“You haven’t eaten.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Bee sighed then knelt beside her. “You need to eat. You’re a soldier, you know best how important it is to preserve your strength and energy.” Shame burned through Aesira, hot and nauseating. “Here.” Bee handed her a small square wrapped in a white cloth. “They’re lemon squares,” she said. “Birdie paid a shitload of money for them from Soo, so don’t waste them. They’re packed with nutrients and don’t taste like shit," she said, gesturing to Birdie's canned soup.
“I can’t take these from you—" Bee and Birdie were already walking away, leaving Aesira with the food she didn’t deserve.
The stars from the mountain peak were brighter than in Vargah, noastralights to dilute their beauty and even though she complained about making the extra half mile of steep terrain, the view was worth it.
The moon crested over the mountain top, thin and sharp. She stared at it and wondered if Kamari was looking at it too. She missed her so much and yet a part of her dreaded going back. Dreaded what they’d find in Ravki. Dreaded what they wouldn’t.
“You weren’t lying when you said you don’t sleep.” Stone slid onto the ground next to her, perching his back against the same tree trunk.
“You don’t either it seems,” she said. Warmth encompassed her as he angled his body closer.
“Why waste time sleeping when you could be reading.” He pulled out a map and unrolled it. “According to this, we’re on the Polaris Ridge.” He tapped the map, where some words were scribbled in Ravkian.
“And?”
“And,” Stone said, “the Polaris Ridge is a special place. In the book I got from Ramses, there’s a legend that only here can you find the Lunaris moths. They supposedly breed in the crooks and hollows of the ridge and are born under the new moon.”
She peeked at the sky again, to the nearly nonexistent sliver of light hanging in a bed of inky darkness. “Tonight is a new moon.”
A smile spread across Stone’s face, stretching his scar and brightening his eyes. “Exactly.”
Aesira matched his smile. It was infectious, the way he looked at things. Found beauty in them. “Is that why you were so insistent we make it here tonight?”
“Maybe.”
Aesira couldn’t help it, she laughed and Stone did too and in that small moment, she forgot her anger and her disappointmentin herself and for a moment she was not a knight of the Order, she was just a person sitting alongside another person.
And it felt good.
“You’re something else, Stone Odega.”
He shrugged, eyes focused on the edge of the ridge.
“How can you believe anything in that old book?”
He scooted closer, so their shoulders were touching. His breath was warm and sweet on her cheeks. “Isn’t that all faith is?” he whispered against the shell of her ear, the warmth of his breath cascading down her spine. “Believing?”
The reminder of Celestria, the Order, all their rules and devotion, burned in her mind and that brief moment where she was someone else, vanished.
“Over there,” Stone said, “do you see?”
The moon loomed over the mountain ridge, so thin and close, Aesira wondered if she reached her arm out, if she’d be able to grab hold of one of the sharpened points and climb on. Silvery light spread over the mountain top, then dripped down the ridge, until it reached where they sat. It lit up Stone’s face, highlighting his blue eyes and wide smile. His knuckle was warm as it tucked under her chin, pointing her attention back to the ridge.
“There,” he whispered again and sure enough, twinkling orbs of light began to ascend from hidden spots in the rocks. The orbs danced, their light pulsing silver and gold.
“It’s amazing.”
“Wait,” Stone said, his hand sliding to rest on the back of her neck, like he wanted to make sure she didn’t look away. Didn’t miss whatever it was they were about to witness.
The orbs flickered, bouncing higher and higher in the air, spreading their dazzling wings, light reflecting off their tiny antennas. Dozens of them rose from the ridge, dancing and flying under the light of the moon and stars. Their wings sparkling, their bodies glowing. In a world that seemed so destined to destroy them, this kind of beauty was unknown.
Unreal.
The moths drifted closer, the light from their tiny bodies illuminating the night sky.
