Payment

After Cora's visual display of petals cascading from the chandelier, everyone went back to visiting and dancing with only the occasional scandalized glance her way. She had given them a small demonstration of what she could do, and it was enough to prevent whatever mass objection or uprising was about to happen—if that was what about to happen. She didn't know.

What she knew for certain was that she never wanted to see a room full of vampires frozen with that expression on their faces again, especially when every pair of eyes was trained on her. The jumble of nerves was still hovering near the surface of her skin as she watched them all go back to normal.

The attendees here were surprisingly good at normal. As they danced and laughed, they could almost pass for human. Did they realize it? Did they realize that in this social environment with the focus on each other rather rather than the half fae, they became natural?