I didn’t think I had it in me to offer him what he had just offered me. To be so vulnerable, to share so much. My fears were locked somewhere deep down inside me. Somewhere dark. Somewhere I didn’t care to look, lest they consume me completely. “I’m afraid…I’m afraid that I will never figure out how to be the Midnight Sovereign. That maybe helping people isn’t as important to me as feeling like I matter. Like somebody needs me. It’s been a long time since anybody needed me.”
I withdrew my hand from his, looking down, absentmindedly plucking at a few blades of grass and trying to subdue the tears threatening to spill from my eyes. Gently, Corvin lifted my chin, staring at me with such tenderness that I couldn’t help but resume speaking, the words tumbling out, unable to be contained now that I’d started to let them free. “I’m afraid of being alone.” My voice wavered, thick with emotion. “I’m afraid that something about me is unlovable. That maybe there’s a reason nobody ever wanted to adopt me from the orphanage. That if I had been a better substitute, my mentor Kaylin wouldn’thave needed another family to feel complete. That she wouldn’t have left me behind.”
Still staring into my eyes, Corvin’s face was earnest. “Anyone would be lucky to love you, Elvira. And I might not know much, but I know you’re going to be the greatest Midnight Sovereign this realm has ever seen. I’d stake my life on it.”
Another dance was just starting as we finished confessing our fears. “I want to dance with you,” I said impulsively. “To scream. And release our fears. Do you want to dance with me too?” I started to sway, unable to sit still, the drum’s percussion thrumming through me, and around me, and within me. I felt infinitely lighter somehow than I ever had before, like my body had been carrying around a heavy tether, which I’d only just removed. And I wanted tomove.Andfeel.I didn’t need to think. Not right now. That could come later.
Corvin stood up, offering me his hand. “Yes, Elvira.”
“I have no training,” I warned him, accepting his hand.
He grinned, mischief and laughter playing across his face. “I don’t think this dance has any rules.”
We walked over to join the dancing. I didn’t know if I could truly release my fears, but here, right now, I was willing to try. “May I?” Corvin asked, his hand lingering in a gesture of uncertainty. My backless gown meant he’d be touchingme.I nodded, and he rested his hand on the center of my back. Boldly, I guided it down until his fingers flexed intimately against my lower back instead. I let him pull me close, our bodies becoming one. And maybe it was the beat of the drum unlocking some wild, hidden place within me, but we moved together with the reckless abandon the dance demanded. At times, I twirled away from him, but the dance always took me back, my body reluctant to give up any of the places where his body touched mine.
Soon, I could feel the dance building to its first scream. A subdued shout escaped my lips as the music peaked. Corvin’slips brushed against my ear. “Come on, Elvira. You can scream louder than that.”
And he was right. So I let myself go, let myself be swept into the dance, until I could no longer tell the difference between the beat of my heart and the beat of the drum. “Then lift me,” I rasped in a husky command, no longer recognizing my own voice. An almost predatory grin split his face. “Happily.” His hands around my waist, Corvin raised me higher. The thudding of the drum grew wilder, wilder, wilder until—
I tossed my head back—a powerful, feral scream ripping from my throat, all inhibitions gone. Moments later, Corvin’s scream answered mine, our voices intermingling together in the air, a perfect, harmonious match.
CHAPTER TWENTY
We reached the island later that evening without incident. Soaring above for the very first time, I could appreciate it from an entirely different vantage point. The rippling lake, the tall trees, the radiance of the violet flame sparkling in my now lit lampposts, the thatched roof of my cottage—home.As we touched down, Corvin stumbled a bit—not because of the dark, but because he’d been awake for far too long. He needed to rest. His hair was windswept again, which somehow made him look even more handsome, despite the exhaustion clouding his face.
Dancing our cares away for hours on end probably hadn’t been awisechoice, but now that it was dusk, I could still confidently say I didn’t regret a moment of the time we’d spent together at the dawn of the day, swaying in each other’s arms. Didn’t regret the extra coin it cost to purchase a private room at the local inn, just to get a few hours’ sleep before departing again. Didn’t regret whatever was starting to develop between us. I just hoped he felt the same. We walked side by side up to the cottage door, the now full moon shining brightly overhead. The fuller the moon, the more brightly my moonstone necklace gleamed in the dark.
I reached for the door handle—
“Elvira, look! The Green Man’s vines!” Corvin exclaimed.
