Page 30 of Steeling Light
I frown. My room at the inn won’t work. I have windows, and the last thing I want is to shine a light through the middle of the city. Everyone will know what’s happening, and they’ll know it’s connected to the House of Light, something that I’ve tried to hide.
Rhion doesn’t give me a chance to respond with my doubts. “Let’s fly. You know, we’ve never flown together, Ainslee. With how much you enjoy walks, I bet you enjoy flights even more…”
I shrug, not denying it. It’s been a long time since I flew for pleasure instead of with purpose.
When he offers his hand, I take it. Pride swells inside me, and I feel thepossibilitiesof what I could become ripple through my body. I manifest enormous eagle wings, meant for soaring high above the ground, and when Rhion pulls me, I flap, giving me enough lift to hop onto the ground to stand next to him.
Without saying a word, he runs his finger over the feathers. It’s a strange sensation for him to touch a part of my body that wasn’t even there moments before. The brown and white wings are very similar to the eagles that soar over Skycrest, but I’ve never really looked closely at them.
Rhion does, though. He steps closer, his eyes only inches from the primary feathers along the trailing edge. He runs his finger down them, and it tickles. My wings instinctively close, pulling against my back just as a bird would once it lands.
He grins at me. “They’re beautiful. So you want to soar, not race. That works for me.”
He stands just a little taller, and pure gray wings explode out of his back. Every other time that I’ve seen him with wings, they’ve been brown like mine. These are different, though. Just like he did, I approach them, and Rhion doesn’t bring them to his body. Instead, he keeps them extended so I can look closer.
“What kind of wings are these?” I ask.
“Goose, though I wanted them to be a different color. White just doesn’t suit me.”
I frown. “Goose wings? But why?”
“They don’t soar,” he says. “You have to keep pumping them, but they’ll let me maneuver in ways that eagle wings never could. I can keep up with you while still being able to maneuver if something winds up in the air with us.”
Continuing to flap those enormous wings would be exhausting. “I’ll be fine, Rhion…”
He stops me and holds up his wrist, where the silver band from his magical oath encircles it. “No. Once, when we were children, I wasn’t prepared to make sure you were safe. That will never happen again, Ainslee. This oath may make it formal, but I promised myself that no matter what happened, I would be strong enough to protect you from anything. I won’t break a promise I made to myself just because it would be easier. Now, let’s get out of here,” he says.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he leaps, those enormous gray goose wings carrying him upward. I can’t help but smile as I follow. The ground below us grows more distant, and with it, I leave the cares of the world behind.
Chapter 15
There is a time and a place for everything. Trying to move faster doesn’t get you there sooner. It only creates heartache and worry. Eat when it is time to eat. Rest when it is time to rest.
~Maerlix the Master Listener, Words to Weavers
Rhion
She’s magnificent. The wind trails over her wings, and she holds them stiff, cutting through the air like a ship through still water. Dressed in her underclothes, long since dried, she draws my eyes constantly. The flimsy material that barely hid her body from me is a dark shadow in the night’s sky, and my eyes shift, becoming an owl’s. I can see every ripple of her feathers, every movement of that linen.
We’re not hurrying. My wings beat only fast enough to stay aloft as we circle the City of Moonlight and see it from the sky. I told her she was my heart tonight. It’s a truth I’ve never spoken aloud and tried so desperately to keep from thinking. I’d never believed that she’d ever feel the same. I’d hoped, but if my life has taught me anything, it’s that hope is for fools.
She’s quiet now, and I wonder what she’s thinking about. Part of me wants to analyze our actions and try to make a guess at it, but I push that part away. If she wanted me to know what she was thinking, she’d tell me. Fear that it was only the pool’s effect, now long gone, that made her kiss me back convinces that part of me from taking hold as it does so often. If I were to pick her actions and words apart, that fear being true might be the conclusion I come to.
So I remain quiet beside her, letting the wind be our companion. It whispers softly to us as we cut through the air. Until she speaks.
“I can’t believe you threatened him,” she says a little quieter. “Would you really bring your soldiers here just to hurt that man from the House of Calm?”
I don’t answer immediately. The words had come instinctively. I’ve learned to trust those instincts, but I’ve lived in a world that’s so different from Ainslee’s. “If my father realized that you and I were going to the Moonlit Pools together, he would unleash the might of the Steel army on us both, and to be completely honest, I don’t know if I could stop him. The best way to protect you right now is to make sure no one knows we’re spending time together like that. Fear was my only option unless you’d prefer me to murder him in cold blood as soon as he saw us.”
She finally turns to me, taking her eyes off the city below us. “How do you even know that he recognized you until you flew? We’ve been walking around the city for more than a week, and you haven’t threatened anyone else.”
Ainslee doesn’t know how much attention I’ve paid to every face we’ve passed. Like I told her initially, she draws every eye, and no one knows who she is. I’m an afterthought when I’m next to her. But I know the look when they recognize me. I know the shock and fear in even the most controlled expressions. I’ve lived with those expressions for my entire life, and that man was afraid as soon as he’d seen my face.
“He knew me immediately, Ainslee.”
She’s quiet again. Her lack of response tells me enough to know that she doesn’t believe me.
There’s nothing to say, though. Instead, I think back on that kiss that I’ve dreamed of my entire life. Sheexploded with lightbecause of it. Not a little glow. It was uncontrolled and told me everything I needed to know.
