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We were in the middle of nowhere, definitely outside of the city. Towering trees shadowed the bright moonlight that filtered through the dying leaves. Not a single light from the city surrounded us. The surrounding forest bustled in a darkness that became oddly comforting.
“We’re here,” Alek said.
“Are you kidding?”
“Not in the slightest.” He grabbed a bag from his backseat and flung it over his shoulder before getting out of the car. “Let’s go.”
In the midst of the darkness, I could see the moon’s reflection on the water in front of us. He had driven me all the way to the lake.
“This looks like the type of place you take a girl when you’re about to murder her and dump her body where nobody’s going to find it!”
“If I killed you now,” he said with a grin, “what would my father think? You’re safe, Lyra. You have a deal to uphold, remember?”
I knew I should have been alert about being in the woods with practically a stranger, but all I felt was excitement. I crawled out of the car and shut the door behind me. Alek was already spreading a blanket out on the grass before us.
“What is this?” I asked.
“This is tonight’s date.”
The way he saiddatemade my chest tighten. I knew this was just part of our deal, but I would never experience a real date. I would never be taken out. I would never be normal. My mother had made sure of that.
But I could pretend. That’s all we were doing, anyway. Pretending. For tonight, I could be someone else.
Alek sat on the blanket and motioned for me to join him. I obliged, moving to sit on the other side of the thick quilt. The fabric was smooth compared to the rough grass poking underneath. I picked at a loose thread, unsure of what to do with my hands.
In silence, the forest around us illuminated. Some sort of animal howled in the distance, not far enough away to make me any less uncomfortable. Other critters scavenged the foliage around us but stayed hidden from sight. I didn’t blame them. I’d been doing a lot of hiding recently, too.
Once the lights of his car flickered off, I could hardly see a thing. Alek fumbled for a second and turned on a small lantern beside us. As soon as he did, my stomach erupted in butterflies. It wasn’t just that we were sitting so close together on this quilt, although I was acutely aware of exactly how much space sat between his hand and mine. It was also a small, thrilling trickle of adrenaline releasing into my veins.
I wasn’t nervous at all, I realized. I was excited.
A cool breeze rustled the sticks and leaves around us. A stray piece of my red hair flew in front of my face, and I froze as Alek picked up his hand, reaching for it.
But he stopped himself and returned his gaze to the moonlight reflecting off the water ahead. I immediately stiffened, returning my attention to the loose thread on the blanket.
“Sitting in the dark?” I asked. “That’s what we drove all the way out here for?”
Alek leaned back, laying down and stretching his long, toned legs out over the quilt. “Stargazing,” he said quietly. “Look up.”
I waited a second longer while I stared at him. In the dim lighting of the lantern, I could only see half of his face. His hands tucked into the pocket of his black sweatshirt, and his eyes flickered around the sky as he continued to look upward.
He must have felt me staring, because he said, “Eyes up there, not on me.”
Red-hot embarrassment crept up my neck, and I was suddenly grateful that he couldn’t see me blushing.
I mimicked him, lying backward on the quilt and staring up at the sky.
When my eyes settled on the sky, an audible gasp escaped me.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Alek whispered. But beautiful didn’t come close to describing the view. The sky drowned in stars. Orbs of light of every size littered the darkness, creating a maze that turned and weaved throughout the entirety of the night.
It was breathtaking, and yet it was also deeply, deeply sad.
I fought back tears as they approached. Twenty-two years of living, and I had never seen the stars. Not like this.
“You have to leave the city to see them this bright,” Alek explained. “I come out here every once in a while just so I don’t forget what they look like.”
I understood that. My chest tightened even further at the thought that I would forget this. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week. But years and years from now, tucked tightly in Theia’s grasp, I would forget about this sea of magic before me.
