Page 167 of The Demon Tide

“I love you,” she says, her heart opening wide even as fear tries to close it back up. His strong arms wrap around her and she can feel his smile against her hair, and then his kiss on it as she clings to him.

“I love you too,” he says, adamant.

“I’m ready, Jarod.” She pulls away to look up at him, more decided than she’s ever been in her whole life. “Let’s leave.”

“Where do you want to go?” he asks, a bit breathless, as he glances in the direction of the soldier barracks. “To our room here?”

“No,” Aislinn says, the word coming out harsh, rebellion streaking through her. “Not in an enclosed room like a Gardnerian. I want to take each other like Lupines. In the arms of the Forest.”

Jarod holds her hand gently in his like it’s the most delicate thing in the world, even though Aislinn can clearly read that what he wants is to pull her close and kiss her deeply. He gives her a significant look. “There’s that patch of wilds we both love. Just north of Voloi.”

Aislinn brings her other hand over their clasped ones, caressing him in turn as she looks up at him. This beautiful, patient, overwhelmingly kind love of hers. Her forever love.

“Take me there,” she says.

CHAPTER SIX

FINDTHEMOON

Sparrow Trillium

Xishlon night, twenty-first hour

Sparrow stands before the full-length mirror in Mii Vun’s famed dress shoppe, stunned by the Xishlon transformation reflected in it.

The Xishlon transformation inher.

Gone is the drab servant garb and makeup-free face of the Western Realm. Because she’s no longer trapped in a world where her beauty puts her in extreme danger. But still, she knows her makeup is gloriously bold for her first Xishloncelebration—an intricate violet orchid drawn in a sweep along the entire edge of her face, her lips colored a deeper purple than their natural shade and dusted with violet glitter. And her lilac hair adorned with iridescent-purple Xishlon flowers.

But the biggest rebellion of all is the dress it took Sparrow over a week to craft, its design a celebration of the famous Noi book of love poems,Lavender Garden of My Heart, each poem steeped in the lore surrounding Xishlon’s thirteen iconic purple flowers. Her entire dress is constructed from silk roses, hyacinths, pansies, cosmos, and the rest of the fabled purple-moon festival blooms, its skirt long in the back, short in the front, her legs on display from midthigh down—which would have been both shocking and forbidden in Gardneria. Violet orchids twine up the length of her silk stockings and her delicate, plum-velvet shoes are decorated with hand-painted purple crocuses.

Sparrow’s nerves are alight to dare to be this brazen, but she refuses to be cowed by her past. Because here, in the Eastern Realm, women can wear whatever they want, their safety vigorously and mercilessly enforced by the mostly female Vu Trin. And she’s further emboldened by the rune blade strapped to her side, women bearing arms a common sight here.

Let the Gardnerians try to come here and enslave me again, Sparrow thinks as she takes in the blade’s reflection as well as her decadently rebellious appearance.I’ll go down fighting and take quite a few of them with me.

“Ah, Little Bird, you are a completevision.”

Mii Vun, the shoppe’s proprietress and Sparrow’s sponsor here, edges into the mirror’s reflection. The kind Noi woman’s white hair is styled in looping braids, violets woven through them, embroidered violets dotting her lavender silken tunic and pants.

“Everyone’s talking about you, Sparrow!” young Fyya Lo gushes as she shoulders into the reflection’s other side. The young apprentice seamstress rests her pointed chin on Sparrow’s shoulder, an impish grin on her pretty face. “Those clothing sketches you put together...you’ve become a star overnight!”

Gratitude sweeps through Sparrow as she moves to the side to better take in Fyya Lo’s beautiful reflection, her Xishlon garb a resplendent vision that Sparrow helped fashion, Fyya Lo’s dark hair festooned with glass orbs filled with violet rune light, her velvet dress such a lush, dark violet it’s almost black. A bright lavender moon is embroidered over the young seamstress’s torso, the Vo river and its rippling purple reflection embroidered down the dress’s slim skirt.

“I have something rather delicious to tell you,” Fyya Lo croons, taking Sparrow’s hands in hers. Her vivacious tone turns confiding. “Syr Vho wants to see you tonight.”

Sparrow remembers him well. The Noi architect. One of the city’s other young rising stars, who she met at the banquet Mii Vun held to support Noilaan’s most talented and up-and-coming designers.

“He’s clearly besotted,” Fyya Lo enthuses, unable to repress her grin. “I think he’s more than eager to give you your first Xishlon kiss.”

Defiance rears up in Sparrow. She knows full well what Fyya Lo is up to. She also realizes her response will be the equivalent of setting off a runic explosive in the middle of the elegant, floral-decorated shoppe.

“That’s a lovely compliment,” Sparrow says, forcing an even tone. “But I’ve decided to spend Xishlon night with Thierren Stone.”

Fyya Lo’s impish grin vanishes as Mii Vun’s dark eyes take on a grave light that cinches Sparrow’s heart with concern. They both know of her friendship with Thierren, but to spend Xishlon night with someone here in the East...

Sparrow knows that’s a whole other thing.

Her concern notches higher as Mii Vun lets out a shaky sigh and averts her eyes as if in careful deliberation. The elderly seamstress has been incredibly kind ever since Sparrow set foot in this huge, bustling city only a few weeks ago, taking Sparrow under her wing after seeing just a few samples of her embroidery and sketches of her designs. And the pay here, it’s created a sea change in Sparrow’s life. She’ll never forget the feel of that first coin purse Mii Vun placed into her palm. Enough to afford a small one-room apartment in Voloi’s First Tier artists’ district with a balcony overlooking the river. Enough money for good food and art and sewing supplies—silken thread of every color, fabric, a sewing machine, and some canvases along with a watercolor set and brushes.

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