Page 150 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
Outside that window, the breeze had picked up into a whistle.
I couldn’t exactly blame Steeler for keeping the secret about the second Branding from me—not after witnessing the Good Council’s ruthless hunt for Dazmine. Just like Jagaros, he’d been waiting until I could shield my own mind to give me those pieces, and I…
I could respect that. I had a right to my own mind and information aboutme, but I didn’t necessarily have a right to information about others. I could force my shoulders to deflate and breathe out the anger coiling in my chest and come to terms with the fact that my anger wasn’t justified. It was just hiding a deep-rooted pain.
Trying to force cheer into my voice, I got to my knees to dig through my bag for a toothbrush and nightgown.
“Any other stories you want to tell me before we go to bed?”
A blush was already settling, not in my cheeks, but deep into my core at the thought that I’d have to change in the same room as him. Would we sleep in the same bed? Or would he insist ontaking the sofa? But that warmth faded instantly when Steeler whispered, “Yes.”
I looked up at him in question.
“Mine.” He cleared his throat. “I’d like to tell you my story. If you want to hear it,” he added.
I dropped my bag again and sat on the edge of the coffee table.
“Of course.”
I’d thought I’d re-discovered everything important about Steeler’s life since he’d stopped erasing my memory—he’d grown up on a pirate ship until the faerie fleet decided to use him and his friends as pawns in a much bigger game. Then he’d spent his remaining years in Hallow’s Perch until he’d gone to the Esholian Institute for half a decade.
The look on his face couldn’t have been clearer, though: there was more to it. So, so much more.
“Do you want anything to drink?” he asked suddenly.
“Oh… um… sure.”
“What would you like?”
He was stalling, I knew, but I humored him anyway. “Do you have any wine?”
“Ha!”Felicity called from a corner of the room where she’d just lit the lotus blossom-scented candle. “Do we have wine? What kind of question is that, Raynie?”
“Wine, then,” I repeated to Steeler, who removed two dusty glasses from a cabinet before wiping them with a cloth and digging out a bottle that definitely looked like it had been stolen from one of the neighboring villages.
He handed me a glass just as Felicity inhaled deeply and pressed her padded palms together with a smile.
“Ah, that’s perfect, isn’t it?”
She’d lit two other candles—the vanilla and what smelled like a sandalwood one. The result was a mix of intoxicating scentsthat flowed throughout the room in defiance of the increasing wind outside.
“You’re very talented, Felicity,” I said after taking a sip of my wine. “You’re the best cook, hairdresser, and candlemaker I’ve ever met.”
“Oh, and I plan on being good at so much more.”A determined glint lit up Felicity’s eyes as she bounded forward to give me another hug. “I’m going to hit the rafters now.Tell Coco sweet dreams for me.”
“I will.”
“And don’t worry about making too much noise, by the way,” she added over her shoulder, shooting me a wink that I definitely felt was way too inappropriate for such a young monkey. “I’m a heavy sleeper.”
We both watched her jump her way to that bedroom in the hallway and close the door behind her, leaving Steeler and me very much alone with only two glasses of wine between us.
Steeler sat next to me on the sofa, his body angled forward.
My heart galloping in my throat, I dared to rest my free hand on his knee for the smallest space of time before I removed it again.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. As long as it doesn’t involve me or my life…”
He shook his head, inhaled through his nose, and sighed out, “It does, in a way. As much as I know you hate to hear it, our lives are very much intertwined. And with your mother being the lost princess…”
