I prop myself up on my elbows and look at Tyse. He’s still pressing on my foot, but he’s staring right back at me. Intently. Just watching me. “Sure.”
“What does it say?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
“Really? You have no idea?”
“None.”
“No one from your city ever tried to read it?”
“No. Why would they?”
“Because it’s clearly saying something. Don’t you think it’s odd that no one was curious enough to decipher it?”
“Well…” I sigh. “I guess I never thought about it before.”
“Did all the Spark Maidens have symbols written on them like this?”
I squint my eyes and press my lips together, trying to think back. “I’m not sure. I don’t recall. But they weren’t always there. You have to develop your spark. And when I first started, I could draw things in the air and that was pretty much it. The spark was in my fingertips. But over the course of my Choosing, it grew. This is normal. And that’s when the symbols came out.”
“And no one thought it was weird?”
“Well, I see what you’re saying. But in our defense, spark presents in many different ways. Hundreds, probably thousands of ways. And all of it was just considered… normal.”
“What do you think it says?”
I look down at myself again. This is when I realize Tyse can see my whole body underneath my nightgown because of the blue light. When I look up at him again, he’s watching me very carefully. So I decide to watch him just as carefully back. “I don’t think I need to go home.”
He grins. “That’s what you think it says?”
He’s joking. I know this. But he’s also serious. I nod, so he knows I’m joking but also serious as well. “Yeah. That’s what I think it says.”
Then I pull my foot from his hands, grab my pillow, and return to the normal sleeping position, but with my back to him.
He reaches over and flicks the light off, then settles down under the covers.
But a moment later, and without a word, or even asking, his arms wrap around me and he tugs me up close to him.
That’s it.
That’s all that happens.
And I fall asleep calling him a liar in my head.
Because he actuallyisa gentleman.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The out-city politicianStayn asked me to follow leaves just after lunch, so I get off early. I’m just about to shove my city-issued patrol phone through the little gap under the glass in logistics when a text buzzes in. I hold up a finger for the clerk. “One sec.” Then I take the phone back and check the message.
It’s from Stayn.See you tonight.
Tonight?
I shove the phone back through check-in, sign my name, and then go find Stayn to see what the hell he’s talking about.
Logistics is in the basement because of security, and Stayn is a top-floor kind of guy these days, so I have to ride the elevator all the way up to the seventy-fourth floor of the skyscraper to see him. But I haven’t ever been to his office, so stepping out facing those western floor-to-ceiling windows is kinda worth the trouble.
