The night air was crisp and still between the cobbled streets, and a thin mist settled over the street lamps - the very last of autumn still clinging to the sun set in the bay.

Bella had insisted they visit Rita's. She would go nowhere else, she declared, especially if this might be Fiona's last night in Velaris. There was no line outside when they arrived, no one manning the door to what looked like a dingy little cellar room. Fiona's doubts must have shown on her face, as Bella only laughed before grabbing her hand and leading her down the stairs.

They emerged, however, on a large dance floor beneath a vaulted stone ceiling. It might have been a cellar once, the kind that a very rich merchant might store rows upon rows of priceless vintage wines in. But now the club was packed with dancing fae, none of whom so much as looked up when Xander, Riordan, Fiona and Belladonna took up a table in the corner, a few steps away from the bar.

Bella immediately disappeared to get them drinks, grinning at the white-winged fairy bartender - an old friend, apparently.

Riordan leaned back in the booth with a lazy grin. "Gods I missed this place."

The corner of Xander's lips twitched. "It's been...what, two years? Maybe less?"

"Still too long." Dan shook his head.

"Do they not have dance halls in the Day Court?" Bella asked, returning. She slid a tall glass filled with purple liquid toward Fiona, whose eyebrows raised. The Illyrian gave her a look as if to say get over yourself, so she took a sip. The taste of blackberry and orchid roared down her throat.

"Of course we do," Riordan nodded gratefully to Bella as Fiona spluttered a cough. "But no one does a night better than Valerians."

"You're damn right about that." the Illyrian grinned, raising her glass. Fiona caught eyes with Xander as they raised their drinks and she took another sip, starting to enjoy the way it burned.

"But aren't you technically Illyrian, not Valerian?" she asked.

Bella shrugged. "I'm just as Illyrian as he is." She tipped her head to Xander, swirling a dark amber liquid around in his glass. Fiona glanced between the two of them.

"But he-"

"Doesn't have wings, no." Though Xander seemed unruffled, Bella's eyes glinted a warning. Or perhaps that was simply defensiveness for her friend, or cousin, or whatever they were. "But Xander completed the Blood Rite, same as any Illyrian warrior. Better, actually."

Fiona had picked up only bits and pieces of Night Court culture in the last week, traditions and rituals that she only partially understood. But she knew enough to be surprised.

"And they let you compete?" she asked, turning her gaze to Xander.

His lips parted but Bella interrupted, "He earned their respect. They hadn't seen a warrior as skilled as him since our own fathers took the Rite." Her chin lifted with pride as Xander slid her an amused look.

"Thank you, Bella." he chuckled. "But I can tell my own stories."

Fiona had half a mind to tell him that she doubted it, but she took another swig instead. Riordan had been watching the dance floor, his knee bouncing with restless energy, but he turned his focus back to the table as Xander spoke.

"Nyx and I started training at the same time. My mother refused to let either of us go for several years, since Illyrians consider it disgraceful to have parents crowding the warcamp with any...unnecessary sentiment." he smirked. "It was my uncle - Bella's father - who finally convinced her to let us go. So when we arrived we were seriously out of our depth, thrown into classes with children our own age rather than our own skill level. But we learned." Xander shrugged in a way that suggested there was much more to the story than that But she didn't push it as he continued, "And I realised that I could still be of use to the legions, even if I couldn't fly. In time, so did they."

Fiona listened with rapture, trying to imagine the war camps on the border of the Illyrian Steppes, a whole host of people like Bella, and Tristan, and Gabriel. She could almost hear the frigid wind whistling through their tents. And growing up somewhere like that, being thrown in only as a boy...

"So did you both take this rite together too?" asked Fiona.

Xander shook his head. "Nyx never took it. I actually fought alongside Bella that year."

Bella's smile revealed glinting teeth in the dark. "Illyrians may not like wingless fae, but they feel far, far stronger about women. Those of us who make it to the rite are worth ten of those bat boys."

Fiona snorted on her drink as Riordan slid past her to get the next round.

"You could be Lord General someday." Fiona remarked. But Xander and Bella exchanged a grin as he shook his head.

"I don't think so. For one, I can't fight with the legions - and Illyrian tolerance only goes so far. For another, I'd have to beat this one to the job." he jerked a thumb at his friend, who laughed.

"Besides, my dad's still got several centuries in him, the old busybody." she told Fiona, who blinked. "Your father..." she trailed off, gasping suddenly. "Your mother is Nesta Archeron?"

Bella tipped her head back to the ceiling, grey eyes twinkling. "You didn't know?"

Fiona was agape. "Do you think I would have ever flown with you if I had?" Bella began cackling as her eyes threatened to bulge out of her head. "To think I was scared of you before...if I had any idea-"

Riordan landed a small, squat glass in front of her and smirked. "Drink this, and shut up. You're babbling like an ape."

Fiona frowned. "What is it?"

The cousins gave her a look that said she didn't need to know, their black hair washing violet in the blue flames that flickered along the walls. She peered into the little glass, shimmering gold liquid sloshing as she swirled it around. It looked so pretty that she didn't bother to resist as Dan lifted it to her lips.

The band at the far end of the hall started up a fast-paced tune that hummed along the walls and through her bones. Fiona took a moment to steady herself in the beat of the drums, the alcohol already going to her head as the lights blurred a little. Reminding herself that she was in Velaris, at a dance hall, with the High Lord's son and an Illyrian warrior, Fiona felt a brief sense of euphoria wash over her. She wondered suddenly why on earth she was sitting down.

