He followed her across the hall, and her orb revealed the truth there, too.
“No fireplace,” they said together.
“We can’t practice in the hallway,” Apollo said.But that seemed to be the main source of heating that floor.
“And these are the only two private rooms left.”
“I don’t want to share with some Gerald from Lincolnhowhamptonshire.”
“Me neither.”
“Well,” he said, ruffling his fingers through his hair.“What do we do now?”
She sank to the mattress.Before she could answer, footsteps echoed in the hallway, and then a maid appeared at the door.
“Oh, that one of them glowy moons I’ve heard about?”She peered through the dim light to Sybil’s orb, still clutched in her hand.“We don’t have ’em out here yet, but the candles are just as good.”She bustled to the table and used a brimstone stick to light the candle.“It’s been dipped in a special potion.Lasts longer.I heard those things need to sit in the light a bit to work.These candles don’t.There’s more of ’em about the room.”She called out the open door.“You can come in, Molly!”Then she smiled at Apollo.“Will you be taking your meal with your sister?”
He waited for Sybil to answer, and when she didn’t, he said that he was.From her perch on the bed, Sybil merely nodded.
When the bowls of stew were set on the table on either side of the candle, and the maids had retreated for the evening, Sybil and Apollo sat in facing chairs.The candle-flickering light between them felt heavier than before.They ate in silence, the only sounds the tap of spoons on wooden bowls, the sip of wine from goblets.
“This is not a setback,” she said finally, pushing her bowl away and tapping at her lips with a serviette.“We have all the time in the world.”
“Or until your brother figures out how to… neutralize the threat to you.”
“Do you mean that as a euphemism forkill Stone?”
“You know your brother so well.”He draped one arm over the back of the chair.“The truth is we don’t know how long we have.It depends on how smart Stone is?—”
“Not very.”
“—and how smart Temple is.”
“Much more so.”
“You’re making me panic, princess.All this nefarious work might be for nothing.Perhaps we should start as soon as possible.”
They glanced toward the closed door.The only good fire was in the hallway.
Sybil sighed.“We will still practice.Starting small is better anyway.Do you remember what I did at Lady Guinevere’s?When I was holding my cupped hands over a lit candle?”
“Yes.”She’d been golden in the flickering light.
“You should practice that.With the candle in your room.”
Your room.A not-so-subtle hint for him to leave.“You were making the flame bigger, higher.”
“Yes.That is your assignment tonight.Do notdemandthat it burn higher.Play with it.Think of it as a friendly game.Coax it and?—”
“Seduce it?”he said with a little grin.
The flush that rushed across her cheeks and the small sliver of her exposed chest and shoulders was immediate.Apollo felt it creep across his skin, too.Ridiculous.He didn’t blush.Mad.Absurd.
“Now me,” she said, looking at her hands.“What is my assignment?”
He tipped the chair onto its back two legs and studied the ceiling.“Do you know your innate metal?”
Her lips twisted to the side, and a thundercloud seemed to gather round her head.
