I shot her a sidelong glance, pausing as a smile spread across my lips. “You’re a good friend, Sephi.”
She returned the smile. “Come. Two minutes until our first reading.”
Open field transitioned to forest, a blend of evergreens and deciduous, bare of leaves. A rugged wilderness teeming with all manner of creatures.
“Thirty seconds,” she said. “I have us at three-hundred.”
I glanced between the logbook and console ofinstruments, including a clock with a second hand. “I see it. I’ll count down.”
We were assigned either two or three to a balloon. Three students could share the work more easily, but were a tighter fit in the basket.
“Three-two-one-mark,” I said, noting time, altitude, and readings for ambient magic.
Sephi then called off our position based on the chart.
She gave the burner line a few short jerks, producing puffs of flame. With her standing and me sitting, she looked even taller than usual.
“Is there something wrong, Mister Thistlewood?”
“I thought you agreed to call me Theo.”
“In public, it was at my sole prerogative, I believe.”
“I see no one for half a kilometer in any direction.”
“We would do well to remain in form. And you have not answered my question. You were staring at me earlier.”
“I was just thinking. Three-two-one-mark.” I noted the readings. “I was just thinking how good you look in armor.” Specifically, leather pants.
She put a hand on my shoulder, sliding it from a thin metal plate, to a patch of leather, to the base of my neck, where her gloved fingertips found bare skin. “Flattery is unnecessary. And I think you would look best in a long silk nightshirt.”
A breath caught in my throat. Shedidn’tjust say that. “Might be impractical in a balloon gliding a few hundredmeters above a wilderness crawling with creatures who’d like to take a bite out of us.”
“Perhaps.”
“Three-two-one-mark.”
She relayed coordinates. “In any case, I wouldn’t want any creatures to take a bite out of you.”
“Your concern is appreciated.”
She leaned down, putting lips next to my ear, her breath warming it as she spoke. “Youarerather delicious looking, after all.”
I clenched the basket’s railing. This was going to be a long ride.
We continued for over an hour, exchanging little snippets of banter, smiles and gestures, and those innuendos Sephi was so very, very skilled at. The interruption every three minutes for scientific observations hardly gave me time for retorts.
My internal thoughts interrupted far more frequently for less-than-scientific observations. How locks of her short hair flopped around her long ears in the wind. How a subtle lift of an eyebrow betrayed a deeper meaning to an innocent comment. How she managed to interject far less innocent comments. And how amazing she looked in leather pants.
“Come,” she said. “It is high time you learned to pilot a balloon.”
I stood, folding the jump seat out of the way. “Are you going to make me sharpen my own tools first?”
Her subtle smile broadened. “I believe I can spareyou that part. Usually we would begin with the pre-flight safety check, but as you have already done that—”
I shook my head. “The man in charge of the balloon didn’t mention anything about it.”
She frowned. “Then why is your name in the logbook?”
