XI

Lizbeth narrowed her eyes at the pair of angels that had just arrived on the scene, while Gemma kept her expression neutral. "What are you doing here?" the boy finished with a mouthful of food.

The blonde girl gestured to the demons. "I was talking with them."

The short girl frowned. "Well, we thought you went missing, but apparently not!" She smiled, looking over at the group of demons, who all watched the scene with either bored expressions or guarded ones. "Oh, sorry! I'm Camilla, and this is Terrance," she gestured to the tall boy beside her.

Gemma grinned, stepping forward slightly. "I'm Gemma. This is Asha, Sam, Libby, Shawn, and Aries," she pointed out each demon, none of them waving or smiling as the angels had.

The girl, Camilla nodded. "It's great to meet you! Now, if you'll excuse us, we have places to be," she gestured for the blonde to follow her and the boy away from the group, but not before the blonde whispered something into Shawn's ear.

"What the fuck was that?" Gemma hissed when the angels had left. "Why were you talking with an angel?"

Shawn shrugged, picking at his nails. "I asked her to dance."

Aries's eyes widened. "You asked an angel to dance? What the fuck, Shawn?" Aries frowned at his leader. Shawn didn't answer.

Asha narrowed her eyes at her leader. "That girl is a bitch," she told him, "and you know it."

Shawn frowned at her, but he only half-tried to make it look genuine. "Oh, and what might make you think that?" he asked, trying to hide his smirk.

Asha cracked her knuckles, but before she could reply, Samuel interjected. "She made Asha cry on the floor for no reason!" he exclaimed, grinning at Asha.

Lizbeth burst out laughing. "Seriously? I didn't even think you had feelings, Asha!" Gemma and Aries joined her.

Asha scowled, narrowing her eyes at the laughing trio. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared from her place by Samuel without a sound. Lizbeth immediately tensed up she felt an indescribable presence behind her. Suddenly, she tumbled forward, crashing into a table and spilling both food and sparkling wine all over herself.

The group of demons burst out into snickers and laughs as Asha reappeared behind Lizbeth, smirking. "Whoops!" she grinned as Lizbeth did her best to wipe everything off of her clothing and onto the tablecloth.

"That's so unfair," Lizbeth grumbled. "How come you get to turn invisible and all I can do is play cupid?"

Asha shrugged. "Because I'm better," was the blunt reply. Lizbeth chuckled, rolling her eyes. Shawn stayed silent throughout the entire journey back to their table, a small smirk gracing his features all the while. "What the hell are you smirking about? If you say that angel girl I will barf all over you," Asha arched a brow at her leader. He didn't answer her and simply chuckled, taking a seat as they arrived at their table.

Aries frowned, looking up at the clock. "I think I'm gonna head out," he announced. "I wanna go... look around."

Gemma arched a brow. "You want to go terrorize shop owners into giving you free stuff," she corrected. Aries grinned, nodding. Gemma waved her hand dismissively. "Then begone, foul beast!" Before he could say anything, four more Gemmas appeared out of thin air and dragged him out of the ballroom. He shouted a few foul curses her way, but Gemma was too busy laughing to notice or care.

"You know, that will never stop freaking me out," Shawn remarked as the four Gemmas disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Gemma grinned. "Good to know."

While Lizbeth and Samuel began judging passing angels on whether they passed the 'vibe check' or not, Aries was strolling through a long dimly lit hallway, studying the palace. However, his thoughts were interrupted when a small person ran straight into him, making him stumble backward. Aries looked down at whoever had bumped into him, making to snarl at them and then watch them scurry away in fright.

However, that wasn't necessarily what happened.

Aries looked down to find the angel girl he had seen not too long ago when she and her male companion had dragged their blonde friend away from Shawn. Her eyes were dark brown, but they almost looked like pockets of amber in the torchlight. Aries couldn't deny the girl's beauty, but he also couldn't deny the halo above her head and what that meant. That she was the enemy. "Watch where you're going," he snarled, shouldering her out of the way and making to leave.

The girl didn't budge and instead simply arched a brow. "I could say the same thing," she replied coolly.

Aries turned around, narrowing his eyes. "What's your name, bird-girl?" He wasn't sure why the question slipped from his mouth, but something about the girl was almost intriguing. It couldn't hurt to get a little information out of her.

The girl crossed her arms and Aries noticed how it pushed her chest upward, though she seemed quite unaware. "Camilla Alvarez, member of the Queensguard, trained warrior and assassin. And you are?" Aries studied her, not speaking for a few moments. He didn't like the idea of giving out something as important as his name to a stranger, let alone an angel.

