Dravenna returned to the living room alone.
That, naturally, destroyed everyone's brave little attempt at civilization.
The penthouse reception had softened into its late-night shape by then. Music played lower. Glasses had been refilled too many times... conversations too had loosened from birthday courtesy into the more honest territories of gossip, hunger, speculation, and people pretending their eyes were not doing investigative work.
The living room still held its obscene luxury with calm arrogance. Glass walls opened to Hell's Paradise Island below, where the city glittered like someone had spilled diamonds over a graveyard and called it urban planning.
And Dravenna Ashford had walked in with no Phei behind her stepping into the room with that lazy, dangerous smile of his and no obvious evidence of a woman who had gone into a library with a dragon and come out needing three minutes, holy water, and a chair.
