," she finally said, her voice a silken promise. "I'll have my second member very soon. Quality over quantity, darling. You should try it sometime."
The unspoken threat—that her one member was worth more than Noel's entire hand, and that her second was already a foregone conclusion—hung in the air between them.
Noel's perfect composure cracked slightly. "Who?" she demanded, then caught herself. "Not that it matters. No one of consequence, I'm sure."
Amelia's smile widened, showing just a hint of teeth. "You'll meet them soon enough. I think you'll be... surprised."
"I doubt it," Noel sniffed, reopening her book. "Your taste runs toward the damaged and desperate. What was your first one's name again? The street urchin with the mismatched eyes?"
"Brittany," Amelia said, her voice cooling several degrees. "Her name is Brittany Richards. And you'd do well to remember it."
Something in Amelia's tone made Noel glance up, her eyes widening slightly at the sight of violet lightning crackling at the edges of Amelia's vision.
"I was merely making conversation," Noel said quickly, looking back down at her book.
"Of course you were." Amelia's voice was light again, but the temperature in the cabin seemed to have dropped. "And I'm merely suggesting that you show proper respect when discussing members of my Covenant."
A tense silence filled the space between them.
The jet's intercom crackled to life, breaking the moment. "Lady Beleth, Lady Phenex, we're beginning our descent into Phoenix. Please prepare for landing."
The jet descended through a layer of clouds, the cabin lights flickering momentarily. Amelia closed her eyes, allowing her thoughts to drift back to New Pacifica. To Isaiah, stumbling through his first lessons in controlling his abilities. To Brittany, who would be watching over him with her characteristic blend of wariness and protectiveness. To Kobeni, who would be orchestrating their training.
Her mind returned to that kiss on the doorstep. There had been power in that kiss, yes, but also a gentleness that had caught her off guard. For just a moment, she'd forgotten she was Amelia Beleth, heir to the most powerful clan, bearer of the Eyes of Saba. She'd just been a girl, kissing a boy she liked.
How deliciously, terrifyingly ordinary.
"What were you thinking about just now?" Noel asked, her voice uncharacteristically quiet. "You looked... peaceful."
Amelia's lips curved into a mysterious smile. "The future, Noel. I was thinking about the future."
And Isaiah's place in it, she added silently, feeling the Joker card pulse with distant energy in her Arcane Deck. The card that defied classification, that changed the rules of the game.
The perfect card for the boy who tasted like vanilla bean.