"Aries Thorn, member of the Hellguard," he replied, gauging Camilla's reaction. She didn't seem surprised, though Aries wouldn't have been either, considering his attire and overall intimidating appearance.

While Camilla and Aries were chatting away in the dark corridors of the palace, Samuel was pickpocketing every angel he could find. Most had clutch purses or pockets he could easily grab, but others had rings and bracelets that were slightly harder to slip off. "Sam!" A voice rang out from across the ballroom and Samuel looked up to see Shawn running toward him, looking stone-cold and livid.

Samuel quickly stuffed the bejeweled bracelet he had taken into his back pocket before Shawn could notice. "What's up, boss?"

Shawn scowled. "I need you to find Aries."

Samuel frowned at him. "Why? Isn't he terrorizing shop owners into giving him free stuff?" Sounds a lot better than running around in a fancy room with fancy people for no reason, he thought.

"No, he's not," Shawn growled, obviously angry.

Samuel shrugged. "Well, how do you know? He might just be hiding somewhere to admire his goodies," he smirked. "I mean, it's been an hour or so, right?"

Shawn pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing deeply. "Yes, it has. And I know because Gemma went out to join him, searched the entire. Fucking. Place, and didn't find him."

Samuel raised his brows, biting his lip. Where the hell was Aries, then? "Uh, okay... should I go look for him?"

Shawn clenched his fists at his sides, staring at Sam. "What the hell do you think I wanted you to do, Sam? Keep pickpocketing people?" Samuel's eyes widened slightly. "Yes, I know about that. Now go get Aries and tell him that he better have a damn good explanation for where he's been or I will pin his head to a fucking spike and roast it for dinner."

Samuel nodded furiously and ran out of the ballroom as fast as he could, which was incredibly fast considering his heightened speed and agility. Okay, so he's not in town and he's not in the ballroom. Maybe he just went to his room, then? Samuel thought, racing through dark corridors and long hallways, looking for room forty-six. Forty, forty-two, forty-four, forty-six! Samuel found the right door and banged his fist against it repeatedly until it opened to reveal Aries, still in his ball attire, frowning at him. "What do you want."

Samuel chuckled. "Wow, someone's in a good mood." Aries snarled at him and Samuel put his hands in the air, showing that he had no bad intentions. "Shawn's pissed. You weren't raiding shops and we thought you went missing."

Aries nodded. "Yeah, I, uh, got distracted. I ended up just coming back here," he scratched the back of his neck and Samuel arched a brow.

"Oh, really? You got distracted?" Samuel smirked and Aries nodded slowly. "By who?"

Aries rolled his eyes. "I didn't say it was by a person."

Samuel shrugged. "Didn't have to." He tossed his hair and fluttered his lashes. "Spill the tea, sis."

"Okay, that was kinda funny," Aries chuckled. "But uh..." he trailed off and Samuel flicked his shoulder.

"Continue."

Aries rolled his eyes again, but he smirked. "Well, do you remember that girl that we saw a couple hours ago? When we were looking for Shawn?"

Samuel frowned. "The blonde one?"

"No, the other one. In the yellow dress," Aries explained. Samuel nodded and Aries continued. "Well she kinda ran into me while I was on my way out of the castle and I guess we just started talking. I came back here afterward."

Samuel nodded. "Oh, so you were canoodling with an angel?"

Aries ran a hand through his hair. "I wasn't canoodling with her."

Samuel huffed. "She's an angel, so does it matter?" he asked, but they both knew the answer.

"Kinda forgot about that part," Aries admitted.

Samuel rolled his eyes. "She has a glowing halo floating above her head and giant white wings on her back! How could you just forget about that?" he exclaimed.

Aries shrugged. "Why are you even here?" he asked, looking irritated that he was still talking to his friend when all he wanted was to go to sleep.

Samuel sighed dramatically. "I told you already, dumbass! Shawn's pissed and he wants you back in the ballroom, pronto."

Aries gave him a flat look. "Just tell him I'm asleep or something."

Samuel looked like he was about to explode. "Do you know how much trouble I would get into if Shawn found out I lied? He would slice my throat open and let me choke on my own blood!" he exclaimed.

"Wouldn't be such a bad thing," Aries grumbled.

Samuel's eyes widened. "I could just tell Shawn that you were canoodling with an angel, you know," he threatened.

Aries frowned, knowing Samuel had won. "Let's go," he grumbled, stepping out of his room and trudging down that hall with a smirking Sam behind him.