“No… no I suppose I would not.”
“And we could go on dates like this all the time.” I loop my arm in his, pulling him down the street. “You had fun, didn’t you? I mean, you said youhad fun.”
“I did.” He catches my hand, placing a tender kiss on my wrist. “I’ve heard tell that craftsmen in the Butterfly Court specialize in glamours. If I were to procure one, it would not be out of the question to go on dates back home.”
“But you’d be hiding again.”
“No more than this.” He smiles, pulling at his cape. I guess he does kind of have a point.
“Right?!” I launch the two of us into a skip. “Plus, it would be great for your memories, don’t you think?”
Moth is suddenly dead weight on my arm, and the lack of momentum jerks me backward as if I’ve been trying to drag a statue down the street.
“Moth?”
“There are things I wish could stay forgotten.”
“No, of course. I know whatever happened in those caves was bad, but—”
“No, youdo notknow.”
“Right, because you haven’t told me!” I half-shout, forgetting we’re in public. “Which is fine! But also… how am I supposed to help if I don’t know what’s going on?”
“I do not need help.” He raises an eyebrow. “You, on the other hand, seem to be running from something. Since we arrived, you have been jumping from taskto task.”
“Well, yeah, the whole grand ball thing—”
“—is not the source of your troubles.”
Spoken like someone who’s never planned an event inhis life.
“Heather, my flower, my flame, I have taken notice.” He moves toward me, and I bristle away from his touch, feeling that newly familiar tension at the base of my wings build until it has me shaking out my shoulders.
“Well stop. I’m good! Why are we talking aboutmeall of a sudden?” I shout. Ugh I didn’t mean to shout. Tonight, was going so well! The whole reason I wanted to go out was to cheer up Moth, and now I’m fightingwith him.
“You have given me an impossible task.”
“To trust me?”
“Toignoreyou.”
“Oh my god.” I bury my face in my hands. “You know that’s not what Imeant.”
“I cannot gather your meaning regarding anything at the moment.”
“I told you to stop worryingabout me.”
“And Itold you—”
“Something dark and sexy and romantic, and like … I get it, okay? You’re super hot, and you don’t want to talk about your problems, but that doesn’t mean you need to project them onto me—I’m fine.”
“Which is why you are yelling at me?”
“Yes! No! Ugh!” I stomp ahead, leaving him in the dust—for a moment, at least. He catches up with me within a few strides on those long, muscular legs—that I definitely didn’t just ogle. “Just ignore me.”
“As you desire.”
Moth says nothing, so neither do I, and we walk in total silence back through the gates and down the long hallways. We silently change and get under the sheets. This isn’t the sort of tension that makes us want to jump each other—quite the opposite. I’m as far on my side of the bed as possible, and I still wish I could create moredistance.
