“Another,” I beg, the next kiss pressed to the spot just below my ear.
My cheek.
The corner of my mouth.
“Where now?” she asks, her voice tentative. Nervous even.
Like she’s standing on unsteady ground.
“My lids.”
She used to kiss them when she thought I was asleep. Of all the things I’ve missed during the many phases I’ve lived, I’ve missed that the most.
I hear her swallow before she leans so close her exhale tickles my lashes, her lips pressing upon my left lid, then my right—like a warm, pillowy gift from the Creators themselves.
My next breath is more unsteady than my knees.
Another blow of flames warms my skin—
She stills, and I hear her heart skip a beat, feeling mine mulch.
Oh, she’s hiding …
I squeeze my eyes tighter, and she softens against me even before the flame snips off.
“You’re remarkably good at keeping your word, Sire.”
“I’ll take it to my grave, Moonbeam.”
I feel her cheeks swell in a smile, hearing the flame-throwing Sabersythes scream off into the distance, wings beating into an echo.
“Count to ten,” she whispers against my neck. “Then come find me beneath the moon.”
What?
My hand whips forward to thread around her waist and pull her close, only to tuck around my own abdomen.
My stomach dips, eyes snapping open.
I search both ways, but she’s gone—not even a swirl of mist to mark her retreat.
“Moonbeam!”
The name bangs off the walls like tossed boulders as my head cuts left and right.
“You’re not counting,” she chastises from afar, and I sigh, crunching my hands into fists. Releasing them. “Are you doing it in your mind?”
“Two,” I grind out, shaking my head. “Four—Six—Eight—”
“You’re a terrible counter.”
“—Ten.” I lunge forward, kicking through troves of mist. “Sing me a song, Raeve. Give me something to chase that’s real.”
Please.
Nothing while I stalk down path after path, but then her voice comes to me. A melody that weaves across my heart in silky notes that both slice and soothe.
I pause, close my eyes, and absorb—pulling my lungs full, like her tone is a meal my soul just sat down to feast upon.
There she is …
I’ve heard folk speak of Rayne’s voice. Of how it’s so achingly beautiful it makes you want to weep. Of how Clode makes you question your own sanity.
I imagine Raeve is a blend of both, sewing knots in my chest I treasure despite the agony they cause.
With a single lyrical order, she could will me to the edge of a cliff.
To jump.
I charge through the maze like I’m following a map in my own mind—turning left then right, racing down a jagged path before turning right again. I come to a lofty ice pillar with an opening carved in one side, moving into the hollow and up a curled stairwell, every turn bringing me closer to her haunting melody. The same song she once sang to me while she cried outside Slátra’s hutch.
I burst onto the pillar’s flattened top that’s large enough to support a nesting Moonplume, directly beneath a luminous moon. Almost close enough to the aurora to touch the threads of light.
“Lie with me?”
I look down at Raeve—on her back, her stare pinned to the moon overhead, hair unraveled and cast around her in crimped waves. Her mask has been flung aside, her dress a scatter of ribbons mostly draped across the ice, less so against her pale skin, like she just fell from the sky and landed here.
My heart aches at the sight.
The thought.
Clearing my throat, I lift my crown and set it on the stone beside her mask, then do as she asked, placing myself beside her, arms at my sides as I study the moon—its appearance altered by the dome’s distorting veil.
Usually black and spiky.
Now silver and smooth.
“I like this moon,” she whispers, followed by a lengthy pause. “It’s the same color and size as the little wonky one I could see from my window back in Gore.”
The same one on my back.
I swallow, the silence between us growing its own mournful pulse. “Do you want me to tell you why you like it?”
“No.”
Of course not.
Glimpsing movement to my right, I frown as she rolls atop me. With her back to my chest, she reaches down, grabs my arms, and weaves them around her body—now bound in a hug she built for herself.
I forget how to breathe. To blink.