Page 52 of Devour the Dark

“Is Lia’s shop still around?” Vane asks.

“Yes. Same building. Different owner.”

“I’ll take them.” He starts for the door.

“Can I come?”

Vane stops, hand on the door handle. He looks back at me, considering the request before checking his brother for permission. Roc shrugs. “I don’t own her.”

“I wouldn’t mind spending more time with Winnie while we have it,” I say.

I may have been queen of an entire kingdom, but I still had to ask for permission for literally anything I wanted to do. The habit is still trailing me like a ghost.

Winnie comes over, threading her arm around my shoulders. “I’d love that.”

I warm beneath her touch. The way she so easily shows affection is something I admire and yet don’t understand. Touching was prohibited in court. It was seen as obscene, unseemly. Touching only happened behind closed doors, preferably in the dark. Being touched, needing to feel skin-to-skin contact, it wasn’t something any of us were encouraged to admit.

“We’ll make a date of it.” Winnie smiles over at me.

“We’ll all go then.” Roc snaps his fingers at James. “You’re coming too.”

“I don’t want to go dress shopping.”

“Too bad.”

James grumbles but follows the order. On his ship, he may be used to being in charge, but when it comes to Roc, he and I have both met our match.

The frontof Lia’s shop reminds me of striped candies. The columns are painted bright green while the facade is painted soft, salmon pink. The delicate hand-carved cornices are gilded in gold.

The recessed entrance is flanked by two bay windows where several wooden mannequins display a collection of fine dresses, some ballgowns, others day dresses.

Roc pushes the door in, jangling the copper bell that hangs above. He holds the door for our entire party to shuffle in.

Soft light flickers in hanging globe pendants, not too dissimilar to the lighting in Roc’s loft.

Over the years, on Everland, I had a general feeling that we were behind in advancements. People visited our courts from other islands and while they would never come right out andsay it, I got the sense they were missing luxuries from their homelands.

Most of our lighting was candle or kerosene. It wasn’t until the last handful of years that some of the merchants along the waterline had started pushing the privy council to install modern lighting. Of course, the council liked to keep us in the dark ages, literally. The merchants hadn’t managed to gain much progress.

The lighting that I’ve seen here on Darkland seems to be some kind of gas. The globes dance with light, like flame trapped in a bottle. It’s mesmerizing.

“Do my eyes deceive me?” a voice calls from the back of the shop. “Has the Crocodile decided to grace my shop once again?”

“Oh, don’t badger me, Antony,” Roc says. “I’m here now.”

A man, half as tall as Roc, comes flitting out of the dress racks. He’s wearing a black suit with a bow tie the same salmon pink as the storefront. His hair is bleached nearly white, his beard too, so that it stands out starkly against his dark skin.

Several green stones wink from silver settings in his ears.

“Badgering you is my favorite hobby.” Antony comes to a stop at Roc’s side. “You’ve…” He narrows his eyes and looks him up and down. “Changed? What’s different about you?”

“A great many things,” is what Roc says.

“I’ll say.” Antony reaches out, hooking his arm through Roc’s, cozying up to him.

James takes a step, pushing his hook between Roc and Antony.

Both men glance at James and I see the sudden surprise dawn on James’s face.

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