“Ever heard of Empty Glass?”Delilah asked.When the others shook their heads, she explained: “It’s pretty easy.Everyone goes around and says something they’ve never done.If youhavedone it, you drink.The first one to empty their glass loses, and they have to answer one question the other players come up with truthfully, no matter what it is.”
“Sounds easy enough,” Sebastian agreed.His eyes slid to Kieran.“You wanna play?”
Kieran’s throat had gone dry.He had to clear it before he said, “Y-yeah, I’d love to.”
Across from them, Delilah and Briar exchanged a knowing look that Kieran couldn’t even begin to explain.
“Why don’t you start, Sebastian?”Delilah prompted.“Tell us something you’ve never done.It can be anything.”
“All right.”Sebastian cleared his throat, straightening in his seat and tucking his shoulders back.His eyes wandered the room for a moment before he said, “I…had never been on an aeroship before this one.”
Kieran took a drink, as did Briar.Delilah cocked an eyebrow and asked Briar, “When did you go on one before we picked you up?”
Briar shrugged.“When I was on my own, between running away from Wrenlin and meeting you all.I did a little traveling around Celdwyn to try to avoid the Pelumbras’ hunters.I stowed away on an aeroship at one point when I needed to get far away from them quickly.”
“You never told me that,” Delilah said, her jaw hanging open and an accusatory note in her voice.
Briar laughed.“I’ve got to a keep a little mystery, don’t I?”
Delilah just rolled her eyes.
“Me next, right?”Kieran said.They nodded at him, and he put a fist under his chin and looked up as he tried to decide what to say.Should he say something that would help him get to know Sebastian or try to make Delilah and his sister lose?Choices, choices.
Maybe I can do both,he decided.
“I,” Kieran finally said, “have never slept with anyone.”
Delilah’s and Briar’s eyes slid toward each other, then back as they both took sips of their drinks.Delilah muttered, “Starting off strong, I see.”
Kieran, meanwhile, was focused fully on watching Sebastian at his side.Much to his surprise, Sebastian left the glass on the table untouched.
Before Kieran could say anything, Delilah’s jaw dropped.“Really?”
“I was homeschooled,” Sebastian explained with a shrug.“Didn’t have a lot of time to meet people my age.And my father kept me busy with training when I wasn’t doing schoolwork—”
“Training for what?”Kieran blurted out before he could stop himself.I really am too nosy for my own good.
Sebastian shrugged again.“Oh, just general fitness, mostly.My father cared a lot about keeping us healthy.”
If Kieran hadn’t been looking, he wouldn’t have noticed the tiny flutter Sebastian’s fingers did as he said it.He narrowed his eyes.Why would he lie about that?Was he training for something else?Or was he just doing other things with his free time?Weird.
“All right,” Briar said, moving on to her turn before Kieran could ask any more questions.“My turn.Ihave never been invited to a formal ball.”
“But we went to the Pelumbra one last spring,” Delilah pointed out.
“Sure, but we crashed that.Whole different story.”
Delilah nodded her concession while Kieran and Sebastianboth took sips of their wine.Kieran explained: “My family let me attend their balls as a child, but only the masquerade one, so no one would ask questions about who I was.Plus, there were so many of my cousins running around that no one ever questioned the spare.”
“Why would they want to hide you?”Sebastian asked, forehead wrinkled.
Kieran worried at his lip with his teeth for a moment.“They wanted to keep our curse a secret from people outside the family.If a witch who could smell magic—like Delilah—smelled it on me and figured out I was a Pelumbra, it would have been a massive scandal.But my mother wanted me to have a bit of normalcy, and she won that argument with my father.So they used the crowds and masks to their advantage, and I got to go.”
Sebastian let out a low whistle.“Your family sounds…challenging.”
“Understatement of the century,” Briar said, a snorting laugh escaping her.
“What about you?”Kieran asked, hoping to deflect attention from himself.“Did your family go to a lot of balls?”