Riordan stood rather abruptly and she stared at him, before realising that she was standing too. Allowing herself a little giggle, the first care-free noise that she had made in years, Fiona rushed past Xander, ignoring the expression of surprise etched on his face. The dance floor, she wanted to be on the dance floor - and wondered if she had said it aloud, as Bella whooped and cheered behind her.

Dan lead her on light feet to the centre of the crowd. A faerie with swirling purple skin picked up a fiddle and started to play a lively, joyful tune, much to Fiona's delight. The pair of them were joined by Bella, who mirrored her wicked grin as she took her by the hand and spun her twice across the flagstone floor. Fiona's dress billowed as a laugh escaped her and the music burrowed its way into her chest, entwining with her heartbeat until she and the fiddle were singing as one.

She might have danced for hours or a few minutes, she couldn't tell. And she didn't care. Bella and Dan's faces spun beside her, wide with laughter and shining as their eyes caught the pulsing blue torchlight. They moved together, and though she could see that they were laughing at her a little more than with her, Bella's encouragement was constant in her ear as Fiona danced and danced and danced, her feet pounding the floor. She bumped into people in the crowd but they didn't seem to mind. Their faces were happy and light, and they joined her in revelry as the time flew by.

At some point she registered that Xander was beside her, the thought swimming through her mind from somewhere far off. She registered his touch, a calloused hand wrapping gently around her wrist and leading her away from the dance. Fiona let out a little whine, but his finger was tapping over her pulse, replacing the rhythm of the fiddle with the sound of their footsteps and his own, strange beat.

The bar appeared, the marble blissfully cold as she rested her forearms against it. Xander slid a glass towards her and she took it, smiling gratefully.

"What's in this one?" she asked, her head cocking as she peered into it. Before he could answer she took a swig and swallowed, a frown denting her brow.

"That's water." she told him, as if to warn him. Xander laughed, his crooked jaw quirking to the side with the movement. "I know," he answered. "Have some more."

Fiona obeyed, the cool liquid clearing a little space in her head in which she could breath. She suddenly became aware of how thirsty she was, and the dull throbbing pain gathering in her temples.

"This is...not as nice as the gold stuff." she groaned.

"Faeblood," Xander corrected, trying and failing to resist an amused smile. It was almost unnerving to see the mask come off, to see the smiles and sounds he used here in Valeris, in his home. Fiona had the impression few people saw that smile, the one that dimpled his cheek on the right, nearly wide enough to touch a birthmark on the side of his jaw. She looked away, aware that she was staring.

"I do apologise," he went on. "But I thought it best you be able stand when you get back to the palace."

There was enough of the faeblood still clouding her mind that she audibly moaned. "Can't I stay here?"

Xander pushed the glass closer to her but Fiona grunted and shook her head. She hadn't noticed the bartender fill it up again, and chose to stare at that instead of him as Xander took her hand and wrapped her fingers around the glass. She took another sip.

"You can stay at the townhouse, if you'd like. But I'm afraid you'll be alone - my parents are holding a party for Mor at the river house."

Fiona shook her head again, wincing at the movement as the water cleared more and more space of the blurry glimmer of faeblood. "No, you're right. I'm sorry," she added, finally sober enough to be embarrassed. "I need to go back. They'll know if I don't."

Xander's violet eyes glinted. "Who will?"

"Aidan. And Donovan, and the twins..." she waved a hand as though trying to clear their names from the Valerian air, as though worried they might taint it. "They caught me coming back once, one of the first times - Aidan and this man I hadn't met before - Keir, I think?"

Xander stiffened.

"They warned me not to come, Aidan...well, it's been fine every other night. I've been careful. But he saw me leave with you, at the summit, and I..." Fiona trailed off as she noticed. Xander's lazy lean against the bar had gone rigid. "What?"

"Keir?" he asked. "Blonde hair, brown eyes - he was with Aidan?"

"Yes. But-"

His eyes glinted with alarm. "You're positive?"

Fiona crossed her arms. "Yes." she answered sharply. "But what does that have to do with anything?" She remembered the conversation they'd had on the bridge, the way he'd been asking about Eris and his sons. Something cold ran down her spine as Xander shook his head, staring through the crowd as if he could see past them to the door.

"I'm sorry, I have somewhere to be," was all he said.

"Oh, really?" Fiona snapped. "That's rich. Because I also have a rather pressing engagement, or weren't you listening?"

"Riordan can take you back."

"That's not what I mean, you don't understand-"

She blinked and he was gone, a plume of shimmering black smoke diffusing in the space where he had been. Fiona steadied her hand, taking a long drink from her glass as Riordan emerged from the throng of dancing bodies.

"Where's Xander?" he asked.

"You tell me." Fiona glared. Riordan slipped onto a bar stool and gave her a long look. "I need you to take me back." she sighed, rubbing her temples as the throbbing recommenced.

"Stay a while longer," said Dan, his gaze slipping past her to their abandoned table in the corner. Fiona looked over her shoulder to see the rest of Xander's family now seated at the booth. Gabriel, Tristan, Zayde - and Baird, to her surprise. She turned back to Riordan.

"I invited him." he explained.

"Does the little princeling know that?" Fiona asked, her tone perhaps a little colder than she meant it. Riordan raised an eyebrow but nodded. "Lord Kallias and his wife are very close with the Night Court. They were at the manor house for dinner this evening - I thought to invite Baird along to say hello."

She gave her cousin a wry look. "You really don't miss a trick, do you?"

He slipped out of that uncharacteristic severity that had shrouded his golden eyes, and a brilliant, shining smile cracked open. "Never," he winked. Standing from the barstool, he placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her toward the table. "Now go, have fun."

"-And don't forget to smile!"