Mary lowered her fork, and Grant pried his eyes from his ghisting, who now hung from the ceiling over the table in the form of a misshapen spider.
“Inis Hae is tracking me, as we suspected.My headaches are connected.I believe they come when he is actively in the Other, seeking me out.My coin should thwart him for the time being, but I do not know how complete that protection is,” I said, issuing these truths calmly and steadily.“This must be our last night of rest.”
THIRTY-TWO
Never Again
MARY
Icaught Samuel’s arm.We were in the close warmth of the inn’s kitchens, lit by the dying embers of the hearth and a jar with a single dragonfly, gold and pulsing softly at his rest.The remnants of our dinner had been stowed and Benedict and Charles already retired to their rooms, leaving Samuel and I in more solitude than we had had since leavingHart.
“You should take this,” I said, pressing my Sooth talisman into his hand.“If Hae is so fixated on you.”
Samuel shook his head and pulled up one sleeve, showing me a kerchief bound around his arm.“My own talisman will suffice.”
“But it makes you more ill,” I pointed out.“Isn’t it better to take a chance on this one?Surely the Ess Noti wouldn’t make talismans that corrupted their mages.”
He hesitated, his eyes dropping from my fingers to my lips.If he intended to reply, no words came.
I wanted to press him, to put the talisman around his neck myself.But instead, the impulse to kiss him beset me, and, in that moment, there was no history, no barriers to hold me back—just the warmth of wine in my stomach and the relief of warm shelter.
I saw the kiss play out in my mind, each subtle movement as I leaned up and pressed my mouth to his, the warmth of our breathsand the taste of wine.The heady rush of heat, burning away the memory of the cold and the very real threat of our pursuers.
Awareness spread over him, his chin lowering, shoulders leveling, his reserve transforming into focus.But his back remained straight.He did not bend down.He did not allow me in.
“If I take that, you will be the one being tracked,” he pointed out.“I could not rest, knowing that.My own will not work on you.”
I stepped back, disappointed and worried all at once.“You could not rest, but you will not kiss me?”
He pushed my hand, with my talisman, back into my chest.It brought him even closer.
“I do want to kiss you,” he said.“But now is hardly the time.”
“Then the time will never come.”I put the talisman back over my head.“You make me feel unwanted, Samuel Rosser.”
I stepped around him and left the kitchen, climbing the short set of stone stairs back into the darkened common room.
His voice came from close on my heels.“Mary, never think I do not want you.We have… you know my reasons for holding back.”
Itsked, irritated.We reached the stairs to the upper floor, and I lowered my voice to a whisper.There was a tremor inside me, the exhaustion and emotions of days of flight, cold and discomfort colliding with his nearness and his unwillingness to yield.
“Yes,” I snapped.“I must remain chaste for the good of all Stormsingers.”
His voice as quiet as mine: “That would be unfair.”
I turned to face him from the first step of the stairs.I wished I could read his thoughts, but the light from the stoked fire only cast his face in deeper shadow.
“Once we are safely back at sea, you and I… we must talk.”
Disappointment clawed at me, only thickened by the hope that tried to surge up behind it.
I started to climb the stairs again, turning my back to him.“Good night, Samuel.”
I was at the top of the stairs before his response drifted up to me: “Good night, Mary.”
***
We left the inn just after dawn.The innwife had refused payment from such ‘pious children, ’ instead loading us with more food and drink for the road.She chattered with Charles as Sam and I readied the horses and Benedict stood at the mouth of the yard, looking out across the flooded roads and the abandoned hamlet to the white-foamed sea.