I withdrew my hand from the door, following the direction of his gaze. As I watched, several milky-white trumpet-shaped flowers started to slowly unfurl along the dark-green vines which clung to the cottage walls. Starting as a tight bud,the flowers gracefully blossomed, exposing their petals to the moonlight. I peered closer, trying to identify the plant, now that it had revealed its final clue. Hidden within the trumpet of the flower, I made a startling discovery—a moonstone attached to the flower’s long, inner pistil. It shimmered with a beautiful pearly sheen, borne from the moon’s rays, deciding to take solid form. “Do you recognize the bloom?” I asked since it wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen before in my garden.
“I think it’s some variation on a moonflower. They only bloom at night.”
I smiled to myself, thinking about how the Green Man had known exactly which seeds I needed most. I suspected I would be able to extract the moonstone growing inside—use them to start repopulating the realm’s supply. Perhaps even take some clippings of the vine, transplant them across the five kingdoms in prominent locations, so they could be found once more. I would have to visit the Spring Court again sometime, to find the kind Fae, and properly thank him for his generosity. “They’re beautiful, don’t you think?” I said, sticking my nose close to one of the flowers, inhaling its strong perfume, a sweet scent, vaguely reminiscent of vanilla or…honeysuckle, maybe? I took another pleasant whiff of the flower.
“They’re not themostbeautiful thing out here tonight,” Corvin said reverently, and when I turned, I saw he was staring at me.
He took a step closer to me, and I struggled to draw air into my lungs. Leisurely, he reached past my shoulder, plucking one of the flowers from the vine. He twirled it in his hand as we stood now inches apart from one another. He stared down at me with heart-stopping intensity. “Moonflower.That should be one of your titles. It’s a name that suits you. Strength and beauty appearing, even in dark times. Providing a light for the people around you. Stunningly beautiful—practically glowing under themoonlight.” Taking the flower, Corvin gently tucked it behind my ear, lightly brushing back my hair as he did so. A small touch that only served to amplify the warm feeling surging through me. “I didn’t think when I started to fulfill my father’s debts that it would lead to this,” he continued.
“To sleepless nights and near-death experiences?” I asked, doing my best to level out my breathing.
Corvin stepped closer still. “To you,” he said, his gaze coming to rest upon my lips, lingering there.
I felt then, if I tilted my head back, he would kiss me. My first kiss ever. My heart fluttered in nervous anticipation. A small, cautious part of me whispered that it was ill-advised to kiss someone who refused to tell you who they were. I looked at Corvin’s soft lips, unconsciously wetting mine, my body already in tune with my decision, even if my mind needed a moment to catch up. Because didn’t we all have secrets? Private thoughts? Solitary adventures? Hidden desires? Could you ever really know somebody, anyway? Maybe what mattered, what really mattered, was who they showed themselves to be instead. And Corvin had proven himself to be a friend. And a partner. And a confidant. My heart ached painfully at the prospect that soon, we might even bemore.I tilted my head back, rising up on my toes, drawing our faces close.
Corvin’s hand found my cheek—mine, his chest. Softly, so softly, our lips brushed in a tender exchange. Tender at first. Until a hungry desperation took hold, both of us pressing forward, eager formore,our bodies seeking one another. Until I didn’t carewhohe was, only that he kept his mouth on mine. That our kissing didn’t stop. Eager to taste him, like when we’d passed that feather, I slipped my tongue inside his mouth, hesitantly at first, then more forcefully as he opened his mouth, deepening our kiss, a groan forming low in his throat.
A loud crashing sound drew us apart.
“How are you, Little Moon?” Nix asked, emerging shortly afterward from the shadows. I blinked dumbly, the power of speech temporarily evading me as I pulled my attention away from Corvin to focus on my new friend’s words. “You should have come and found me as soon as you arrived home. I’ve been worrying over you. No way of knowing whether you were alive or dead out there.”
I crouched down to his level. “Sorry, Nix. I’m not exactly used to anyone waiting on my return. Thanks for caring. I missed you while I was away. How have you been? I’m very grateful to have made it back.” I looked him over in a thorough inspection. He looked healthy, which pleased me. Like he’d put on a few more pounds even, becoming a solidly medium-sized cat now. His chastisement was mild, but even then, I found I didn’t mind so much. I had an obligation to him now. Something about that was…comforting.
He had been waiting for me to return. And his first question, whether he’d admit it or not, had been about my well-being. I was eager to tell him I fulfilled my first bargain. “Eterna is free from her prison; I held up my end of the bargain. Well, we did.” I glanced sideways at Corvin. “I couldn’t have done it without Corvin; he was a huge help. So not a total success I guess, since I’m supposed to be able to take care of these things all on my own.”
“That’s not completely—” Nix began to speak.
