“What can I do to ensure you are well-rested?” he asks, and it’s weird how worried about it he seems.
“You could let me go.”
“A new bed perhaps,” he offers, steamrolling over the suggestion.
“It’s not the bed,” I huff.
“Ah.” His eyes glint. “Not used to sleeping alone then? That’s not what I heard…”
“What?” I snap. Considering I’m usually sandwiched between Moth and Sprout, things are the opposite of alone. I can’t imagine what he’s talking about.
“Last time you were in Eclipsica with your brooding fiancé, the servants reported he left you every evening…”
Oh.
Is that what it looked like to the rest of the world?
“That’ssonot what was going on.” I’m not about to explain to this guy that Moth was processing a shit ton of emotions in the form of writing a novel. Magnus might have me locked in a tower, but he doesn’t get to know Moth. Not his kindness, not his vulnerability.
Let him think the love of my life will storm the castle and rip his throat out at any moment.
“I could stay with you until you fall asleep,” Magnus offers, and I nearly spit my drink.
“Absolutely not.”
“I’m not suggesting anything improper. I could sit at your bedside and read to you if that would—”
“That’s Moth’s job,” I snap, feeling my nails curl into claws. I gulp down the rest of the tea, trying to let the feeling build. I wonder if my transformation would scare Magnus enough so that he’d let me go. But not here… not when there are so many witnesses.
“Heather?”
“There’s a bathroom around here somewhere, right?”
“Around the corner, behind the giant green stalks to the left.” He points toward the main building that resembles an open-air cafe suspended above the water. “I can accompany—”
“Magnus,” I hiss, “you want me to feel like I’m not a prisoner, right?”
“More than anything.”
“Then let me walk to the bathroom by myself.”
He sighs, so lonely and pathetic.
My claws retract, and I let out a frustrated sigh.
“I suppose there’s little harm.”
The phone hidden in my bodice pinches as I flutter upward, moving toward the reeds Magnus had pointed out. Part of me worried it would literally be just a spot to pee in the lagoon, but, sure enough, there’s a building here.
Waiting until I’m tucked around the corner, I retrieve the cellphone, moving around until it finds a signal.
Without hesitation, I dial every number I can think of, hoping to hear his voice.
10.
Moth
“There are pieces of truth mixed in with what you might know,” Mother begins. “I was indeedkidnapped,but not from one of the other courts or a noble household of this world. When I was young, it was not uncommon for faeries to steal away into the mortal realm. Mostly for some trickery—whether cruel or comical, it depended on the level of boredom.”
