Page 144 of Across an Endless Sea

It turns out to be a soft dress made of deep purple lace with long flared sleeves, a hood, and a scandalously short ruffle skirt. There’s no underwear, and only the sheerest lilac under dress to go beneath it. Most of my back is left bare for my wings, and I flare them a little as I shimmy into the accompanying boots. Satisfaction makes me smile when I manage to complete a full set of Florian’s latest exercises without issue. My muscles are getting stronger.

Next step, flying.

Florian has written out a list of instructions for Bram to take with us so I can continue to practise while I’m on my pilgrimage. With any luck, by the time I return, I’ll be in the air.

I manage to lace up the knee-high boots just in time for Lore to blink back.

“Good enough to eat,” he proclaims, blinking me back to the other side of the screen. “Bree has gone ahead to make sure everything is safe.” He makes a face. “Of course it is. Now…” He reaches up and pulls the hood up over my head to hide my hair. “Let’s go have some real fun.”

He blinks us again, and this time we land directly in the middle of the loudest party I’ve ever been to.

The air is thick with the scent of roasting meat and wood smoke, and drums and pipes are playing somewhere in the distance. I can’t see much beyond the dancers—who are twisting and bounding around the space in what can only be described as a more graceful kind of jig. Every now and again, after a particularly energetic twirl, the dancers raise their hands and clap them loudly above their heads with a cheer.

They’re all different shapes and sizes. Trolls, dryads, pixies… it seems like every single type of fae is here. It’s chaos, but beautiful chaos.

“Oops,” Lore grins. “Wrong place.”

I don’t have time to ask what he means by that, because we’re blinking again. This time we end up on a wooden bridge above the dancers, watching from beside a stall where Bree is already waiting.

We’re in the inner city, I realise, looking at the huge trees with their golden leaves and the buildings that thread around them. I haven’t been here enough times to recognise exactly where, but I can make out the inner wall just beyond us.

“We agreed to meet here,” Bree comments. “Not down there.”

Lore shrugs. “Power glitch.”

My stomach sinks. “Because of me.”

“Youblinked us to the wrong place?” Lore shoves away my concern with a voice full of mock accusation and a wide smile. “Oh, howcouldyou?” Just as quickly, he switches tracks. “More importantly, what are we doing now?”

“Now?”

Bree offers me a small smile. “We broke you out of the stuffy high fae ball, didn’t we? The whole inner city is celebrating. Where do you want to start?”

The grin that takes over my face is slow but blinding. Bree and Lore must have figured out how much I hate balls and planned this in advance. A night of freedom in my city before we go on the road sounds glorious. A night of being frivolous, where my choices won’t affect hundreds, just us.

My whole chest swells with gratitude, and my eyes burn for a second before I start to plan.

“I want to find what smells so good,” I begin, still grinning. “Then I want to learn how to dance like that.”

Bree nods. “I’ll take care of your glamour.”

I feel the wash of his power, and I glance up at him. “Are you sure?”

“Just have fun,” he encourages. “That’s all you need to worry about tonight.”

Lore blinks away, then returns with a wooden tankard that he presses into my hand. “First things first; you’re far too sober for a fae revel.”

That wordrevelsends a shiver down my spine, and I take a large gulp of the sweetest spiced wine I’ve ever tasted to steady myself. I’ve never been to any kind of party where there were no expectations. Even as a mortal, I was too fragile to dance or do more than sit on the sidelines. Now…

I’m going to cherish every second of this gift.

Without thinking, I grab Lore’s hand and drag him forwards, aiming blindly at the glittering stalls piled high with festival foods.

Of course, my redcap just lets out a bark of laughter and follows along, leaving Bree to bring up the rear.

I end up trying a bite of nearly every food on offer, then stumble my way through the crowd with them both on my heels. Someone has set up games on the upper streets, most of which require some degree of throwing ability and all of which I fail miserably at. Fortunately, I’m quickly becoming tipsy enough that I don’t mind my losses. I think I’m on my third tankard of whatever that warm, syrupy wine is, but it could easily be the fourth, so I decline another when Lore offers to grab one for me.

Revel is the right word, I decide. There’s no other way to describe the hedonism of this gathering. The swirling fabrics of the dancers’ clothes brush across anyone who strays too close to the street, lapping against my skin as I drag Lore into the centre of their whirling chaos and start attempting to emulate their elegant movements.

---