“I never said anything.” He took a very restrained sip of his own drink.
“It’s a festival. We’re allowed to get a little drunk.” Okay, I wasn’t actually planning on getting drunk—I’d done a lot of reckless things these last couple of days, but I liked to think I had at leastsomeself-control left—but it was fun teasing him. “When was the last time you got drunk, Your Highness? Or even just a little buzzed?”
He glanced quickly to either side. “You really shouldn’t mention my title—”
“Then I’ll stop. But only if you stop avoiding the question.”
“I’m not avoiding anything.” His scowl was back. “And I don’t understand why my drinking habits are up for discussion. It’s not a character flaw to believe there are better things to do with my time.”
Well, now I felt like a jerk for pressuring him.
“It’s not about the drinking,” I said quickly. “It’s about letting your hair down a little. Or just…letting yourself relax. For a moment. Even if it’s just in a small way.” Wow, when hadIbecome the one encouraging others to ‘live a little’? Esmer would have been so proud of me.
Thinking of Esmer brought up a pang of homesickness—would I ever get the chance to talk to her again?—but I forced it down by taking another sip of my Hill Brew.
Alastor’s forehead was still creased with a frown, but he took another sip of his drink as well.
“You say you know how to have fun,” I reminded him. “I’m not asking you to, like, get drunk off your ass and run naked through the crowd or something crazy like that. I just want to see how someone like you lets loose.”
“Someone like me?”
“You know what I mean.” I took another, longer sip of my drink. This time, I didn’t even feel the burn of it sliding down my throat, which meant I was starting to slip into dangerous territory.
I pulled the flagon away from my lips and frowned down at it, trying to decide if it was delicious enough to warrant the bad decisions that were sure to follow if I kept going.
But it wasn’t until I looked up at Alastor—and found him draining the last few drops of his drink—that I realized the truth: that while he was clearly trying to prove something to me, I had something I wanted to prove to him, too.
When he lowered his flagon, I offered him the rest of mine.
“A taste was enough for me,” I said. “You don’t have to drink it, but I’d hate for it to go to waste.”
He eyed me suspiciously, but he took the drink from my hand. And then, as if he saw my words as a challenge, he tipped his head back and drank the entire thing in one long gulp.
I was grinning when he lowered his hand again. “Having fun yet?”
He didn’t dignify that with a response. But he let me lead the way as we continued down the street.
The Festival was becoming livelier with every passing hour, the revelers’ inhibitions dropping the further we moved into the night. Just those three sips of Hill Brew were enough to tip me fromslightly buzzedtodefinitely tipsy, and it made everything—the colors, the music, the scents—that much more vivid, until I felt like I was inside a swirling kaleidoscope, caught in a tumble of glitter and wonder.
And it made teasing Alastor even more appealing.
“Oh, what aboutthat?” I exclaimed, grabbing his arm dramatically and pointing at a nearby stall. The vendor was selling little pastel-hued treats in paper cones.
Alastor’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure what that is.”
“Well, then we obviously have to try it.” I dragged him over, and with another one of those long-suffering sighs, he plunked down some coins and bought me one.
The paper cone was warm, and it held multiple soft, lavender-colored puffs of pastry dusted with powdered sugar. It took some effort not to shove all of them in my mouth at once and instead offer the cone to Alastor.
“You first,” I told him.
He peered down at the lavender puffs, that furrow between his eyes deepening. “I’d rather not.”
“Oh, come on,” I said. “You’ve got to try at leastone. Where’s your sense of adventure? Maybe you’ll discover your new favorite dessert.”
He continued to frown down at me, and I responded by batting my eyes and giving him the most obnoxiousI’m-not-going-to-let-you-off-easygrin I could muster in my mildly inebriated state.
Finally, muttering something under his breath, he snatched one up and popped it into his mouth.
